Facebook CIO Discusses Zuckerberg's "Will You Resign?" Email

CarlaRudder writes: When Mark Zuckerberg sends an email with the subject line, "Will you resign?" people remember it. In this case, the email went to the entire company after someone leaked damaging information, but CIO Tim Campos talks about his hesitation to open the email, thinking it was addressed to him personally. He goes on to share an insider's perspective on the power of culture at Facebook, the benefits of giving employees time and space to both fail and create, and why data is at the core of every decision made in the company.

Comments

Openness

[phantomfive]

There is nothing to say about this Zuckerberg quote. Someone doesn't understand 'openness.' I will never work at that company.

Zuckerberg went on to write that the employee obviously didn’t share the same values of openness and transparency because they shared the confidential information in a way they were asked not to do.

Will You Fire Me?

[sk999]

I asked that once of the Director. It was a blatent request.

He refused. "Nope."

Left me stuck with an impossible job. Fortunately, things worked themselves out.

Nowadays, he comes around and pesters me. I want to fire him, but can't, because he's retired. Maybe I should resign.

Mobbing and agitprop is "culture"?

[denzacar]

1) The Power of Culture: "At Facebook, culture is everything and it's an incredible timesaver," Campos said. Culture allows Facebook to cut through bureaucracy, he said. Among the ways Facebook emphasizes its culture is through its now well-known posters that say things like: "Fail harder;" "Move fast and break things;" and, "What would you do if you weren't afraid?"

Facebook also reinforces its culture through storytelling, like the "will you resign" email example he shared with the audience. "It was an incredibly powerful message," Campos explained. "Everybody at the company read this email and had the exact same takeaway and perspective that I did, they all thought it was immediately addressed to them. And it was striking as a result of that. And they never forgot it. And we keep talking about it - we talk about how do we handle confidential information in the company. The 'will you resign' email is quite famous." There are a ton of stories like this that Facebook uses to reinforce key culture points that prevent the creation of unnecessary steering committees and advisory boards, Campos said.

Posters he's describing are pure propaganda, all basically shouting "WORK HARDER AND MORE!", while those mass "Your job is insecure" emails are nothing but mobbing.

If that's culture, it's nothing but culture of fear.
Ah well... someone has to keep getting stress-related heart attacks, strokes and cancers I guess.

Tells you something about the culture there

[Opportunist]

If the CIO, a rather high ranking C-Suite officer, is afraid to open a mail from his CEO talking about resignation, something is amiss. If a C-Level pretty much expects to be laid off by email instead of a more personal way of communication something is VERY, VERY wrong in a company.

Don't get me wrong, being laid off by email is common for lower ranks in huge, "faceless" corporations. I never experienced it on this level, though. We're talking about a handful of people per company. It's not like there are a dozen CIOs littering the top floor. Even a company like Facebook will hardly employ hundreds of C-Levels. These people KNOW each other. Personally. They have meetings. They organize and coordinate strategies. Depending on the company they even know each other on a rather personal level, down to their family status and whether the kids have the flu.

If such a person expects to be fired by email, this does not speak kindly of the prevailing corporate culture.

Re:YES

[AK Marc]

Nope. Fired would get me paid 2 weeks. Laid off got me paid 2 months.

Re:YES

[LaurenCates]

Work is a relationship if you ask a psychologist. Humans have relationships to groups too and not just individuals that meet each others needs. So like a bad gf dump.

I tell people all the time - superiors, especially - that my job, in my perception, is just as much a relationship to me as it is to my husband.

And as such, I've learned that if it isn't meeting my needs or making me happy, I should find something else to do.

The ones who understand treat me with respect. The ones who don't have typically an unhappy set of employees under them, not just me.

A small anecdote regarding the latter:

The last job I left, my boss sat me down and begged me not to leave, even after letting go of two employees due to budget cuts (cutting the staff from 10 to 8; we were a satellite office of a much larger company). I told him that I was too young to be tied down to a job where I was clearly not allowed to branch out (he constantly hedged and made excuses, but I took the diplomatic tack of not blaming him in this conversation). He was willing to offer me something like 10% above my current salary to keep me on board, but couldn't guarantee that I'd be allowed to find work elsewhere within the company.

So, I told him this, and I think he still didn't get what I was talking about:

I once had a boyfriend who would tell me "maybe" all the time. All the things I wanted to do were "maybes". Maybe we'll go out tonight. Maybe we'll make plans for next weekend. Maybe we'll move in together. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

I told said boyfriend that if those maybes didn't start turning into yeses, that I'd leave.

He then went on to treat me like I was an ungrateful brat. Sure, I wanted things, but he was giving things. And even if they weren't the things I wanted, hell, he was contributing, and dammit, why wasn't I happy with that?

Boyfriend, boss, same deal. If someone keeps telling you "maybe" you'll get the things you want someday, all you're going to get is a bunch of "maybes". And that's what I got from my boss. I told him I don't have the time to sit around waiting for "maybes" to turn into "yeses".

My point here is: much as you spend time with a significant other, you're going to spend about as much with your job. I'm surprised that more people don't think that they need to set as many expectations for an employer as they do a spouse.