Former Linden employee blog question

Any Linden comment on the following:


http://www.enginesofmischief.com/blogs/ramblings/archives/cat_work.php


The October 1 and September entries paint a portrait of a company in serious financial trouble. I know Linden Labs is a privately held company and probably will not comment, but it was interesting to see comments from someone who was laid off because of severe staffing cutbacks for financial reasons, especially in light of the rash of lifetime memberships that were just bought and the USD auctions going on.

Not a Linden, but I'll comment:

Any employee who takes two sick days in his first two weeks on the job and then publicly posts purportedly privileged internal information about his privately-held employer is at best guilty of extremely poor taste. Talking to your boss on your first day about your intentions of blogging your work activities might be broadly read as a career limiting move. Claiming knowledge of LL funding but not knowing how many employees they had strains credulity.

Finally, anyone who asserts "I entered management in 1997 because I was tired of working for id10ts who didn't know how to build software." is probably a joy to work with. Assuming that anything the blogger said is in fact true, sometimes bad hires just happen.

I am mostly concerned about the staffing reduction and financial situation. I love Second Life and want to see it flourish, and reading that kind of stuff is troubling.

Sorry Cristiano, 'tis late and I made every point *but* the one I was trying to make. Philip has said (in some FAQ/mail) that Linden Lab is in a sound financial position, some random blogger says otherwise. Cost to Mr. Rosedale for lying consist of loss of credibility in a pretty esteemed community; cost to blogger for lying: a few lines of HTML.

In a he-said/he-said disjunction such as this in which the truth of the matter is quite beyond our reach, I have to side with Linden Lab on this one. Just one AVs epistemology.

Hmm even if what that blogger says is true... I wouldn't be terribly alarmed by it. A reduction to 20 employees for a small independant software company early in its life doesn't sound catastrophic to me. A lot of small companies can work just fine with that amount of people. Perhaps they just realized after a while how to do things more efficiently and with less people. Its inevitable that a small start-up would have to re-figure things from time to time and have occasional glimpses of financial concern. But I don't think those entries point to the imanent doom of SL or anything.

heh, this guy doesn't seem very important in the first place (some sort of consultant), and his facts don't seem to jive with alot of other reports (personal, other people's comments, and so on).

Blogs are a funny thing. On one hand, they have the potential to free the world's journalists for a true freedom-of-press world. On the other hand, it lets anyone slam a few outrageous claims into the rumor mill at the speed of light.

LF

Heh, F him. Something seems odd anyway....LL hires him and then two weeks later lays off 10 people??? Whatever...

Heck, I'll work for LL for FREE if they want me to. Not like I can find proper work yet and I wouldn't mind the experience. lol

How about the title "Official Hippo Cleaner" sound Garoad?

I don't know about this guys credit, was looking for stuff on google and found it, so who knows. Always good to question about things though, let everything slide by and might totaly miss something.

Hey I'll take anything that adds to my IT experience, lol.

They could call me Official Bottom-Feeding Monkey Dren Licker for all I care!!!!

** deleted **

Now you guys are just being mean. I think his blog speaks for itself.

I'm never mean.

Except towards meanies!

and gnomes? hehehe

I don't really see any evidence of financial trouble. Quite the opposite if they can a guy who jumps from job to job bitching and blogging about his bosses. Sound reasoning to get rid of someone who constantly complains.

Am I the only one that doesn't feel like this guy was complaining in his writing? To me he just seemed to be telling a story of what was going on. I didn't see any remarks that made me think he was griping. In fact, I even did see him say some nice things about LL. What am I missing that some of you are calling complaing?

He didn't seem very disgrunteled to me. Sounds like he was excited about working in LL, got fired, was dissapointed, and moved on.

Not saying that theres actual credibility to it, just that he doesn't sound all pissed off.

Guys, can you separate what Christiano says and what the guy in the blog says!!!

Christiano wants Linden to admit that they are using the land auctions to raise money. I dunno if this is a valid claim or not or whether this is a valid cause or not.

The guy in blog actually says nothing bad at all about Linden and two things that are quite flattering!

- one, he says Phillip Linden is a very cool guy to work for

- two, he says Linden are intelligent enough to hire someone like him at the start, before they get problems, rather than at the end, when it is too late to change. That was the whole point of his article!

What he doesnt say, and which could be true (probablity: 20%) is that maybe it was him himself who prompted the layoffs. From what he says, he is a Change Management Consultant and / or a Strategic Consultant so this would be exactly the type of thing he would be expected to do and the kind of decision he would be comfortable making.

I quite like his naming SL a MMOP. It's a pretty good description.

Azelda

Cristiano was trying to ask a question that involves a company and a game that he truely loves. He is not trying to get anyone to "admit" anything.

Sorry, but I did not like the way you worded that. If I misunderstood what you were trying to say, then please forgive me.

You know I wish my parents had named me Bob or something, my name is constantly mispelled

That said, I don't like having what I said characterized that way either. I posted that out of concern for Second Life. I want Linden Labs to be financially secure and for Second Life to flourish, as I said. Hell, blame this whole thing on Oz, he is the one who showed me that blog.

Yes yes blame me! Stop blaming Bob!

I was looking for old/interisting stuff about SL and came across that and showed it to Cris

Its all my fault! I did it! I'm the butler! In the observatory! With a candle stick! And you'll never catch me- oh wait.

Ok, sorry Cristiano, I'll try to spell your name better in the future.

Azelda

I really doubt you are going to get LL to comment on this publicly in the forums.

But just because a company thinks up a lot of new ways to earn money, doesn't mean they're in trouble. It's more a sign of a healthy company on the right track. Companies desperate for money are the ones who don't continue to search for more revenue streams.

And if anyone thinks this bloggers behaviour is normal, or acceptable in an office setting, whatever you do, don't tell your boss.... That attitude gets to the top of the layoff list when someone has to figure out who stays and who goes.

If you really have concern about SL living a long and prosperous life, giving legs to a rumor like this is NOT the way to help. Posting that link on LL's own forums and in front of every potential customer who browses the forums before deciding to buy is a pretty stupid thing to do, IMO. Philip has already stated that the 1.2 changes were not motivated by financial difficulties. I have no reason not to take him at his word. I have good reasons to take Evan's blog with a giant grain of salt. The guy only worked at LL for two weeks! That's hardly enough time to really know what's going on. And secondly, any consultant worth his salt wouldn't be starting rumors about financial troubles at his former employer. It shows a complete lack of professionalism. He doesn't seem like he has an axe to grind with LL. He just sounds like he's a bit too impressed with himself and has a grossly inflated view of his own value. If he took the same "look how much smarter I am than everyone else" tone with his coworkers as he does in his blog, I'd probably fire his ass after two weeks too.

October 1 and September

by internet standards that was long ago.

besides the guy wrote the article sounds like a nut job HA!

Cat Cotton

"He just sounds like he's a bit too impressed with himself and has a grossly inflated view of his own value."


Lol, what manager isn't?


Sorry couldn't resist that one...