Comment by jennyjenjen | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jennyjenjen | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I wish I could say that I'm surprised that anyone is attacking SendGrid. Even though they have done nothing to deserve such backlash - both before and after firing Adria Richards - it doesn't surprise me in the least that people are taking the opportunity to unleash hateful comments and demonstrate poor attitudes.

I agree with you all the way, other than that. SendGrid made a great case for departing with Ms. Richards and I think it's pretty clear that her role as a developer evangelist is certainly harmed and she can no longer continue in that role. It has nothing to do with gender, and it has nothing to do with her being offended by those comments, but it has everything to do with the poor way she handled calling out these guys and the fact that she cannot participate in a developer community without developers being fearful of how they conduct themselves within earshot of her (they weren't even talking to her!).

[Edit: Downvoting this eh? If you downvote, you should really participate in the discussion and tell me why I might be wrong.]

I agree that the backlash to SendGrid has been extreme, and an overreaction, but I feel that they were at least partially to blame before firing Ms. Richards. She stated the SendGrid supported her actions, and without SendGrid saying anything, they are implicitly agreeing that they support her. So I feel people have a right to be angry with SendGrid for supporting Ms. Richards, and I understand people who wrote them angry letters, or made a decision to boycott them.

On the other hand, I don't support people launching a DDoS, or any other sort of a more extreme response.

I see what you're saying. I'm not entirely sure I agree, especially since they waited for a while to come out with commentary about it. Additionally, although she said that they support her, that may have never been true. But I see what you're saying and that's legitimate.

> She stated the SendGrid supported her actions, and without SendGrid saying anything, they are implicitly agreeing that they support her.

I don't think we can blame SendGrid for wanting to take a few hours to figure out this mess and respond appropriately, and I don't think we can believe someone that was acting irrationally to begin with to make definitive commentary on where her company stands on the matter.

> Even though they have done nothing to deserve such backlash

They fired an employee without due process. Apparently a knee-jerk reaction rather than considered disciplinary process.

They capitulated to an anonymous DDOS. Even with a ridiculous demand. Giving the impression they were not technically able to bring the service back up by themselves.

Neither of these gives me confidence in trusting SendGrid with email. The first makes me think they'll be happy doing rash and possibly illegal things like sending email data in response to a subpoena. The second makes me doubt their future reliability.

> They fired an employee without due process. Apparently a knee-jerk reaction rather than considered disciplinary process.

How do you know? Are you at SendGrid? Did you speak to Adria? Have you talked with the founders, CEO, legal counsel?

Colorado, like California, is an employment-at-will state and has been since 1987. The employer may terminate an employee for a million reasons under the sun. IANAL but I think most other people who have been in the working world more than a few years understand what that means.

In a way, I was incorrect... they did do a few things to deserve such backlash. They lacked tact in their initial posts about firing Ms. Richards. They should've led with the "Difficult Situation" post. If you read the post, which they finally churned out a few hours after declaring her employment terminated, you can see that it wasn't terribly rash. They certainly thought it out. Would you have held onto an employee you couldn't trust?

As for their technical abilities, I'm not able to judge that - so you may be correct about such competencies. However, "due process" isn't necessarily for firing an employee in Colorado, and besides, we don't know what went on as this developed and how the company actually went about terminating Ms. Richards' employment. We may find that out soon.

>They fired an employee without due process.

Are you joking? She was basically PR for the company. She obviously can't continue on in that role. What should they have done exactly?

EDIT: Further she even claimed they supported what she did...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com