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When you consider exactly how much information we have to go on, I think people are overreacting by immense proportions. Do we even know why Victoria was fired

by nanny 11y ago

When you consider exactly how much information we have to go on, I think people are overreacting by immense proportions. Do we even know why Victoria was fired yet? Maybe she was about to blow the lid off a vast internet conspiracy. Or maybe she's actually the bad guy, and she went crazy and tried to destroy the office. We just don't know, and we might never know. Besides, what is reddit corporate supposed to do when they want to fire an employee? Message the mods and say, "Oh, btw, we're going to fire Victoria in a couple days and Xyz will take over her duties, just thought you'd like to know."? That's simply out of the question, and not enough people even thought about this scenario. The responses to this event are entirely unjustified, because there is no information at all to base a reaction on.

_dark_matter_ 11y ago
I don't know if you deliberately haven't been reading anything or what, but it wasn't just in reaction to the firing. This is just the straw the broke the camel's back.
- nanny 11y ago
  People keep saying things like this, but what exactly was on the camel's back in the first place? "Bad communication"? Can you give me any specific, concrete examples?
  - darkstar999 11y ago
    Bad communication. Mods feel like they are volunteering for a for-profit company yet treated poorly. Recent top-down decisions that aren't the "reddit way". A temporary(?) CEO who doesn't seem to "get" reddit, or at least is not the right person for the job.
    - coldpie 11y ago
      Literally none of these are specific or concrete.
      - darkstar999 11y ago
        "Bad communication" - they fire Victoria without telling IAMA moderators "Mods feel like they are volunteering for a for-profit company yet treated poorly." is very concrete and specific "Recent top-down decisions that aren't the "reddit way"". - banning of "hateful" subreddits such as /r/FatPeopleHate "A temporary(?) CEO who doesn't seem to "get" reddit, or at least is not the right person for the job." - that is very specific and concrete What else are you looking for?
        nanny 11y ago
        >Bad communication. - they fire Victoria without telling IAMA moderators I asked for things that were already "on the camel's back". >Mods feel like they are volunteering for a for-profit company yet treated poorly. They are volunteering for a for-profit company. What are some specific concrete examples of mods being treated poorly? I'm a mod of two subreddits (20k and 8k subscribers) and I've never once been "treated poorly". >Recent top-down decisions that aren't the "reddit way". - banning of "hateful" subreddits such as /r/FatPeopleHate Who gets to decide what "the reddit way" actually is? My reddit account is nearly seven years old now and I say "good riddance". >A temporary(?) CEO who doesn't seem to "get" reddit, or at least is not the right person for the job. - that is very specific and concrete That's laughable: it's not specific or concrete at all. It's an unsubstantiated, open-ended subjective opinion.
        darkstar999 11y ago
        > Who gets to decide what "the reddit way" actually is? My reddit account is nearly seven years old now and I say "good riddance". reddit admins used to say that they would never ban content as long as it was legal. Well /r/jailbait was technically legal, but they banned it. Then came FatPeopleHate and others. Some people think hardcore freedom of speech was the reddit way. It is no longer. Of course it's hard for a rational person to defend leaving those up, but it's just how some people feel about free speech. Oh and then Pao used the phrase "safe spaces" which is a total shift from their previous stance.
      - celticninja 11y ago
joosters 11y ago
As the article explains, the issues aren't to do with Victoria herself. In that respect, why she was fired doesn't matter. Note that the story is not a campaign to bring her back personally. Corporate Reddit should have had a plan in place when they got rid of her, but as it became clear, they hadn't thought about it at all. That's what the mods were complaining about.
- nanny 11y ago
  >Corporate Reddit should have had a plan in place when they got rid of her, but as it became clear, they hadn't thought about it at all. What if she did something really bad and was fired on the spot? How could they "have a plan in place" for a situation like that?
  - joosters 11y ago
    It would take only a few minutes to come up with a simple last-minute backup plan (pick an employee to temporarily handle Reddit<->AMA, mods communication, and then tell the mods about it). That would be enough to give Reddit enough time to sort out something more permanent.
  - zwerdlds 11y ago
    Jumping to conclusions aside, wouldn't they communicate that?
  - BurningFrog 11y ago
    You should always have some kind of plan for what to do if key employees get run over by a bus.
    - jonknee 11y ago
      The problem seems to be that reddit didn't have a plan for when the users started believing it wasn't a bus at all, but a conspiracy.
  - jonlucc 11y ago
    Well, that's the point of a contingency plan. Where I work, we have an emergency evacuation plan. They don't only start coming up with that plan when the building needs to be evacuated. They have it in place in case they need it.
vonmoltke 11y ago
> Besides, what is reddit corporate supposed to do when they want to fire an employee? Message the mods and say, "Oh, btw, we're going to fire Victoria in a couple days and Xyz will take over her duties, just thought you'd like to know."? That's simply out of the question, and not enough people even thought about this scenario. When you have people travelling from out of town specifically to meet the person you are about to shitcan, you're damn well right you need to do something like that. Either that or delay the action until such time as it will not disrupt something like this. Making the first notification of this be when said person arrives at your front desk is unprofessional and unacceptable, period.
- nanny 11y ago
  Did you consider that it might not have been an option? That maybe it was an unexpected termination, and they didn't have a way to know about or contact the people arriving from out of town? You don't have enough information to speculate like that.
  - vonmoltke 11y ago
    > Did you consider that it might not have been an option? That maybe it was an unexpected termination, and they didn't have a way to know about or contact the people arriving from out of town? Then you get a substitute for the appointment, even if you have to delay it. You don't just tell the client that the appointment is cancelled and to have a nice day. > You don't have enough information to speculate like that. There is no information that can make the way the out of town guest was treated acceptable.
    - danso 11y ago
      > There is no information that can make the way the out of town guest was treated acceptable. Sorry, but is this guest the Queen of England or the Pope? Did the mods pay for his/her way to New York? As the GP said, this is an overreaction -- the mods act as if insulting one celebrity means that IAMA, a subreddit that was originally populated by regular reddit users, has been inconvertibly sullied. Or that they, the mods themselves, spent their lives savings to fly that celebrity into town. I'm not saying that the celebrity deserved to be snubbed, but non-conspiracy-shit happens, and firing/rehirings can be a chaotic process that yes, sometimes lasts longer than a couple of days.
jonlucc 11y ago
Two things they should have done: 1) had a transition plan in place for key employees, especially the most prominent public-facing employees 2) communicate after the fact; basically get all hands on deck to find and handle each of the AMAs happening that day and in the next few days, make a single point of contact to triage those needs and tell the mods
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
smileysteve 11y ago
> Besides, what is reddit corporate supposed to do when they want to fire an employee? Reduce single points of failure, broadcast schedules and meetings. Before the termination is complete have the replacement with an action plan.
yiyus 11y ago
Overreacting by immense proportions is what reddit does. I do not know any details about Victoria's firing and I do not care about them, but obviously somebody up there did a terrible job managing the whole situation.
16bytes 11y ago
I've seen high-level departures from corporations for years and recently have been on the inside track of one (i.e. I knew about the departure before it was public knowledge). From the time that I was told to when it was made public was weeks. What was done in the interim was make sure nobody was left hanging. Key individuals and customers were called, things coordinated so that there would be no backlash. Take a look at Microsoft and Gate's departure. Ballmer's departure. Apple and Jobs's. I get that at-will employment means that either part can walk away at any time, but that doesn't resolve the company from dealing with the ramifications of said departure. That's what this is about; that Reddit thought so little or had a thorough misunderstanding of her position as to not key in the mods, or otherwise coordinate handling of her duties is the straw that broke the camel's back.

by nanny 11y ago

_dark_matter_ 11y ago

I don't know if you deliberately haven't been reading anything or what, but it wasn't just in reaction to the firing. This is just the straw the broke the camel's back.

nanny 11y ago
People keep saying things like this, but what exactly was on the camel's back in the first place? "Bad communication"? Can you give me any specific, concrete examples?
- darkstar999 11y ago
  Bad communication. Mods feel like they are volunteering for a for-profit company yet treated poorly. Recent top-down decisions that aren't the "reddit way". A temporary(?) CEO who doesn't seem to "get" reddit, or at least is not the right person for the job.
  - coldpie 11y ago
    Literally none of these are specific or concrete.
    - darkstar999 11y ago
      "Bad communication" - they fire Victoria without telling IAMA moderators "Mods feel like they are volunteering for a for-profit company yet treated poorly." is very concrete and specific "Recent top-down decisions that aren't the "reddit way"". - banning of "hateful" subreddits such as /r/FatPeopleHate "A temporary(?) CEO who doesn't seem to "get" reddit, or at least is not the right person for the job." - that is very specific and concrete What else are you looking for?
      - nanny 11y ago
        >Bad communication. - they fire Victoria without telling IAMA moderators I asked for things that were already "on the camel's back". >Mods feel like they are volunteering for a for-profit company yet treated poorly. They are volunteering for a for-profit company. What are some specific concrete examples of mods being treated poorly? I'm a mod of two subreddits (20k and 8k subscribers) and I've never once been "treated poorly". >Recent top-down decisions that aren't the "reddit way". - banning of "hateful" subreddits such as /r/FatPeopleHate Who gets to decide what "the reddit way" actually is? My reddit account is nearly seven years old now and I say "good riddance". >A temporary(?) CEO who doesn't seem to "get" reddit, or at least is not the right person for the job. - that is very specific and concrete That's laughable: it's not specific or concrete at all. It's an unsubstantiated, open-ended subjective opinion.
        darkstar999 11y ago
        > Who gets to decide what "the reddit way" actually is? My reddit account is nearly seven years old now and I say "good riddance". reddit admins used to say that they would never ban content as long as it was legal. Well /r/jailbait was technically legal, but they banned it. Then came FatPeopleHate and others. Some people think hardcore freedom of speech was the reddit way. It is no longer. Of course it's hard for a rational person to defend leaving those up, but it's just how some people feel about free speech. Oh and then Pao used the phrase "safe spaces" which is a total shift from their previous stance.
    - celticninja 11y ago

joosters 11y ago

As the article explains, the issues aren't to do with Victoria herself. In that respect, why she was fired doesn't matter. Note that the story is not a campaign to bring her back personally. Corporate Reddit should have had a plan in place when they got rid of her, but as it became clear, they hadn't thought about it at all. That's what the mods were complaining about.

nanny 11y ago
>Corporate Reddit should have had a plan in place when they got rid of her, but as it became clear, they hadn't thought about it at all. What if she did something really bad and was fired on the spot? How could they "have a plan in place" for a situation like that?
- joosters 11y ago
  It would take only a few minutes to come up with a simple last-minute backup plan (pick an employee to temporarily handle Reddit<->AMA, mods communication, and then tell the mods about it). That would be enough to give Reddit enough time to sort out something more permanent.
- zwerdlds 11y ago
  Jumping to conclusions aside, wouldn't they communicate that?
- BurningFrog 11y ago
  You should always have some kind of plan for what to do if key employees get run over by a bus.
  - jonknee 11y ago
    The problem seems to be that reddit didn't have a plan for when the users started believing it wasn't a bus at all, but a conspiracy.
- jonlucc 11y ago
  Well, that's the point of a contingency plan. Where I work, we have an emergency evacuation plan. They don't only start coming up with that plan when the building needs to be evacuated. They have it in place in case they need it.

vonmoltke 11y ago

> Besides, what is reddit corporate supposed to do when they want to fire an employee? Message the mods and say, "Oh, btw, we're going to fire Victoria in a couple days and Xyz will take over her duties, just thought you'd like to know."? That's simply out of the question, and not enough people even thought about this scenario. When you have people travelling from out of town specifically to meet the person you are about to shitcan, you're damn well right you need to do something like that. Either that or delay the action until such time as it will not disrupt something like this. Making the first notification of this be when said person arrives at your front desk is unprofessional and unacceptable, period.

nanny 11y ago
Did you consider that it might not have been an option? That maybe it was an unexpected termination, and they didn't have a way to know about or contact the people arriving from out of town? You don't have enough information to speculate like that.
- vonmoltke 11y ago
  > Did you consider that it might not have been an option? That maybe it was an unexpected termination, and they didn't have a way to know about or contact the people arriving from out of town? Then you get a substitute for the appointment, even if you have to delay it. You don't just tell the client that the appointment is cancelled and to have a nice day. > You don't have enough information to speculate like that. There is no information that can make the way the out of town guest was treated acceptable.
  - danso 11y ago
    > There is no information that can make the way the out of town guest was treated acceptable. Sorry, but is this guest the Queen of England or the Pope? Did the mods pay for his/her way to New York? As the GP said, this is an overreaction -- the mods act as if insulting one celebrity means that IAMA, a subreddit that was originally populated by regular reddit users, has been inconvertibly sullied. Or that they, the mods themselves, spent their lives savings to fly that celebrity into town. I'm not saying that the celebrity deserved to be snubbed, but non-conspiracy-shit happens, and firing/rehirings can be a chaotic process that yes, sometimes lasts longer than a couple of days.

jonlucc 11y ago

Two things they should have done: 1) had a transition plan in place for key employees, especially the most prominent public-facing employees 2) communicate after the fact; basically get all hands on deck to find and handle each of the AMAs happening that day and in the next few days, make a single point of contact to triage those needs and tell the mods

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

smileysteve 11y ago

> Besides, what is reddit corporate supposed to do when they want to fire an employee? Reduce single points of failure, broadcast schedules and meetings. Before the termination is complete have the replacement with an action plan.

yiyus 11y ago

Overreacting by immense proportions is what reddit does. I do not know any details about Victoria's firing and I do not care about them, but obviously somebody up there did a terrible job managing the whole situation.

16bytes 11y ago

I've seen high-level departures from corporations for years and recently have been on the inside track of one (i.e. I knew about the departure before it was public knowledge). From the time that I was told to when it was made public was weeks. What was done in the interim was make sure nobody was left hanging. Key individuals and customers were called, things coordinated so that there would be no backlash. Take a look at Microsoft and Gate's departure. Ballmer's departure. Apple and Jobs's. I get that at-will employment means that either part can walk away at any time, but that doesn't resolve the company from dealing with the ramifications of said departure. That's what this is about; that Reddit thought so little or had a thorough misunderstanding of her position as to not key in the mods, or otherwise coordinate handling of her duties is the straw that broke the camel's back.