[HN Gopher] Dozens of fired Meta employees are writing 'badge po...
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       Dozens of fired Meta employees are writing 'badge posts' on social
       media
        
       Author : zeroonetwothree
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2022-11-12 19:01 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.businessinsider.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.businessinsider.com)
        
       | thot_experiment wrote:
       | Weird to see meta employees humanized in this way. They all made
       | the choice to throw their lot in with zuck, and they continued to
       | make that choice every day they showed up for work.
       | 
       | It's hard to feel sympathy, everyone there can get a lower paying
       | job that is beneficial to society and they choose not to. That's
       | on them. Nobody at meta lacks other options.
        
         | bsaul wrote:
         | I have no sympathy for facebook as a company, but i find it
         | hard to believe that someone would find it weird to have human
         | express human feelings upon being fired. They're not
         | "humanized", they're humans.
        
           | thot_experiment wrote:
           | Right, but it's sort of like seeing, I dunno, a documentary
           | about some human facet of a murderous dictatorial regime. In
           | a way it's mortifying to be viscerally reminded that humans
           | capable of being hurt are casually inflicting so much harm on
           | humanity. That they're completely insulated from the second
           | and third order effects of their work. Just following orders
           | without thought.
        
             | bsaul wrote:
             | you should probably get some distance from IT for a while
             | to get some perspective. Facebook was in the advertising
             | business... Not better but not worst than what this sector
             | previously did to help brands manipulate the opinion.
             | 
             | It's certainly a great loss to have so many brilliant minds
             | work in that crappy business, but let's not compare that to
             | any kind of atrocities humans have been capable of in the
             | west in the 20th century.
        
               | thot_experiment wrote:
               | You may be right, I hope you are. I make posts in this
               | vein partially in the hope that someone will convince me
               | I am wrong because it would be a hell of a burden lifted
               | off my shoulders if I could exist in this world without
               | feeling constantly assaulted by FB/Microsoft/Apple/Amazon
               | etc.
               | 
               | To be clear though, while I think ads/fake news etc are
               | bad, they're not the main reasons I am so negative. I
               | believe that at their core, these organizations operate
               | under incentive structures that encourage dis-empowering
               | people at every turn. Regulatory and userbase capture
               | allow them to continually make choices that hurt users
               | and help their bottom line.
               | 
               | It feels like they are emblematic of a world view where
               | normal people aren't trusted with the power of the
               | computer. Where it's okay to play zero sum games. That's
               | vile.
        
               | [deleted]
        
       | c7b wrote:
       | > because they lost access to systems after learning they were
       | laid off, they switched to LinkedIn instead to say farewell
       | 
       | LinkedIn? What sort of verdict on Facebook is that?
        
       | autotune wrote:
       | > daddy Zuck
       | 
       | After reading this phrase I think I need to take a long vacation
       | from reading most major news sites until like 2024 or so when
       | this all blows over.
        
       | bsan3 wrote:
       | All these people were happy to facilitate the destruction of
       | society and spread fake news. I have no sympathy.
        
         | throwawaymeta01 wrote:
        
           | marcus0x62 wrote:
           | Yes, the only reason people dislike Meta is because they
           | couldn't pass a leetcode interview. Yeah, that's it. Only
           | possible explanation.
        
       | yumraj wrote:
       | Unfortunately some of these posts landed on my LinkedIn timeline
       | so read a few.
       | 
       | I'm really not sure what these people are trying to achieve.
       | 
       | Appeal to FB that they love it so much that pretty please rehire
       | them?
       | 
       | Appeal to others to hire them, well there are much better ways to
       | write those notes.
       | 
       | Personally, and maybe this is my bias against FB speaking, but if
       | a person is saying that their entire worth was FB and FB this and
       | that, and how lucky they were to be at FB, well it doesn't give
       | me much confidence in the abilities of a person.
       | 
       | On top of that, there's another set of people offering intros and
       | mock interviews and such to strangers. Great for getting some
       | likes, but not sure how much they will really help if say
       | 100s/1000s of people were to ping them suddenly.
       | 
       | In my opinion, these things work best quietly. Reach out on 1:1
       | basis to people you know and expand network. Don't sob in public.
        
         | q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote:
         | It strikes me as a naturally human and totally understandable
         | thing to do.
         | 
         | This seems like their way of reclaiming some agency over what
         | happened to them, as well as trying to put a brave face on
         | things. Also it probably helps them (re)connect with some sense
         | of community -- the article mentions they'd usually post these
         | things on their internal forum, but they were ripped away from
         | that community too quickly.
         | 
         | Some might even say it's a classy move -- take a step back and
         | reflect on the good parts, hand out some "thank you"s, etc.
         | 
         | I never got into the whole "posting on LinkedIn" thing -- and I
         | probably still wouldn't in this situation -- but I think it is
         | easy enough to empathize and see why someone might. These are
         | weird and rough economic times, and they're just doing their
         | best to stay afloat. Same as you or me.
        
         | disgruntledphd2 wrote:
         | Personally, I agree with you. That being said, these posts
         | originally appeared on consumer Facebook (but only visible to
         | FB employees) and as such it was also about saying goodbye to
         | friends you'd worked with. The sappiness just carried over to
         | Workplace, and now LinkedIn apparently.
        
         | 4wsn wrote:
         | > In my opinion, these things work best quietly. Reach out on
         | 1:1 basis to people you know and expand network. Don't sob in
         | public.
         | 
         | I concur but I noticed recently that with a lot of younger
         | folks, it seems like a cultural shift.
         | 
         | Maybe encouraged is a strong word, but at the very least it's
         | far more acceptable to make these things public than, say a
         | decade or two ago.
         | 
         | I can't say it's wrong, per se, because I see the reasoning
         | behind it. But there's a cultural clash.
         | 
         | I haven't hired anyone in a while, but if I had to posts like
         | these would definitely result in a hard pass, no matter their
         | skills.
        
         | lupire wrote:
         | It's networking for people who need jobs, in the style of the
         | current trend.
        
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       (page generated 2022-11-12 23:02 UTC)