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Comment by davezatch | Hacker News Reader

What would non-“meaningless virtue signaling” look like to you? This seems quite decent as far as these things go.

Well, seeing as how saying that means nothing, adds nothing, and says nothing, then not saying it at all would be more meaningful.

The non-corporate speak translation would be “I tried my best to make this company bigger and more valuable, but it didn’t work. Some of you will now need to be sacrificed, but not me!”

That's because you didn't come up in a time when people who fucked up like this would step down from their position for their clear and obviously failed leadership. You're not used to seeing what "full responsibility" actually is.

Full responsibility is a samurai killing himself painfully while his best friend cuts off his head to end his suffering. That's full responsibility.

This is, "I fucked up guys, here's 3-6 months pay and some benes... my bad. And yeah I know I fucked up last year too, but I took full responsibility then as well, so it's all good..."

Yes, that is a good image. I don't think litteral seppuku is called for (though it is a helpful reminder of what shame has looked like in the past), just that people are getting a bit tired of executives saying "I take full responsibility for this failure," while getting handed a giant bonus, a pat on the back from the board and shareholders and another biz mag feature.

"I am responsible for overhiring/mismanaging, I'm sorry."

Removing that meaningless sentence, or replacing it with an apology.

Putting your money where your mouth is. Resignation and public, in-person apology like they do in Japan.

Better yet, refuse to take a bonus, not that the board should award one. If the board awards one anyway, contribute 100% of it to helping laid off employees.

He quits / pay cut. Something where his actions affect him

We don't know that he hasn't taken a pay cut. Posting about it might just come across as self-serving, but then not posting about it makes it seem like he's not doing it. Lose-lose, it seems.

And... I suspect whatever he's doing is also affecting him emotionally/mentally, and... to some extent career-wise. Taking these sorts of public steps may make it harder to be entrusted to CEO someplace else in future. Given patreon specifically, I doubt he's planning to leave and go CEO someplace else, but overall, there's no easy outs in scenarios like this. He'll be getting second-guessed and pilloried regardless of what steps he takes.

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