Cloudflare Employee records her final meeting where HR tries to fire her

Submitted ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech⁩ to ⁨videos@lemmy.world⁩

I can’t give more approval for this woman, she handled everything so well.

The backstory is that Cloudflare overhired and wanted to reduce headcount, rightsize, whatever terrible HR wording you choose. Instead of admitting that this was a layoff, which would grant her things like severance and unemployment - they tried to tell her that her performance was lacking.

And for most of us (myself included) we would angrily accept it and trash the company online. Not her, she goes directly against them. It of course doesn’t go anywhere because HR is a bunch of robots with no emotions that just parrot what papa company tells them to, but she still says what all of us wish we did.

(Warning, if you’ve ever been laid off this is a bit enraging and can bring up some feelings)

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Kcap@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This gave me PTSD to my time working in tech in San Francisco. To me, some of the larger problems with the tech world that don’t get highlighted so often is how much people are completely making up what they do. I had zero experience in my industry, none. I sweet talked my way into my role and had a friend at the company put in a good word for me. A couple kudos later and I find myself managing, then running my own department. So many of the employees in many of the more ambiguous non-learned-skillset required jobs like sales, customer service, HR just found there ways into a niche and learn along the way. Unlike say a software engineer who went to school to learn how to code, I did not go to school to learn how to get screamed at on the phone and troubleshoot their tech issues. Brittany here probably didn’t go to school to learn how to close deals. The people that designed her programs probably didn’t set her up for success enough, and clearly, the mismanaging of new hires vs the bottom line was their fault, not hers. That said, to any young folks getting into the game, I’d say be wary of doing what she did here by recording this interaction and posting it. I know the gratification probably feels right and just in the moment, but she could have made her life a lot worse than a lost job with potential lawsuits. As mentioned above, a job is just a job and unfortunately we are all just a number to the company. You can and will get another job. Always cover your ass though.

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- pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Nah, the only thing she did wrong was being a new hire. They were just firing all of the new people.
  
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  - nomous@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Her recording it was maybe a little unprofessional but they should’ve just said “hey we’re getting rid of a bunch of people and your number came up, sorry.” but I guess then they’d have to pay out. It’s pretty shitty to blame the employees performance, most people would just roll over when told they weren’t measuring up.
    
    But I can see someone finding this video later and not wanting to hire her because of it.
    
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- Chee_Koala@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  A job is just a job … except its also your livelihood and health insurance, whahaha. Man, you sound like you adopted management perfectly, with the same disregard for your fellow human. Why don’t you give your job to the next passerby and give them the same chances you had back in the day? It’s just a job man.
  
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scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My one question going in was whether this was a Sales role. It’s hard to overstate how volatile a career in sales can be. You are your numbers and your income can swing around wildly. Maybe you can control your own performance but the viability of the products is out of your control and the targets set for you to be evaluated against are outside your control too. Companies use Sales to grow, not to subsist, so the second budgets are tight and a company shifts into survival mode, you’re the first to go. Culture is also volatile and high pressure, competitive, etc. I know a sales guy who closed a multi hundred thousand dollar enterprise software deal and was missing just one signature for weeks and could not reach the guy. He travelled internationally and camped out in the building lobby for multiple days until he saw him and ran up and got him to sign.

It’s hard. You can do really well but it’s hard. She’s pretty vulnerable not having actually closed anything, ever, yet. No one actually cares at the end of the quarter if you “have great meetings.”

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- Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  As she mentioned, she only had a month in the least busy time of year to make a sale. Had her manager said anything or any available metrics indicated that her performance was insufficient, that would be one thing. To blindside her with a meeting with absolutely 0 proof of poor performance is 100% shitty management. Yeah, sometimes shit happens and the company can’t keep staff, that’s just capitalism. But they do morally and legally owe her the things afforded to laid off staff (especially in the case of mass layoffs). Them trying to weasel out of it shows utter disrespect for their employees, and it should be called out.
  
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  - scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yes many extenuating circumstances. Sadly she’s still open to attack since she hasn’t put any points on the board.
    
    I understand you’re saying that this performance crap is made up so they can save money, and I agree.
    
    But a sales position that has never closed a sale doesn’t make a good poster child for this cause of fighting back against bad performance ratings. Fact is she has not created value.
    
    If her employment included a contract that guaranteed she could complete her ramp period, she’d have some footing.
    
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Lightrider@lemmynsfw.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Fuckingcapitalists

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sbonds@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Original video:

www.tiktok.com/…/7322301313134415134

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CobblerScholar@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Only watched her initial verbal volley and fuck that is some strength. I heard the emotion right under the surface but it was emphatically not in her voice, I’d have been shitting myself if I were on the other end of those questions

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model_tar_gz@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I have an interview scheduled with CloudFlare for later this week. Guess what topic is going to come up.

Looks like I’ll miss this bullet. I’m still pretty happy in my current role so I’ll only jump for something spectacular.

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- scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Between us, I think it’s still okay to vet them out, but yeah you have the benefit of knowing they need to sell the job to you. Are there layoffs happening, “I read articles where layoffs are still happening, why are you hiring?” and knowing that HR is going to be impersonal and callous when you’re dealing with them. All important factors.
  
  And hey worst case, it’s good interview prep for yourself
  
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  - model_tar_gz@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah, still attending the interview but don’t really think I’m going to go anywhere with it. As you said, it’s good game practice.
    
    But really though. If CF is this brazen on ~~letting go~~firing the people closest to the money (sales) then how am I supposed to think they’re going to treat their engineering talent? R&D is typically the first to get the blunt end of the axe, not the last.
    
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PapaStevesy@midwest.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Link’s not working

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- Dasnap@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  He’s done plenty for Hyrule so I’d say give him a break.
  
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  - fluxion@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    His recent performance has declined unfortunately so we have to let him go
    
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  - Mango@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Link
    
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- scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Try it again, I had to change something on the video site and I think it reconfigured it, but I see views coming through now
  
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  - PapaStevesy@midwest.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Still doesn’t work for me, I get this message:
    
    Content unavailable Reach out to the creator to obtain the full URL for access.
    
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  - towerful@programming.dev ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Works for me
    
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  - qevlarr@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It doesn’t work. That website sucks
    
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  - rimu@piefed.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Why did you choose to create your channel on Odysee?
    
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  - Got_Bent@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I couldn’t get it to work either. What did you say in it?
    
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Yewb@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This really fucked up thing this layoff streak is to send a message to investors that they are cutting back, mass laying off sales people is not a good sign for your business model.

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TWeaK@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Video won’t load for me, website seems dodgy so I’m not going to bend over backwards to make it work.

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- KinNectar@kbin.run ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Odysee is one of the biggest distributed video hosting platforms, equivalent to PeerTube. It's not sketch, but the embed isn't working for some reason. That is on the instance admin.
  
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  - TWeaK@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I wouldn’t expect a website like this to be embedded, not from a url to the page.
    
    The website absolutely is sketchy, there’s plenty of dodgy connections eg Facebook and Google. Why use an alternative to YouTube when you’re’ still connecting to Google??
    
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fne8w2ah@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The tap must have dried up bad enough that every damn firm and their dog has to quickly trim away those “excess fat”.

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cybersandwich@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Is there actually a video here? I just get a broke link and I don’t see any mirrors in the comments.

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- Evotech@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Idk video linked worked fine for me
  
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phoenixz@lemmy.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Content unavailable

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Bonehead@kbin.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Ok, I understand the point of recording this but...she is very young, and likely this is her first time being laid off. I know, it's shocking. Except for me, who had to console the person that came to get me to be laid off who was much more upset than I was, but I digress.

Here's the thing. You're being laid off. There is nothing you can say or do to change that. The people doing the firing were likely brought in specifically for that job, and they know nothing more than what management has told them. Your manager had absolutely no say in the matter, this decision was made 3 levels higher than them. Your manager likely didn't even know until about an hour before you are let go. I know you're upset, I know you're frustrated, I know you're likely not thinking straight. But it's happening, whether you like it or not. You can ask why you're being let go, but they can't tell you what they don't know. And even worse, they've had this exact same conversation at least 50 times that day. The first instinct is to make it awkward and difficult for them, but this is their job and they are use to it.

Confirm your information. Make sure you can follow up on next steps and get your employment insurance claim started immediately. If you can, make sure you can still contact your actual manager for a reference afterwards. Usually you can find out more about what really happened at the same time. Just get as much information as you can about what they will provide you for the aftermath. Then once you get of the call....scream. Cry. Jump up and down with joy, if that's how you feel. Just let it out. You're going to be feeling a lot of emotion, so just let it out. Go home, explain what happened to your family of you have one. Let them scream and cry of they have to. And then try to sleep.

The next morning will feel weird not having to get up to go to work. Enjoy it. Take the first week to yourself. Get your employment insurance claim going and all the paperwork for that. But take time to decompress so you can be ready for the next move. Work on some of those home projects you've been putting off because you were too busy with your job. Take time to spend with family. Just don't worry about finding a job yet. The emotions from the last job will still be raw, so you don't want to bring that to an interview. Let yourself adjust to the new routine before you dive headfirst into a job search. When you're ready to start your job search, you don't want those emotions clouding your judgement and avoiding jobs that you think are too close to your old job. A little distance will help to put things into perspective.

And remember, it's not the end of the world. You'll find another job. You just need to be open to the possibilities. But you can't do that of you're still pissed off to the eyeballs. Take the time to let it go and truly move on.

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- ExploratrixLunae@kbin.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  All of your advice is sound enough, but the point of this video was more to demonstrate that Cloudflare (and absolutely other companies) are specifically avoiding "layoff" language in favor of firings based on "performance" to avoid paying these people even the paltry amount in unemployment they would receive. It's not just that they're being laid off.
  
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  - Bonehead@kbin.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The excuse might be "performance", but they are being fired without cause officially. They can still apply for employment insurance. This is just standard procedure. Being fired with cause opens them up to lawsuits, so most companies avoid that whenever possible. Especially when they are firing multiple people like this.
    
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- r00ty@kbin.life ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I don't think you understand the problem. The issue is that some of these people might actually believe they did something wrong, or didn't measure up. That is the problem. They should just be honest.
  
  There's no law against laying people off because you hired too many people and need to downsize. They are using performance as a reason because they think (and in many cases, they'll be right) it will subdue the person being laid off from a position of anger or resent, to a position where they're upset with themselves for not measuring up.
  
  It's a really bad way to do this, for the person being laid off.
  
  So, yes. Asking about the fictional performance metrics to at least make them feel a little uncomfortable too is completely fine in my opinion.
  
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- VubDapple@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Exemplary response!
  
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bitwolf@lemmy.one ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Dang that sucks, I always wanted to work there and recently applied eagerly because I haven’t seen much controversy from them.

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- gooble@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  More than half of the Wikipedia article for Cloudflare is made up of a Controversies section
  
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- JustUseMint@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Cloudlare is an absolute awful company and the pinacle of immortality in the tech sphere, well I guess besides Meta, Google, and everyone else.
  
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- JustUseMint@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Please read this:
  
  0xacab.org/dCF/deCloudflare/-/blob/…/en.md
  
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vinhill@feddit.de ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Content unavailable :(

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- intensely_human@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Well, Cloudflare did fire some of their best employees recently.
  
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capital@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
We still haven’t figured out what POV means hu.

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Stanwich@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Could she threaten to sue for slander. They are telling her that her performance was sub par. She can prove it wasn’t. I would cut them off after those comments are made and tell them a lawyer will contact them.

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- wolfpack86@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This is not slander. It would be slander/libel if they went out and proclaimed she sucked at her job with nothing tl back it up.
  
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  - Stanwich@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Good point. Slander would not be the correct term here.
    
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- capital@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  She’s the one who made this public.
  
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- RubberElectrons@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I hope so, but is it a right to work state? Not a lawyer, but absolutely ask one. Recall that that costs money though, and she no longer has an income. It’s wildly disadvantaged against the workers here.
  
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androidul@lemmy.ml ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
dammit I missed the “…off” part

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qbus@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It sucks to get fired but it was 4 months not 4 years. You will be able to bounce back and pivot

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- Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  4 months or 40 years, no employer should treat you this way.
  
  I’d also say it’s potentially worse to get fired this early on. You have to restart any waiting period for health insurance or 401k, deal with any potential life-changing accommodations you had to make to work there, and live off what little you could make between two periods of unemployment.
  
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KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
this must be a result of the recent internet downtimes.

Good infrastructure bois, keep at it. Soon there will be nothing left.

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arin@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Content unavailable

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