Meta lays off 11,000 people

Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by sausagefeet on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @11:38AM (#33534080)

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.

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by pb7 on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @12:09PM (#33534604)

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.

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by Domenic_S on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @12:49PM (#33535249)

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.

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by sausagefeet on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @02:01PM (#33536312)

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.

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by Aperocky on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @05:00PM (#33538563)

> 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.

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by sausagefeet on Thursday November 10, 2022 @01:41AM (#33543055)

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

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by Aperocky on Thursday November 10, 2022 @02:55PM (#33552227)

The first step to accept responsibility is to acknowledge it.

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by sausagefeet on Thursday November 17, 2022 @02:46AM (#33636081)

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

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by apineda on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @12:16PM (#33534713)

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

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by sausagefeet on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @02:08PM (#33536391)

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.

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by beambot on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @12:54PM (#33535324)

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.

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by Yhippa on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @02:04PM (#33536351)

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."

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Re:Meta lays off 11,000 people by sausagefeet on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @02:05PM (#33536362)

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?

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