An ex-Reddit employee’s attempt to criticize his former employer during an AMA (ask me anything) suffered an embarrassing backfire Monday when his former boss — Reddit CEO Yishan Wong — joined the thread to clear up any misunderstandings about why he was fired.
“I was laid off,” Reddit user dehrmann wrote during his Sunday AMA on his ex-employer’s social media platform, first noticed by Business Insider.
When asked why, dehrmann submitted the following reason:
Officially: no reason. And I get this; I vaguely know how CA employment law works and that you limit your liability by not stating a reason. It’s also really hard to work through in your mind.
The best theory I have is that, two weeks earlier, I raised concerns about donating 10% of ad revenue to charity. Some management likes getting feedback, some doesn’t.
The reason I had concerns was that this was revenue, not income. That means you need ~10% margins to break even. This can be hard to do; Yahoo and Twitter don’t. Salesforce does something similar, but it’s more all-around, and in a way that promotes the product without risking the company’s financials.
However it turns out dehrmann’s feedback had nothing to do with his lapse in employment, as Wong very clearly explained hours later.
The next user comment on the thread aptly described the exchange.
As numerous other users go on to point out, taking to Reddit to criticize Reddit after getting fired from Reddit was obviously not the most face-saving solution.
The ex-employee did not respond to Wong.