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Great point, if not a little acrimonious, about the role of a CEO in a corporation. Even though the CEO (or anyone over your head for that matter) may enjoy you

Great point, if not a little acrimonious, about the role of a CEO in a corporation. Even though the CEO (or anyone over your head for that matter) may enjoy you as a person, or even find you to be the perfect guy for the job, the bottom line still means a lot more than your life. I think it's important to remember that it's okay to love your job and the company you work for, as well as be loyal to them, but that loyalty goes both ways. I'm loyal to my employer as long as they loyally pay me and don't treat me like a piece of shit. But there's no love. My teammates are awesome but if, say, Github gave me a call and wanted to hire me, I'd be giving my two weeks tomorrow. And if Github ended up being a bad fit, I can always keep looking. As a Ruby developer in Philadelphia, I'm always being courted by recruiters and job offers, because there are so few of us here.

jacques_chester 13y ago
I hope that if I'm ever a CEO, I'll have the decency to point out that while I am friendly, I am not a friend.
- einhverfr 13y ago
  Keep in mind that I run a couple of small but growing businesses and have worked for major corporations. One thing I would point out is that in my experience the people who are laid off in a company advance their careers and those who remain stagnate. I am not sure I would put this in a layoff email though. If times are tough, I still think that layoffs are a real last resort. Your best assets are the entrepreneurs in your business and these can be floor-level employees. The rule breakers, the ones who will fight the system or break the rules in order to do a better job are the ones that need to be paid well, not in terms of money but in terms of owning their job (and ideally a share of profits).
  - yuhong 13y ago
    michaelochurch do agree, but emphasizes that they need to be done correctly.
  - jacques_chester 13y ago
    In Australia I've seen two common patterns: 1. Reducing hours by X% instead of sacking X% of employees. 2. Offering voluntary redundancy packages. Option 1 tends to lead to some people quitting anyhow. Option 2 has the problem that it can dramaticaly exacerbate the Dead Sea problem. Anyone with any pep grabs the package and looks for a job elsewhere.
    - rmc 13y ago
      In either case if companies need to cut back, then the best people will leave first, since they have more options.

jacques_chester 13y ago

I hope that if I'm ever a CEO, I'll have the decency to point out that while I am friendly, I am not a friend.

einhverfr 13y ago
Keep in mind that I run a couple of small but growing businesses and have worked for major corporations. One thing I would point out is that in my experience the people who are laid off in a company advance their careers and those who remain stagnate. I am not sure I would put this in a layoff email though. If times are tough, I still think that layoffs are a real last resort. Your best assets are the entrepreneurs in your business and these can be floor-level employees. The rule breakers, the ones who will fight the system or break the rules in order to do a better job are the ones that need to be paid well, not in terms of money but in terms of owning their job (and ideally a share of profits).
- yuhong 13y ago
  michaelochurch do agree, but emphasizes that they need to be done correctly.
- jacques_chester 13y ago
  In Australia I've seen two common patterns: 1. Reducing hours by X% instead of sacking X% of employees. 2. Offering voluntary redundancy packages. Option 1 tends to lead to some people quitting anyhow. Option 2 has the problem that it can dramaticaly exacerbate the Dead Sea problem. Anyone with any pep grabs the package and looks for a job elsewhere.
  - rmc 13y ago
    In either case if companies need to cut back, then the best people will leave first, since they have more options.