Q:

Avoid "shipping" news on a Friday evening

We learned (or were painfully reminded, rather) to never ship at 6 PM (EDT) on a Friday. We didn’t follow that rule last week and as a result there was a lot of confusion over the weekend. Even more, this weekend was a religious holiday observed by many on the site. We’re sorry for the confusion and uneasiness that caused. Source

The timing of the removal is very relevant. It was done on a Friday evening, and from personal experience I know that staff, which also includes CMs (community managers), generally do not respond to private correspondence or tickets during the weekend. The fact that this was communicated Sep 29 on a Friday evening (as the Director of Public Q&A informs) is shameful. The user was denied a fair hearing and the opportunity to defend themself. It also meant that a real person, had to wait until the weekend was over before even hoping to receive some form of official communication and clarification. 
Imagine the effect it must have had on their physical and mental well being to hear that their status, title, and responsibilities to several communities (Mi Yodea, The Workplace, Worldbuilding, Writing, Beer Wine & Spirits and  Meta Stack Exchange) had been removed with immediate effect. Imagine living through those 48 hours, not hearing a word from the very company you had dedicated years of selfless work; nurturing newcomers, housekeeping sites, keeping "law & order", supporting and defending the company against glib accusations but also constructively criticising it when the company needed to hear the truth.  Volunteering not weeks but –years–of work, love, and curation until a site flourished and could finally graduate from beta status.  All gone. The very company that owes so much to this single user, kicked them out on a Friday evening.
Finally, why has no employee of SE publicly supported this user? As of today, Friday 4 October, not one single employee has even attempted to be the voice of reason in the comments. 

The implied message of that silence is the following:

That the dismissal was not without grounds.
That the user was guilty of gross misconduct.
That the user's performance ability and performance was lacking and/or not up to expected standards.
That the user's publicised version of what happened was flawed, imperfect, inaccurate or worse, false. 

The dismissal has not only affected the community's trust in SE, it has also adversely affected real human beings. Their health and safety have been completely ignored. 

The SE corporation (while wrapped in the false flag of diversity) has shattered any illusion that they respect me as a Jew (given the timing of what they've done to M–). They claim firing M- was to keep Lavender users (specifically trans users) safe. Yet they've unleashed a torrent of vitriol against every single one of us.

and [emphasis mine]

[The Director] has deeply flawed ideas and has behaved outrageously, but she is still a human being deserving of civil behavior. I, unlike [the Director] and like (I think) the rest of our community, believe that it is possible to disagree and still be respectful. I do want her to feel terrible about the wrongs she has done (and I wish her as many sleepless nights as I've had) -- and then I want her to do teshuva: make amends, apologize, and strive to do better. SO Inc. could still fix this if they choose to, but the silence has been deafening so far. – source 

Questions:

Is this is the first time that a serious decision undertaken by SE was "shipped" on a Friday?
What actions or process can be put in place so as to avoid similar situations in the future? Or at least ensure a user does not needlessly suffer in silence for 48 hours? 

A:

The whole "Friday before Rosh Hashana thing" is, to some degree, a red herring.  Don't get me wrong, it was extremely unfortunate timing, and it shouldn't have happened that way.
But it's not about shipping on a Friday.  It's about letting someone go on a Friday, and that's an entirely different thing.  The commonly-accepted corporate wisdom is that you let people go late on a Friday afternoon, because if you let them go on a Monday they have the opportunity to make your life miserable for the entire rest of the week without a cooling-off period (the weekend).
The thing that you should take away from the manner of the firing is that it was done in an entirely corporate way, without any consideration of the community whatsoever.  The folks that contribute and curate content to this network are not employees, they are volunteers. They're not here to tow the line of some corporate juggernaut, but rather to provide value to others with their contributions. In the corporate vernacular, they are a resource, but an incredibly precious one.
In other words, the corporate philosophy that is being expounded by the leadership team is entirely at odds with the nature of community development.  "Shipping on a Friday" is just a small symptom of a much larger problem.  

A:

Focusing on just that:

Finally, why has no employee of SE publicly supported this user

Easy: because that is not what they get paid for.
The implicit loyalty of person for corporation X... is with company X. Of course, everybody is entitled to have their own opinion. But commenting on a "scandal" around your own company X is something that easily can get you fired. At such a point in time, a single "bad" comment here or there can easily add more fuel to the fire.
Nobody here can say what happens inside Stack Exchange.com, and whether Stack Exchange employees internally supported Monica (or not).
Long story short: manage your expectations. To assume that any employee of a company that is in the midst of such a situation goes public with his opinion, possibly contradicting the company statements: that is just unrealistic.
I hope that the sane, experienced people at Stack Exchange give helpful guidance to their unlucky communication leads, but as said: it is perfectly okay when they do such things behind close doors. Actually: we should really avoid putting such pressure/expectations on these people.
( I wouldn't be surprised the least if aforementioned sane, experienced people would really like to talk to the community, but they avoid doing that for good reasons. So please do not push those people. Their job would be on the line, not yours)
Finally: yes, never release "things" late Friday. I totally concur with that. Given the global nature of this community, even "early" Friday is a no-go.

A:

Bad code can be rolled back. Someone's weekend is ruined, but the damage is limited. The folks here are very good at fixing code, and hardware. This might count is something similar to a S1 event. 
Ruined reputations can not be. Something on the internet stays on the internet. It spreads, often shedding context. It never really goes away and you can't roll it back
People are not code. We can't just ship it, test it and its good. Building a community is something that takes time and effort. Change needs buy in. This is hard. We can't just roll back to the last checkin and figure out what happened later. 
We talk about inclusiveness and diversity a lot. My personal issue with this is timing. It's almost like firing someone right before Christmas, or Deepavali or Chinese New Year or... you get the idea. 
As for the employees, I'm sure many of them are in a hard place. I know many folks are from and part of the community. 
Quite honestly - that I have faith in many of them is the only reason I feel that the situation is salvageable. 
Patience is often taken for granted. To act swiftly is seen as a virtue. One often finds that more damage is done from acting impulsively. An employee breaking ranks wouldn't be an employee for long. The damage would probably be even worse. Patience cannot be infinite. 
I have this soapbox. I speak. I need someone to listen. I need someone to advocate for me - to walk the halls of power that I cannot. To speak where I cannot be heard. If someone is in the company, and can stand for us, I'd rather have them doing so there than here. 
We already lost someone who was capable of being heard, even though she stood were we do now. I'd rather not have someone act impulsively so we'd lose their voice inside the company.
Imagine if you're one of those folks. You're watching this unfold, and your choices are to work with what you have, and maybe fix things, or go in one glorious fireball.
I do not envy these folks. Once this passes, if it passes, we may never know who stood for us. I wouldn't quite blame them for not speaking for us in public.

