Auth0 truly did an amazing job on hiring for culture, being transparent and living their values.
The pre-acquisition Glassdoor reviews were astounding and back this up.
For myself, working at auth0 was truly life altering. It was the first time I was in a long standing multi-national environment.
It was the first time I was deeply exposed to other cultures and ways of living.
As a side effect of working at Auth0, This exposure completely reshaped my worldview and thoughts on luck and privilege. Watching Argentina inflation fluctuate as people I spent 8 hours a day with struggle to pay their bills and provide for their families as I live stably with no worry I really internalized how much pure raw luck plays in setting us up for life: Who we’re born to and where we’re born.
I traveled some in college to not so tourist friendly places and then worked as an expat in IT and I feel so fortunate for the same takeaways I am bitter and cynical as an American but defend the other at home and abroad because it made me keenly aware of our shared perspective It always makes me often wallow in guilt it took a privileged family to kick that off and let me learn it far away and not build up such empathy at home.
When I read shared experiences like ours on the Internet it reminds me of what I think is the one true value of this tool for humanity I wish it was used for that the majority of the time by most people but oh well!
Word choice can help your thinking. We all receive different struggles and decide how to respond.
The way you describe your 'luck', I read as "random good fortune" tinged with some guilt for being a 'have' when there are so many 'have-not's.
I prefer 'blessed', and not in the corny #blessed way, to describe my condition. To me, I was given much because so much is expected of me by God, by universe and by my higher self.
The extent to which I am blessed is a component of my calling to improve the total human condition.
If you lean in to that way of thinking, you obligate yourself and that can be as heavy a burden as you choose to make it. That choice and the freedom to decide how to fulfill that obligation are a part of the blessing.
To naval gaze and feel guilt is natural but fruitless stinkin' thinkin'. Motivating oneself with gratitude and humbling oneself by giving glory are ways to power through guilt.
> I prefer 'blessed', and not in the corny #blessed way, to describe my condition. To me, I was given much because so much is expected of me by God, by universe and by my higher self.
How do you avoid this leading to a feeling that you, and anyone else "blessed", is more important that others? Should we really assume that the condition of one's life is an indicator of both the existence of a higher power and of that person's relative importance to it?
> I was still caught a bit off guard. What about that high-priority project I was helping to lead? What about the training I was scheduled to deliver? What about the offsite next month?
This is the part that always confuses me. I understand why they treat employees as disposable, but it's like they don't care about continuation of business either.
I feel like everytime I've quit a job, I cared more about my succession plan than my employer just because I have professional standards I set for myself. It makes no sense to me.
> and learned an enormous amount about what it means to build and run a people-first company
Seems at odds with this bit at the beginning:
> And then it happened, I got the email. Slack didn't work. My laptop restarted and came back with accounts missing. It really, actually happened. And even though the writing seemed to be on the wall, I was still caught a bit off guard.
This industry (not specifically this company) fires people in a way that is not as people-first as all of the declarations make out.
If people want it to be people first through and through... know that every right that you ever had was earned through a union.
> and learned an enormous amount about what it means to build and run a people-first company
He's talking about Auth0.
> And then it happened, I got the email. Slack didn't work. My laptop restarted and came back with accounts missing. It really, actually happened. And even though the writing seemed to be on the wall, I was still caught a bit off guard.
Talking about how that culture no longer existed -- it's fully Okta now. The Auth0 culture essentially erroded until it finally just no longer existed. This of course happened at a different pace across differnt organizations. Unfortunately, I'd say ours was probably one of the earliest to get hit.
---
As an aside, I was part of same team (also laid off), and had an especially unique viewpoint.
I joined Auth0 in 2020 -- months before the acquisition. I joined because of the culture and the amazing people I get to work with and learn from. I had a lot of fun and we built some amazing things. After about 18 months I decided to join a local startup, itching to get back to a much smaller arena, building something from the ground up. Applying all the great things I've learned in my career thus far. Long story short, as most starups go, especially during COVID, it didn't pan out.
I kept in touch with my old colleagues, now my friends, who approached me with a potential new opportunity. They did warn me things were different now, but I was excited to get to work with great people again.
Coming back it was starkly different. Gone was the magic that was once there. A lot of familiar faces were still around, but so too were a lot gone now. I can feel the beating of the Okta drums more loudly now.. there just felt a lot of separation between leadership and us dreamers at the bottom. I felt like I was just back at a corporate company now, more worried about writing OKRs and how they made my boss/division look good verses actually making our customers lives better. There was a constant dread in the air.. verses excitement.
It's strange, but in some ways its almost like a feeling of mourning. That meme about not knowing when you're in the good old days is very true. Goodbye Auth0 <3
That wasn't my point, my point was firing someone via email is heartless, and that employers should have the decency to speak to a person and let them know why.
The system access can still be removed at the same time.
You trusted them with that access yesterday, and they are not being fired for cause (eg. stealing company secrets), so why don't you trust them today?
This sort of thing only really happens in US companies (see lots of other comments in this thread on this), and maybe that should be a clue this isn't "security practice".
as a potential client, they were also night and day different. I had great sales conversations with Auth0, and they had so many easy to follow examples, tutorials, etc. Very helpful engineers on the call, who asked questions about our environments, etc.
A sales call with Okta just left me feeling dirty. It felt a lot like my sales calls when I was an Oracle customer. All about how many products they could push on us, no good technical explanations, and of course, huge pressure to 'sign this contract before the end of the month to get this great price'.
I wanted to go with Auth0, but then they got aquired, and we just said hell no.
> know that every right that you ever had was earned through a union
This really isn't true. Lots of these perks are because there was loads of money sloshing around, and a competitive hiring environment drove the culture to be as attractive as possible for employees.
It has been interesting to read the comments here. At places I've worked I've always worked my full notice (usually months), however when other people have quit they've been locked out of their systems, and some escorted from the premises. Perhaps I come across as a naïve/nice/non-malicious. My roles have always been in some of the most sensitive positions within organisations. Often without a clear successor so perhaps the worry was about not being able to fix things if I was to become disgruntled. (Or simply not knowing if they could lock me out... as crazy as that sounds!)
That was brilliantly written and summarised. Seems that Auth0 really did walk the walk in terms of developer experience and support. Thanks and good luck!
> I was being exposed to engineering concepts that just weren't a thing in agency work: unit testing, CI/CD, git hygiene, release management.
As someone who’s worked at an agency that’s grown from twenty engineers to hundreds over the last five years, what? Even when we were small and scrappy we still wrote unit tests…
My experience was 100% different (but also 6+ years ago). Margins just weren't enough to build it into estimates and it was nearly impossible to sell it to clients as a line item.
It's difficult to find a good balance between engaging with your work and colleagues, and the reality that your employer-employee relationship is a business relationship that could be severed at any time. Reading this post reminds me of that.
I can’t help but wonder about all the people who can’t express themselves as well as this Author. No shade on them, Im glad to have read about their journey. But the cynical part of me wonders about all the other affected folks, and what their perspective was about their tenure.
This was on my mind when I published it. I know, personally, other folks who did not have as fond of a memory as I do and others who are in a tough spot because of these layoffs (visa issues, financial hardships, etc). I certainly don't mean to imply that I represent all views here but it seems to have resonated with a lot of my former colleagues (who were the audience for this post).
I yawn at these posts because you should expect in life to be churned and when flavourless thrown out. Pick yourself up and move on.
Should I care that someone worked at Auth0, SpaceX, Amazon or Google when they're just another company that pays you money? How is it any different to where I work?
I've done them all, banks, animation studio, enterprise, corporate, sme, porn and can tell you every single one is the same.
It's the corps vision of fairy dust that alludes the employee wrong is what. "Work for us and live a life of wonders and giggles *"
Readit News
The pre-acquisition Glassdoor reviews were astounding and back this up.
For myself, working at auth0 was truly life altering. It was the first time I was in a long standing multi-national environment.
It was the first time I was deeply exposed to other cultures and ways of living.
As a side effect of working at Auth0, This exposure completely reshaped my worldview and thoughts on luck and privilege. Watching Argentina inflation fluctuate as people I spent 8 hours a day with struggle to pay their bills and provide for their families as I live stably with no worry I really internalized how much pure raw luck plays in setting us up for life: Who we’re born to and where we’re born.
When I read shared experiences like ours on the Internet it reminds me of what I think is the one true value of this tool for humanity I wish it was used for that the majority of the time by most people but oh well!
The way you describe your 'luck', I read as "random good fortune" tinged with some guilt for being a 'have' when there are so many 'have-not's.
I prefer 'blessed', and not in the corny #blessed way, to describe my condition. To me, I was given much because so much is expected of me by God, by universe and by my higher self.
The extent to which I am blessed is a component of my calling to improve the total human condition.
If you lean in to that way of thinking, you obligate yourself and that can be as heavy a burden as you choose to make it. That choice and the freedom to decide how to fulfill that obligation are a part of the blessing.
To naval gaze and feel guilt is natural but fruitless stinkin' thinkin'. Motivating oneself with gratitude and humbling oneself by giving glory are ways to power through guilt.
How do you avoid this leading to a feeling that you, and anyone else "blessed", is more important that others? Should we really assume that the condition of one's life is an indicator of both the existence of a higher power and of that person's relative importance to it?
This is the part that always confuses me. I understand why they treat employees as disposable, but it's like they don't care about continuation of business either.
I feel like everytime I've quit a job, I cared more about my succession plan than my employer just because I have professional standards I set for myself. It makes no sense to me.
There’s almost no single person, project, process, or piece of knowledge that is truly existential to a moderate sized organization.
> and learned an enormous amount about what it means to build and run a people-first company
Seems at odds with this bit at the beginning:
> And then it happened, I got the email. Slack didn't work. My laptop restarted and came back with accounts missing. It really, actually happened. And even though the writing seemed to be on the wall, I was still caught a bit off guard.
This industry (not specifically this company) fires people in a way that is not as people-first as all of the declarations make out.
If people want it to be people first through and through... know that every right that you ever had was earned through a union.
Fairly clear to me.
He's talking about Auth0.
> And then it happened, I got the email. Slack didn't work. My laptop restarted and came back with accounts missing. It really, actually happened. And even though the writing seemed to be on the wall, I was still caught a bit off guard.
Talking about how that culture no longer existed -- it's fully Okta now. The Auth0 culture essentially erroded until it finally just no longer existed. This of course happened at a different pace across differnt organizations. Unfortunately, I'd say ours was probably one of the earliest to get hit.
---
As an aside, I was part of same team (also laid off), and had an especially unique viewpoint.
I joined Auth0 in 2020 -- months before the acquisition. I joined because of the culture and the amazing people I get to work with and learn from. I had a lot of fun and we built some amazing things. After about 18 months I decided to join a local startup, itching to get back to a much smaller arena, building something from the ground up. Applying all the great things I've learned in my career thus far. Long story short, as most starups go, especially during COVID, it didn't pan out.
I kept in touch with my old colleagues, now my friends, who approached me with a potential new opportunity. They did warn me things were different now, but I was excited to get to work with great people again.
Coming back it was starkly different. Gone was the magic that was once there. A lot of familiar faces were still around, but so too were a lot gone now. I can feel the beating of the Okta drums more loudly now.. there just felt a lot of separation between leadership and us dreamers at the bottom. I felt like I was just back at a corporate company now, more worried about writing OKRs and how they made my boss/division look good verses actually making our customers lives better. There was a constant dread in the air.. verses excitement.
It's strange, but in some ways its almost like a feeling of mourning. That meme about not knowing when you're in the good old days is very true. Goodbye Auth0 <3
Leaving terminated employees with access to sensitive systems is poor security practice.
The system access can still be removed at the same time.
This sort of thing only really happens in US companies (see lots of other comments in this thread on this), and maybe that should be a clue this isn't "security practice".
A sales call with Okta just left me feeling dirty. It felt a lot like my sales calls when I was an Oracle customer. All about how many products they could push on us, no good technical explanations, and of course, huge pressure to 'sign this contract before the end of the month to get this great price'.
I wanted to go with Auth0, but then they got aquired, and we just said hell no.
This really isn't true. Lots of these perks are because there was loads of money sloshing around, and a competitive hiring environment drove the culture to be as attractive as possible for employees.
As someone who’s worked at an agency that’s grown from twenty engineers to hundreds over the last five years, what? Even when we were small and scrappy we still wrote unit tests…
I yawn at these posts because you should expect in life to be churned and when flavourless thrown out. Pick yourself up and move on.
Should I care that someone worked at Auth0, SpaceX, Amazon or Google when they're just another company that pays you money? How is it any different to where I work?
I've done them all, banks, animation studio, enterprise, corporate, sme, porn and can tell you every single one is the same.
It's the corps vision of fairy dust that alludes the employee wrong is what. "Work for us and live a life of wonders and giggles *"
* until we get bored of you
Accurate