"Use our app or quit"
February 12, 2014 2:36 PM   Subscribe

If you're an employee at Paypal's San Jose headquarters, you may have seen this memo passed around yesterday by CEO David Marcus.
posted by Anima Mundi (17 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: "CEO grumps at employees about brand engagement" is kind of thin for a post absent some kind of compelling exceptional context. -- cortex



 
It has been brought, to my, attention, that some CEOs, refuse to use commas, correctly (!!?!?!!?!), and others, don't even know, what correct punctuation even is. That's unacceptable to me, and the rest of the world, because everyone especially CEOs should, be using commas correctly. That's the only way we can make it better, and better.
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:43 PM on February 12, 2014 [2 favorites]


It's like the Yahoo dogfood memo from a few months ago.

And they're both 100% reasonable, I think (even given that using Yahoo mail must be a kind of torture).
posted by Admiral Haddock at 2:44 PM on February 12, 2014


I'm no fan of Paypal, but it seems quite reasonable to expect employees of a company to use its products at least enough to be familiar with them.
posted by chomarui at 2:45 PM on February 12, 2014


His punctuation may be poor but his hair game is on point.
posted by wemayfreeze at 2:45 PM on February 12, 2014


The idea that employees should support and use their own product certainly makes sense, but somehow these kinds of memos always make me feel like the company is in the ditch, a little.

Oh, and...
posted by randomkeystrike at 2:46 PM on February 12, 2014


Seems like boilerplate corporate boosterism from the boss, even if it does advocate some interesting and legally-grey activities. At least he isn't apparently bullying his kids. Didn't Ballmer talk about making sure his kids were Zoonies?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:46 PM on February 12, 2014


I didn't want to admit it but yeah, damn that is some good hair.
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:46 PM on February 12, 2014 [2 favorites]


No, it doesn't make sense. Just because you work at a Ford plant, should you be required to buy a Ford even if you think they're crap and Toyotas are better?
posted by Ickster at 2:47 PM on February 12, 2014


It’s a bit ironic considering that yesterday Marcus took to Twitter to say his credit card was hacked. So clearly not all hacking is acceptable in Marcus’ book — only hacking that supports the company’s business objectives.
Really, VentureBeat?
posted by wemayfreeze at 2:47 PM on February 12, 2014


... but his hair game is on point

I didn't think anybody outside of movies did that to their hair for the last 40 years.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:47 PM on February 12, 2014


That's a terrible headshot and I can't believe someone calling himself a professional photographer charged money for it.

That is the topic, right?
posted by cribcage at 2:48 PM on February 12, 2014


Yeah this thing proposes to cover techbusiness and they don't know what "hacking" means?
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 2:48 PM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


A company should expect that people are genuinely interested and trying to improve every minute they're on the job, but expecting that people live and breathe the company on their own time is BS, and who at PayPal uses the product at work?
posted by Ickster at 2:48 PM on February 12, 2014


Why is the title of this post in quotes? I do not see anywhere that the CEO used these words. And his expectations seem reasonable to me.
posted by Brocktoon at 2:48 PM on February 12, 2014


He sounds almost as level-headed as former CEO Elon Musk, though perhaps they're striving towards treating their employees as badly as they treat their customers.
posted by fairmettle at 2:48 PM on February 12, 2014


And they're both 100% reasonable, I think (even given that using Yahoo mail must be a kind of torture).

Well, you've bumped up against the core issue, there. If you find out that most of your employees don't want to use your product, the next step is to ask why, not to threaten them. Because the answer to that question may be "because the product sucks", which would be your real problem, not your staff.
posted by middleclasstool at 2:49 PM on February 12, 2014 [2 favorites]


it seems quite reasonable to expect employees of a company to use its products at least enough to be familiar with them

Absolutely, on company devices and on company time. But I'm beginning to wish we could stop doing that thing where everyone's supposed to be an evangelist for their workplace. Like anyone really cares, outside their own marketing department.

Who needs context with hair that perfect?
posted by pipeski at 2:49 PM on February 12, 2014 [2 favorites]


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