Mozilla CEO threatens to fire person responsible for anonymous hate speech on Reddit - Polidicks

There's no doubting that this would get you fired from any job, especially if it's put out in the public. But responses and reactions like this from others are why you keep these affairs private. You, as an employee, shouldn't go out and say bad things about other employees because that reflects negatively on the company. And you, as the CEO, shouldn't publicly announce you're going to fire the guy because that makes you look power hungry. Mozilla really is going through a turbulent period right now. They lost their CEO last year because he was against gay rights, they seem to be going on a tirade against Microsoft, and they keep stripping back features of Firefox in order to make it more like Chrome. It's almost like the company is an angsty teen who is confused about life and doesn't know what to do anymore.

Hey Mozilla, how about you not have a CEO that's such a shitty person that he feels the need to put out a statement which encourages the doxxing of someone for his own ideological satisfaction? I mean fucking hell, I'm switching. I would rather use internet explorer at this point than use any Mozilla product.

[QUOTE=Thlis;48566249]Mozilla is about openness* *Provided you say or do nothing we disagree with. Even under anonymity.[/QUOTE] the person very openly and outwardly complained about a coworker. Now Mozilla can happily adjust the work environment so they don't have some toxic asshole in their midst on a scale of shit you can get fired for, public shittalking of people you work for is probably a good ways up the list

[QUOTE=dai;48568112]the person very openly and outwardly complained about a coworker. Now Mozilla can happily adjust the work environment so they don't have some toxic asshole in their midst on a scale of shit you can get fired for, public shittalking of people you work for is probably a good ways up the list[/QUOTE] To be fair, it was an anonymous venting about no one in specific (besides Christie Koehler, which is an already heated subject from various parties). Other people might even feel the same and obviously it is not something you can talk to HR. As a developer, drama like this is a great way of me not wanting to work there. In the very least they should have kept this under wraps, having the CEO making threats regarding a reddit a post is absurd. To quote someone from hackernews: "Mozilla CEO Chris Beard is saying that hyper-sensitive permanently offended types are welcome within Mozilla. This creates a terrible working environment for those who want to have a job without the politics. I can't see Mozilla as an organization continuing to exist for very long with this kind of leadership. If I were a current employee at Mozilla, it would be time to shop my resume around to saner workplaces."

Have none of you held a job before? Even if it was anonymous, this shit would not fly at any other company

[QUOTE=Jsoldier;48568209]Have none of you held a job before? Even if it was anonymous, this shit would not fly at any other company[/QUOTE] It's not about shit flying, it's about how flying shit is handled. At Mozilla it's handled very badly.

[QUOTE=Jsoldier;48568209]Have none of you held a job before? Even if it was anonymous, this shit would not fly at any other company[/QUOTE] But where can you vent these opinions then? I don't think it's cool to hunt someone down for expressing their OPINION. It was not a threat and he didn't imply he treats her differently or that anyone else should, just that he doesn't like her. Do you not have the right to express a negative, personal opinion of someone anymore? It's not like people's opinions of the person are really gonna change just because they'll get under fire for expressing them. And as a sidenote calling it hate speech is just straight up stupid. Not even worth arguing about.

[QUOTE=Croix;48568290]But where can you vent these opinions then? I don't think it's cool to hunt someone down for expressing their OPINION. It was not a threat and he didn't imply he treats her differently or that anyone else should, just that he doesn't like her. Do you not have the right to express a negative, personal opinion of someone anymore? It's not like people's opinions of the person are really gonna change just because they'll get under fire for expressing them.[/QUOTE] You don't. Simple. If you absolutely must, do it to a friend. Not reddit lmao. Venting about your coworkers on the internet is really foolish.

[QUOTE=itisjuly;48568258]It's not about shit flying, it's about how flying shit is handled. At Mozilla it's handled very badly.[/QUOTE] Someone insulting their co-workers to a petty high degree getting fired is "handled badly"? No, that's how a lot of places handle employees who think it's fine to go on to public forums and call everyone else they work with names. If you don't like the people there, why not look for a new job rather than insulting everyone and getting fired? Insult them after you quit if it's really that important to you, at least voluntarily quitting doesn't make you look like as big an incompetent goon.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;48568324]Someone insulting their co-workers to a petty high degree getting fired is "handled badly"? No, that's how a lot of places handle employees who think it's fine to go on to public forums and call everyone else they work with names. If you don't like the people there, why not look for a new job rather than insulting everyone and getting fired? Insult them after you quit if it's really that important to you, at least voluntarily quitting doesn't make you look like as big an incompetent goon.[/QUOTE] Oh jeez hex you're always trying so hard and yet your reading comprehension is nil. Either that or the way you come to conclusions is very twisted. Nobody requested a shining knight here.

[QUOTE=itisjuly;48568332]Oh jeez hex you're always trying so hard and yet your reading comprehension is nil. Either that or the way you come to conclusions is very twisted. Nobody requested a shining knight here.[/QUOTE] To be honest your post is very hard to comprehend to me as well no many times I read it over so maybe you should explain yourself?

[QUOTE=itisjuly;48568332]Oh jeez hex you're always trying so hard and yet your reading comprehension is nil. Either that or the way you come to conclusions is very twisted. Nobody requested a shining knight here.[/QUOTE] Wicked sick dismissal bro. I'm not "white knighting" shit here. I want [I]you[/I] to explain [I]your[/I] justification on why this is "over the top" as a response despite the fact it's standard practice everywhere.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;48568414]Wicked sick dismissal bro. I'm not "white knighting" shit here. I want [I]you[/I] to explain [I]your[/I] justification on why this is "over the top" as a response despite the fact it's standard practice everywhere.[/QUOTE] I don't see companies announcing all over the world that they're going to fire someone. Nor do they propose implied witch hunts. The way Mozilla CEO handles this is so bad.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;48568324]Someone insulting their co-workers to a petty high degree getting fired is "handled badly"? No, that's how a lot of places handle employees who think it's fine to go on to public forums and call everyone else they work with names. If you don't like the people there, why not look for a new job rather than insulting everyone and getting fired? Insult them after you quit if it's really that important to you, at least voluntarily quitting doesn't make you look like as big an incompetent goon.[/QUOTE] In short, the situation is hardly one co-worker insulting another and getting fired for it. The situation is someone under a nickname made insulting remarks on a public forum and the CEO somehow decided that this was a worthy situation to make threats and do a public statement. Someone saying stupid things over the internet while under a nickname is pretty standard, most companies don't care at all. Someone badmouthing on facebook for instance is an entirely different thing, because you are not being anonymous, other people can put a face to what you say and things become more valid that way. If the CEO kept things internal, most people wouldn't be aware of this situation at all. This is an example of poor leadership, and if you don't believe this is causing much worse problems to Mozilla's image than go over to many of the developer communities and see how they feel about it.

Maybe it's all a ruse? CEO announces this to the public, pretends to care about social justice, the coworker in question is aware and doesn't get caught. No one is fired. Win win.

[QUOTE=itisjuly;48568460]Maybe it's all a ruse? CEO announces this to the public, pretends to care about social justice, the coworker in question is aware and doesn't get caught. No one is fired. Win win.[/QUOTE] Except that it tells the industry that this idiocy is encouraged. What a better way to prove that there are political bullies in a company, than to actually receive a public threat from the head of the company.

[QUOTE=AnonymaPizza;48568475]Except that it tells the industry that this idiocy is encouraged. What a better way to prove that there are political bullies in a company, than to actually receive a public threat from the head of the company.[/QUOTE] I'm not entirely sure how this is related to politics?

Depending on the nature of both the company and the statements made, anonymously or not it isn't unheard of for higher ranking corporate officers to make public statements. Mozilla isn't a huge company and it's also a tech company in an era were sensitivity towards these kinds of things can be the difference between an internet crusade and a blip on the radar for a day. His response seems appropriate to be honest, he needs to reign in whatever kind of dissent seems to be bubbling up within. Doing so with a harsh, public statement sends that message very loudly internally and placates the hounds externally.

[QUOTE=Srillo;48568500]Depending on the nature of both the company and the statements made, anonymously or not it isn't unheard of for higher ranking corporate officers to make public statements. Mozilla isn't a huge company and it's also a tech company in an era were sensitivity towards these kinds of things can be the difference between an internet crusade and a blip on the radar for a day.[/QUOTE] plus the source of the quote is "The regular Monday Mozilla Project meeting" which is something that looks like the equivalent of an [i]internal[/i] weekly team meeting which is streamed online due to the 'open source' nature of the company

[QUOTE=itisjuly;48568307]You don't.[/QUOTE] Because [i]that's[/i] healthy. Gotta keep up that social contract and bottle up your feelings until they burn a hole in your brain. Honestly, these anonymous confessions are probably better for everyone in the long run, because it's a means to keep things in check by allowing employees an outlet for their stress and dissatisfaction, and outsiders a look into the company's workings to counteract how secretive corporate culture has become.

[QUOTE=Eric95;48567226]Not really, not when it's personal comments like this. Talking shit about someone's appearance or political views doesn't really have a place there[/QUOTE] but pointing out how they're acting like workplace bullies does

[QUOTE=hexpunK;48568414]Wicked sick dismissal bro. I'm not "white knighting" shit here. I want [I]you[/I] to explain [I]your[/I] justification on why this is "over the top" as a response despite the fact it's standard practice everywhere.[/QUOTE] Because smiling and acting like everyone is fine when you're the one twisting and turning and doing all the work whilst general management is just peachy right? Everyone bitches about their coworkers, to other coworkers, to their spouses, to their friends and to the public at large given a chance. This whole idea that its 'unprofessional' is a thinly veiled, 'just don't get caught' attitude that is both unhealthy, unnecessary and nerve wracking [I]at best.[/I]

I'm glad people in this thread are agreeing with the point that I snipped earlier. While hate speech is a strong word, this is clear harassment of the female employee and her coworkers in a way that is fireable in most workplaces. Especially in the tech industry, which is currently known as a male dominated, female excluded, sometimes down right harassed, industry, Mozilla wants to be hot on their feet to set a clear example that they won't take bullshit from others who think its ok to stereotype and ok to say that many women, most women would call themselves feminists in one way or another, are a blight on the tech industry and that the industry will "breath a sigh of relief" if it did not let feminists join, which implicitly says that he doesn't want females working in his workplace, or for that matter anyone who disagrees with his male oriented, [sp]only saying this because he is taking about his dislike for feminism so an obvious conclusion would be his thoughts are more male oriented[/sp] views. Of course Mozilla is going to want to be like "we do not agree with this guy and since he explicitly said he works at Mozilla, we need to set an example that we have a zero tolerance policy on this type of language, because even if it is anonymous, the companies image is being tarnished in a non constructive way."

According to Christie Koehler's twitter she's received numerous threats and insults from redditors. Ripping into someone on an anonymous forum and getting them harassed is pretty plausible reason to fire somebody, folks.

[QUOTE=splenda;48568797]I'm glad people in this thread are agreeing with the point that I snipped earlier. While hate speech is a strong word, this is clear harassment of the female employee and her coworkers in a way that is fireable in most workplaces. Especially in the tech industry, which is currently known as a male dominated, female excluded, sometimes down right harassed, industry, Mozilla wants to be hot on their feet to set a clear example that they won't take bullshit from others who think its ok to stereotype and ok to say that many women, most women would call themselves feminists in one way or another, are a blight on the tech industry and that the industry will "breath a sigh of relief" if it did not let feminists join, which implicitly says that he doesn't want females working in his workplace, or for that matter anyone who disagrees with his male oriented, [sp]only saying this because he is taking about his dislike for feminism so an obvious conclusion would be his thoughts are more male oriented[/sp] views. Of course Mozilla is going to want to be like "we do not agree with this guy and since he explicitly said he works at Mozilla, we need to set an example that we have a zero tolerance policy on this type of language, because even if it is anonymous, the companies image is being tarnished in a non constructive way."[/QUOTE] Not harassment in the least, and she's not an employee. She is an ex employee, aka does not work there anymore. He also never said he wanted females out of his workplace. What he said can be boiled down to a disdain for having to work next to ideologically driven people who try to force their ideologies on other people. In fact, you could say he was complaining about his work environment being made hostile by people trying to force their politics and ideologies onto everyone. Or would you rather nobody complain about hostile work environments? You have shown in this post that you either have a serious lack of understanding of the English language sentence structure, or that you are willfully misinterpreting what he said. The subject of the sentence is "blue-haired nose-pierced asshole feminists", not "all women".

[QUOTE=SgtCr4zyGunz;48568950]According to Christie Koehler's twitter she's received numerous threats [B]and insults[/B] from redditors. Ripping into someone on an anonymous forum and getting them harassed is pretty plausible reason to fire somebody, folks.[/QUOTE] I have no frame of reference regarding threats but insults? So fucking what if she receives insults from redditors, what CEO doesn't receive insults? Also everyone seems to be forgetting that this was an anonymous post. Mozilla is starting a witchhunt because someone anonymously claimed to be from Mozilla and posted something relatively tame, and now they are going to potentially fire people for it true or not.

[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;48568964]Not harassment in the least, and she's not an employee. She is an ex employee, aka does not work there anymore. He also never said he wanted females out of his workplace. What he said can be boiled down to a disdain for having to work next to ideologically driven people who try to force their ideologies on other people. In fact, you could say he was complaining about his work environment being made hostile by people trying to force their politics and ideologies onto everyone. Or would you rather nobody complain about hostile work environments? You have shown in this post that you either have a serious lack of understanding of the English language sentence structure, or that you are willfully misinterpreting what he said. The subject of the sentence is "blue-haired nose-pierced asshole feminists", not "all women".[/QUOTE] First off he DOES complain about current employees in the line, that you even quoted yourself: "When she [b]and the rest of her blue-haired nose-pierced asshole feminists are gone, the tech industry will breathe a sigh of relief.[/b]" For the part about him complaining about a hostile work environment, there are a lot better ways to go about doing so. You can nicely tell your boss that there are people who don't agree with his viewpoints. [sp]From what I have read about her tweets, she is not being harassing, if anything she is the one getting harassed by the author of the quote in question and her co-workers.[/sp] Going about it in this fashion is very unnecessary. You say he doesn't want people pushing their ideologies on him, a fair statement to make, but in doing this he is pushing his own ideologies to the table and saying that his are more important for whatever reason, he does not explicitly or implicitly give any reason to why he is allowed to say that the tech industry will breath a sigh of relief when these "asshole feminists are gone" and I'm not about to stoop to that level of grasping at non existent straws. I don't know how you are interpreting what he said, but the beauty in the meaning of "interpreting" is that everyone pulls something out of the text, and what is pulled out may be different. From your standpoint, the subject of the article is "blue-haired nose-pierced asshole feminists" but even then is it really warranted to complain about these people with almost no basis or backup to his statements? He is putting his own ideologies forward and seemingly trying to force his ideologies onto the company, ones that Mozilla obviously do not agree with if they are threatening to fire this guy. In an industry as sexually undiverse as the tech industry, having workers of your company say that "When she and the rest of her blue-haired nose-pierced asshole feminists are gone, the tech industry will breathe a sigh of relief." it doesnt matter what his actual intention with that statement is because people looking for a job in the industry will read that and make of it what they will, like for example, how I interpreted it to mean that he does not want females in his workplace. Mozilla obviously cares about the ratio of men to women in their company, or else they would not of responded to this comment. In the end, it is Mozillas free will to fire the guy at the end of the day and I feel it is justified due to the lasting message this guys comment would leave if he was allowed to stay at the company.

Honestly this shouldn't have been made public and should have been kept internal. I do think the guy should be fired though, since he painted the company work environment in a negative light and kinda crossed a line. I don't think it was hate speech though.

[QUOTE=Croix;48568290]But where can you vent these opinions then?[/QUOTE] Here's how you vent: 1. do it anonymously (the person who did this at least got that part right) and 2. don't tell people what company you work at or it will cause the people that run that company to try to figure out who you are (this is the part he fucked up).

[QUOTE=Helix Snake;48569348]Here's how you vent: 1. do it anonymously (the person who did this at least got that part right) and 2. don't tell people what company you work at or it will cause the people that run that company to try to figure out who you are (this is the part he fucked up).[/QUOTE] The fact they were able to work out who the fuck this was just based on them saying "yeah I work at Mozilla" leads me to believe that this particular person has been a pain in their ass beforehand. Companies tend to fire employees who chat shit about them on public forums, if this guy has been a pain before they are just going to cut that moron loose instantly.