Last go round as whole departments and projects were cut, some of the most skilled staffers in areas like interactive design, product management and program management were let go. In other words, you could be top talent on a project, but if that project was cut, honey, you were toast. Why would this go-round be any different? Since Yahoo is cutting by the numbers, we have to assume they’re going to let some of the strongest people go again, perhaps to try to (quietly) later rehire, as also happened last time. So think about it–when those self-satisfied announcements go out, about the ‘deep cuts and the bright future that lies ahead,’ those left without jobs in a deepening recession right before Christmas will have the comfort of knowing they weren’t let go because they were the bottom 10%, they were let go because their managers failed to convince their bosses that those projects were ones that mattered. And since the big bosses didn’t know most of those people, great talent was let go, while deadwood remained (and remained.)”
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size. 11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Comments
susan can always go apply at microsoft, they’re hiring deadwood
Posted by Sam Harrison at December 8th, 2008 at 8:15 pmThanks, Sam, they told me you’d had that spot for the past four years, so they were re-orging–in fact, they said you’d been promoted to CEO–of Yahoo.
Posted by susan mernit at December 9th, 2008 at 6:44 pm