Simas Joneliunas
Sep 3, 2018 · 1 min read

On the other hand of this is the CEO telling the team that everything is going great. However, everyone on the team is having really bad guy feeling. The morale is still there, but you can feel the storm coming.

When we confronted the CEO about that, we got more promises, more ambitious goals. As expected, it did nothing to improve the atmosphere.

Fast-forward a few weeks of strained and nervous, would even say slightly toxic, sprints the first wave of layoffs came. Without any warning 50% of the team was sacked on the sprint kickoff.

Further story is not relevant, and i think this kind of development is pretty common in the startup world, but while you cant lay all of your cards on the table, as a CEO you should maintain a certain level of clarity.

Until you get to that scaling stretch, your employees are your family, not human resource, and you should treat us as such. We are also running on emotions and if we feel that the ship is sinking, it is up to you, CEO, whether we will work together to plug the hole or scramble around looking for a safety boat.

    Simas Joneliunas

    Written by

    I’m a web architect, an android developer, and a machine learning engineer. I work to change the world and to make it a more fun place to be.