from Hacker News

Netflix Fires Marketing Execs for Criticizing Bosses over Slack

by mmhsieh on 7/16/21, 12:40 AM with 16 comments

• by underseacables on 7/16/21, 1:48 AM

  I have no problem with this. I worked at a company about five years ago where employees used G chat to say some really nasty things about other employees. I only found out because one of them was using a temporary laptop that we had to do presentations, and I opened it up and G chat loaded and there was this disgusting talk about other employees trashing them, talking about the religion, all of this stuff. People vent, I get that, but letting employees gossip about one another on a work provided service undermines cohesion and the ability to get the job done. If you want to complain about your fellow coworkers, go to a bar, don’t do it on the company provided slack channel. It’s grossly unprofessional.

• by tw04 on 7/16/21, 1:36 AM

  On the one hand, they should have known better than to use netflix communication channels to talk negatively about work/bosses.

  On the other hand, it's a REALLY bad look for Netflix to fire employees for chatting negatively about their boss in private messages. The whole "we're radically transparent" sounds like a horrible excuse for someone's ego getting bruised. I guarantee there are hundreds if not thousands of private chats on their slack with employees complaining about coworkers.

  I presume they're now combing through every private chat and terminating any employee who said something negative about a coworker? No?

• by MrStonedOne on 7/16/21, 4:33 AM

  I don't really think I can judge this from the perspective I sit from. This can refer to all matters of magnitudes of disparaging.

  Oh wait, I can:

  > According to sources, their immediate boss, vp original films marketing Jonathan Helfgot, whom they also criticized, was extremely reluctant to fire the three for their comments, arguing that employees vent as a matter of course and such dire consequences were not warranted. But sources say he succumbed to pressure from higher-ups at the company.

  It is clear that their direct boss did not find cause in their messages to fire them. So ya, this is bullshit over hurt egos. Time for PUTs on NFLX as it is clear corporate culture will devour them.

• by TheCoelacanth on 7/16/21, 1:47 PM

  I don't see how this is even legal. Two co-workers complaining to each other about their working conditions (their boss's conduct is part of their working conditions) is a protected concerted activity under the NLRA.

• by pixel_tracing on 7/16/21, 2:52 AM

  I mean they could have just done it on Blind instead.

• by bennysomething on 7/16/21, 8:39 AM

  Simple rule of work "don't talk shit about your coworkers"

  Paraphrased from the book "the rules of work"