CEO celebrates worker who sold family dog after he demanded return to office | Hacker News Reader

CEO celebrates worker who sold family dog after he demanded return to office

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74 pointsSirLJ26 comments

"you've mistaken my kindness for weakness"

Wow people outside the military say this unironically? The military has some shit bags who really do think this way (taking advantage of people giving them a second chance), and while people say it and I never liked hearing it, to think a CEO has the nerve to say that like some paranoid despot is pretty out of touch.

This dude sounds like he started listening to some other, much more successful, much more insane CEO's podcast during the pandemic and lost his mind in turn. That article read like the Facebook post of a terminally online friend who's having a mental break

It reminds me of the day phone/night phone thing.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/dave-...

Way back when that kind of thing was possible, people used two batteries for their phones. I honestly don't see any problems with the interview, I'm nowhere near as wealthy but have two phones and Uber to work when public transport isn't an option.

I suppose that's subjective, but for me he hits a notes that grate. If you explain it like you do, it's fine.

Ringtone: None. “I don’t use a ring of any kind on my phone. This is so that I am always on offense and never defense.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/03/dave-morin-path-f...

Yeah, a lot of people don't use ringtones, but framing it like that just sounds obnoxious.

> "you've mistaken my kindness for weakness"

> Wow people outside the military say this unironically? The military has some shit bags who really do think this way (taking advantage of people giving them a second chance), and while people say it and I never liked hearing it, to think a CEO has the nerve to say that like some paranoid despot is pretty out of touch.

I mean, I have said this before, but usually in response to the kind of person who is lauding the fact that my coworker had to sell their dog to continue staying employed. It’s kinda cringe to say when you have no leverage but it feels fantastic when you are not only willing to burn a bridge but have also set up c4 all over it, while simultaneously being the only person who knows some mission critical process while somehow not being given a contract with teeth because the execs think you are beneath them.

I do agree that hearing it from a CEO is insane though. The only CEOs who exhibit anything like kindness are literally newsworthy

Only boomers on social networks. Usually under some Vin Diesel in a wifebeater pictures

"Clearlink, like many others, has struggled to adapt to a teetering economy and recently undergone a round of layoffs. To jumpstart the firm, Clarke sent a company-wide email on April 3 saying that people who live within 50 miles of the company’s new headquarters in Draper, Utah, would be required to come into the office four days a week, with limited exceptions, starting April 17. The decision, he wrote, was made to improve the company’s performance amid a “challenging” environment."

That's a lot of words to say, "the beatings will continue until morale improves"

> within 50 miles of the company’s new headquarters in Draper, Utah

For context, this encompasses the entirety of the Salt Lake Valley, most of Utah Valley, and most of Davis County (north of Salt Lake City). I don't know where I would find hard numbers but this sounds to me like the majority of the population of Utah.

Further, it sounds like that 50 miles as the crow flies could be quite a bit more than 50 miles of travel.

Ogden is about 50 miles away, depending on where you measure from. Provo is half that distance. The only concentrated population centers not within 50 miles of Draper are the Logan area and the St. George area in the far SW corner of Utah.

If companies start mandating in-person work based on distance from the office, that's a pretty good incentive for people to move away. If I lived 40 miles form the office and faced an ugly commute, moving 11 miles becomes a real option to weigh against other factors.

> moving 11 miles becomes a real option to weigh against other factors.

Hopefully just to tide you over while you find another job so you can jettison this dirtbag company.

FTA:

> The company added that the employees could not bypass the mandate by now moving outside of the radius, saying that would be “counterproductive to the purpose of this decision.”

I guess that's one way of laying more people off without having to fire them.

Driving from Provo or salt lake would be a ~30 min commute plus or minus 10 min. Ogden would probably be 50+ minutes

What likely happened: the CEO got tired of coming to an empty office and not having underlings scurry around as his excellence powerwalks through the stunning estate of Clearlink Inc.

The whole thing reads like a script for an unreleased episode of The Office.

Wow, the lawsuits almost file themselves. "Ms. Jones was discriminated against because she was the primary caregiver to two children. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'd like to play you a video of a recent town hall speech..."

From the quotes in TFA, I could easily believe that Mr. Clarke had had a little too much to drink with lunch.

If anyone is confused as to how it might happen, family members who used to care for the dog might have been forced to give up the dog, so if not in care of the worker it's only option is to be sold or given up got adoption. A big thing since in my opinion animals are family members no less.

"Utah-based digital marketing company" declares "We hate dogs" as publically as they could manage. Difficult to believe really. Someone running a marketing company hasn't clocked that how they present their firm affects their success in the market. Further, they think "I don't really get this marketing thing" is a good thing to shout to the internet. Shouldn't be survivable.

I think it's interesting that the headline doesn't even bother to mention the company because nobody has heard of it.

Nobody has heard of the vast majority of companies? Hacker News just spends an outsized about of time talking about the same 6.

That is typical and is an editor's decision based on the coverage area of the paper and a judgment of the notability of the subject. It applies to individuals, too, like in this article. It likely wouldn't have been a decision by the journalist. 'City area company' is another way to do it, e.g. many of these titles do not mention the company name. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22boston+area+company%22&tb...

“I challenge any of you to outwork me, but you won’t,”

Yeah, sure. Just give them your salary and leave the company, then see. Workers are often fed up with their jobs also because of manipulative alpha-holes like that one.

In a sea of madness, that stuck out to me. I'm sure he's getting paid somewhat more than anyone he's castigating. That guy is suffering a bad mental break.

I do agree remote work isn't as good as being there - and I did remote work full time for 15 years and it broke me. I finally got a good local job and look forward to seeing my team mates each day. But if I had to commute that far I understand the gloss would wear off after about 1 day!

Damn I hope people like this fail hard and fast so they cause less damage to the unfortunate people who cross their path.

>...to explain the reasoning behind the changes, Clarke unleashed on his employees, saying he had deduced that some 30 employees had not opened their laptops for a month (the quiet quitters)...

So...just fire those 30 people for not delivering?

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