<story><title>Meta cuts Responsible Innovation Team</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-parent-meta-platforms-cuts-responsible-innovation-team-11662658423?mod=djemalertNEWS</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>munk-a</author><text>I think this somewhat speaks to the pay gap present on this platform.  From my position I&amp;#x27;d happily accept a 40k payout if you wanted to contract me to never say the word &amp;quot;are&amp;quot; for two years.  It&amp;#x27;s all a balance - if you have 20million sitting in the bank then 40k sounds like nothing, but 40k is a lot of money to most people - enough that they&amp;#x27;d be happy to agree to some terms that won&amp;#x27;t significantly affect their lives just to take home the cash and get, lets say, two months of vacation budgeting (a conservative estimate) to enjoy.&lt;p&gt;40k is a lot of money.</text></item><item><author>version_five</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d look at it a little differently. The 40k puts him on the hook for something. He (or someone who signs sn agreement like that) is in a position where something he says could be construed as violating the agreement and he could get taken to court, even if he&amp;#x27;s in the right. No agreement, nothing to worry about. Why take an immaterial amount of money to be personally liable for something. Getting to tell the story is a minor perk</text></item><item><author>kwertyoowiyop</author><text>How many month’s salary would the writer need to have lost before you unlock some praise?</text></item><item><author>darth_avocado</author><text>$40k is two months pay probably.&lt;p&gt;Edit: To be clear I didn’t say this to shame the OP. I said this to highlight that the company didn’t offer up much. I say this because I have been in a similar position in the past where their “generous” offer was two months severance (same ballpark) which imo was insulting. Didn’t sign it either and told them to F off.</text></item><item><author>bhaney</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t get a chance to read many comments that cost $40k to make. Thanks.</text></item><item><author>wpietri</author><text>Well this part is very familiar:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;  its work was given prominence in the engineering operation by former Chief Technology Officer Michael Schroepfer, who announced last year that he was stepping down.&lt;p&gt;At the end of 2016, I joined Twitter to lead one of the anti-abuse engineering teams. My boss, who led the effort, was great: loved Twitter, hated abuse, very smart. 6 months later the CTO, who had been behind the creation of the anti-abuse engineering effort, left. My boss, previously gung ho, left in a way that made me think he was getting signals from his boss. And shortly after that, said boss&amp;#x27;s boss said that our team had succeeded so well that there was no need for us. He scattered the engineers, laid of the managers, me included, and declared victory. We all laughed bitterly.&lt;p&gt;What these have in common for me is a high-level executive launching a special team with great fanfare in a way that addresses a PR problem. But because PR problems are generally fleeting, as soon as do-goodery loses its executive sponsor, everybody goes right back to the short-term incentives, meaning things like &amp;quot;responsibility&amp;quot; go right out the door. At least beyond the level that will trigger another PR disaster.&lt;p&gt;And if you&amp;#x27;re wondering why you don&amp;#x27;t hear more about things like this, you&amp;#x27;re not supposed to. At least for the managers laid off, it was a surprise meeting and then getting walked out the door. In the surprise meeting, they offered a fair chunk of money (for me, $40k) to sign an additional NDA plus non-disparagement agreement. I happen to have a low burn rate and good savings, so I didn&amp;#x27;t sign. But I know plenty of people who have looked at the mortgage and kid expenses versus the sudden lack of income and eventually signed.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>DanHulton</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t have 20 million sitting in the bank, but I still definitely wouldn&amp;#x27;t take that.  40k is definitely a lot to me, but if it&amp;#x27;s similar to an NDA, you have to assume that the legal and financial penalties if you mess up could be ruinous.  And I&amp;#x27;m almost definitely going to mess up and accidentally say the word &amp;quot;are&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;The 40k isn&amp;#x27;t a gift, it&amp;#x27;s a payment in order to take on a liability.  I&amp;#x27;d have a lot more success not talking about why I was let go, as opposed to not saying the word &amp;quot;are&amp;quot;, but I&amp;#x27;d still have to weigh the consequences of messing up one drunken or tired evening.</text></comment>
<story><title>Meta cuts Responsible Innovation Team</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-parent-meta-platforms-cuts-responsible-innovation-team-11662658423?mod=djemalertNEWS</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>munk-a</author><text>I think this somewhat speaks to the pay gap present on this platform.  From my position I&amp;#x27;d happily accept a 40k payout if you wanted to contract me to never say the word &amp;quot;are&amp;quot; for two years.  It&amp;#x27;s all a balance - if you have 20million sitting in the bank then 40k sounds like nothing, but 40k is a lot of money to most people - enough that they&amp;#x27;d be happy to agree to some terms that won&amp;#x27;t significantly affect their lives just to take home the cash and get, lets say, two months of vacation budgeting (a conservative estimate) to enjoy.&lt;p&gt;40k is a lot of money.</text></item><item><author>version_five</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d look at it a little differently. The 40k puts him on the hook for something. He (or someone who signs sn agreement like that) is in a position where something he says could be construed as violating the agreement and he could get taken to court, even if he&amp;#x27;s in the right. No agreement, nothing to worry about. Why take an immaterial amount of money to be personally liable for something. Getting to tell the story is a minor perk</text></item><item><author>kwertyoowiyop</author><text>How many month’s salary would the writer need to have lost before you unlock some praise?</text></item><item><author>darth_avocado</author><text>$40k is two months pay probably.&lt;p&gt;Edit: To be clear I didn’t say this to shame the OP. I said this to highlight that the company didn’t offer up much. I say this because I have been in a similar position in the past where their “generous” offer was two months severance (same ballpark) which imo was insulting. Didn’t sign it either and told them to F off.</text></item><item><author>bhaney</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t get a chance to read many comments that cost $40k to make. Thanks.</text></item><item><author>wpietri</author><text>Well this part is very familiar:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;  its work was given prominence in the engineering operation by former Chief Technology Officer Michael Schroepfer, who announced last year that he was stepping down.&lt;p&gt;At the end of 2016, I joined Twitter to lead one of the anti-abuse engineering teams. My boss, who led the effort, was great: loved Twitter, hated abuse, very smart. 6 months later the CTO, who had been behind the creation of the anti-abuse engineering effort, left. My boss, previously gung ho, left in a way that made me think he was getting signals from his boss. And shortly after that, said boss&amp;#x27;s boss said that our team had succeeded so well that there was no need for us. He scattered the engineers, laid of the managers, me included, and declared victory. We all laughed bitterly.&lt;p&gt;What these have in common for me is a high-level executive launching a special team with great fanfare in a way that addresses a PR problem. But because PR problems are generally fleeting, as soon as do-goodery loses its executive sponsor, everybody goes right back to the short-term incentives, meaning things like &amp;quot;responsibility&amp;quot; go right out the door. At least beyond the level that will trigger another PR disaster.&lt;p&gt;And if you&amp;#x27;re wondering why you don&amp;#x27;t hear more about things like this, you&amp;#x27;re not supposed to. At least for the managers laid off, it was a surprise meeting and then getting walked out the door. In the surprise meeting, they offered a fair chunk of money (for me, $40k) to sign an additional NDA plus non-disparagement agreement. I happen to have a low burn rate and good savings, so I didn&amp;#x27;t sign. But I know plenty of people who have looked at the mortgage and kid expenses versus the sudden lack of income and eventually signed.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gtowey</author><text>I think the problem is that 40k is a lot of money to the average worker AND it&amp;#x27;s virtually nothing to the company.&lt;p&gt;It highlights just how out of control the wealth gap is becoming.</text></comment>