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Goodbye, Oskar Linden


Lindal Kidd
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A phone call in the middle of the night? Vague grounds for dismissal?

I wish I could understand Linden Lab. It all started so well six years ago, then something happened and the company fell apart. Does anyone know the inside story? Is it a problem with the Board of Directors? Senior management? Both? I'd really appreciate some links to explain how such a promising company with such an amazing product got so messed up.


ETA:

Tangentially related, I found this link:

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/10/linden-lab-2005-second-life-2nd-anniversary.html#more

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(Time for one of the resident Doom-n-Gloomers to weigh in .. however I will try to stay out of the quagmire ...)

What struck me most about Oskar's description of his termination was the lack of advance notice and the manner in which it was delivered. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but the usual professional approach to a termination is to provide some form of advance notice and to deliver news of this magnitude with a face-to-face discussion. There are of course exceptions, such as when an employee violates the Employment Moral Clause or some other similar egregious event precludes such protocols. Oskar does seem to indicate that LL's "Cause" for his termination was a conflict with a customer .. and that could perhaps be the precipitating event.

The "Skype Call" may have been the only form of face-to-face possible; I'm not familiar with how close to the home office he is located, so perhaps he could not be summoned in to the office to deliver the news. I'm willing to give a little ground there, especially in today's age of the Distributed Company.

But even with the above, I find it unsettling that there seems to have been little effort made to fully explain the circumstances. If Oskar did have a run-in of monumental proportions with a customer .. one that reached such a high pitch that LL felt their only recourse was to terminate him rapidly, I would have expected there to be more emotion in Oskar's post on SLU.

Ah well, the bottom line is that we know only the one side. Most definitely LL isn't going to chime in to justify their own decision. (Nor should they need to.)

Yet this feels ... wrong. I can't lay hard evidence on any one thing that brings me to that feeling, I can only state that no matter how I try to look at this incident, I keep arriving at a sensation of something more at play than some rapidly developing situation that could only be resolved with a termination.

We have seen LL make some radical changes in their management, employee cross-section, product support and development targets. We have watched the steady decline in "old blood" that had a solid understanding of the SL product and customer base. Rodvik has given very little voice to the future of SL itself, while at the same time putting a lot of effort into promoting their new titles and direction.

Perhaps this is just "one of those things" that happen in every company, and it really has no more significance than the accidental spilling of a cup of tea. And yet, I can't shake this feeling that this is another paper clip in the slowly building chain toward some sort of very significant final action.

Well .. whatever .. Oskar? Best of luck on your next landing spot. I can safely report that there are many times in life where the events we feel at the moment are very hurtful or damaging, can eventually turn into the best detours possible.

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can only go by what Oskar said himself. as you say linden never going to comment

based on what he write himself seems to me that Oskar view for SL and linden view been diverging for a while

has happened in  the past with other linden staff. something have to give when this happens. and like the reisdents then can know who do the giving. is same in any company this tho. is not just a linden disease

+

he done ok job did Oskar. he will be ok whereever he go from here

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Wow, he Imed lucinda a week or so ago, about her chat in the mesh group, he was clearly on the side of those attacking lucinda, so I didn't have a good view of him, he said he might ban luci from the mesh group, I stopped using the sandbox after our chat, but the odd thing is this is the third linden to be sacked a week or so after imming luci, this is very odd, I will try imming myself and see if I get banned, lots of you may have found him ok but I found him hostile to me and one of the reasons as to why I am giving up on sl. with him and the hostile red tops it was getting all to much.

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Boudicca Littlebird wrote:

Wow, he Imed lucinda a week ago, about her chat in the mesh group, he was clearly on the side of those attacking lucinda, so i didnt have a good view of him, he said he might ban luci from the mesh group, i stopped using the sandbox after our chat, but the odd thing is this is the third linden to be sacked a week or so after imming luci, this is very odd, i will try imming myself and see if i get banned, lots of you may have found him ok but i found him hostile to me and one of the reasons as to why i am giving up on sl. with him and the hostile red tops it was getting all to much.

 

 

 

Lucinda was spreading false accusations as usual

I seen the whole thing in the particular group chat you refer to. Pies and lies Luci

 

If he did message you It was because she/U were way out of line as many seen it. For  which he was defending the lab.

The chat was off topic also

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Wow your hostile enough to be a red top, have you applied for one, what lies was luci saying? Give some evidence, you were there when the fight started, let me explain, my comments were aimed at self serving people in the group and seemed to have hit target, you didn't comment but it is clear I caught you to in the net, LOL, not bad for a crackpot a, anyway lets have some proof of these lies.

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It's normal not to give any notice when the person being sacked would have the ability to screw things up if s/he were allowed to work through a period of notice. It's the best way of doing it, and it's perfectly acceptable. Payment in lieu of notice is the norm in those circumstances.

I can't imagine that it had anything to do with banning a griefer - if the person really was a griefer, of course. It wouldn't make any sort of sense. It's more likely to be the simple expedient of cutting down on a costly salary, imo.

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Boudicca Littlebird wrote:

Wow, he Imed lucinda a week or so ago, about her chat in the mesh group, he was clearly on the side of those attacking lucinda, so I didn't have a good view of him, he said he might ban luci from the mesh group, I stopped using the sandbox after our chat,
but the odd thing is this is the third linden to be sacked a week or so after imming luci
, this is very odd, I will try imming myself and see if I get banned, lots of you may have found him ok but I found him hostile to me and one of the reasons as to why I am giving up on sl. with him and the hostile red tops it was getting all to much.

You wouldn't be trying to claim some sort of power, would you? :D

Oskar wasn't unusual if you found him being hostile to you. A lot of people are hostile to you but you know that already and it doesn't have any effect.

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Phil Deakins wrote:

I can't imagine that it had anything to do with banning a griefer - if the person really was a griefer, of course. It wouldn't make any sort of sense. It's more likely to be the simple expedient of cutting down on a costly salary, imo.

This is the explanation that Oskar has said he himself was given (and yes, I'm sceptical of that as the true reason as well) - details over at the SLU thread, or see a copy of that statement in the blog entry referenced in the first post in this thread.

 

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I did read that blog entry. I've no doubt that Oskar banning someone for griefing caused something or he wouldn't have majored on it, but, unless the person was not a griefer, it doesn't make any sense to sack him over it. Even if the person wasn't a griefer and Oskar made a mistake, it's not a big enough issue to sack him over. So I dismiss the idea that it was solely due to him banning someone. Of course, it's possible that him banning the person started a snowball rolling that got so big that it led to him being sacked.

I'm also mindful that, what Oskar writes about it, must be biased somewhat as he's in the period when he actually feels negative about it all, as was made clear by his sarcastic description of LL at the end of his statement. My money is on something much more mundane than the griefer idea - either cutting costs, or the gradual build-up of multiple small things.

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What? Hostile towards my market place shop? Hostile towards talking about my market place shop? Nonsense. I've never had a market place shop. I've had, and still have, an inworld store if that eases your confusion, and, yes, it's still making plenty of sales, thank you :)

I'm not siding with anyone. I made a simple statement of fact, without bias. A lot of people are hostile towards you, as is clearly seen in this forum. Simples.

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We should not believe a word of what Oskar Linden said in that statement. He just got fired. He is not an idiot, he is not going to go onto a public forum and reveal the real reasons as to why his employment was so suddenly terminated. That is something that future employers could read and it could jeopardise his chances of getting another job, plus it is none of our business. Nope, he did exactly what he should of done, he came up with a couple of vague unverifiable reasons that didn't really make sense, portraying himself as the victim in the whole scenario. It is exactly what I would have done in his position.

Best of Luck Oskar!

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I have no need for you to believe me, I make these statements for posterity, your comment of my theory of evolution is what I expect, for without it how can I stand there with the greats, do I first need to be burnt at the stake before I am seen as any good, you stand there with the 14th century church with a torch in your had ready to burn all those that contradict the church.

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