For those who haven't heard Gawker (a company that runs several popular web sites) is cutting 60% of Valleywag's staff in anticipation of a recession (as well as making cuts across the board). Here's the quote...
You can guess the reason for these brutal measures: the recession. Sure, the company is currently profitable and advertising sales are up by about 30% on their level of a year ago. Our biggest clients are consumer electronics and entertainment companies that are relatively well insulated. And, yes, this is not the first time I've predicted doom: in July 2006, when we "battened down the hatches" and closed down Sploid and Screenhead; and in April this year, when we spun off Idolator, Gridskipper and Wonkette.
This inspired two unique thoughts in my head both of which are represented below...
On Gawker's Suck-iness
I haven't worked that many places but one of my first jobs was as an on-site network technician. In that job I'd usually spend a week or so setting up a network and then go back to visit every once in a while when problems arose. That familiarity combined with not being a constant presence made me popular for conversation among many of the companies' staff.
Everyone seems to tell their secrets to the guy who isn't going to be around long enough to share them.
Because of that I have a pretty good grasp of office dynamics and that makes me confident in saying Gawker probably isn't a terribly pleasant place to work. In my experience, the difference between a good work place and a bad one is how the people in that workplace feel about each other. You don't have to love each other or even like each other but you do need to work together and look out for each other.
A good workplace is where everyone is part of the same team and realizes that they have the same goals. Even if members of that team don't like each other they'll be content (if not happy) as long as their work is towards a common accomplishment.
What Mr. Denton shows with this move is that there is no team at Gawker. Don't get me wrong, even solid teams have to fire someone every once in a while but teams don't abandon their members "in anticipation of bad times" they do it because they have to. That, to me, is where Gawker fails.
Gawker's business may or may not actually go down in the future. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that they were willing to make cuts without knowing one way or the other. That shows just how little the company actually thinks of their employees. A message not lost on the ones who weren't fired I suspect.
On Tom's Suck-iness
The one (terribly insignificant) good thing to come out of this is it got me reflecting even further on what I said yesterday and made me even more dedicated to being the critical jerk that I am on this blog (at least a lot of the time). Let me explain...
The important thing here is to realize that Nick Denton believes his business will go down so he's making cuts. But by his own admission all the facts he currently has indicate his business is fine. To me, this is not very clear thinking and is the perfect example of an opinion that could benefit from some serious criticism.
I can't make this point enough: Clarity of thought is the most important value a person can have and anything that brings it about (even criticism) is a good thing. More importantly, there are very serious consequences to not having it (like people losing their jobs). If you remember nothing else I say remember this (which I stole from countless wiser men and just rephrased to make it sound like it was mine)...
We don't live in the world, we live in our heads.
What I mean is that we all color the world based on our emotions. The reality you actually see and the one you have convinced yourself exists is almost never the same thing. Because you are constantly being influenced by all your prejudices. So it's a constant struggle for anyone to see what is actually there and not a mirage brought on by emotion.
There's no value that's more important than seeing the truth.