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Comment by chc | Hacker News Reader

I don't know if there's any better way to downplay a major hire leaving after less than half a year. Everything in those statements is extremely obvious from the circumstances and I can't think of a more cordial way to phrase it.

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There are much better standard ways to phrase this and that's precisely why you almost never see it put that way. If for no other reason than that if hiring high-profile talent is something you need to do more than once, you don't want to be publicly suggesting it's somehow their fault when they leave.

I didn't take it this way at all. Why can't "he's not the right fit" mean exactly that? People can be brilliant but just not right fit the operating processes and culture at a company. I didn't really read anything negative into it from either side.

Sure, you didn't but as you can see in this thread, it's trivially interpretable in lots of other ways. Which is exactly why it is usually not put that way. This doesn't seem like a complicated thing at all.

it also helps avoid expensive lawsuits especially for high profile roles who have the money to sue

Not really.

You think a wealthy c level and an average engineer have the same access to legal redress?

In that case I have a bridge id like to sell to you

As another poster said, though, you're basically asking for more BS, wishy washy corporate-speak, wish is often what people on this forum rail against. Damned if you do, damned in you don't.

I'm not asking for anything. You were asking something and I tried to offer an explanation. The answer is mostly 'because lots of other people don't feel the same way as you on a (relatively minor and subjective) point of interpretation.' Applies just as well to your feelings about 'BS, wishy washy corporate-speak'.

"we’ve decided to make a change" could easily be interpreted as "we've fired him".

In any case, judging by the reactions to his tweet it looks like he can pick and choose his next job.

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