In my opinion he's a coward that doesn't stand behind his employees and that goes for PlayHaven too. They've set a terrible precedent for the industry.
He is standing behind his employees; by protecting the jobs of those not involved in the drama. Any CEO who would stand behind an employee to the death of their company would not be CEO for very long.
Why did they feel the need to very publicly post this dismissal (and withdraw, and then reissue) in the heat of the moment while under a DDoS attack though, rather than sooner or later?
It very much feels like a cowardly act of throwing someone under a bus.
When your employee is being called nasty things all over the Internet[0] over something that happened while she was doing work you sent her out to do and your solution is to fire said person, then you are a coward. It doesn't matter if what she did was a mistake, if you had to reassign her, even suspend her or let her go eventually. When people are disrespecting your employees, especially employees associated with your good name, any decent leader fights back.
I totally agree. While I agree with the dismissal, it's like they're trying to save themselves by sacrificing an employee to the angry masses. Not a whole lot of tact going on in this entire situation...
Well he didn't agree with what she said or how she handled it, why would he stand behind it? She brought them a lot of bad PR and a lot of trouble, he did what anyone would have.
Perhaps a better solution would have been to ask Ms. Richards to take a different position at the company, perhaps one that was less public? The crux for SendGrid was that Ms. Richards was a developer evangelist, and, as Mr. Franklin pointed out, if a majority of the community which she serves is upset and/or against her, how could she actually do her job?
The whole point of employing her is that she is public. They hired her specifically for her social presence. That lost a lot of value in the last 48 hours.
I had the same thought, but I find it tough to be able to accommodate someone when they've done such damage to a company and its image, especially in the way she did it. It's hard to trust an employee after something this heated. Unfortunately, I think SendGrid made the right decision in the end.
Actions have consequences. That principle is one the few truly fair ways to stand behind your employees, friends and even family. You can try to minimize the damage of said consequences, but hiding or brushing them off is one of the most terrible things you can do to him or her.
