Seeing some of the back & forth among HN'ers about "laid off" vs "fired" as a lie vs truth, I think it's worth clearning up a particular point.
Yes, being "laid off" is different from "fired" but the ex-employee (dehrmann) actually did say he was fired. He just said it in a very roundabout way. He wasn't using "laid off" in its most obvious definition.
dehrmann said: "I was laid off...no reason...some management doesn't like feedback..." which is his euphemism for saying "fired".
(sidebar: If one is a high profile employee such as an NFL coach or big shot CEO, he/she can simply and directly tell journalists, friends, etc that "I was fired"[2]. For some psychological reason, every one else from middle management down to line workers have a defensive mechanism to avoid the word "fired" and use softer language.)
TheOsiris[1] was of the few readers that picked up on the poster's roundabout language. Many others did not parse it correctly. Unfortunately, the Reddit CEO also didn't interpret it correctly and so he thought he had to correct dehrmann by saying "you were FIRED for the following reasons..." So, a misunderstanding by yishan for not recognizing his ex-employee's strung out phrasing of "yes I was fired" unfortunately lead to the (unnecessary) boldface of "fired" in his response.
Anyways, we can set aside the "laid off vs fired" and recognize that the real disagreement is whether the ex-employee and the the company parted ways because of management retaliation about charity strategy, or because a lack of work productivity.
Yes, being "laid off" is different from "fired" but the ex-employee (dehrmann) actually did say he was fired. He just said it in a very roundabout way. He wasn't using "laid off" in its most obvious definition.
dehrmann said: "I was laid off...no reason...some management doesn't like feedback..." which is his euphemism for saying "fired".
(sidebar: If one is a high profile employee such as an NFL coach or big shot CEO, he/she can simply and directly tell journalists, friends, etc that "I was fired"[2]. For some psychological reason, every one else from middle management down to line workers have a defensive mechanism to avoid the word "fired" and use softer language.)
TheOsiris[1] was of the few readers that picked up on the poster's roundabout language. Many others did not parse it correctly. Unfortunately, the Reddit CEO also didn't interpret it correctly and so he thought he had to correct dehrmann by saying "you were FIRED for the following reasons..." So, a misunderstanding by yishan for not recognizing his ex-employee's strung out phrasing of "yes I was fired" unfortunately lead to the (unnecessary) boldface of "fired" in his response.
Anyways, we can set aside the "laid off vs fired" and recognize that the real disagreement is whether the ex-employee and the the company parted ways because of management retaliation about charity strategy, or because a lack of work productivity.
[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8417769
[2]http://www.siliconbeat.com/2008/06/10/fiorina-to-nyt-i-layed...