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Comment by uncoder0 | Hacker News Reader

Agreed the response is too much. As a CEO getting involved in a dispute like this seems to be all downside with very little upside. If I had to draft a response in his position It'd go something like this:

> Reddit is not laying anyone off, you were fired.

> Your comments about our revenue had no effect on this decision. This type of criticism is welcome and even encouraged at our company.

> I don't believe it is in good taste to publicly discuss the reasoning for any termination unless it is absolutely necessary.

> If you'd like some additional clarification on our decision to fire you please contact me or (Someone in HR) directly.

> Thanks

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Most importantly, none of these statements should be made in public. The company stands to gain much more with a dignified silence and a personal explanation to the hapless individual, than by wringing the dirty laundry out in public. That an individual employee is immature / causes a stink, happens every second of every day. That a company CEO does the same is unacceptably poor management, and poor PR.

I disagree, when statements like that are made in such a public area it will possibly negatively affect who decides to apply for a position at reddit. A dignified response on the reddit blog would have been the right move imo

I disagree. "Dignified silence" is effectively what doomed Brendon Eich as Mozilla's CEO. If you say nothing, you let other people define the narrative. I agree with uncoder0, a single simple dignified response would have easily deflated this whole thing.

yes I can see the need to manage the narrative. But this is bad management of the narrative, because a clearly emotional CEO is letting his anger show, instead of, as you clearly point out, being dignified and making a concise statement of the facts. The statement is not concise (in itself showing a tendency towards a rant), nor does it display the necessary humility towards an employee, who, no matter his faults, no longer has a job (unlike the CEO).

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