There's very little sympathy for anyone at Netflix, as they're one of the most Leftist, 'woke' companies around and their founder/CEO Reed Hastings is very politically active with the Dems. The dismissal of these employees over what they wrote on a messaging app, sounds precedence setting with regards to privacy intrusion. While I'm not familiar with Slack, sounds like a IM/message app for internal use(?), which these employees sending out anything inflammatory, or provocative about others in the company is idiotic.
Netflix has reportedly fired three senior marketing executives — about half its staff at that level — after they were caught secretly griping about upper management on Slack.
What exactly was said in the chat hasn’t been revealed, but it included criticism of chief marketing officer Bozoma Saint John, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Saint John is black, but a source told THR there was nothing racist or disparaging to any particular community in the chat.
A source close to Netflix, however, emphasized to The Post that Saint John was not the target of any of the criticism in the private chat. In fact, the source said, the trio’s jabs targeted colleagues in lateral positions, rather than upper management.
Netflix nonetheless deemed the private messages to be inconsistent with its core values, according to the report, though a company spokesperson told the outlet, “The depiction of the Slack messages in question being critical of marketing leadership is untrue.”
The three offenders also criticized their immediate boss, VP of marketing for Netflix original films Jonathan Helfgot, who was reportedly reluctant to fire the three, arguing that they were just venting and it did not warrant firings.
But Helfgot eventually relented to pressure from higher-ups, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The episode underscores Netflix’s somewhat unique cultural emphasis on radical transparency in the workplace.
Under the heading “Real Values” on its job website, Netflix says, “You only say things about fellow employees that you say to their face.”
“This attribute is one of the hardest for new people to believe — and to learn to practice. In most situations, both social and work, those who consistently say what they really think about people are quickly isolated and banished,” the company adds on its site. “We work hard to get people to give each other professional, constructive feedback — up, down and across the organization — on a continual basis.”
“Their culture is all about transparency and giving feedback,” one source told The Hollywood Reporter. “It would make sense that there should be no need for private conversation.”
Another source familiar with the thinking of Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told the outlet that Sarandos believes private griping to be “a firing offense because it’s destructive to the fabric of the company.”
Posts: 14653 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000
Using company resources to violate company policy gets ya fired. Slack is no different than email. If corporate owns it they can read it.
My most recent employer had a variety of IM programs that came and went. They said nothing was logged or saved or overseen by IT or anybody else. Anybody with half a functioning brain knew it could be monitored if and when corporate chose.
Posts: 4278 | Location: Peoples Republic of Berkeley | Registered: June 12, 2008
Yup, that's what Slack is, a corporate instant messenger app.
And yeah by default it's going to keep all the conversations. If the company is big or bored enough to start going through message logs, that can be trouble, as these folks learned.
My company recently switched to Microsoft Teams for instant messaging, and we have Yammer on our intranet.
It never ceases to amaze me that people get into political disagreements and criticize the company's political positions on Yammer. That's really smart. All it takes is one person to get bunched up and report you for harassment or racism. Or for HR to find you are outside of approved policy with your comments.
Next time the layoffs come, if it was up to me I'd have IT query Yammer and do a Pareto analysis of the most prolific posters. Clearly, they have plenty of spare time on their hands and aren't doing their jobs to the best of their abilities.
Teams has a 24 hour message expiration. I don't know how long the servers keep them, but legal and IT have done everything they can to make chats disappear quickly so they cannot be searched in the event of litigation. They want it to be akin to a non-recorded phone call - transitory with no record.
Of course, you can screen shot it and keep the graphic for 3 years, until OneDrive tries to throw it away...
Posts: 4714 | Location: Indiana | Registered: December 28, 2004
We use Slack at my job, it’s a main competitor to MS Teams and while it’s sorta Facebook/social media-like, some people don’t seem to comprehend: YOU ARE ON A WORK PLATFORM AND MANAGEMENT IS LOOKING AT EVERY WORD YOU POST. It’s not Facebook where you can just bitch and vent and only your friends and family are seeing it. All the people above you at your job are seeing everything you post there.
Posts: 33808 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007
Much as I hate Netflix, it’s their business, their hardware, and they are private. If the people involved are dumb enough to bad mouth their bosses on the company infrastructure, they deserve to be fired.
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Originally posted by gearhounds: Much as I hate Netflix, it’s their business, their hardware, and they are private. If the people involved are dumb enough to bad mouth their bosses on the company infrastructure, they deserve to be fired.
Yup. Biting the hand that feeds you. GTFO.
Q
Posts: 26384 | Location: TEXAS | Registered: September 04, 2008
Originally posted by gearhounds: Much as I hate Netflix, it’s their business, their hardware, and they are private. If the people involved are dumb enough to bad mouth their bosses on the company infrastructure, they deserve to be fired.
Agreed. This all goes back to, "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." Keep your mouth shut and do your job. Tell it to your wife, husband, brother, etc. if you want to vent about your boss.
I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I'm not.
Posts: 3652 | Location: The armpit of Ohio | Registered: August 18, 2013
Don't know the individuals in question, or what their complaints were or whether they had any validity.
But 'apps' running on company-owned equipment are not places for venting corporate issues. I would have to believe Netflix's average management IQ went up with these dismissals.
Posts: 15029 | Location: North Carolina | Registered: October 15, 2007
Originally posted by Aglifter: It seems hard to believe that MS Teans has a “wipe” feature, shorter than 7 years or so.
From what I see everything older than 24 hours disappears. And they have told us this is specific enforcement of the records retention policy, which is intended to purge records as soon as legally permissible. Skype for Business used to erase the chats after they were closed or after a restart. Skype for Business Mobile was basically useless because all it told you was you missed a message that was no longer available. Teams is good about keeping things after restarts and synching between desktop and mobile, but the 24 hour expiration is pretty consistent.
Text chat is very informal and is not something you want lawyers to start searching in the event of litigation. Too much potential for damaging comments even if they are not entirely serious or accurate. Email is bad enough already. Pretty sure the wipe is solid, but I really don't know for sure.
Posts: 4714 | Location: Indiana | Registered: December 28, 2004
My company got sued by a former disgruntled employee. They said a manager said something about their racial heritage. My work buddy got deposed because the former employee said he was in the area and heard it. Well buddy is telling me about the deposition and they had pages upon pages of our company IM chats. And they are asking him about snarky comments I had made. Not about lawsuit dude but just other things we had said to each other. Thankfully nothing racial or fireable. Just snarky comments about other employees and departments when they had screwed up. Definitely things I wouldn’t have said to a screw ups face. Nothing came of it to either him or me. Definitely an eye opener about what is retained by the computer. Think twice before hitting send. Do you want it read out loud in court someday ?
The thing I learned a long time ago is that just bitching solves nothing. If you think the VP screwed the pooch and is doing things all wrong, make an appointment, go see him, and explain in positive terms why it would be better to do it your way.
It may or may not solve the problem, but you come off as someone bringing a suggestion for what may be a better solution, not someone hanging around the water cooler bitching.
Posts: 6919 | Location: Lost, but making time. | Registered: February 23, 2011
Originally posted by slosig: The thing I learned a long time ago is that just bitching solves nothing. If you think the VP screwed the pooch and is doing things all wrong, make an appointment, go see him, and explain in positive terms why it would be better to do it your way.
It may or may not solve the problem, but you come off as someone bringing a suggestion for what may be a better solution, not someone hanging around the water cooler bitching.
At my company that would end your career
I know because I did it. And it cost me a shit ton of money in raises and bonuses, and damaged me for years. I was passed on for promotions, got bad ratings, etc.
Only recently did I hear through the grapevine that the VP said he pegged me wrong and I was in fact one of the best at what I do and was right all along.
Don't weep for the stupid, or you will be crying all day
Posts: 10729 | Location: TN | Registered: December 18, 2005
You’d think that people would be smarter about it….I remember the in car data terminals the cops used to communicate in their police cars with each other, in the Rodney King case…..
All kinds of bad shit being said car to car and it showed up in court.
When I was a cop I made sure my remarks were never about bosses for that exact reason…if someone pinged me and began bitching about the major or the Chief, I wouldn’t respond at all…..I knew they looked at the in car comms.
Same thing happened when we first got cameras in the cars…people forgot they were on camera and next thing-IA giving them a piece of paper. Because the bosses were looking at cameras for stuff to burn people over.
By the time body cameras came out everyone knew that IA was always hunting and to stfu on film.
We used to take them off and leave them outside of roll call if the sgt wanted to have a bitch session.
"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein
“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020
“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
