
Why I got Fired from Facebook (a $100 Million dollar lesson) - frankdenbow
http://okdork.com/2012/09/29/why-i-got-fired-from-facebook-a-100-million-dollar-lesson/
======
jayferd
"It stings the person WAY more than the company. ... I encourage everyone to
get fired once so they know that feeling. It’s unbelievable and something to
definitely learn from."

^THIS. THANK YOU, SIR. In my case, it wasn't the sudden lack of a job that
stung, it was the experience of being completely blacklisted by everyone at
the company. That was 20 close friends who I never heard from again.

~~~
just_observing
"That was 20 close friends who I never heard from again."

They were not close friends then.

~~~
jayferd
Fair point. Perhaps it seemed that way because I'd been working so much that
I'd lost any semblance of a social life outside work. That's a mistake I
haven't made again.

Also, not everyone in the company should be painted with the same brush. There
was a lot going on, none of which I'm actually at liberty to talk about,
unfortunately.

~~~
rhizome
You're probably more at liberty to talk about it than you know.

~~~
michaelochurch
It sounds like he got a severance package that includes non-disparagement, in
which case he should say nothing.

If there's no severance, then he can air all the dirty laundry you want.
Whether he wants to is up to him.

------
ekm2
Every time i read such posts,i become more confident that is harder to be an
employee trying to figure out what a boss(or his/her company) needs than to
just start your own business and let the market decide.

~~~
eavc
Yep - having to guess at your boss's needs is like the worst of both worlds.
Either have a boss that provides meaningful structure, communication, and
leadership or work for yourself.

------
31reasons
I think he counting his loss at $100 million is not realistic. I am assuming
he calculated this number by the amount of equity he would have vested after
Facebook IPO. To cash that amount he probably would have had to keep working
till now. And if you are an entrepreneur type its a tall order. He should get
rid of this feeling of loss of $100 million which was really nothing more than
a promise.

------
jgrahamc
I rather enjoyed the inscription by Zuck in the copy of Strunk and White. It
reads: "The product is strong with this one. Now learn some grammer."

Yep, he gave this guy Strunk and White and spelt grammar incorrectly.

~~~
smarx
I actually think he spelled it correctly. It's hard to tell from the picture,
but that letter looks more like the other A's than the E's.

~~~
lifeformed
Yeah, I'm guessing he's left handed - I am, and I write my A's and G's just
like that. When I'm sloppy, the A's end up looking like E's, and the G's look
like really long S's.

~~~
StavrosK
Not only that, but there's the "tail" of the "a" there, which wouldn't be if
it were an "e". Also, most pointless debate of the day so far.

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poopicus
How exactly did he lose $100,000,000?

~~~
lacksconfidence
probably a rough guess based on the stock value of other employees from the
same period as him that still work at facebook.

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mattdeboard
a "liability" is a very strong word to use when describing someone in a
company. Reading that bit made me grimace.

~~~
rhizome
I would say it's a sign of allowing emotions to enter the equation, the
liability being not to the company, but to the person ascribing liability's
plans or personal compensation.

------
jongold
Decent post - it's always interesting to see people write openly about times
when they messed up (and heartening to know that everyone does)

------
safetyscissors
I'm getting a 500. Anyone have a mirror?

~~~
abibibo
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://okdork.com/2012/09/29/why-
i-got-fired-from-facebook-a-100-million-dollar-lesson/)

------
throwaway404
When Noah says, "everyone is replaceable", he really means it.

Yesterday, he fired half of AppSumo, despite the company is profitable and
growing.

Here is Noah's m.o. with AppSumo:

1) Attract and hire people by paying them above market salary and promising
equity.

2) New employees grow the company by building systems, automating inefficient
processes, creating new lines of business, etc.

3) Once systems are built and operating efficiently; fire staff before equity
vests.

4) Rinse, repeat, wash.

Entrepreneurs like this give startups a bad name. It's sad to see so many
people celebrate him as a startup role model.

The reason he was fired from Facebook because he leaked internal features to
the press and blogged about them. Yet he still seems unapologetic " _I don’t
think what I did was that wrong since the marketing team did not do anything
to promote our new features._ "

Clearly this guy's moral compass points south.

~~~
kareemm
> Yesterday, he fired half of AppSumo, despite the company is profitable and
> growing.

What's the real story here? Your comment comes off more like a bitter ex-
employee than someone who's qualified to judge Noah's moral compass from a
blog post and anonymous rumor about AppSumo.

Disclosure: I count Noah as a good friend.

~~~
wildmXranat
Him being bitter about the fact and that it was a scummy thing to do are not
mutually exclusive. I count myself as an impartial commenter.

~~~
kareemm
I'm suggesting that:

1\. the rumor is, until verified, a rumor.

2\. Basing a judgement about one's moral compass on a rumor about firing half
the company (even if it's true) and blog post is a classic example of a
Fundamental attribution error.

~~~
rdtsc
1) Was the staff fire or not. That would be pretty easy to check. You instead
of saying this is a rumor would have made a better argument by actually
checking then coming back and posting "yeah well actually it was exactly 40%
that was fired not 50% like he mentioned".

2) see 1)

------
PythonDeveloper
I worked for a VERY large Internet company in the late '90s, and I can say
with complete conviction that the VAST majority of terminations were
politically motivated.

Several times I was provided a list of my team members that needed to go, and
when I asked "why this guy?" or "why her?", the answer was never performance
related. A few times I was able to argue the team member to safety, but most
of the time it was already a forgone conclusion.

Each faction would come into and out of favor with upper management as the
rounds of layoffs came and went, and the business priorities changed. Enemies
of that faction were always targeted, irrespective of the cost to the business
of the loss of that talent.

The way I avoided all this WITHOUT choosing a side was to quietly make myself
invaluable to the upper management as the key "goto guy" for skunkwerk
projects, to always accept technical due-diligence projects on upcoming
acquisitions, and keep showing "projects I'm working on in my spare time" to
the uppers.

~~~
_k
The more the value offered, the more likely politics wins.

------
maeon3
This rant reminds me of podcast 1.0.1 about "getting fired" of "this
developer's life".

<http://thisdeveloperslife.com/>

Getting fired is not that big a deal. Employers do everything in their power
to make it a big deal. But the truth is, Developers (the good ones) are in
such high demand, that it grates employers to no end, we are a liability to be
needed so much, so they use psychological tricks to get us to act like begging
dogs. To be thankful just to have a job. It's not the case, we have all the
cards, if we just open our eyes.

They need you more than you need them. If you are not happy at your job, GTFO,
you'll find another in no time and kick yourself for not doing it sooner.

~~~
eavc
>Getting fired is not that big a deal.

I'm glad that's true for you, but for most people, it's a pretty traumatic
life event. It put the OP into a year-long depression.

edit:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale#Ad...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale#Adults)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Just needs a bigger ego. Whenevery I get laid off (actually just the once) I
assume they are fools to do it, they must have no idea how great I am, I'm
going to a better place.

True or false, its the right attitude to take with you. The alternatives -
like a year of depression - are awful, and self-inflicted.

------
michaelochurch
OP is an idiot. Not only is he airing his dirty laundry in a way that makes
him look extremely bad (saying he was fired because he was "selfish" and
"zoned the F out"?) but he left so much on the table (and with his admissions,
it's gone forever).

Large companies have deep pockets and don't want information to get out. He
couldn't have gotten $100 million out of this, but at the time, he could have
definitely had the cliff voided (which would have been enough to get him
comfortable)... but now it's far past too late. If nothing else, he could have
let the cash and stock go and settled on a glowing reference from Zuck
himself-- which would have made his career. There are so many ways he could
have turned this to his career benefit.

~~~
throwaway503
Really? A reference would have made his career and that to from someone who
does not have a shining reputation in the tech circles?

~~~
michaelochurch
Not an HR reference. An agreed-upon reference from Mark Zuckerberg himself (he
did work with the guy) including introductions to investors. Yes, I think that
would be a major asset to anyone. The sort of thing that comes along once
every several lifetimes. This idea that Silicon Valley is a what-you-know
meritocracy is not well supported.

All he needed to say was, "look man, I'm sorry we got off to a bad start.
Let's talk about how we can help each other out in the future."

Mark Zuckerberg has a bad reputation? On what planet do you live? A lot of
people dislike him, sure, as a lot of people will dislike any billionaire, but
he's the most successful person in our generation... and it's pretty evident
to me (and to most) that at least some of that is earned.

------
Evbn
Someone whose model of business is the same framework as penises is probably
not going to fit in at a large company marketing department.

~~~
theorique
_"model of business is the same framework as penises"_

I'm not sure I get what you mean here. Could you clarify?

~~~
mattdeboard
Furthermore I was not aware there was a penis framework.

