8 ms·

I write my own posts, not PR. Don’t be so jaded.

by xal 4y ago

skipants 4y ago
He's saying that the Tobi's post was PR, not yours
- mk12 4y ago
  You're talking to Tobi.
  - skipants 4y ago
    Oh... whoops!
RC_ITR 4y ago
Yeah the point of this entire thread is that your (not unique to you, but you are certainly one of the CEOs that are easiest to vilify when discussing this phenomenon) incentives are so skewed that a given employee should be very cautious about joining your company. You made a bet on e-commerce penetration. The reason it was so easy for you to make that bet is because if you were correct, you’d be even more fabulously wealthy. If you were wrong (like you were), you could simply lay off the employees you hired and tuck the severance package into one quarter of extraordinary charges. The employee view of that is that if you were right, they’d be somewhat wealthy and if you were wrong (which you were) their lives would be completely upended. That’s all. It’s just an attempt to remind people that even CEOs who have good intentions (and author layoff memos in a cerebral tone without the help of PR) can still cause absolute havoc in their lives because of the asymmetry of the power dynamic.
- nlittlepoole 4y ago
  I agree an employee should be cautious for the exact risks you outlined but I don't know if I'd say this is a function of any power dynamic. Employees should be saving such that they have 3 months of expenses saved away for this exact scenario. Between that, unemployment benefits, and any severance most people should be able to find a new job without "havoc" on their lives.
  - RC_ITR 4y ago
    Well, if it’s not a power dynamic thing then why is Tobi still CEO when it was his mistake and not the employees that he hired?
cgio 4y ago
If you only take issue with the PR commentary it is very telling for the validity of the rest of the argument.
refurb 4y ago
It's not personal, but you're the CEO. You're going to put the best possible spin on anything you or the company does. That's your job, and everyone expects it. It's like buying a car. I expect the dealer to tell me everything positive about buying the car and nothing negative, because, hey, he's a salesperson. Even if you were being 100% factual and hiding nothing, nobody will actually believe that. It just comes with the territory.
vgel 4y ago
It isn't not-PR just because you wrote it. It's PR because it's disseminating information to the public for the purpose of image management. The information is that the company thought it could grow more during the pandemic by hiring new people, and "bet" growth would stick around and those people could stay on in the long term. Is that wrong? Well, that's business. (I have absolutely no doubt, of course, that the "bet"-nature of the employment was carefully communicated during hiring.) The PR is that this business decision is presented as a story of Shopify's brave history of taking on daring bets, its decision to take on another, its defeat at the hands of unflinching (completely external) factors, its kind treatment of employees that there is no option but to let go in these difficult times, and the new, refocused, decisive organization that will be reborn (after some people who joined 6 months ago get laid off). It's not all bad. 16 weeks severance seems generous to me, letting people keep their chairs is kind of random but nice, the job referral stuff is a nice gesture, etc. I know all the nice things you did! The P was R'd! It's just, at the end of the day, it's an obviously-business decision that's being told as something else. People got fucked over by a confluence of factors after the higher-ups decided to take a risk. There's no story here. There's no arc of Shopify History. The job of PR, regardless of the letters after the name of whoever writes it, is to make it seem like there is one when bad stuff happens.
- honkdaddy 4y ago
  > disseminating information to the public for the purpose of image management. This is pretty much the definition of anyone ever making any kind of public statement. Choosing ones words carefully with the knowledge that what they're saying will affect others perception of themselves and the situation at hand. I don't think anywhere in Tobi's post was it implying this _wasn't_ a business decision, I figured that went without saying. Shopify's a business, hiring decisions are an enormous consideration for businesses. Were you under the impression Shopify was a charity? > I know all the nice things you did! The P was R'd! As much as this is the way you cynically expect others might interpret Tobi's post, I think anyone with experience working in or running a business will have no problem understanding that businesses are not people and that messages from a CEO are not meant to be treated as blogposts or emotional diary entries.
sbarre 4y ago
Hi Tobi, Whether you wrote it or not (and fair that my post may have implied you didn't - my fault), any note/post/message that you publish on the Shopify website is still public relations comms, coming from the CEO of a prominent public company. I'm not jaded, but I'm also not naive. ;-)
madeofpalk 4y ago
You can write your own PR.

I write my own posts, not PR. Don’t be so jaded.

by xal 4y ago

I write my own posts, not PR. Don’t be so jaded.

skipants 4y ago

He's saying that the Tobi's post was PR, not yours

mk12 4y ago
You're talking to Tobi.
- skipants 4y ago
  Oh... whoops!

RC_ITR 4y ago

Yeah the point of this entire thread is that your (not unique to you, but you are certainly one of the CEOs that are easiest to vilify when discussing this phenomenon) incentives are so skewed that a given employee should be very cautious about joining your company. You made a bet on e-commerce penetration. The reason it was so easy for you to make that bet is because if you were correct, you’d be even more fabulously wealthy. If you were wrong (like you were), you could simply lay off the employees you hired and tuck the severance package into one quarter of extraordinary charges. The employee view of that is that if you were right, they’d be somewhat wealthy and if you were wrong (which you were) their lives would be completely upended. That’s all. It’s just an attempt to remind people that even CEOs who have good intentions (and author layoff memos in a cerebral tone without the help of PR) can still cause absolute havoc in their lives because of the asymmetry of the power dynamic.

nlittlepoole 4y ago
I agree an employee should be cautious for the exact risks you outlined but I don't know if I'd say this is a function of any power dynamic. Employees should be saving such that they have 3 months of expenses saved away for this exact scenario. Between that, unemployment benefits, and any severance most people should be able to find a new job without "havoc" on their lives.
- RC_ITR 4y ago
  Well, if it’s not a power dynamic thing then why is Tobi still CEO when it was his mistake and not the employees that he hired?

cgio 4y ago

If you only take issue with the PR commentary it is very telling for the validity of the rest of the argument.

refurb 4y ago

It's not personal, but you're the CEO. You're going to put the best possible spin on anything you or the company does. That's your job, and everyone expects it. It's like buying a car. I expect the dealer to tell me everything positive about buying the car and nothing negative, because, hey, he's a salesperson. Even if you were being 100% factual and hiding nothing, nobody will actually believe that. It just comes with the territory.

vgel 4y ago

It isn't not-PR just because you wrote it. It's PR because it's disseminating information to the public for the purpose of image management. The information is that the company thought it could grow more during the pandemic by hiring new people, and "bet" growth would stick around and those people could stay on in the long term. Is that wrong? Well, that's business. (I have absolutely no doubt, of course, that the "bet"-nature of the employment was carefully communicated during hiring.) The PR is that this business decision is presented as a story of Shopify's brave history of taking on daring bets, its decision to take on another, its defeat at the hands of unflinching (completely external) factors, its kind treatment of employees that there is no option but to let go in these difficult times, and the new, refocused, decisive organization that will be reborn (after some people who joined 6 months ago get laid off). It's not all bad. 16 weeks severance seems generous to me, letting people keep their chairs is kind of random but nice, the job referral stuff is a nice gesture, etc. I know all the nice things you did! The P was R'd! It's just, at the end of the day, it's an obviously-business decision that's being told as something else. People got fucked over by a confluence of factors after the higher-ups decided to take a risk. There's no story here. There's no arc of Shopify History. The job of PR, regardless of the letters after the name of whoever writes it, is to make it seem like there is one when bad stuff happens.

honkdaddy 4y ago
> disseminating information to the public for the purpose of image management. This is pretty much the definition of anyone ever making any kind of public statement. Choosing ones words carefully with the knowledge that what they're saying will affect others perception of themselves and the situation at hand. I don't think anywhere in Tobi's post was it implying this _wasn't_ a business decision, I figured that went without saying. Shopify's a business, hiring decisions are an enormous consideration for businesses. Were you under the impression Shopify was a charity? > I know all the nice things you did! The P was R'd! As much as this is the way you cynically expect others might interpret Tobi's post, I think anyone with experience working in or running a business will have no problem understanding that businesses are not people and that messages from a CEO are not meant to be treated as blogposts or emotional diary entries.

sbarre 4y ago

Hi Tobi, Whether you wrote it or not (and fair that my post may have implied you didn't - my fault), any note/post/message that you publish on the Shopify website is still public relations comms, coming from the CEO of a prominent public company. I'm not jaded, but I'm also not naive. ;-)

madeofpalk 4y ago

You can write your own PR.