It is much safer to get bad news out in your own voice than risk that it leaks some other way, either through a journalist reporting on it or, even, an employee breaking the story on social media.
If the company doesn't get on the front foot to control the narrative, they will wake up to an email from a journalist saying that they are writing an article about 30pc cuts.
At that point, the journalist is likely to have heard the news -- and largely written the story. The company will be able to provide a quote, but by that point they will have lost control of the narrative. They won't be able to put their own headline on it -- as the start-up has done with this blog post.
One story becomes two. Becomes three. Becomes four. Etc. Then a media narrative sets in that the company is on the way to bankruptcy, etc, etc. Investors start calling the CEO, etc, etc.
I know that people find these types of announcements cringe and think that PR is a waste of time. But there is a reason most companies use this playbook: it is safer and it works (most of the time).
For the avoidance of doubt, this isn't a justification for all the language and messaging in this announcement, but a broader justification of the general strategy of communicating openly and in your own voice when you have bad news.
Most likely gets you a few brownie points with Investors and gets you some P/R. I may have heard of them before but now I checked them out. There is no such thing as a bad PR. Generally.
because if they don't then the snowflakes are gonna call them out as ruthless on twitter.
I'm continually appalled by the level of entitlement in the tech bros community, apparently layoff has no right to exist. Just because company is still making money they have to keep sharing it with you, some person who knows how to code. Someone please tell them about capitalism and the concept of "job".
I'm pretty sure this is the email they sent their employees. The blog probably got posted once everything was finished.
>For those of you leaving: I’m very sorry to be taking this step and I take full responsibility for the decisions leading up to it
I HATE when people start saying "I take full responsibility." Okay, if you do, then how are you being held accountable? Are you losing your bonus? Are you losing shares? Or is it just the social media equivalent of saying "Oh, my bad!"
I want concrete examples of how you are holding yourself responsible, not just lip service.
In 2014 when the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U sales were much worse than expected, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata apologized to the company and its shareholders and took a 50% paycut.
If you’ve ever ordered takeaway, returned a package, contacted customer service, or requested a login code, it’s almost guaranteed your interactions have been powered by MessageBird’s technology.
Wait, what? Is this for real? Why have I never heard of them?
As a former Twilio employee, this is what we used to say, especially back when I started in 2011 when there really weren't many other options, and most of the few other options were not easy to get started on as a solo developer.
I think it's reasonable to say that if you do all of those quoted things, probably some of the texts you've gotten have gone through MessageBird, but certainly not all of them.
Then again, the wording of that is ambiguous enough.. that's what it could have meant, even though it's worded to sound more expansive.
I mean, if you've ever bought anything in a shop with a credit or debit card, your interactions have probably been powered by EMVCo's stuff, but you've probably never heard of EMVCo and there's no particularly good reason that most people should have. In general, there's not much point in B2B infrastructure providers doing consumer marketing.
I was about to make a joke in poor taste that the person who normally updates the website was impacted...But, nah, the wound is too fresh.
Separately, well before all of these layoffs that are in the news...like many months ago, i have begun to see little things like what you reported, where companies are not keeping up with small areas to update. I remarked this to a friend and they believed that they started seeing this both online and offline during around the worst of the pandemic - when most things were on super lock down...And if so, then i can imagine this being pandemic-driven....but NOW with these layoffs, i imagine we'll be seeing this alot more. Granted as a customer (or job candidate in this case), its a minor inconvenience, especially since real people are being more severely impactedf by layoffs. But of course the guess for why this is happening is likely due to simeply a lack of people, or a diverting of attention top others areas of a business. Yeesh!
I'm sorry, but I get irked whenever I see a CEO saying they take full responsibility but then accept no consequences. There is no impact on their compensation, their equity, or their life other than the "emotional scar" left behind of having to let people go. They will absolutely expect the remaining staff to pick up the game from the loss of such a big chunk of the company. It kind of feels like the letter is more or less "we know you are hurt, but so am I and think about my feelings too"
I know I'm being pessimistic, but the CEO isn't the one having to spend the next few months trying to find a good job when everyone is on a hiring freeze.
In most corporate compensation systems, the executives' bonuses are the most impacted when the company doesn't do well. The employees lower down are only rated based on personal performance, not the company's as they have no control over it. This is certainly the case with our company. There is no way to tell what is happening inside messagebird, or maybe someone has inside info?
> Immigration support. We know that this situation is particularly tough for departing employees who currently work on a visa. We have made individual arrangements for you in order to accommodate better for your particular situation. Details will be outlined in individual documentation.
None of these blogs ever talk specifics or examples of what they're offering in terms of immigration support.
I suspect keeping a person employed "for show" could be considered immigration fraud. But that's why those workers should go and hire their own labor and immigration attorneys, and don't trust advice on this website, or from their employer.
I have been saying this for a long time but listing an "open position" is nearly meaningless. It is basically advertising, saying look at us, we are growing!
> Doesn't laying people off sort of contribute to a recession becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Yes, but self preservation of an oncoming reality is usually taken with higher priority that trying to influence a tsunami by removing a cup of water from the ocean.
Isn't it so crazily irrational how our economy works? We have more educated people and more technology with each year, more resources available than ever before in every sector, more and more work being finished on millions of projects, more scientific advances and drugs released and rockets launched and buildings built. But somehow, the machine that was moving along just swimmingly is determined one day by the various talking heads to be doing "bad", and then panic sets in, people fire people and sell stocks and companies fall apart, but its for no good reason. The business cycle is like a flock of pigeons sitting on a telephone line, getting startled by nothing, flying in a circle for a minute, only to sit back on the same telephone line and eventually get startled by something else.
> To be clear, as much as I believe this to be necessary it is not a reflection of me not caring for those we are asking to leave - this day leaves a scar on my soul. MessageBird is my legacy, the company I give my everything for every single day and would sacrifice almost anything for.
There is nothing more distasteful to me than the CEO harping on about how hard these lay-offs are for them.
Agreed. Don't say how upset you are, show it by offering generous severance packages (including health insurance!), job placement help, and anything else that can make the transition less painful for people.
- "Settlement - We will pay 3 months of compensation for all departing employees, and more for those with longer tenure."
- "Bonus. We will pay a prorated bonus to all eligible departing employees"
- "Individual & career support. We’ll do our best to connect departing employees with other companies and professional networks as well as other useful sources that may help you navigate through this difficult time"
- "Immigration support. We know that this situation is particularly tough for departing employees who currently work on a visa. We have made individual arrangements for you in order to accommodate better for your particular situation"
I think the visceral reaction some of us have has to do with making this about the poor CEO (who is still a multimillionaire, and still has a job) and not the people who lost their jobs. I would hope he feels terrible, even if it's 100% the only choice to keep the business afloat (which is far from clear, but is at least possible), but he can keep that to himself.
It's reasonable to assume that any somewhat socially competent person doesn't relish the idea of letting people go.
That should be a given.
And taking responsibility is just restating the fact that the CEO has all the power while (in this case) nothing the individual employee could do would have prevented it.
The CEO did not fire himself for failing and is (probably) still wealthy and doesn't need to potentially uproot his life.
" The decision today is more painful for the Birds leaving than it will be for me and I won't pretend I understand what they will go through. I alone made the mistakes leading up to this and I should have seen it coming earlier"
I just don't read this as making it about himself. I also don't understand how you could write one of these without having a "I fucked up and feel really bad about it" sections. He should just announce the layoffs with no context about how the company got here under his leadership?
The original comment on this tree has much more "about me" language directly quoted. His legacy, he would sacrifice anything, scar on his soul, etc. I agree though you can't just say nothing, you have to take ownership and express empathy.
These messages are hard to balance; he is writing a message to the laid off staff, the staff staying on, and the public.
The "I'm sad about this" is aimed at the remaining staff. He wants to retain the appearance of being empathetic and authentic as a leader. But in doing so he comes across as self-centred to the other audiences.
MessageBird seems located in The Netherlands. For those living in NL health insurance costs €1500-1800/year & deductibles €385/year, employed or on social benefits. They are never paid by the employer.
That is a big cut, unusual for a European company.
I wonder whether there is already a 'Musk effect' at play. His taking the axe to the payroll in unprecedented style at Twitter might have pushed the boundaries as to what is acceptable to do, so has increase the range of permissible action for CEO's. 25-30% cuts might now be the new normal, rather than 5-10%
If he's successful with Twitter it will add credibility to the idea that most high margin SaaS/social companies don't need as many people as they currently have, yes.
And they certainly don't from a theoretical perspective. Whether they can successfully transition from inefficient+large to efficient+small is another question
It’s much too soon to judge the impact of the way Elon just discarded 80-90% of Twitter’s technical workforce (layoffs + voluntary departures). The only product change he has successfully implemented is unbanning people who violated the rules in the past, which is a change requiring no engineers to implement.
It's anecdotal, but a friend of mine working on the frontend told me his org of 150 engineers lost 2/3 in the original layoff (leaving 50), and then about 80% of those remaining declined the hardcore ultimatum (leaving 10, a mere 6.7% of the starting strength). H1B's are the majority of those remaining.
It was first 50% of the 7500 initial and then another 50% of the remaining. Then add all this Code Review nonsense and you can make the argument that at least 80% of the original are gone. I wonder how many he has brought in though. There is too much muddying of the waters to get a realistic estimate of people joining Twitter because they want to be part of Musk's "vision". It could be anything from hundreds of people joining to just 1 (George Hotz lol).
I'm sure the people losing their jobs will find plenty of solace that they're not "fired," they're just a Departing Bird™!