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Months ago, I told Frédéric Harper, my friend and former colleague from our Microsoft days, about the opening for developer advocate at npm, because I knew he’d be great at the job. He ended up landing the position, which for any developer advocate/evangelist/relations person should’ve been a dream gig.
Except it didn’t turn out that way.
Fred was recently just laid off from npm — and not by someone he reports to, but a third-party “downsizer” (think of George Clooney’s and Anna Kendrick’s character’s jobs in the film Up in the Air). Adding insult to injury, he would be eligible for severance (two weeks’ worth of pay) if an only if he signed a non-disparagement clause.
It’s certainly not fitting with the image that the company — on whom so many projects rely — has traditionally projected.
Find out more at this article in The Register: Nice People Matter? NPM may stand for Not Politely Managed – job cuts leave staff sore.