Iterable co-founder claims he was ousted because of racial discrimination, not LSD use The co-founder and former CEO of marketing tech startup Iterable is suing the company and some of its backers, claiming that losing his job was less about micro-dosing LSD at work and more about racial discrimination. Twitter alum Justin Zhu founded the company with former Google Adsense veteran Andrew Boni in 2013, building a …
Even CEO's should exercise a little discretion in these matters. Turning up to a meeting with an investor or client when under the influence is never a clever move, whichever way you spin it.
Also, a quick Google reveals that Zhu was actually replaced by Andrew Boni as CEO.
When I started working I was present at hundreds of business meetings with CEO's and others that were "under the influence" ... everyone was having a steak dinner and a bottle of wine each... the LSD factor only appeared when the CEO got the bill paid (pounds, shillings, and pence) in those days. Yes, we were all using LSD so I'd better post this anonymously.
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,,,I only hade one criterion. Was the employee getting the job done? I tolerated nose rings, tongue rings, blue hair and I didn't care how stoned they were or where they came from, if they produced the goods.
What I fired my only-ever fired employee for, was not producing any output whatsoever.
"I didn't care how stoned they were"
That'd depend on what they did whilst they were stoned, surely?
A coder who keeps his head down, only to re-appear a few hours later with a keyboard-imprint-of-shame on his face might be something you could turn a blind-eye to. A CEO actively putting off investors to the detriment of the company is quite another.
@AC ",,,I only hade one criterion. Was the employee getting the job done? I tolerated nose rings, tongue rings, blue hair and I didn't care how stoned they were or where they came from, if they produced the goods."
Only one criterion getting the job done, an employee's behavior at work does not matter. So an employee can be as abusive to you as they like bully their co workers, racist sexist etc, even be drunk as long as they get the job done?
I agree that employee appearance should not matter* neither should their lifestyle out of work. But an employee's behavior in work does matter. So taking drugs including alcohol outside work fine, as long as the affect does not carry over into work.
If an employee is visibly under the influence of drugs or alcohol then the affect has carried over into work and some sort of disciplinary action should be expected. Which is what happened with Zhu he was at work and visibly under the influence of LSD.
*It might for health and safety reasons e.g. tying long hair up, removing jewelry if working in food prep.
Well, I guess that's our revelation for the week. Apparently even those who are not from northern Europe, are convinced that the acceptable face of venture capitalism is the proverbial white male.
Come to think of it, the company I bailed on last year was just a Harvard and Yale gloss on an Indian boiler room operation.
You can't judge a company by its website.
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