A sales employee at American technology company Cloudflare was fired in January. Brittany Pietsch suspected what would happen to her over a video call; a colleague had also received notice 30 minutes earlier. So she recorded the conversation on video and uploaded it to Tiktok.
The participants in the video call: an HR employee and an unknown person. The man quickly gets to the point in the conversation:
Pietsch is visibly irritated: she had only been with the company for three months plus the holidays and had the impression that she had worked hard. So why the termination? What exactly was wrong with her performance? The two still don’t answer her – even after asking her several times. She says:
The Cloudflare manager is evasive: “From a process perspective, your questions are legitimate. This call will not be the place or situation in which we go into detail.” Pietsch replied: “But when? If it’s not good if I get fired, then it certainly won’t be good afterwards either, when I’m no longer part from the company.” The HR employee deterred Pietsch by saying she would contact her again.
The second point raised: The person who could explain why Pietsch was considered underperforming is not even present at the time of the termination: her immediate supervisor.
Being fired is tough, but it is important to handle it with dignity. Firing someone is also difficult and requires compassion and respect. A total disaster on both sides here. pic.twitter.com/ptEFQT0TTb
— SME lawyer (@SMB_Attorney) January 12, 2024
The video quickly spread across all major social media platforms. On X, several million views were collected and this led to discussions about ‘real’ terminations.
CEO responds to X
On Friday, Cloudflare’s CEO had to respond. On He justifies the short duration: “If we do our performance management well, we can often tell within three months or less of hiring a salesperson – even during the holidays – whether he or she will be successful or not.”
Unfortunately, they did not always adapt perfectly. However, Cloudflare tries to fire “perfectly”. Prince continues: “In this case, we were clearly far from perfect.”
The video was painful for him to watch. Managers should always be present at a dismissal meeting, as should HR. However, the dismissal may not be outsourced to the human resources department.
We have laid off approximately 40 salespeople out of more than 1,500 in our go-to-market organization. That’s a normal quarter. If we do performance management well, we can often tell within three months or less of a sales hire, even during the holidays, whether it will be successful or not. Unfortunately,…
— Matthew Prins 🌥 (@eastdakota) January 12, 2024
Prince goes on to say that employees should never be surprised that they are being fired. Sometimes an employee simply does not suit the company. That doesn’t automatically mean this person is a bad employee.
Prince concludes: “But every healthy company must get rid of the people who do not perform. That wasn’t the fault here. The mistake was that we were not kinder and more human.”
The CEO doesn’t convince many people
The CEO’s explanation does not convince many people. Constantly only positive feedback and then termination? “It seems like you’re just looking for a reason to fire people because of a bad management decision,” one comment said.
There is no indication that this actually has anything to do with performance. So an employee works there for a few months, gets positive feedback all the time, and only when you get to work does the issue of performance come up?
It looks like you just…
— Alexander🚗🔋🇩🇪 Horner (@alexhorner2002) January 12, 2024
The statement that you can assess someone after three months in the company also caused criticism:
With respect, the fact that you think you can tell whether someone will be successful within 3 months OR LESS of a sales hire is the problem. You can’t. Even if that was possible, she should have received minimal coaching and immediate feedback that she was underperforming.
— plat (@jeffpplatt) January 12, 2024
The CEO responding to a Tiktok at 2am only proves that he is not suitable leadership material, says another user.
The fact that you felt the need to post this screed at 2am in response to a TikTok only proves one thing: you are not fit to run this, and neither is any company.
— Mitcha (@slavjew) January 12, 2024
Justified or not? Discuss it in the comments!
(Yes W)
Source: Watson
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
