I've seen it happening time and time again in similar companies, and this is a symptom of a problem at the upper levels, which means it won't change.

C-level set goals are abstract and generic, or sometimes plain naive, and this is often coming from generic requests from the board or VCs.

"Hire as many developers as you can, even if there's no work right now", a Softbank request.

"Don't build, just acquire similar products", from a Brazilian capital management that ended up killing that company.

"Kill this team, their product doesn't sell. I don't care if all our other product depends on theirs", from Francisco Partners.

Employees who stay can't really rock the boat, so it self-selects for non-boat-rocking people. Rockstars who stay must adapt or suffer. Eventually you get so many bad people that you do layoffs.

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reactordev 9 hours ago | parent [-]

The thread in all of them is that the CEO listened to other people’s advice instead of leading themselves. When a ship loses its captain…

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whstl 6 hours ago | parent [-]

That's a good point.

If the CEO is just a parrot repeating what the board says, you get a company full of parrots too. No pirate to guide the ship.

	▲	reactordev 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The best CEOs I’ve seen balance board requests with what they themselves want to do and where they see their market going. Standing on the shoreline when the armada of prospects come sailing in for provisions. When there’s a gold rush, sell pickaxes and shovels.