I can’t give more approval for this woman, she handled everything so well.
The backstory is that Cloudflare overhired and wanted to reduce headcount, rightsize, whatever terrible HR wording you choose. Instead of admitting that this was a layoff, which would grant her things like severance and unemployment - they tried to tell her that her performance was lacking.
And for most of us (myself included) we would angrily accept it and trash the company online. Not her, she goes directly against them. It of course doesn’t go anywhere because HR is a bunch of robots with no emotions that just parrot what papa company tells them to, but she still says what all of us wish we did.
(Warning, if you’ve ever been laid off this is a bit enraging and can bring up some feelings)
This gave me PTSD to my time working in tech in San Francisco. To me, some of the larger problems with the tech world that don’t get highlighted so often is how much people are completely making up what they do. I had zero experience in my industry, none. I sweet talked my way into my role and had a friend at the company put in a good word for me. A couple kudos later and I find myself managing, then running my own department. So many of the employees in many of the more ambiguous non-learned-skillset required jobs like sales, customer service, HR just found there ways into a niche and learn along the way. Unlike say a software engineer who went to school to learn how to code, I did not go to school to learn how to get screamed at on the phone and troubleshoot their tech issues. Brittany here probably didn’t go to school to learn how to close deals. The people that designed her programs probably didn’t set her up for success enough, and clearly, the mismanaging of new hires vs the bottom line was their fault, not hers. That said, to any young folks getting into the game, I’d say be wary of doing what she did here by recording this interaction and posting it. I know the gratification probably feels right and just in the moment, but she could have made her life a lot worse than a lost job with potential lawsuits. As mentioned above, a job is just a job and unfortunately we are all just a number to the company. You can and will get another job. Always cover your ass though.
Nah, the only thing she did wrong was being a new hire. They were just firing all of the new people.
Her recording it was maybe a little unprofessional but they should’ve just said “hey we’re getting rid of a bunch of people and your number came up, sorry.” but I guess then they’d have to pay out. It’s pretty shitty to blame the employees performance, most people would just roll over when told they weren’t measuring up.
But I can see someone finding this video later and not wanting to hire her because of it.
Record everything. Business isn’t professional by any means. Why do you think some backward states make recording illegal…?
Edit: Disregard below, she lives in SC. Single party consent.
Since CloudFlare is SF based, I’m assuming she lives in California, which has two-party consent for digital communications, which makes recording that call illegal. By sharing this online, I believe she could face the following:
😬
… except its also your livelihood and health insurance, whahaha. Man, you sound like you adopted management perfectly, with the same disregard for your fellow human. Why don’t you give your job to the next passerby and give them the same chances you had back in the day? It’s just a job man.