Mozilla is trying to push me out because I have cancer – CPO

Engywuck@lemm.ee to Technology@lemmy.world – 216 points –
Mozilla is trying to push me out because I have cancer – CPO
theregister.com
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Yeah, I'm gonna wait a bit before bringing out the pitchforks.

A plaintiff in a civil suit can allege anything they want, but that doesn't mean they're being 100% truthful. Any lawyer will slant the facts as much as possible to make their client look as injured as they can to garner the most sympathy- that's just lawyering 101. We have his version of events but don't have Mozilla's, but the fact that he's publicly shit-talking the company (rather than let the legal process play out) doesn't cast him in a good light IMO.

Did you read the article? It seems like they had a plan to make him CEO, he got sick, they quickly found an interim CEO, and the moment he got back:

On the day Teixeira returned to his job, it's claimed, he was instructed to lead a company-wide layoff of 50 people, 40 of whom were in his MozProd organization.

Followed by:

"Mr Teixeira had ethical concerns regarding the layoffs because they were primarily motivated by a desire to increase profit margins at Mozilla, which was already operating at a profit," the complaint claims. "Mr Teixeira viewed this as antithetical to Mozilla’s values as espoused on their website: 'We're backed by a non-profit, which means we prioritize the interests of people first, not corporate profits.'"

They continue to retaliate against him by denying him bonus, and trying to maneuver him into a demotion. They even had the shitty audacity to say like "well this frees up time for your cancer treatments" which at that point he wasn’t getting anymore.

The complaint claims that Teixeira, appointed in August 2022, helped reverse the decade-long decline of Firefox, which generates about 90 percent of Mozilla's revenue and is the company's only profitable product. He's further credited with growing Mozilla's advertising business, and AI capabilities, and with reducing investment in the money-losing Pocket service.

Sounds to me like they’re just being really shitty to this guy who has done a lot for the company in general and was on his way to CEO before the poor behavior of these two (Chambers and Chehak).

Yes, yes I did. That doesn't change anything I said. You've only repeated his claims (which his complaint can say literally anything), we don't have Mozilla's side, and he shouldn't be saying a word about this suit to the press.

We do have the additional context outside the story that under the interim CEO Mozilla has made two other unpopular decisions:

  • Bought an AdTech company
  • Added AI features to Firefox

Yup, I'm guessing there's some sort of GoFundMe angle here.

That may be warranted, I just want more facts first. People like to play the victim to garner sympathy, and I want to make sure that's not happening here.

Any decent lawyer will tell you to shut the fuck up once you've filed a suit, so as I see it there are three possible scenarios here:

  1. He's too stupid to listen to his lawyers.
  2. His lawyers are too stupid to advise him to shut up.
  3. They're trying a public pressure campaign against Mozilla to get Mozilla to capitulate before their case goes too far. They're hoping that the headlines of "Mozilla hates cancer patients!" will cause enough bad press that Mozilla will want to get the case over with quicker by settling sooner, especially if Teixiera doesn't have a very strong case.

Yup, 3 is basically what I'm thinking, but potentially with Teixiera looking for money in some way (i.e. maybe getting hired elsewhere?).

But I want to hear Mozilla's side before really forming that opinion. I've heard Teixiera's side of the story, and I've looked into potential motivations, now I want to hear the opposing side to decide which is the simplest explanation.

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