Ted commented on his Valleywag entry
January 29, 2007Ted Cahall posted a comment onto the somewhat unflattering Valleywag entry about him. I must say that’s pretty adult of him, in his shoes I might not have been brave enough to do the same.
Of course his posting doesn’t address his anger-management issues, all the yelling and threatening he did at work. All the people who complained about him to HR. On those topics he is strangely silent.
But I can’t really blame him. Clearly the fact that he lasted as long as he did at CNET was precisely because the company wanted him around. HR ignored all the employee complaints because senior management wanted somebody like him to drive short-term efficiency into the IT group no matter the long-term consequences. They allowed his behavior because it was a means to an end, forcing maximum output from an ever-shrinking staff.
Somehow I don’t think that works in the long run though. You look at Google’s success and it’s not about forcing people to work hard by intimidation. They’ve created a workplace where people actually want to spend evenings and weekends working hard for the company. The exact opposite of the environment Ted created at CNET, where people wanted to flee as soon as the economy started creating opportunities to leave.