I’ve read a lot of corporate comms over the years. I’ve written quite a bit of it myself as well, here and there. As a result, I probably read these things rather differently to how many other people do. There are countless words, phrases and patterns that crop up over and over.
So, here’s more or less what went through my mind when I read this week’s “A Message from M Linden” …
Greetings,
Yesterday was a challenging but historic and important day for Linden Lab. We undertook a strategic restructuring to strengthen our business and enable us to move faster and with more focus on the things that matter. While it will have important ramifications down the line for Second Life, rest assured that there are no fundamental changes planned to our experience or platform, and that both the company and the inworld economy remain in a very strong position.
“challenging but historic and important day” : This is bad news.
“a strategic restructuring to strengthen our business and enable us to move faster and with more focus on the things that matter” : We dumped a bunch of staff. But only the ones who don’t matter.
There a number of reasons why a company might restructure and lay off staff. There’s also a pattern to the reasons stated as compared to the actual reason.
Frequently the reasons actually given are:
1. Cost-cutting
2. Focus on consumers (which most often means ‘cost-cutting’)
3. Focus on core strengths/values/business (which most often means ‘cost-cutting’)
Go Google some press releases. The ones you see with the key word ‘focus’ in the given reason generally boil down to cost-cutting. Check out the related news subsequent to those releases and you’ll see that the pattern holds pretty well.
Other common reasons for mass layoffs involve the company having made ghastly strategic mistakes that have gone on too long to be backed out of any other way – and that usually means the company has to cut costs and refocus.
Our decision to restructure the company was based on our feeling that we were moving too slowly on important strategic initiatives, so we have decided to consolidate software development in the US and combine our product and technology organizations into one.
This paragraph sounds like nonsense to me. Why? Because this is the same reason given for decentralizing and placing Linden Lab offices, and slices of software development and QA outside of the USA. I don’t think it is feasible to cite the same reason for both doing it and then undoing it. Not in the world of logic, anyway.
We have also streamlined customer support so that it can scale economically as we add users.
“economically” is a cost-cutting word. The majority of customer support is already outsourced last time the Lab told us anything about what was going on there, so apparently ‘streamlining’ here means ‘getting rid of any in-house customer support’. They’re more expensive anyway.
These decisions resulted in significant job eliminations and this tends to be what press and bloggers focus on because of the human dimension. It is indeed difficult for us to see our colleagues leaving.
Let’s assume, just for the moment, that this doesn’t involve cost-cutting. If you have a major strategic change of direction (rather than, say, cost-cutting), the first goal is to make sure that you can accommodate as many of your existing staff as you are able, even if it is in new roles and locations.
Because shedding a huge chunk of your headcount because you made a strategic error would be, you know, unethical.
I am writing to you directly because I want you to know that Second Life – and Linden Lab itself – is in very good shape. As a company, Linden Lab remains financially very stable. Our balance sheet is strong and we are well-capitalized. We will close this year with record revenue and hopefully record users, and – with your help – record user-to-user transactions and record landmass.
We shed staff in April, we shed staff in May, we laid off about 35% of our staff in June, and we’ve got ten more weeks of layoffs coming up and they’re wondering how they’re going to feed their families in this economic climate. But hey! It’s okay because we’re rolling in money!
This whole paragraph comes off as unbelievably cruel, especially juxtaposed with its predecessor.
In May, we recorded more than 1 million logged-in Residents, 37 million user hours, US$52.8 million in user-to-user transactions and 31,800 enabled regions. Second Life is sound.
Non sequitur. The conclusion does not logically follow from the provided premises. I cannot decide if it is intentional deception or just an honest mistake, so I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is a genuinely wrong-headed error.
As a platform for the world’s most robust virtual economy, Second Life remains as vibrant and healthy as ever.
Really? Facts not in evidence.
By bringing new people to Second Life, and by increasing the ways in which people can interact with the world and with the people, places, and things within it, we are paving the way for more growth.
Alas, this has not been happening in 2010. Not successfully at any rate. Plus, you promised in the first paragraph that there would be “no fundamental changes planned to our experience or platform.”
We remain committed to supporting and improving the SL Marketplace, to pushing forward on IP protection, and to growing the number of Residents that participate in the inworld economy.
Well, obviously. Otherwise the business goes under, right? The statement is irrelevant.
It is during times like this that partnerships are tested and I – as CEO – want you to know that we value our partnership with you and that Second Life and Linden Lab are solid.
Linden Lab has never treated us, the users, like partners. Maybe they believe it, but if so it would behoove them to act like it once in a while. Most of the time, we’re more like battered spouses. Hard to believe that this statement is made with any seriousness whatsoever.
This kind of transition is difficult for any company, but it need not be difficult for our customers.
But it is going to be, isn’t it?
Our restructuring leaves Linden Lab in a stronger position; Second Life remains the creative and inspiring platform it always has been.
Bland, upbeat signoff; means nothing.
So there you have it. That’s how I interpreted this message when it hit my inbox earlier this week.
It’s a good thing I am fond of the source of the message, right? Otherwise I might have thought rather more, well … harshly of the contents.
I got one of those. I think Mr. M. sent it out to concierge-level people only. Basically a plea: Keep spending money, we’re not about to go down the crapper.
But you’re completely right about the cruelty of it. And that bit about ‘partnership’… He says ‘in times like this, our partnership is tested.’ Which is to say, ‘I make your life hard, and then check to see if you can put up with it.’
Hmm. I’m only a premium account holder. Wondering why I got one. Honestly, it made me feel quite wretched.
I have a premium account and I didn’t get this email.
I have often wondered if there is a Outlook template with all the management waffle already filled in.
My last employer was able to recite it all with a straight face, I was most impressed with the delivery..the message was always rubbish..but presention…10/10.
*checks inbox*
*checks spam*
Like Shockwave, I’m a Premium account and I also did not receive this message.
Thank you for sharing both the message and your analysis. I wonder what M imagines his core business to be?
Would it have come out any different if it had gone thru the communications department first?
Interesting interpretation Tateru,
I didn’t get one either, I’m premium not concierge level. But as a broadcaster would have thought I rated a sort of press release letter…as this seems to be especially as Im likely to be doing an interview about this. Shrugs, who cares tho everyone gets to read it via online postings like this one, with all sorts of translations. One wonders what they are going to use that Press Corp group for ???? if not for this type of announcement?…
No matter how you slice it, it certainly “looks” like they need to save some bucks no matter how they spin it. If a car manufacturer cut 30% of staff, would the press say “oh they are obviously getting smarter and obviously financially sound”…ummm nope. And would you believe it, if the CEO then came out and said oh we are more profitable than ever, sorry guys to see you go….
They knew how it would look and now they are trying to dispel the natural panic that people are feeling.
Im not panicking tho should I be?
Paisley
I’m not panicking either – though the email got me wondering as to whether I should be considering it.
Honestly, I was wondering when I would see a message like this. I am in the position of having invested considerable performance income into buying land in SL. Before you fall down laughing, you should know the extent to which this was a bad idea. I had really substantial income. I concentrated on acquiring land on a mainland sim, because the first bit came cheaply. The rest hadn’t been so cheap until later. Now I have land I cannot sell, a huge drop I’m income and a fairly runious tier responsibility. I cannot be alone in this. While I still don’t mind not taking money our of the game, the prospect of putting real money in, has me pretty worried, and is decidedly NOT FUN. These layoffs are shots likely to topple the mast of the fantasy ship I have been riding. I may end up another casualty. “sigh”. You may commence the mirth.
Tateru, i perceive just a little of naive emotion in your analysis
, what makes SL different after all. Linden is now just like a silicon producer in a troubled economy, when all the masks fall down.
This is the standard reaction and messages of a business company in trouble, all company “values” and “family” concept are valid as long as the God of the Growth is satisfied: cruelty? ingratitude? loss of value, skills, talents? “yeah, but…. it is what it is” is the magic word. For the remaining the motivational farce continues.
I have heard exactly the same words by my Exec Managers every time after a significant layoff, it does not deserve the time to read or interpret it. They will use it many time in their life just mixing the words around.
Paisley, quite often the stocks of a company goes up after a a massive layoff, stockholders and investors are the only real clients and economic press is perfectly aligned on this.
This is our playground.
Exal
One of the things that particularly set my teeth on edge is where Linden Lab basically shoots down the notion of Second Life being a viable tool for business and long-distance collaboration in their press release.
I know that that’s not true. I can’t help it if Linden Lab can’t find a way to make their own product viable (for them) for the purpose that they’ve been marketing it for, nor for using that as an excuse for dropping what my rough calculations suggest will wind up at 60% of the company before they’re done.
@Exal: Purely pragmatic, I assure you
@RoseDrop Rust: You can abandon land. You can also sell it to a bot, which may or may not be worth the effort. In either case, take off all of your objects or they’ll be lost forever. Tier is “real” money and you probably don’t want to throw good money after bad.
Really hon, if paying tier is causing you a problem, cut your losses.
Like everything else I spend money on in SL, I consider owning two mainland parcels to be an entertainment expense, and even then I’m considering getting rid of one of them.
I admit your comment started me thinking of that.
*follows link* When you say “performance income,” you meant RL?!? O.o Oh honey!
I’m premium, not concierge level, and I got one of these. I think it’s just random to be honest lol. Still, anybody who hasn’t seen this stuff coming down the pipe for quite some time now has literally been staring at their feet.
Easy, I meant income from SL performance.
Yeah I read this much the same way – it’s basically BS BS BS as an excuse for making mistakes, and no mention of actually fixing any of those mistakes.
I’m Premium AND concierge level and I didn’t get one. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to who got this and who didn’t. At first I thought it was people who had posted on the official blogorums, but nope.
I would have hoped that they would have put this message out to people who had been vocal about the system of the past week. LL do not seem to be able to effectively leverage Social Media, so the painful silence from those who should speak continues (apart from wretched insular RT’ing that goes on in Twitter).
They call us partners, but they make no attempt to speak to us, or even treat us like we even exist outside of their grid. The contention that they are going to integrate social networking into the experience tickles me, as they show no evidence whatsoever of being able to use the medium, or any understanding of it.
Until LL learns to have dialogues within Social Media rather than shouting things at us, this will never succeed. I do a very competitive market rate on Social Media and community consultant rates, and I am very good, maybe they should get some help in – they seem to have removed all their good community minded people.
When I wrote this, I’d made the assumption that every user had gotten this mailout. Since it looks like the standard bulk announcement mails that the Lab uses. It’s possible that you might be able to see it here.
Tateru, you deserve a tenure-track position in my department for that cogent rhetorical analysis.
Well played, ma’am.
I missed getting it in my mail today…so thank for the link. It’s SO ripe for a parody at the Herald.
Thank you for this. I’ve seen so many blogs and news outlets taking the press release and such from M at face value, and I’m boggled by it. I’m not on the inside any more (haven’t been for a year), so obviously I don’t have any inside info. But it was so *obvious* that this letter was BS, and insulting BS. I wish I was shocked that the Linden PR people put out something so insulting to its readers claiming things are good. But you make one good point– that those who know how to read the code can read what this really is– and also I’ve seen Linden put out public statements before that are a slap in the face to their residents.
You don’t cut 30% of the staff because things are rosy. What’s more, I worked with many of those people, and know how good they are. You don’t cut those people because you’re focusing on core goals; you cut those people because you’re in financial trouble.