Re:Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief
by mc32 on Saturday July 11, 2015 @02:27AM
(#9868778)
That's all good -fine. If she did wrong, let the company deal with it. They hired her. But here she's been left out to dry. Totally different from Toyota where an executive smuggled prescription drugs into Japan[1] and the company stood by her --she stepped down once she understood the implications of her transgression in the eyes of Japanese law.
But this is not the company firing her --it's the internet firing her. I don't like this approach at all. management by popular opinion is not good. Imagine managing a professional sports team by popular vote --it'd be nuts.
[1]http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/19/us-toyota-executiv...
Re:Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief
by chiph on Saturday July 11, 2015 @08:49AM
(#9869567)
The Reddit users are their customers. If a board has a CEO that is getting a lot of the firms customers upset (in revolt), then the board has to step in to preserve the company. Remember, they had Digg as an example of what can happen when highly mobile customers leave.
So far as an example from the automotive industry, look at Rick Wagoner from General Motors. He lost the firm $82 billion and 90% of its market capitalization while he was CEO. And the board did nothing to correct this. With their capital gone, loss of confidence by the market, they were forced into bankruptcy.
Re:Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief
by bsder on Saturday July 11, 2015 @06:14AM
(#9869248)
> Imagine managing a professional sports team by popular vote --it'd be nuts.
That's a really bad example to cite because managers and coaches quite often do get fired when the fans start getting too angry.
Her job was to preside over that mob. And apparently to monetize it. Pissing off that mob means she failed at her job.
In addition, not understanding that you are firing a key employee shows a dramatic level of ignorance. Reddit has so few employees that even an adequate CEO should know what every single employee is doing. This is just basic Management 101--"Know What Your People Do" or its corollary "Never Piss Off A Secretary" aka "Know Who Has The Real Power In Your Company".
Finally, from her attempt at PR positioning you get headlines like this: "It’s Silicon Valley 2, Ellen Pao 0: Fighter of Sexism Is Out at Reddit". Really? "Fighter of sexism". Um, she fired a woman, you know? And her behavior at Kleiner was far from exemplary. Her case for sexism would have been a whole lot stronger if she hadn't appeared to be sleeping her way up the corporate chain.
Overall, the problem seems to be the same tone-deafness as so many at this level of privilege: "The rules don't apply to me. How dare these plebeians attempt to make the rules apply to me!"