Substandard Living Podcast

Typepad said my post was flagged as spam while trying to post a comment here. So, I’ll post it here. Screw Typepad.

Prok,
The people that lost their jobs are not $8.00 an hour employees. I would take an educated guess that the average annual income of the Sheep fired is $55,000. (I made significantly more then this when I worked there) Not a superstar income, but the Sheep pay pretty well for ‘a game’ as some of you have put it. Nobody makes $8.00/hr, even the odd jobbers make $10/hr.

As far as who is gone. I don’t know the full story. But the events team is gone. This is Torrid Midnight, Jane Calvert, and the like. They are focusing on technology they say, but they let technology people go as well. I’ve heard at least Patrick (formerly of the Ill Clan) and Mark Barrett (formerly of SLBuzz.com) are gone. Both were software developers. Cory is still there, her partner Mak is not. Of the husband and wife duo that made AOL Pointe, Rez and Sonny, Rez is gone, Sonny remains. I know of other creatives that did not survive the cut. (Barnesworth is a contractor btw, no word on contractors)

As I mentioned in my blog, they continue to support onRez. They also continue to support the MTV project built on Makena (there.com) technology.

If the average employee that was fired made $50,000 a year, the Sheep just cut over $92,000 a month out of their budget. At the same time they are likely burning bridges with customers as well though. There are unfinished projects, and already overworked employees.

One of my friends who has been in business a long time took one look at this situation and said, “A fire sale eh?” Meaning the Sheep are firing to set up for a sale. Giff and Valerie (who are both exceedingly smart people) are spin spin spinning this like crazy.

My final point which I blogged about as well at SecondLifePodcast.com. A large number of people fired were days and weeks away from their first stock vesting. Now they are fired. Now there is more stock for Valerie, Giff, Jonah, Chris, Becky, Morton, and of course Sibley and some others to split up and count their dollars when they sell.

[full disclosure, I am a former employee of the Electric Sheep Company]

So I am still talking to even more Sheep and former Sheep as the hours since the massive layoffs took place. And something I didn’t even consider in the early hours of this has become unavoidably obvious.

Consider this. When I was hired, I was given stock. 1/3 of my stock was to be vested on the anniversary of my hire date for the first three years. And as far as I have surmised, everyone received this same deal. The only variable being the total amount of stock offered.

Now consider this, I was one of the first to be hired in a wave of new hires. I started in the first couple of weeks of January 2007. I believe Torrid Midnight was hired one week before me. So this puts her in late December/early January.

…

Has that sunk in for you yet? This “right-sizing” seems to come at the right time as far as avoiding stock to be vested in mere days and weeks for many of the employees “right sized”.

[full disclosure, I am a former employee of the Electric Sheep Company]

I didn’t intend to write this post, so I haven’t asked anyone if I could post any information they have given me. So I’m going to be vague. But the details are not that important, it is what they add up to that is important.

Basically, I have talked with a number of Electric Sheep Company employees today. In a previous post I relayed some information that I have from some folks that woke up ESC employees, but didn’t eat lunch as ESC employees. I have since talked to several folks that even ate dinner as ESC employees and are still listed on the org chart, so it is safe to assume they aren’t going anywhere for a while. Possibly even through New Years.

So without getting into how this went down (well, I’ll just say it appears it went down in possibly the crappiest way possible) Let me get to what I’m trying to get to :) I can’t repeat most of what I heard, so I won’t repeat any of it, but the feeling I have about the future the ESC is stronger having talked to these guys. (non-gender-specific) And I wanted to relay that to you. My previous post is kind of doom and gloom, but it is likely not so IRL (’in real life’ for you parents in the audience). Yeah 20+ people don’t work there anymore, but 50+ people still do. I was also told by one employee that the firings did not happen so that Morton could win the prize for the contest of having guessed the correct number of employees the Sheep would have at the end of the year. So that is good news as well. You never know about Morton :)

So that’s it. The Sheep just made a move to adjust to the marketplace. Cut what is not profitable, and focus on what is. It seems the company is reasonably strong and not in financial straits.

UPDATE: But others are telling me not so much…

I’ve been having more conversations with even more Sheep and former Sheep. And the consensus by these Sheep is that clearly there is something not being said here. I’m being told that it is likely that the board is setting up to sell the company. This stems from several things. 1. Linden Lab CTO Cory Ondrejka leaves over differences of opinion with the direction of Second Life. 2. The writers strike. The big money in the Solutions group is in movies and television. The strike has gone on long enough that that will damage future profits for the solutions group which already works with slim margins. 3. Investors decide it is time to get out and cash in their chips.

Some evidence to show the hastiness of this decision to drop 22 people in one day without prior notice.

* I know of projects that are ongoing that will be exceedingly difficult for someone else to come in and take over to finish. A lot of bridges are being burned here with current clients. I asked one Sheep what they expect to do now that they have gutted whole projects of the people that are working on them. I’ll just say the response didn’t inspire hope in those projects.

* I know of other projects that are lucrative deals, some a long time in the making, that are tailor made for specific creatives who are no longer employed by the Sheep.

* And for a stake in the heart of those 22 that will have a less merry Christmas. I’ve been told by more then one person that the Sheep are actually looking to hire again soon.

Yep, you read that right. Fire 22 people and start hiring soon.

Something is amiss. And only the board knows for sure what that is.

One of my former employers, The Electric Sheep Company have fired 22 employees today.

I’m told they cited financial problems and refocusing the business.

I’ll add more when I know it.

UPDATE: It appears that ESC has decided to focus on technology like onRez. The MTV group is still in tact as far as I know, but based on what just happened, probably only until the contract runs out.

UPDATE:Those of us that were interested in what Joel Greenberg was doing at the Electric Sheep Company with the Virtual World Ad Network received this email today:

Thank you very much for signing up to learn more about the Electric Sheep Company’s Virtual World ad network. You are receiving this email because you signed up at http://adnetwork.electricsheepcompany.com .

We have been working hard developing the ad network through the summer and fall. It contains innovative ideas on buying and selling of media, as well as displaying engaging in-world advertising. It supports the needs of both in-world companies and real world companies.

I wanted this first email you received from us to have been about inviting you into our beta program. We were a month or so away.

Unfortunately, the Electric Sheep Company has decided to stop funding development of the ad network and has shutdown the project as of today as part of a larger company restructuring. For inquiries concerning this development, please visit www.electricsheepcompany.com.

With regrets,

Joel Greenberg

Giff Constable of The Electric Sheep Company was on MSN recently. It is an interesting piece about job recruiters. Giff is always articulate and as much as he knows about Second Life and virtual worlds, he always keeps it simple when talking to people that are not familiar with them.

I’m not sure what all happened there, but this CNET site gives a brief rundown.

I posted the video of this over on my other blog at http://JeremyVaught.com, check it out yo!

Jane Calvert in Second Life, Jean-Ann Mills in real life, both of whom work for the Electric Sheep Company, was on Fox’ The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet this morning.

Jean-Ann says she was told the clip will be posted later today, I’m assuming it will be posted at http://mandjshow.com.

Below is a screenshot I took.

Catch the my Flickr set here.

I haven’t used it much, but another stab at search in Second Life has been announced. search.sheeplabs.com. Brought to you by Christian from the Electric Sheep Company.

I’ll be there! I didn’t go to SXSW because I had to do the Dean Koontz event and I and because it is so long.

The other reason I’m really looking forward to going to New York for this is because of the metaverse meetup that will be the following weekend. I’ve heard the legend of Jerry Paffendorf’s meetups, and looking forward to experiencing it myself.

If you are going to be there, look me up, I look forward to chatting with you. If you can’t find me, call my mobile: 623.670.2365. Leave a message and I’ll call you back or just txt me.

btw,my employer, the Electric Sheep Company, is the primary sponsor of this conference.