Digital Daily » holiday party

Take This Yahoo Job and Shove It

John Paczkowski — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:19:42 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Yahoo: "Let Us Eat and Drink, for Tomorrow Your Jobs Die"

John Paczkowski — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:05:23 +0000

Come tomorrow, Yahoo will sack some 1,500 employees, depriving them of their livelihoods and turning them into data points on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment graph. That it will do this amid the worst recession in 50 years is understandable.

That it will do it four days after a lavish holiday party is astonishing (click on the image above).

Appalling, actually.

Nearly as appalling as the party’s Vegas theme and decor. Was there no better use for the considerable funds put toward this party and its pirate ships and showgirls and diminutive Eiffel Tower?

Of course there was: The more than 1,500 Yahoos who will be left without jobs in an increasingly ugly recession right before the winter holidays.

Now perhaps the event had been planned and paid for, and Yahoo (YHOO) had no recourse but move forward with it. But honestly, how far in advance would it have had to have been planned and purchased for the company’s leadership to have been oblivious to this ugly December it’s now facing?

Yahoo announced layoffs in October. It hired management consulting outfit Bain & Co. to help it “get fit” back in September. And it’s had “layoffs” written all over it since…well, since the last time it announced layoffs 10 months ago.

Perhaps, the demand for portable Eiffel Towers, Elvis wedding chapels, Vegas showgirls and Tina Turner impersonators this year was so great that a nonrefundable deposit was required to secure them far in advance of this event, and the fiscally responsible Yahoo just couldn’t bear to lose it.

But even if it was, shouldn’t the company, out of conscience, have canceled it anyway? To do otherwise is grossly insensitive. Isn’t it?

[Image credits: Photos used with kind permission of Digital Kamehameha/Flickr]

Yahoo Starts Bleeding Purple

John Paczkowski — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:15:24 +0000

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RealDepressing: The Entire RealNetworks Layoff Memo

John Paczkowski — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:25:32 +0000

Earlier this afternoon, Peter Kafka reported in Media Memo that RealNetworks (RNWK) was “next up in today’s layoff parade.” Here’s the official internal memo from RealNetworks founder, chairman and CEO, Rob Glaser:

Team –

I’m writing to share some important but not happy news.

Today, we’re implementing a reduction in force affecting about 130 employees, representing about 7.5 percent of the company’s work force. This is a world-wide initiative; about one-third will be in Seattle, approximately another third in other U.S. locations, and the rest outside of the U.S. This is roughly proportionate to the overall number of people we have in each region. All divisions are affected in varying degrees.

Many of the reductions are a result of consolidations of operations of companies we’ve acquired in the past year or so that are being integrated with other parts of our business. We also have looked across the company to integrate similar functions and groups to achieve better efficiency.

Having said that, this is also a reflection of the economy. While our business has not been affected as much as many, we are not immune to what’s going on in the wider economy. In addition to these staff reductions, we’re also tightening our belt in other ways–watching travel expenses even more closely, for instance, and canceling the Seattle HQ holiday party.

Because of the unusually difficult economic environment, we’re taking extra steps to help affected employees. For instance, every affected staff member in the U.S. will receive six months of Cobra healthcare coverage, which is double what we have done in the past. We’re making similar adjustments internationally.

Despite the changes being made today, which I and the rest of the management team deeply regret, the company is well positioned to weather the current economic storm. As per our last earnings call, we expect to achieve record revenue for the year, and we still see opportunities for growth and investment across the business. In order to stay healthy, we need to get our costs in line with the business as it looks today. This will enable us to continue investing in the areas that set us up for growth and success in the future.

Below is a brief video that goes into additional detail.

Video

Audio only

I’ll have more to say at our next company meeting early in 2009. Until then, take care.

Rob