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Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
- ciokan 13y agoUp in the air anyone? :)) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/
- mrjatx 13y agoI was thinking of Company Men, another great movie.
- jere 13y agoI had a recruiter send me an email exactly 5 months ago today claiming "I've placed ten folks with AOL in the past year, and Patch is the most profitable and exciting division especially for the engineers." First time I've ever had to respond to a recruiter to tell them they were full of shit. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/08/09/layoffs-begin-as-aol-looks-to-close-or-sell-400-patch-sites/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/08/09/layoffs...
- tptacek 13y agoRecruiters. How do you not love them.
- badman_ting 13y agoWell, I guess you could call this exciting.
- notahacker 13y agoPotentially profitable too, if you're a recruiter looking for job candidates...
- toomuchtodo 13y agoMay you work in interesting times /s
- dba7dba 13y agoNever EVER trust a recruiter. Years ago I got an email from a recruiter about a job after I submitted my resume. The position was a Novell admin. On my resume, there was NOTHING about Novell. IMO it's a complete waste of time.
- seandhi 13y agoI was approached by a recruiter with the same line for Patch about 6-8 months ago. Listening to this conference call, I am so glad that I did not take it seriously.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- aabalkan 13y agoWhat is Patch?
- japaget 13y agoFrom the patch.com website: "Patch reports on everything you need to know about your town, from local government to school news to what to do with your family this weekend. And your local Patch makes it easy for you and your neighbors to connect and post your news and events too. All of this, plus comprehensive listings of local restaurants and shops, home improvement services and businesses, events, and more – all in one place – in over 1,000 communities and counting."
- platz 13y agoi.e. so-called "hyper-local" media http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlocal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlocal
- timmaah 13y agoSite that the CEO of AOL founded before joining AOL. Then bought once hired at AOL and poured millions into before being forced to cutback/sell to keep his AOL job.
- zmanian 13y agoTim Armstrong is the current CEO of AOL and former senior Google Executive. He is reputed to have been the driving force behind the success of Google's Ad Words business. He seemed to become less effective at Google as his responsibilities expanded and moved on to AOL. Patch was his big play to make AOL relevant again and has proved to be a complete economic failure. Highlights an unfortunate reality of the Silicon Valley that past success can sometimes just mean a longer rope to hang yourself with. The reality is that running AOL is thankless job.
- oh_sigh 13y agoExactly.
- dgrab24 13y agoLove it. A great HR-scripted call.
- callesgg 13y agoThey should have used text 2 voice software. That would have made it seam a bit more personalized.
- sgt 13y agoAgreed, I would have preferred: $ say -v "Bad News" "Unfortunately your role has been eliminated and you will no longer have a role at patch. Today will be your last day of employment with the company"
- dgrab24 13y agoThat's what happens when lawyers and HR people get involved. Can't get sued, so read the script...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- georgemcbay 13y agoAgreed, if I were in the place of those employees I'd rather be listening to Siri or the Google Maps driving voice lady, both sound a lot more human. Even better would be if they hired Ellen McLain to GladOS it because at least that would have been funny.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- xutopia 13y agoI didn't hear of Patch until today. This seems like a private call between employees and someone responsible for HR. Why is this news? Is Patch a big name?
- mkr-hn 13y agoIt's the only local news in some places.
- bchjam 13y agoIn spite of the fact that some group of people lost their jobs, the audio track is kind of funny in the sense that this real HR department sounds like a parody of what tech people think of HR departments.
- scrabble 13y agoI don't know. I got laid off 18 months ago. HR did it to my face (bringing in a small group of people at a time). It sounded almost identical to this, tone and everything. More realistic than parody.
- Gracana 13y agoNo matter what they say, you're still losing your job and it's going to sting. I think the message was pretty reasonable, it just sucks that they did it by phone.
- nols 13y agoIt was AOL's (well, Tim Armstrong's) next big thing, until reality struck and they sold it a couple weeks ago.
- untog 13y agoPatch was, at one point, heralded as the future of local journalism. AOL's CEO was an early investor in Patch and (presumably) played a key role in AOL acquiring it. Then it all fell apart.
- arethuza 13y agoI had to lay quite a few people off in 2002 when the company I co-founded in '95 was acquired (post IPO) by another company who then tanked. I was the only founder/exec who stuck with the acquirer and I got the dubious pleasure of laying off everyone in our office before I was myself laid off by the roving HR manager. One thing that I'm slightly proud of is that when I had to lay people off at least I did it myself to their face - quite a few thanked me for the time they'd had and some even wished it had turned out better for me - which was rather humbling.
- Touche 13y agoWait, did you know you were going to be laid off too?
- Gracana 13y agoI don't think so. As I understand it, they wished things had worked out better for him because he was a founder/exec and a bunch of layoffs means it's already going down the drain.
- arethuza 13y agoWhat happened was that post acquisition there were 3 or so rounds of lay offs each removing about 50% of staff until there was maybe a dozen of us left from the original acquired team. In an attempt to save the team we pitched a new product, which actually had customer interest, to the CEO of the acquirer and he promised he would think about it and come back with an answer. On the day when we got the call from the CEO to tell us whether our proposal was good or not rather than it being myself and our Director of Engineering on our side of the call we had all twelve in the room (although the guys on the other side of the call had no idea). We were told it wasn't going to happen, so everyone knew at that point what was going to happen next. I seem to remember something like laying most of the remaining people off, going to see the HR manager - finding out that my severance package wasn't going to be what I thought it was and I could take a cheque there and then or fight it in court. By that point I was so tired of the whole thing I took the cheque without a fight and moved on.... [NB I was involved in actually doing a substantial portion of the lay offs in each phase - after a while people really did not want to have 1 on 1 meetings with me].
- CompleteMoron 13y agoPatch was kinda rocking at first for me - especially when I was over in Broooklyn. It was showing up in my feeds or when i went searching for stories in some states. Then AOL got them and suddenly I saw no posts from The Patch on my feeds - for like all of 2013. What happened?
- aaronem 13y agoSounds like AOL happened. As far as I can tell, they've never been all that comfortable with this new-fangled "inter-web" nonsense.
- clockworkelf 13y agoI'm pretty certain Patch will fail in the long run. I checked "local" news from Florida, then from New York. They both had the same "What Obama Could Learn From Pete Seeger" article. People see through this syndicated crap that they try to pawn off as local news.
- mkr-hn 13y agoI stopped using the local Patch when they broke the commenting system. I don't know what broke, I just can't comment, and no one else does either. The comments were the best part. A lot of the bad news out of Patch seems to have started around the same time.
- rdl 13y agoIn addition to the "firing people by conference call is a douche move", her voice is an excellent argument against hiring any non-Australian with the high rising terminal mode of speech.
- sp332 13y agoI would say "American" (edit- instead of "non-Australian"). It's pretty common in other English dialects. There's a great series called "The Story of Film" which is narrated by an Irish guy who uses rising inflection on nearly every sentence. It's difficult for me to get used to but I wouldn't give anyone a hard time about it. edit2 - fixed title. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Film:_An_Odyssey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Film:_An_Odyssey It's available on Netflix
- mitchty 13y agoIts an american dialect, but its not quite right to call it american. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal
- er35826 13y agoAnecdotally, I've found it's quite common with alot of European ESL speakers. I have worked with quite a few other people from varying countries, and it's somewhat common that they end many sentences sounding like a question.
- JonnieCache 13y agoThe irish and welsh accents have always been like that. The welsh accent in particular modulates in pitch strongly throughout sentences, going up at the end is just part of it. There's a thing where it plunges right down in pitch and timbre at the end too, for a different kind of emphasis. I love welsh voices.
- keithpeter 13y agoI just heard great nana Parry telling me off when I read that (Nana spoke Welsh and a few words of English). If she was alive now, she would be about 140. Thanks. Reporters. Local. Might not be so easy for them to find jobs. But hopefully new media skills will help.
- pvnick 13y agoWow. That was incredible. The monotonous way in which the message was delivered, the complete lack of emotion and empathy, is appalling. Notice she did not apologize nor express any condolences beyond declaring the new unemployed state of those people to be "unfortunate." Without knowing much about the situation (I only listened to the recording), and leaving myself wide open to be corrected by someone with more insight into the background, I believe the word cowardice would be a pretty good description of what's going on here.
- giarc 13y agoI was confused to whether this was real or in fact just someones audition tape for the George Clooney movie "Up In The Air".
- maerF0x0 13y agoI've often heard that apologies in various contexts can be used as evidence for litigation (eg, saying "oh sorry" after an auto accident) . Its a sad state of affairs, but people have to protect themselves from idiots and the courts they convince.
- smackfu 13y agoI think that's more in the sense of "oh sorry, I didn't see you!" Which is an admission of guilt.
- tedivm 13y agoI hear this all the time but have never actually seen evidence for it. Can someone actually back this up?
- berberous 13y agoHere's a law review article that discusses the issue: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/research/JLPP/upload/Helmreich-final.pdf http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/research/JLPP/upload/Helmre... That said, I don't think there would be any issue with the woman in the recording saying something kind and generic, like "I feel for you, and I am sorry to have to do this."
- omegote 13y agoCould any of you transcript the call? My english is not good enough for <48kbps transmissions.
- smackfu 13y ago"Hi Everyone, it's (HR person). Patch is being restructed, in conjunction with the creation of a joint structure with Hale Global. Hale Global has decided which Patch employees will receive an offer of employment to move forward in accordance with their vision for Patch, and which will not. Unfortunately, your role has been eliminated and you will no longer have a role at Patch, and today will be your last day of employment with the company." The rest is just general termination junk like turning in laptops and turning off email.
- ama729 13y agoNot the complete transcript, but at least the beginning (I couldn't understand it): http://jimromenesko.com/2014/01/29/hale-global-lays-off-patch-employees/ http://jimromenesko.com/2014/01/29/hale-global-lays-off-patc...
- czbond 13y agoTo do it via a conference call? What a piss poor leader and dick move.
- czbond 13y agoCrunchbase even says they only have 19 employees. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/patch http://www.crunchbase.com/company/patch
- EdwardMSmith 13y agoI'm assuming this was a call with all the remote staff that edit the individual sites and live in the communities that the sites cover. I don't think they were going to fly them all into a central location to fire them.
- saalweachter 13y agoFor a small company, I wonder how much that would add to the wind-down costs. Fly everyone to Las Vegas for a company offsite/conference, announce the firing at the 10am meeting, give everyone $X00 in extra termination pay up front and tell them to hit the slots. If you're already planning to spend $5-20k per employee for X weeks severance, an extra $1-2k per employee for the offsite firing might only increase your wind-down costs by 10%.
- SamReidHughes 13y agoWow, good one, I've never seen as evil an idea as this.
- czbond 13y agoI simply meant that if it were my company with remote staff - I would individually call them and not have an HR rep tell them on a conference call.
- knodi 13y agoLaying people off is never easy. I'm sure many people will poopoo this call but this is a clean and a clear message.
- tylerlh 13y agoExcept it wasn't delivered face to face, which in my mind is worth 'poopooing'... and my goodness, the monotone voice...
- TeMPOraL 13y agoSounds like something I'd expect to hear in Aperture Science (seconds before the floor gets flooded with neurotoxin), not in a company staffed by human beings. Poopoo well deserved, IMO.
- knodi 13y agoIt doesn't matter if it was over the phone, in a letter or in person. Its nothing personal its a business decision.
- snydeq 13y ago"Hello, and welcome to AOL Moviefone. To be acquired and laid off, please press 1."
- wlll 13y agoThe next one is a gem too: ~1:55 in: "Abel, put that camera down right now. Abel, you're fired, out." https://soundcloud.com/jim-romenesko/aol-ceo-tim-armstrong-8-9-2013 https://soundcloud.com/jim-romenesko/aol-ceo-tim-armstrong-8...
- jyz 13y agoyea, what a dick!
- sp332 13y agoAt least that guy later apologized and didn't actually fire Abel. Edit: I guess he was actually fired.
- wlll 13y agoI didn't see that anywhere, is there a source? Edit: Found one: http://jimromenesko.com/2013/08/13/aols-tim-armstrong-apologizes-for-firing-patchs-creative-director-during-a-conference-call/ http://jimromenesko.com/2013/08/13/aols-tim-armstrong-apolog... Edit again: "Tim Armstrong has publicly apologized for the firing of [Abel] since then, but did not offer to reverse the firing or any compensation" source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Armstrong_(executive) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Armstrong_(executive)
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- JonnieCache 13y agoWhat was the context there? Was abel part of the group being fired in the call? Or was he fired on the spot with that remark?
- wlll 13y agoIt seems that Abel was part of Patch and Tim Armstrong is CEO of AOL. This second call was from some time last year and not related to the OPs link other than it's the same set of companies, and another dubious action made on a conference call.
- sergiotapia 13y agoThis made me sick to my stomach and I don't even work there. "Hey you're fired tomorrow, thanks for your work!"
- Frostbeard 13y agoIt seems pretty harsh to do it this way, but from the sounds of things these were pretty sweeping layoffs ("hundreds" is what's being said). Doing it on a personal level probably wasn't even remotely viable, even just in terms of time.
- munificent 13y agoIf you have hundreds of employees who can find the time time to work for you day-in and day-out, every week, you can find the time to let them go in person.
- Tehnix 13y ago>who can find the time time to work for you day-in and day-out, every week It's not like they do it out of good will. They get paid for it. That said, I agree that it should be done face-to-face.
- rjv 13y agoI've never heard of Patch. It's unfortunate that I had to learn of them this way, because the premise seems useful. I don't think I would participate now based on these bad vibes.
- IvyMike 13y agoThe fact that it was over the phone is a legitimate insult. The fact that it was 100 seconds long is a mercy.
- aaronharder 13y agoHonest question, why is a phone firing such an insult? I may need some sensitivity training, but putting myself in the shoes of the person being fired I think I'd probably prefer phone. Maybe someone can help me see the other point of view more clearly.
- IvyMike 13y agoAs smackfu says, it is not always possible to do a layoff or firing in person, especially in this case. I still think they should have been done in one-on-one phone calls at a minimum. But people have a spectrum of reactions to being fired, and I think being able to address their immediate concerns one-on-one is important. They may have done it this way in the name of efficiency, but some times it is better to just take the hit and do things the old fashioned way. Nobody is happy about being laid off, but six months from now both employer and ex-employee will feel better about it than the impersonal conference call.
- smackfu 13y agoMost of Patch's employees are remote, since they are "hyperlocal" reporters in small towns around the country. I don't think an in-person lay-off was going to happen.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- at-fates-hands 13y agoI've had worse. One company I worked for was acquired by a much larger tech company. We were already had about a 1000 employees. After the big announcement that we were being acquired, we all got an invite from the new company to meet the new executive team at their big corporate HQ. Got bused over, we were all shepherded into a huge auditorium only to have the CEO of the larger company tell us we were all being let go and turn in our ID's to the security folks now standing at the exits. It was the quietest bus ride I've ever been on during the return trip.
- talove 13y agoI don't see anything wrong with this. It conveyed all the information you'd probably need to know right away. It was direct. From my experience the worst thing you can do is empathize and apologize. Just break the news, and move forward. It's a business.
- Yver 13y agoThis would be funny if it wasn't so infuriating. I tried to listen to it but I cringe too easily so I'm waiting for a transcript. Based on the first few sentences of the call, here's how I expect the rest of the speech to go: "...you no longer have a role in the company. And by role I meant job. You no longer have a job. Unless you had another job, in which case you still have at least one. Point is, you're fired. From this company. It's Patch calling by the way."
- codegeek 13y agoThis kind of behavior (promoted by HR/Legal) needs to stop. Period. It is not about firing people by conference, phone or whatever. It is about the thanklessness and the attitude that sucks. Does it really hurt to genuinely feel and say "sorry we cannot keep you any longer. Hope you understand". No one is going to sit and whine about being laid-off but the manner of layoffs (in america at least) is getting shameful, appalling and disgusting. However, not shocking at all. Companies have too become risk/lawsuit averse when it comes to firing/lay-offs that they all have scripted things to say because they don't want to risk a potential lawsuit. My friend was laid-off by my ex-boss (I referred him and left). I know that my ex-boss was a really nice guy who would at least apologize. During the lay-off, all my friend got was "Your position has been eliminated. Please do not use any company device and leave immediately. We will ship your stuff to you". He was even told not to talk to any co-worker while leaving. Poor guy was so heartbroken that he could not even say bye to people he worked with. You know what he was not sad about ? Finding another job. May be I am overreacting but this is when Capitalism starts to bite. I am all in for profits, competitions, fierce business but if I ever have to layoff someone specially for no fault of theirs, you bet I will say sorry in person.It may not mean much but it is called "being human".
- ScottWhigham 13y agoCompanies have become risk/lawsuit averse when it comes to firing/lay-offs that they all have scripted things to say because they don't want to risk a potential lawsuit. Absolutely. Every time I've had to let someone go, the first person I call is my HR person. They walk me through the dos and don'ts which always include, "Don't say this and don't say that otherwise they could use that either in a wrongful termination lawsuit or in filing for workman's comp."
- Tehnix 13y ago>May be I am overreacting but this is when Capitalism starts to bite what on earth does harsh layoffs have to do with capitalism?
- gaius 13y agoBecause in socialism you go on pretending to work and they go on pretending to pay you.
- coldcode 13y agoI'm guessing they were not covered by the WARN Act.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- orsenthil 13y agoHow many people are working at Patch? Sounds like an internet startup with less than 30?
- smackfu 13y agoThey had 1100 people in August 2013, at which point they laid off 500.
- chubot 13y agoI don't think it's that bad. It was formal and distant, but not insulting. It's more insulting when someone pretends they are sorry, but actually aren't. If she's not actually sorry, and there are perfectly valid reasons not to be, then it actually shows more spine to just say it like it is. Actions speak louder than words, and we don't know what the "separation packages" are. They could actually be good, for all you know. We don't have the context on what it was like working there. Some places/professions are more "mercenary" than others. In Silicon Valley people are used to "company culture" and "team building", but not all companies need that.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- sdegutis 13y agoI bet this woman was really upset that she had to layoff that many people at once (she probably lived in another state so she couldn't do it in person). I imagine that's the reason she said it like she was ripping off a bandaid.
- benched 13y agoI think I would be literally incapable of saying those words in that way under any circumstances. I know that everybody is different. Things like this just make me really, really curious what it would be like to be inside the mind of someone capable of speaking like this, seriously.
- joeblau 13y agoOUCH! That hurt me and I don't even work there. That was as cold as a block of ice, but I'm sure workers at Patch had to see this one coming after the last fiasco.
- bonemachine 13y agoSoulless and robotic, to be sure. And eerily so. But what else should we expect from the owners of a news portal that was, from the outset, itself nothing other than soulless and robotic, to its very core -- and whose passing almost no one is likely to mourn? ("No one", that is, except of course those who've recently found out they "no longer have a role with Patch", along with their unlucky dependents).