Zee Linden CFO is leaving Linden Lab?

So the rumour mill has it that John Zdanowski is leaving the company as of April 15. Truth? Rumour? Good? Bad? Implications?

http://insidesecondlife.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-bad-news-for-lab.html

People move on but the coming days should be interesting.

EDIT: confirmed https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2009/03/27/moving-on

This could mean that they have nobody called John Zdanowski working at Linden Lab.

Accountants know where the bodies are buried. If he is leaving it is because he thinks he will be better off financially elsewhere. Go figure what that means his expectations are regarding LL's future.

Pep (Used to be an accountant - better now)

That's how they got Capone. Through his accountant.

You get more time for tax evasion (or, God forbid, mail fraud) than for crimes against the person.

Pep (In the USA that is; you can still get hanged if you kick a kitten in England . . . )

Of course, the King must get his tribute. And it is only going to get worse. Especially with an admitted tax evader running the agency responsible for collecting taxes. We all know how politicians love to persecute those who do what they themselves do.

And with good reason!

oh so pweshuss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZSbC09qgLI

/me wonders where he stood on the 'adult' stuff they're currently pulling and if that was a factor in him leaving, if he is indeed leaving.

Zee brought us the 50% price hike on private island tier in 2006 and the 65% price hike on openspace sim tier last year. And VAT, which I don't really blame him for.

Though those kinds of moves make him not my favorite Linden by far, it seems like he might be one to realize just how much the adult stuff drives the economy. I wonder if he told M and/or Mitch just how insane they are being and found himself suddenly unemployed..

Related, I wonder if Robin's leaving was somehow related to new round of adult madness..

they probably just found better jobs..people get job offers all the time and one probably came a long they they liked and took it..

Yeah, 'cause, you know, the economy is doing so great and everybody's hiring..

CFOs don't make policy decisions like that; marketing people do.

Pep (Accountants just tell them what the monetary consequences will be)

what better time to get a person you are after from another company than when times are tuff?
it's not like they were flipping burgers..

The alarmists here will lean toward speculating that this has some bearing on how LL is doing, just as the blogger seems to do.

However, it could be that he got a better offer elsewhere and he's thinking about it . . . or it could mean--if he's married--that his wife got a better job elsewhere and he decided to tag along (if LL doesn't support accountants working from home) . . . or it could mean he's having trouble working with current management . . . or . . . . <fill in your own theory> . . . or what he said his reasons were are--gasp!--true and should be taken at face value.

When I left the company I worked for--and I was high profile--all I wanted to do was quit the rat race and pursue writing. Perhaps he's contemplating a similar direction.

I tire of all the alarmist and negative speculation we tend to see in the blogs and in the Fox News-like media.

I wish Z. Linden good luck in whatever he chooses to pursue . . . and I thank him for helping get LL where it is today.

Many companies are still hiring, especially in the technology industry. The problem is, a lot of people don't have the education or experience to do the job. In Michigan, the automotive industry (basically the core of our state) is crumbling and there are masses of unemployed former automotive union workers. Many people still expect $35/hour without a college degree. Yeah right... People have a lot of pride; many pass up jobs they consider "beneath them" and live off unemployment (i.e. the tax dollars of those of us who are working). There are industries that are hiring. The medical industry for instance is starting to pickup, right along with the technology industry. The thing is.... you need education, training, and experience to get many of these jobs. Many people just don't have that.

LMAO! He's a *banker* !!!

Pep (and CFOs don't do unemployment)

He took credit for those decisions in several articles. Google be thy friend

LL isn't your standard company.

Accountants are even better at taking credit for things that make money, even if it wasn't their idea in the first place.

Pep (Marketing people let them when the clients are revolting)

PS Harvard isn't your standard Business School

And given the US economy and job market, anyone at that level that changes jobs might be indicating something.

Maybe he got a bonus and he is running from Barney Frank and his vigilantes

Robin simply left, she had no job to go to. However it could be that Zee does. I emailed Zee about something a few weeks ago that I thought was under his remit as it was to do with finances and he suggested I contact someone else, which at the time struck me as odd. Maybe this explains it.

There are still plenty of white collar jobs available in this economy. Especially in certain areas of technology. (And no, an accountant isn't a tech person, but an accountant for a tech company has specialization in working in the tech field, and thus is prized by another tech company.)

And there are those who believe that staying in the same job for too long is a sign of stagnation.

Without further information, just the fact that the person is leaving doesn't really say anything about Linden Lab one way or the other. Except that they need to break in a new CFO.

The article cited in the original posts just states just two facts- that this person is leaving, and that someone else left recently. The rest of the article is baseless speculation by someone whose purpose for writing is an "effort to bring Linden Lab to the realization that Second Life is dying and needs immediate attention."

CFO... leaving... on April 15th

...and no one thought that was hilarious?

While I respect the writer of the blog, this is the kind of rumour that is... iffy. Every week there is some rumour about this or that. Some rumours can become self~fulfilling or highly damaging, like a run on a bank or a false accusation of molestation.

Caution required here. The story might be true, but sooner or later there are always false rumours. In this case we just don't know yet.

i agree.
that was basically why i said what i said.it wasn't meant as they were getting other jobs really..more that it could be as simple as that..
people change places and fields all the time for their own reasons..not everything has to do with liking or not liking something or because they didn't want a decision that is coming..

Dave Chapelle took off to Africa..when he got back they asked him why he took off..
he said because 50 million is a lot of money and he had to get away from everyone and think...
rumors had him lost in alleys doing crack or stuck in a mental institution or getting addicted to world of war craft and blew the deal..one even said he was on his death bed..
hahahah
his words..I saw 50 million comin my way i just had to bounce..it's sometimes as simple as that lol

In the USA, the way that unemployment "insurance" works is that the employer pays into it the whole time the person is employed. That is to say, it comes out of your own paycheck before you see it. The company pays the government this money, and they continue to get dinged the whole while you are receiving unemployment. (The reason that the federal government winds up sending the states money for unemployment insurance is that the state went ahead and mis-spent the funds already, so they didn't have enough to pay out when lots of people became unemployed.)

At least that's my understanding of it.