> 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.
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.
"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
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.
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.
> 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.
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.
Have the look at language for a second... lots of personal pronouns suggests hostility, rejection, and scorn. And a lack of consideration of another's perspective suggests a lack of theory of mind. Let us know how that works out in the real world apart from bullying people online.
It’s not an “accusation.” It’s personal experience, and, sadly, one that you may also have, one day. In fact, more than one of the “interviewers” was pretty explicit about it. It was made quite clear, that, even if I was hired, I’d be treated pretty badly.
Not only that, I think that younger folks would also be treated fairly badly, and that the workplace, in general, has changed dramatically from what I knew. It seems a far colder, more hostile environment than it used to be. People make a lot of money these days, but it appears that comes with a human cost.
It made the decision to stop looking for work, fairly easy. I want to keep doing what I do, but I don’t want to deal with my work being treated badly.
Despite its illegality, many firms are quite open about ageism. There was one, in NYC, that used to run ads, that basically said “Bros only.” May still be running them. I don’t know (It was one of those places that has a permanent “Help Wanted” sign). You would not see the same, wrt to race, religion, or gender.
It’s an open secret, and SV plastic surgeons are doing great business on Friday neck-pulls.
But it’s no longer my problem. Since "retiring," I’ve been doing a lot of work for free, for outfits that can’t afford folks like me, and it’s really been a great experience. I’ve probably done more work, in the last seven years, than I did, in the twenty before. My GH activity graph is pretty green, and it’s not difficult to see what I’m up to. The scope of my work is necessarily smaller, but I stay busy, and learn new stuff, every day. It’s a joy.
I’m quite fortunate that I had the means to drop out. I would not have made the decision to do it on my own, and needed to be pushed from the nest, so it has all been good.
I made the decision, some time ago, to not return the favor. I try to treat others with respect and kindness, whether or not they choose to respond in kind. I try to model the behavior I would like to see more of in others. I’m quite capable of being a real troll, but find that type of behavior to be emotionally corrosive (both to me, and to others). It doesn’t improve anything.
This is a professional venue. I may not be looking for work, but many others are, and I’d like to support them in treating others well, and finding the joy and rewards in the work and the personal relationships we make, as I was fortunate enough to do. It’s been a signal Honor to work with some of the people I’ve assisted. I have found that looking at others as teachers and potential friends, as opposed to competitors, has made my career richer.
I would suggest that decent behavior here, could translate into great opportunity. There’s a lot of very influential people that hang out here, and I’m sure that they pay attention to how we play with others.
It's also entirely possible that I'm just a "quaint anachronism," and today's workplace is more akin to Gladiator, than I'd like to admit. I hope that's not the case.
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.
> 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.
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.
CEO of what? His company doesn't employ anyone, people working for him are basically volunteers
They can't "fire" someone if they're volunteers working for hopium, but they did teach them not to be so foolish.
"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
The remaining 11 should see this as a sign of what's to come and quit.
> mostly unpaid remote part-timers
Wait a second?
You cannot fire people you don't actually employ.
to quote a disgraced geography teacher: Christ Alive, what a cunt !!!
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.
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.
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.
> 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.
Have the look at language for a second... lots of personal pronouns suggests hostility, rejection, and scorn. And a lack of consideration of another's perspective suggests a lack of theory of mind. Let us know how that works out in the real world apart from bullying people online.
The accusation of ageism jumped out immediately.
It’s not an “accusation.” It’s personal experience, and, sadly, one that you may also have, one day. In fact, more than one of the “interviewers” was pretty explicit about it. It was made quite clear, that, even if I was hired, I’d be treated pretty badly.
Not only that, I think that younger folks would also be treated fairly badly, and that the workplace, in general, has changed dramatically from what I knew. It seems a far colder, more hostile environment than it used to be. People make a lot of money these days, but it appears that comes with a human cost.
It made the decision to stop looking for work, fairly easy. I want to keep doing what I do, but I don’t want to deal with my work being treated badly.
Despite its illegality, many firms are quite open about ageism. There was one, in NYC, that used to run ads, that basically said “Bros only.” May still be running them. I don’t know (It was one of those places that has a permanent “Help Wanted” sign). You would not see the same, wrt to race, religion, or gender.
It’s an open secret, and SV plastic surgeons are doing great business on Friday neck-pulls.
But it’s no longer my problem. Since "retiring," I’ve been doing a lot of work for free, for outfits that can’t afford folks like me, and it’s really been a great experience. I’ve probably done more work, in the last seven years, than I did, in the twenty before. My GH activity graph is pretty green, and it’s not difficult to see what I’m up to. The scope of my work is necessarily smaller, but I stay busy, and learn new stuff, every day. It’s a joy.
I’m quite fortunate that I had the means to drop out. I would not have made the decision to do it on my own, and needed to be pushed from the nest, so it has all been good.
I made the decision, some time ago, to not return the favor. I try to treat others with respect and kindness, whether or not they choose to respond in kind. I try to model the behavior I would like to see more of in others. I’m quite capable of being a real troll, but find that type of behavior to be emotionally corrosive (both to me, and to others). It doesn’t improve anything.
This is a professional venue. I may not be looking for work, but many others are, and I’d like to support them in treating others well, and finding the joy and rewards in the work and the personal relationships we make, as I was fortunate enough to do. It’s been a signal Honor to work with some of the people I’ve assisted. I have found that looking at others as teachers and potential friends, as opposed to competitors, has made my career richer.
I would suggest that decent behavior here, could translate into great opportunity. There’s a lot of very influential people that hang out here, and I’m sure that they pay attention to how we play with others.
It's also entirely possible that I'm just a "quaint anachronism," and today's workplace is more akin to Gladiator, than I'd like to admit. I hope that's not the case.
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.