back to article Facebook poaches design talent from Toronto firm – fate of staff unknown

A Toronto, Canada-based design firm has closed its doors after Facebook poached the boutique outfit's partners. On Friday, Teehan+Lax's bosses waved goodbye to their old offices – where it's understood they had employed around 40 staff – when they confirmed the move to San Francisco to work at the Mark Zuckerberg-run free- …

  1. PleebSmash
    Terminator

    Zuck

    One of the most menacing photos I've ever seen.

  2. JonP

    We talked a lot about what we wanted from our professional lives...

    blah blah blah then Mark offered us an obscene amount of money blah blah blah [insert generic justifications here] blah blah blah...

    FTFY

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Oh don't come over all high and mighty. I'd do the same, sorry to say I work for a living purely for money, no other reason. No noble excuses or any other reasons, it's purely mercenary. It gives me money so I can pay to do something far more useful with my time when I'm not at work.

      Now obviously in these circumstances there's employee welfare a possible consideration? However if the employees were all short-term contractors then that's part of the risk we take for being partially our own bosses in this game, the freedom to not be tied down to a single employer. No it's not nice but it's part and parcel of the style in which we run our IT careers.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Oh don't come over all high and mighty. I'd do the same..."

        I'm sure a lot of people would. The point here though is the generic PR-speak that tries to pretend the move was made for higher goals, rather than just a massive bucket of cash.

        I tried to read it all, but it seemed to be written in "wank".

  3. Barry Rueger

    Evil Corp Speak

    We also needed to consider the impact on the people who work with us. If the company wasn’t realising its potential, employee growth would begin to stagnate. Could another company give our co-worker’s greater professional and economic opportunities than we could on our own?

    Um, in other words, "Hey, we're out of here, and it's your problem to find another job!"

    Remember folks, be sure to stock up on Post-It notes, staplers, and copy paper as you're whisked out the door!

    (and that's ignoring the rather ominous misuse of an apostrophe.)

    1. BongoJoe

      Re: Evil Corp Speak

      Perhaps there is just the one person left on his own wondering why he was the only one not to be poached...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Evil Corp Speak

      Suppose the vast majority were contractors, not permies?

  4. JustWondering
    Thumb Down

    I don't thnk so

    I'll bet the ex-staff are just ecstatic about the opportunities this move has given them.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: I don't thnk so

      I dare say so... I imagine any stock options are now worthless. And there sit the grunts in the trenches who probably did most of the work watching the owners/bosses wander off to FB. If there are/were karma, the bosses would walk into FB and find that they are now working for some the former grunts.

      Zuck is still a bastard... and the three owners are evil ones.

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: I don't thnk so

      Depends on how motivated the staff are...

      From the blog, it seems that the three partners are effectively resigning from Teehan+Lax. Ie. Facebook hasn't brought out the partnership, just the named individuals, who happen to be partners and no longer want to be partners...

      This suggests that the staff stand a very good chance of simply creating a new company that just takes over the business of Teehan+Lax, something that the existing partners would be powerless to do anything about, unless they intent to keep Teehan+Lax trading in some form...

  5. ecofeco Silver badge

    Wait, let me guess

    It will be very purdy, but still have the most non-intuitive interface ever devised by man.

    Is this some kind of curse of social websites? Even Google+ seems to suffer from this affliction and MySpace was a total eff'd up disaster.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Short version

    Fuck you grunts, we're rich.

  7. JDX Gold badge

    unclear if ... staffers will disrupt their home lives in Toronto in favour of a job in San Francisco

    In an American's eyes, a Canadian would view the opportunity to relocate to the US of A like a winning lottery ticket!

    1. Buzzword

      Re: unclear if ...

      Under NAFTA, most Canadians can already work in the USA without much difficulty. The fact that most choose not to implies that it's hardly equivalent to winning the lottery.

      1. JDX Gold badge

        Re: unclear if ...

        America's the best country in the world and if you don't agree I'll shoot you with this gun I am entitled to own.

  8. Florida1920
    Headmaster

    The rest of the story

    Once Rob Ford stepped down as mayor, it just wasn't fun to live in Toronto anymore.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If you want nice clean design then you don't put adverts on the screen.

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