More CNET layoffs last week
March 31, 2008I haven’t had a Google alert set up on “CNET” for quite some time, thus I missed the news last week about another round of layoffs. Hit pretty close to home, a fair number of the folks I worked with recently at TechRepublic got hit.
The one that surprised me most was probably the Trivia Geek. I mean, the claim is CNET wants to focus even more on creating content. So they lay off a guy who generates some of the most popular discussion and newsletter content? Makes the rest of the CEO’s memo ring a bit hollow.
I noticed in that same memo that Ned Rhinelander got promoted. He always seems to get promoted right before or as part of major layoffs. I know it seemed to happen several times while I was with the company, to the point where if Ned got promoted you took it as a sign of layoffs coming. I don’t think it’s his fault, he really is a good guy and very smart technically. He just unfortunately seems to be a major beneficiary of layoffs at CNET.
But I guess that’s how it goes — some people get hurt by the layoffs and inevitably some people come out better. Just funny that sometimes it’s the same people who keep benefitting time and again from these events.
I just hope this latest re-alignment really does help the company. They need to stop this pattern of laying off and re-aligning every 18 months or so. It doesn’t look good, it looks like maybe management is just thrashing around trying to grasp at any new strategy once they realize the current one isn’t working.