This is a pretty poor take, IMO. I have not seen any difference in results of a CEO who "takes responsibility" vs "blames outside factors". Taking responsibility seems to be a cheap way to come off as a better person without actually doing anything differently.

Does it get tiring being this cynical all the time? Admit it, nothing he could have said would have satisfied folks like you.

This was a tactful announcement and a generous severance after providing a job with pay and benefits in the top 0.1% for possibly years and years.

True, nothing he could have said would satisfy. But he is in a unique position to render stunning aid to those displaced. The severance is fine, not totally unusual for a company that isn't going under.

I am making a much more narrow point than you're interpreting it. The Twitter thread is claiming people who "take responsibility" are somehow superior to those who don't. I am saying I see no evidence to believe that. Talk is cheap.

My personal belief is that I would like to see discussion of the system that gets us to the point of mass layoffs. As rich as Zuck or Musk or whoever is, they are still close to gears in the system than orchestrators, so we should probably have a discussion about if this situation is something we could modify the system to prevent, and if we want to modify the system in that way.

> somehow superior to those who don't.

Yes. Accepting responsibility is more preferable to not accepting it and blaming it on other people/things, period.

The disagreement hinges on what it means to "accept responsibility". Anybody can write the words.

The first step to accept responsibility is to acknowledge it.

And you can also acknowledge it and then continue doing whatever you're doing.

I understand this take but it seems to assume that people and systems aren't flawed.

My take assumes that? I don't think it does. My point is simply that I don't see any evidence to say that someone who makes that claim is somehow better than someone that blames the environment. It's very easy to wrote those words down.

Are "results" the only thing that matter to you?

Let's say you have two leaders in this situation. #1 says "The macro economic climate is bad, so we're laying people off." #2 says "I made a mistake; this was my fault." All other things equal, I know which one I'd prefer to work with... How a leader comports themselves is just as important as their results -- especially in bad times.

I want to hear both. "The macro environment is bad, and we never baked that into any of our forecasts, which we should have. I take full responsibility for not doing that."

I don't really understand your counter. It costs an executive nothing to write those words down. What do you think should matter to me?

Actually to me his explanation kind of sounds like he's blaming the economy