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HackerOne lays off 12% of its workforce
- mydriasis 3y ago> This comes as disappointing news, as we've all built strong connections with our fellow Hackeronies. Sorry my little Hackeronie. I'm afraid I'll be firing you now.
- nannal 3y agoDoes anyone else feel weird about these terms used for employees. Hackeronis, Twittarians, Redditites, coinbese?
- rocketbop 3y agoNot weird but I do think they’re embarrassing, degrading, insufferable.
- oofta-boofta 3y agoInfantilizing for sure.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- willcipriano 3y agoI'd be far less offended if you told me to fuck off than if you called me a Hackeroni.
- jonathanjaeger 3y agoI feel like a Hackeroni gets cooked in a pot with some bolognese
- sharemywin 3y agoHackeroni and cheese?
- malux85 3y agoFeels like harmless fun to me
- codetrotter 3y agoNot really. They have a “cutsie” name for us at the company I work for too. I find it endearing :)
- CoastalCoder 3y agoYes. I'm curious why companies do it. I never pushed back on it because I figured I'd just come across as a killjoy.
- frfl 3y agodont forget metamates
- paulcole 3y agoNo, it's part of how you show culture. I think Hackeronies is the best/most ridiculous I've heard. I always say "____ employees" or "____ team members" because that's the culture of where I work.
- mydriasis 3y agoLargely depends on the existing culture of the company imo. I imagine in some climates it might come off as tone-deaf or degrading, whereas in others it might feel unifying or endearing. From an outsider looking in on this one... I dunno. Firing your beloved hackeronies kind of grates.
- organsnyder 3y agoEven the most non-objectionable term is going to sound tone-deaf in the context of layoffs. Just use the word "colleague" and keep it professional.
- metalforever 3y agoyeah its cult shit
- leetrout 3y agoThis is accurate. Culture starts with cult.
- cobertos 3y agoSlightly, it feels... hivemind-y? Working at a company I identify most with my direct colleagues/team, less so with wider orgs. Feels comparable to what I felt during high school "pep rallies". Hackeroni sounds like a pasta, and I'm sure I'd meme the shit out of it if I worked there
- geodel 3y agoThanks for clarifying. I was thinking of it as a Pizza topping.
- Groxx 3y agoI keep picturing pepperoni... but ground meat is probably not they imagery they hoped for.
- tamimio 3y ago>I'm sure I'd meme the shit out of it if I worked there I would do the same till they fire me.
- samtho 3y agoThat seems like the point of the company demonym, got to drink that kool aid. What I find personality disingenuous (or perhaps even insidious) is the push to make everyone feel like they are an integral part of a group and then treat them like disposable objects when it’s more convenient at that moment.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cobertos 3y agoExactly. When I work, I work for myself; for money and mental stability. A company-wide identity feels like something I can't accept calling myself. It's too broad, vague, and the identity itself is defined/controlled by the company/HR, with little input from those labelled as such (at least in the orgs of size I've been at). It removes a lot of individuality from my own thoughts/mind, as I would have to consider "how I reflect on the organization" (as I was taught in Catholic school) to the detriment of my own expression.
- Groxx 3y agoFun for some, cultish for others. There's not much middle ground between "try to have some fun at work because there's no reason not to" and "don't do something someone might take issue with". A completely sterile work environment isn't really any better, and for some it's definitely oppressive and worse. Is it sometimes an intentional cult-building tactic? Definitely. Is it always? Heck no, people come up with in-group names all the time. Groups of all kinds develop their own terms and memes and whatnot, it's normal.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deciplex 3y ago> There's not much middle ground between "try to have some fun at work because there's no reason not to" and "don't do something someone might take issue with". What? There is miles of middle ground there.
- Groxx 3y agoSuch as? Keep in mind you can't make anyone uncomfortable, because uncomfortable people come to internet forums and talk about being uncomfortable. People vary a lot in what they accept. There may be plenty of room for you, but for everyone? I wish you luck.
- deciplex 3y agoYou don't see the middle ground between "make no one uncomfortable" and "make everyone uncomfortable?" It seems to me you're viewing this completely in black and white and then insisting that it really is black and white in actual reality, when in fact what you need is a better TV. (To strain the turn of phrase to its breaking point.) e: I mean, shit, even in the false dichotomy of "make no one uncomfortable" and "make everyone uncomfortable" there is middle ground: making everyone a little bit uncomfortable vs making everyone extremely uncomfortable.
- 3y ago
- varjag 3y agoMany years ago one my colleague remarked that HR appears to be a progression on a career arc from summer camp supervisors.
- philip1209 3y ago"Demonym" is a fun vocab word for these kinds of labels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym
- mupuff1234 3y agoI find it ok if the origin comes from ICs and used among ICs (still kinda weird, but less so) It's when execs use it that it becomes idiotic and insufferable.
- marcosdumay 3y agoEvery group of people creates some name to call themselves. That said, management should really not be using those names.
- JohnFen 3y ago> Every group of people creates some name to call themselves. That's not so. I haven't actually worked for a company where the employees call themselves any kind of special name.
- duxup 3y agoIn small groups and organic kinda thing that the individuals come up with is fine. IBMer back in the day felt natural and inoffensive. But it was also pretty generic. Organizations of even moderate size and it gets slapped on like a label on your forehead by management… and it starts to feel weird and insincere…. and as they trend towards cutie affectionate names it gets really creepy IMO. Personally I prefer a little more professional disconnection.
- JohnFen 3y ago> IBMer back in the day felt natural and inoffensive. But "digit" to refer to DEC employees never really did.
- unsupp0rted 3y agoYes. It's in line with "our company is a family"... or at minimum "our company is a collective farm". I'm not a Hackeroni or a Twittarian- I'm an adult individual who exchanges time and skill for money. I get paid as long as I'm useful. When I stop being useful the company has no qualms about me not being a Hackeroni or a Twittarian anymore.
- sharemywin 3y agoso you were never a Hackeroni at heart to begin with. Otherwise you would stay and work for free.
- savanaly 3y agoI don't know, every single layoff announcement on HN has this exact comment at the top of the comments, wonder if anyone else feels this way?
- im_down_w_otp 3y agoFounder conceit made manifest through a culture of overwrought branding & marketing? Workforce infantalization? Former summer camp coordinators turned HR executives?
- joegahona 3y agoI don't mind them. Some feel more forced than others. That said, there's a time and a place to use them. A layoff announcement is possibly the worst place to use them, perhaps second to a death announcement. "Today we are devastated to announce that longtime Hackeronie Phil Sludge has lost his battle to colon cancer."
- icepat 3y agoFar worse than Redditites. They use the term Snoos for their employees from some leaked email that came out during the Reddit strike.
- andsoitis 3y agoHow do you feel about someone calling themselves a xoogler?
- smsm42 3y agoI'd assume if it's done seriously, about 85% chance that person is a douche.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ThrowawayR2 3y agoIt's no weirder than Linux users sporting Tux (the penguin) logos and getting excited about Linux desktop marketshare or Rust advocates referring to themselves as rustaceans. People are tribal.
- joshcafe 3y agoYou can't be fired from Linux, and if you contribute to the codebase, you do own it under the terms of the GPLv2. (Idk if Linux does copyright assignment but even if they do, it's still GPL). Whereas a company can tell you to fuck off for literally no reason, give you nothing, and shove you out onto the street with no healthcare and no salary, and then sue you if you if you try to do anything about it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- f4c39012 3y ago"Twittarians" sounds lofty, a knowledgeable group. "Redditites" sounds like a mob, possibly armed with sticks. "Coinbese" sounds... like a mindless herd? But "Hackeronis" is just patronising, considering their audience why are they not simply "Hackers"? That can't be a bad word in their context!
- smsm42 3y agoHuman brains are wired for kinship relationships. There are studies that find that just assigning people to random groups activates in-group/out-group dynamics. There's no wonder corporate HR wants to plug into this wiring and use it to improve group cohesion and morale.
- mkl95 3y agoYou're just another Johnnie Hackeronie now...
- mikrl 3y agoHacky Doodle went to VCs “make it lean and bony” Fired 12% of staff And called them hackeronies
- carabiner 3y agoWe're not like old, stodgy companies. We're cool and fun! > lays off swaths of workers unceremoniously > cuts back on perks > bans political topics and other non-work conversation > starts rigorously evaluating employees, "it's not stack ranking" but it's just as bad Hang on, maybe old school professional office culture had a reason... To make people focus on work.
- JohnFen 3y ago> bans political topics Boy, I sure wish that my current employer banned such conversations in the workplace. They make things really tense and uncomfortable.
- frays 3y agoDid this company name-based nickname for employees start from Google calling their employees Googlers in the early 2000s? I don't think companies like Walmart, McDonalds, JPMorgan, etc have nicknames for their employees. Does anyone know when this all started?
- codingdave 3y agoI got my first job at IBM in 1994. We definitely got called us IBMers at that time, although it was typically used informally, not in layoff notifications.
- kxrm 3y agoAt my first job in 1994, at a grocery chain of all places, they just called us "associates". Professional and to the point. I don't understand this desire to brand my association with a company. It's really weird.
- JohnFen 3y agoNo, it predates Google by at least several decades. But in the Olden Times, these were usually in engineering companies, and came from the employees themselves. Engineers having a laugh, and making a bit of fun of their employer. At some point, though, some companies started adopting such language in official communications. In my opinion, that's when it becomes cringe.
- bink 3y agoThey really missed the opportunity for HackerOnesies.
- lbrito 3y agoThere's probably some HN reader that already scooped up the hackeronesies.com domain and is currently making several thousand per month selling programming-themed baby clothing :)
- wiseowise 3y ago> Hackeronie Not even an iota of professionalism. Should’ve written the firing letter in the following style: > Hackeronie, I'm vewy sowwy to infowm yu dat due to cuwwent economic challenges, ouw company has been facing diffwicult times. As a wesult, we have to make some hawd decisions, and unfowtunately, we need to wetch yu go. > We tweasuwe youw contwibutions and effowts to the company, but fow ouw sustenance, we must wemode ouw stwuctuwe. Pwease know dis decision was not made lightly, and it in no way wefwects yu peawsonally. > We hope yu undewstand the situation and yuw suwvivaw as well. We wish yu the best in finding new oppowtunities, and if ouw conditions impwove in the futuwe, we would be mowe than happy to weconsider yuw. Thanyu fow yuw time with us, Hackeronie. OwO
- cobertos 3y agoAn owo in a firing letter, ooohhh noooo. *notices your lack of employment*
- aloer 3y agoHackeronie pasta merch. Heard it here first
- oxfordmale 3y agoThe Godfather has over cooked the Hackeronie and made a bologna out of the company. Unfortunately we need to to dissolve 12% of our Hackeronie brothers and sisters in sulphuric spaghetti sauce to hide the incompetence of the Chief Hackeronie Officer.
- photochemsyn 3y agoThe employees of corporations should have at least as many voting rights over the executive decision making process as the shareholders and investors in the corporations do. That's just basic logic.
- throwaway5959 3y ago“Hackeronies” kill me.
- arberx 3y agoThe obtrusive chat bot pop up on the site that makes a sound is why I hate the current state of frontend design/ux.
- NotYourLawyer 3y agoFirefox lets you disable those sounds.
- gotoeleven 3y agoAlso they are changing their name to Hacker0.88
- yeck 3y agoMaybe `< HackerOne`
- amne 3y agoI hope you take responsibility for you statements and wipe this coffee off my screen .. just like their CEO said he will for his actions.
- zingababba 3y agoGotta get that white power following somehow I guess?
- rurp 3y agoWe can check the Layoff Message Bingo square for having a cringey cutsie name for employees, > strong connections with our fellow Hackeronies
- pcthrowaway 3y agoYou're the second person in this thread to misspell "cutesie" like this... or is "cutsie" a regional spelling I'm not aware of, or another word altogether?
- jjgreen 3y agohttps://www.spudart.org/comic/cutsie-battle/ https://www.spudart.org/comic/cutsie-battle/
- blitz_skull 3y agoDon’t forget: cutesy!
- JohnFen 3y agoI've spelled it that way (and have seen it spelled that way) my whole life, but your comment made me look it up. I could only find it in one place: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cutsie https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cutsie But my use of it predates the internet. I suspect this is a regionalism.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ilc 3y agoA company is not family. A company is not your friend. To quote Bob Seger: "I used her, she used me but neither one cared We were gettin' our share" - Night Moves That is a corporate relationship. Nothing wrong with it. But always keep it in context... if ya ain't getting your share, go get it elsewhere.
- deciplex 3y agoCompletely agree with this, but at the same time there is something deeply dysfunctional about our mercenary attitude toward our work relationships. For any given individual I think they have no choice to approach it this way, but I do hope we eventually land somewhere a little healthier, as a culture.
- wiseowise 3y ago> but at the same time there is something deeply dysfunctional about our mercenary attitude toward our work relationships. Mercenary attitude is the healthiest attitude there is. It’s not hypocritical, it’s not elusive it’s what it is.
- deciplex 3y agoIn the context of our current work culture, yes I think I agree with that. But I think that's a symptom of how dysfunctional our current work culture is. edit: > Can you tell us more? I literally can't actually, at least not as a reply to you, because dang has once again limited my ability to post on HN. Too many left-leaning folks here already, I guess. Here is what my reply would have been: > If you're happy with the wholly adversarial relationship between employee and employer along with management practices that pit people against each other etc then more power to you. If you think this results in the best outcomes both in terms of working conditions and also productivity, then go off king. I don't think anything I could say here would convince you otherwise, anyway. ...and now I'll be exiting this conversation as I've been given no other choice - see ya!
- 3y ago
- tamimio 3y ago>Hackeronies That’s a big red flag in any company when they start labeling their employees like that.
- lsy 3y agoCan you imagine sitting down to write an email announcing a layoff and deciding that opening with "H1" in place of "Hi" and calling people "Hackeronies" would be a great, culture-preserving idea? It's an extremely serious email and for the CEO to have not thought twice about whether this time he should just write "Hi" and refer to people as "our coworkers" says a lot about his state of mind.
- wiseowise 3y agoIt’s all a joke, you know? Oppsie woopsie, we made a boo boo.
- CryptoBanker 3y agoI'm pretty sure H1 Team is short for HackerOne Team, not Hi Team
- nickserv 3y ago> It is expected that the reorganization will also affect employees in the U.K., the Netherlands, and other countries. After completing the relevant consultation proceedings, we will be able to inform all people involved with more detail. These processes will take longer. Translation: we can't just dump people from one day too the next in these countries because of worker protection laws.
- wiseowise 3y agoAnd thank god for it. As far as I know it’s near impossible to drop someone in the Netherlands without providing proof that employee did some weird stuff.
- oplaadpunt 3y agoIt is also possible for economic reasons like reorganizations, but still, those will need a valid reason, and severence packages are mandatory. Just sacking people who don't have a temporary contract is impossible.
- the_only_law 3y agoThis happened in a company my friend works at. He’s based in the Netherlands, but the company had a lot of US workers as well. When it came time for the layoffs, only the latter got dumped.
- gnulinux 3y ago> Hackeronies This stuff is just so bizarrely funny at this point it feels like a self-aware postmodern joke.
- jiveturkey 3y agohuh. no substantive comments yet. overreaction to “hackeronies”. i like cute names like that. it also rubs the salt in the wound during a layoff so i further enjoy the irony. does this mean the pentest industry as a whole is in decline? or did h1 over invest and is having a hangover now? or are competitors starting to drink their milkshake? or is shift left working? i do also wonder how this affects their downstream contractors. “flours” to be consistent with their employee naming scheme. thanks
- dr_whom 3y agoHackerOne is primarily a bug bounty company which is different from pentest (they offer that too but it's not well established). This is probably in response to other companies not having as big of budgets for bug bounty which no doubt took a hit with all these layoffs over the last year.
- jiveturkey 3y agothanks. indeed i was using the term pentest very loosely, too loosely.