CEO fired 90% of staff for missing a morning meeting. He stands by the choice | Hacker News Reader

CEO fired 90% of staff for missing a morning meeting. He stands by the choice

finance.yahoo.com

18 pointstheogravity25 comments

> Baldvin Oddson, CEO of the Musicians Club, an online musical-instrument storefront, fired 90% of his staff, 99 out of 110 employees and freelancers, via Slack message for missing a morning meeting. The employees, mostly unpaid remote part-timers, were given no warning and were told to return company property and consider their contracts terminated. Oddson stands by his decision, citing that the employees failed to take their responsibilities seriously

> Many workers fired from the Musicians Club were unpaid remote part-timers (jobs are marketed toward classical music students looking for work experience).

How seriously can you take a job like this? The exploitive nature of this business is getting what it paid for. I hope the impacted employees get a paying job soon.

He is just as much qualified to be "CEO" as his "employees" were qualified to work for nothing. The CEO title is meaningless in these kind of situations. He's just an entitled founder who tries to get as much as possible for nothing. In the end, no value is created.

Can you actually fire people who work for free at your "lean startup"? Sounds like another founder who is high on their own supply.

  Kramer: But I don't even really work here.
  Boss: That's what makes this so difficult.

  -- S08E03 - The Bizarro Jerry

If there was a supply he wouldn’t need 100 interns

There are specific requirements an unpaid internship has to meet to be legal. If the majority of the staff are interns it’s very unlikely the requirements are being met. This guy is ripe for a lawsuit.

They can't "fire" someone if they're volunteers working for hopium, but they did teach them not to be so foolish.

CEO of what? His company doesn't employ anyone, people working for him are basically volunteers

"Many workers fired from the Musicians Club were unpaid remote part-timers" You're a lousy cheap CEO and now your company is famous for laying people off

to quote a disgraced geography teacher: Christ Alive, what a cunt !!!

The remaining 11 should see this as a sign of what's to come and quit.

I wonder, who are the people applying for unpaid internships at a random e-commerce company? The only thing I can imagine is that people pretend to work at these positions to fulfill some degree requirement.

* Curriculum padding?

* Acces to "conections"???

You cannot fire people you don't actually employ.

Unpaid internships are scummy, exploitive and ultimately just deepen the class divide as the ones who need the leg up and foot in the door the most, are the least likely to be able to afford doing unpaid labour.

They’re also supposed to be illegal under normal circumstances (employee is providing value and not in a co-op, etc).

Yes, depending on the job responsibilities if not careful, he could be facing a big action due to the publicity.

There was a interesting thought raised. Unpaid internships used to exist to make sure only graduates who could afford to work for a year (aka in the socio/economic in group) could take them. You then make all your positions require experience and whala, you ensure only the 'right group' of people could enter your field.

> mostly unpaid remote part-timers

Wait a second?

> Oddson’s LinkedIn profile picture is framed by the ubiquitous purple #HIRING banner.

Wow. I keep learning how lucky I am to have been frozen out of the tech industry.

When I first learned that no one wants to hire me, because of my age, I was absolutely livid, but in the years since, I am learning that the modern workplace has turned into a real house of horrors, and I probably dodged a bullet.

This article isn't about the tech industry and age isn't why people don't want to hire you.

I’m sure you’re right. I find it fascinating how people here, initiate their relationships with others, in a public professional forum, by insulting them.

Must be interesting team dynamics, and sort of proves my point. Thanks for that.

BTW: I’m sure that an “online musical storefront” has no tech involved.

I'm not insulting you.

We don't have to guess about the online storefont: it's Shopify. view-source:https://themusiciansclub.net/

The laid off "workers" were unpaid musicians. This is not a tech industry vignette.

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