Hacker News Reader

Comment by unfletch | Hacker News Reader

The public announcement: http://blog.zynga.com/2013/06/03/ceo-update-4/

    "Our Founder and CEO Mark Pincus today sent a note to employees
     outlining structural changes..."

It might seem like a small thing to some, but I can't believe the casual language on the blog post introduction. The CEO "sent a note" to his company?

I'm sure that softened the blow to those 520 people. It was just a note, after all.

I don't care what your culture is like or that you want to be a "cool" company. Notes are for reminding people to clear their old food from the fridge, or seeing if anyone wants to get together after work to welcome the new guy. This is serious shit to (hopefully) every one of your employees, and especially so to 18% of them. There are times to be formal.

The letter itself is much better, but the blog intro is part of the official announcement. It counts.

View on HN

In this case, what is likely the material difference between that "note" and a "letter"? I can't imagine this note was scrawled with sharpie onto a notepad sized piece of paper with adhesive backing and faint images of fruits or snowmen printed on it.

A note is by definition brief and informal. I think the employees deserve that any official communication in this kind of situation be neither.

Edit: And I'm sure I've put more weight on that one phrase than almost anyone else, but I've worked at startups for years now and been through rounds of layoffs at a couple. It's appropriate to err in the other direction.

You expect better from Zynga? Isn't this the same company that fired people immediately before the IPO so that founders could take back their stock options? "Being a meritocracy is one of their core values."

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/business&i...

A long formal letter sounds like it would be better on paper, but is that actually true? I can't imagine taking any solace in such a letter if I were working there, whether I was among the shitcanned or not.

Insistence on a long formal letter seems sort of like an east-coast style insistence on wearing a suit; it isn't really "for" anyone. If it makes the wearer/writer feel better about what they are doing then go for it... otherwise who is the party that cares? Pincus is a scumbag but I don't think this is an example of why.

Presumably they talked to the employees affected in person first. Then the email was for everyone left... right?

Nope. I just talked to a friend who works in the SF office and he said he was in the middle of writing an email to his family saying that he wasn't affected when he realized they were still walking around telling people.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com