Besides having to show up, everyone’s least favorite part of having a job is the potential for layoffs. Layoffs are a stressful and complicated process that the employees often have little control over. So imagine while having little control over your future the CEO tries to not only “relate” to the laid-off employees, but also contradicts themselves throughout. Well, that is exactly what Jack Dorsey did when he announced layoffs that were happening at Twitter (now known as X). 
In the memo, Dorsey starts off by acknowledging how messages like this can be filled with corporate language and how he promises to not do that and “Give it Straight”. Dorsey then gave it as straight as a circle, detailing the company’s entire future plans. Even when the memo does get to announcing the teams being laid off and which departments it affects the most, it requires a little bit of interpreting to figure out, and throughout the message never admits that they are layoffs and instead tries to soften the message by using terms like “streamlining” and “part ways”. To then add icing onto the cake Dorsey includes 2 paragraphs expressing gratitude for the work of the employees and shows sorrow for having to let them go but fails to include any information about when the layoffs are expected to take place, if anything will be done for those laid off, or even how many specific people across each department are being laid off.
While I understand there may be many corporate or legal reasons that this language is used by Dorsey in the memo. That does not negate the fact that he opened it up promising the very thing he proceeded to do the entire memo. When it comes to writing corporate messages from an exec to an employee it needs to be understood that the exec can’t relate to the employee since they do not have that same risk of their livelihood being taken away. This mistake is exactly what Dorsey got wrong, by trying to be relatable at the beginning and following it immediately with corporate speak it ruined any level of trust that could be had with his writing. Instead what people want in these situations is how likely they are affected and what to do if they are affected. Employees who are getting laid off are not going to care about the future of the company, they just need to get straightforward information.
This blog post really caught my attention and made me open my eyes to the corporate world. I agree with you that CEOs cannot relate to their employees in most situations, and this was especially clear in the Twitter layoff letter by Jack Dorsey. When overusing business jargon and beating around the bush, as seen in the Twitter letter, employees will be distracted and finish reading the letter with a bad taste in their mouth. I wonder in certain scenarios if CEOs do relate to their employees? In my previous work experience, my bosses have mostly been very kind and treat me as an equal. Of course, being a CEO is a bit different, but do you think there are any out there who truly, deeply relate to people “lower” than them on the corporate ladder?
I totally agree with everything you stated. Dorsey did a poor job of relating to the laid off workers. It is not an easy decision to make but that doesn’t give you the right to say “but it was right”. He is disrespecting all the employees and neglecting all their hard work and dedication over the years. I also agree that he was not straight to the point and I liked the sentence where you compared his message to a circle, because quite frankly, that’s exactly what it is. I agree that he needs to be more straight to the point and tell the employees what is actually going on. He rambles on too long about what the company is trying to do, rather than explaining the real news trying to be conveyed.
I also found what Dorsey to be disrespectful as he went back on his words not even a sentence later after claiming to be straight forward. Another thing I think lost him trust was when he said “We will honor them by doing our best to serve all the people that use Twitter”. That’s tasteless. He is telling others to work their best because others got laid off, in my comprehension of the statement.
I totally agree with you that he didn’t give the information straight but just talking in circles about how the company’s operations, which like you said need to interpret a little to understand. In addition, I think he barely expressing emotions in his writing, which is a bit disagreeing with you, but I think you are right on he didn’t mention any information related to when the layoff, or what the people’s getting for the layoff, he just briefly mentioned it, which pissed me off if I’m the employee there. How will you change his memo so that it will be a better one?