Three Fired At Netflix for Venting on Slack

Their boss resisted but gave in to the company pressure to fire them as they violated ‘radical’ transparency policy. The internet is ablaze.

Karthik Rajan

--

Photo by Thibault Penin on Unsplash

My mom is visiting. We were taking a walk. I shared with her the day news that set the internet chatter ablaze : Netflix fired three senior film marketing executives for venting on slack.

She didn’t seem interested. I asked her why. She said, there is only one winner in a gossip/ hearsay. The smart one who listens and figures out about the person who is gossiping — “if they say this about others, what would they say behind my back!”

One way to interpret her statement — it takes two hands to clap.

Is complaining about your colleagues a fire-able offense? Netflix says yes because it’s against their ethos.

Hollywood Reporter reported that the trio were “secretly griping about management.”

Netflix official response on Linkedin ( Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos) — “They were not griping about management but about coworkers.”

Netflix firing reason — “You only say things about fellow employees you say to their face.” In other words, “If you vent [at Netflix], you do it very publicly. That’s our culture guideline.”

The employee miscalculation — “they assumed the channel was private and it wasn’t”

The lesson for you and I — “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. If you want to do small mind work, keep it to your personal devices.”

P.S. I could have filled the page with fluff details, I didn’t.

--

--

Karthik Rajan

Stories to fuel your mind. Theme: life’s hidden treasures in plain sight. Goal: Warm tone, solid content, crisp stories. About me: one google search away.