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Or they could just be like “anyone affected by the fires should know we are behind them completely with the full weight of the company behind them” pinned to th

Or they could just be like “anyone affected by the fires should know we are behind them completely with the full weight of the company behind them” pinned to the top of every internal page. Ya know, like leaders worth following.

Ballas 2y ago
> “anyone affected by the fires should know we are behind them completely with the full weight of the company behind them” Like a steam roller? Sorry, but that was the first picture that came to mind when I read that sentence.
- benreesman 2y ago
  The best thing I ever saw in Silicon Valley was when I was a middle manager at glory days FB. An intern in his last week got smashed up by a car riding a bike and by this and that quirk I ended up playing a very minor role in passing the message up the chain. In under an hour Sheryl Sandberg not only knew but was directly involved in pledging all of Facebook’s resources to the medical care and the travel for the family and just everything. It was truly inspiring. The intern in question made a full recovery and everyone on the team saw that they could look forward all the time, trusting their leadership to watch their back.
  - d1sxeyes 2y ago
    An excellent example of why cars should never ride bikes.
    - benreesman 2y ago
      I can’t speak for the person in question but I strongly suspect they’d thank you for keeping it light. Well done friend.
      - d1sxeyes 2y ago
        Yes, I perhaps would have passed on the joke if OP hadn’t clarified the ending of the story.
        benreesman 2y ago
        Well, I am the GP, but knowing the person who got smashed up I can say that he had a sense of humor about it, great guy, real legend. Speaking for myself it’s a pleasant trip down memory lane in spite of a pretty iffy situation: we had leaders who cared about people, leaders who got you out of bed in the morning with a passion, and HN was full of people like yourself who combined wit and charm with humanity and grace.
        d1sxeyes 2y ago
        Ahhh sorry, I misunderstood! That’s a very kind thing to say to a stranger, thank you. Thanks as well for sharing your story (or, the story you were involved in), I enjoyed reading it.
JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> “anyone affected by the fires should know we are behind them completely with the full weight of the company behind them” pinned to the top of every internal page Inappropriate for a global company. Send targeted emails to those you know are affected, and be specific about how you're putting the "full weight of the company behind them." Maybe put a note on one internal landing for everyone to see in case they e.g. have family affected you didn't know about.
- benreesman 2y ago
  That’s maybe fair, the details of the paperwork in a tricky situation are a question for senior leadership. There are a lot of ways to say “we support you completely” and none of them are “here’s a weird liability motivated form on top of losing everything else”.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  >Inappropriate for a global company. Why? They've done local stuff like this for PR points before. Not much politically incensed about this. You're also missing the obvious lede here that these portals probably are already separated by region. If not, definitely localized.
yard2010 2y ago
Search them in another country
jjav 2y ago
> Ya know, like leaders worth following. Indeed. Some years ago, also during a California wildfire, I was at a company with honorable leadership. Not only did people impacted by evacuations get all the time off they needed but the company paid for hotel accommodations if necessary.
- benreesman 2y ago
  Thanks for bringing the community another example of a better way and a better time. The word honorable is definitely applicable. But I’d contend that substantially similar values and actions are also effective: they’re also good business. If you’re selling some innovation it behooves you to advocate for people being prosperous enough to enjoy your innovation. It behooves you to maximize the potential of the people working on the innovation. Good treatment of workers creates effective workers who in turn are consumers: a wealthy and prosperous society is good for business if you take a long view. This weird 5-20 year horizon around outcomes is just a small clique of serial killers who have captured the levers quite recently. And it doesn’t matter how many blood boys that Thiel or Altman or whoever leech from: they’re going to grow old and die. And so we should be optimistic.
  - benreesman 2y ago
    Obligatory nag at @pg to renounce these sociopaths.
- coolspot 2y ago
  Snapchat paid private security teams to help evacuate employees and their relatives from war-affected regions of Ukraine . Never saw a press coverage of this, but know it from those who were helped.
johnnyanmac 2y ago
Yeah, maybe I'll get one of those one day. Sadly not my current career trajectory though.
finnthehuman 2y ago
>Ya know, like leaders worth following. I hear ya and all, but what does anyone expect from TikTok? It's not a product worth building, why would it have leaders worth following? You go there to get in, make some money, and get out.

Ballas 2y ago

> “anyone affected by the fires should know we are behind them completely with the full weight of the company behind them” Like a steam roller? Sorry, but that was the first picture that came to mind when I read that sentence.

benreesman 2y ago
The best thing I ever saw in Silicon Valley was when I was a middle manager at glory days FB. An intern in his last week got smashed up by a car riding a bike and by this and that quirk I ended up playing a very minor role in passing the message up the chain. In under an hour Sheryl Sandberg not only knew but was directly involved in pledging all of Facebook’s resources to the medical care and the travel for the family and just everything. It was truly inspiring. The intern in question made a full recovery and everyone on the team saw that they could look forward all the time, trusting their leadership to watch their back.
- d1sxeyes 2y ago
  An excellent example of why cars should never ride bikes.
  - benreesman 2y ago
    I can’t speak for the person in question but I strongly suspect they’d thank you for keeping it light. Well done friend.
    - d1sxeyes 2y ago
      Yes, I perhaps would have passed on the joke if OP hadn’t clarified the ending of the story.
      - benreesman 2y ago
        Well, I am the GP, but knowing the person who got smashed up I can say that he had a sense of humor about it, great guy, real legend. Speaking for myself it’s a pleasant trip down memory lane in spite of a pretty iffy situation: we had leaders who cared about people, leaders who got you out of bed in the morning with a passion, and HN was full of people like yourself who combined wit and charm with humanity and grace.
        d1sxeyes 2y ago
        Ahhh sorry, I misunderstood! That’s a very kind thing to say to a stranger, thank you. Thanks as well for sharing your story (or, the story you were involved in), I enjoyed reading it.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> “anyone affected by the fires should know we are behind them completely with the full weight of the company behind them” pinned to the top of every internal page Inappropriate for a global company. Send targeted emails to those you know are affected, and be specific about how you're putting the "full weight of the company behind them." Maybe put a note on one internal landing for everyone to see in case they e.g. have family affected you didn't know about.

benreesman 2y ago
That’s maybe fair, the details of the paperwork in a tricky situation are a question for senior leadership. There are a lot of ways to say “we support you completely” and none of them are “here’s a weird liability motivated form on top of losing everything else”.
johnnyanmac 2y ago
>Inappropriate for a global company. Why? They've done local stuff like this for PR points before. Not much politically incensed about this. You're also missing the obvious lede here that these portals probably are already separated by region. If not, definitely localized.

yard2010 2y ago

Search them in another country

jjav 2y ago

> Ya know, like leaders worth following. Indeed. Some years ago, also during a California wildfire, I was at a company with honorable leadership. Not only did people impacted by evacuations get all the time off they needed but the company paid for hotel accommodations if necessary.

benreesman 2y ago
Thanks for bringing the community another example of a better way and a better time. The word honorable is definitely applicable. But I’d contend that substantially similar values and actions are also effective: they’re also good business. If you’re selling some innovation it behooves you to advocate for people being prosperous enough to enjoy your innovation. It behooves you to maximize the potential of the people working on the innovation. Good treatment of workers creates effective workers who in turn are consumers: a wealthy and prosperous society is good for business if you take a long view. This weird 5-20 year horizon around outcomes is just a small clique of serial killers who have captured the levers quite recently. And it doesn’t matter how many blood boys that Thiel or Altman or whoever leech from: they’re going to grow old and die. And so we should be optimistic.
- benreesman 2y ago
  Obligatory nag at @pg to renounce these sociopaths.
coolspot 2y ago
Snapchat paid private security teams to help evacuate employees and their relatives from war-affected regions of Ukraine . Never saw a press coverage of this, but know it from those who were helped.

johnnyanmac 2y ago

Yeah, maybe I'll get one of those one day. Sadly not my current career trajectory though.

finnthehuman 2y ago

>Ya know, like leaders worth following. I hear ya and all, but what does anyone expect from TikTok? It's not a product worth building, why would it have leaders worth following? You go there to get in, make some money, and get out.