None Of You Know What You're Talking About.

[@jll182msstate]

The majority of us (I think) understand the business side of it. I do not have a problem with the layoffs, I think it was a great move. Makes perfect sense! My problem is you have an HR department. He told you how to do it. You and the plant manager completely ignored him based on your feelings. Why have an HR department? There is a right way and a wrong way. I think you did the right thing.... the wrong way. Finally, your speeches to the teams were not uplifting, team building or encouraging. By making all this public, you are inviting public opinions. And opinions are like belly buttons, ..... everyone has them. Still love your product and y'all as a company.

[@akillic37]

100% agree. It just feels bad. Definitely an outsider looking in so maybe if we had all the details we would be more willing to accept the full scope of everything. Like the severance was mentioned. That's a huge win. But there is also I think a little bit of shock factor involved on the viewer side of things. It almost feels like we got laid off lol

[@DakireProductions]

this puts it I think the most accurate way. There's nothing keyboard warrior about intentions here; I love this company and want to see it succeed. Firing half your staff with little warning is not "information as soon as possible" as Doug puts it. You talk to your HR department, give folks some time to find new jobs, freeze hiring. The severance on an at-will/part-time job is definitely a good move. But being publicly callous (as I and this previous commenter seems to perceive Doug's speech while laying people off as) is probably not the right move. Use your HR folks, use Bobby, talk about how you're going to upload this. I appreciate Wyrmwood's transparency, but this isn't the first time a rather private hiring/employee matter was just uploaded to youtube with a clickbait title and thumbnail for views. There are more couth ways to handle this, and recording your staff in a moment of vulnerability may not be one of them. I'm no expert, and I'm perfectly willing to admit that. I've worked in management, and have had to have these conversations with folks. I haven't had thousands of people watching me do it on KZbin, though. I don't envy that position. Thanks for all the work everyone does at Wyrmwood.

[@DakireProductions]

Also - to doug's point about people complaining about "not putting on youtube"; it's not about the fact that you put it on youtube, it's about *how* you put it on youtube.

[@QuinceyCorning]

Another thing to look at here is just the entire optics and timing.... As someone who was just laid off from a large company that I had been working at for many years with no warning in a similar time period for similar reasons ("downsizing" even though there are still people being hired) it feels bad to be laid off 30-60days from the holidays even if there is the justification of "well they get a severance", that doesn't fix the fact that you just took someone's income in the busiest highest spending time of the year for most people. Then to tell people that you'll help them find a job......? Where? McDonalds or Macy's? That's a joke, I was just at a career level position making more money than I ever have before and you're telling me to go into an entry level position because that's what's available during the holiday season, not large scale positions. Now I wasn't laid off from Wyrmwood but I still know how those employees are feeling for sure.

[@akillic37]

@@QuinceyCorning this feels emotionally charged so I say this with as much respect as I can possibly offer. From what I recollect, Doug said the timing is terrible but from their perspective necessary. It's either cauterize the wound or bleed out. They feel if they delay layoffs till the first of the year then the ship will take on too much water and the whole thing is going down. That feels like a very real possibility so I personally have no reason not to believe him. I guess the argument could be made that they should have seen this coming or addressed it sooner. We don't, and probably never will, have all the facts so maybe the employees knew things were heading that direction, maybe volunteer layoffs were offered. Doug's monotone "no bullshit" is just one of those things that really polarizes a hot take. You either love it or profusely hate it.

[@kbo9827]

I find it interesting that you never addressed one of the most common complaints about that video: Doug's 'speech' and how he handled it.

[@BrenoAngelotti]

Maybe they agree so there’s really nothing to say

[@winningsince1992]

So you hate people being real

[@adamtomlinson918]

yea.... most of the comments were actually about a realllllllly off putting extemporaneous speech. Which I see isn't addressed here...

[@noahtrimble9923]

Extemporaneous… it’s Doug. Is there another setting?

[@interceptor4]

Correct. As if we can't go to the video see with our own eyes that the vast majority of the top and most engaged-with comments are all about Doug's terrible speech. Reddit-tier strawmanning from Doug, is what this is.

[@Adderkleet]

This is probably addressing the 1st video (we're gonna lay off half the company - "This is not what we wanted") and not the 2nd video (the speech - "We laid off half the company").

[@bradleyhurley6755]

@@interceptor4 Going to have to agree. The majority of the complaints was that (1) the speeches given were horrible, and (2) the people who were let go should have been told individually.

[@QualityConnoisseur]

I had two issues with the layoff video. Its not about not understanding business. 1. The speech was horrible and demoralizing. The professional thing to do would have been to let HR handle the speech or at least write it. You will likely experience turnover if you haven’t already because of the speech. 2. There was not enough accountability, layoff are almost always a management failure, and they are so in this case. Doug taking on the role of marketing instead of hiring a professional is an example of that, while Doug did decent numbers he did less than what an experienced professional would have done on average. This isn’t the only spot where managers failed. The could have controlled the growth better which would have still reduced lead times but extended the time of available work, instead of having hire twice as many as you should you could have only hired 50% of what you should, which would have reduced lead times but extended the work period and given enough time to grow into the new size without layoffs. Learn from this experience, and take comments more seriously, not everyone is trying to villainize the choice to do layoffs, I and many others have been criticizing the decisions that led to this choice being needed. Do better in the future.

[@winningsince1992]

You like fakeness then you probably complain about fakeness in the corporate world lol

[@langgalea4330]

Dude someone definitely did something wrong. I am in the business end of consulting, I regularly manage large portfolios of work, and you NEVER scale to full; if you have a standard 750 units, and you get a spike of 1500 units in sales, and you can scale to 1500, you screwed your mouths to feed. You scale to 900 - 1000, not full 1500 and work overtime. Makes layoff metrics smaller instead of more than half. Morale is screwed either way. Let me reiterate, sometimes the metrics just don't happen, this is true. However YOU messed up. Management messed up. Compassion during and after though is to be applauded. But when you do layoffs, just don't do a speech about the health of your company. These people just lost their jobs; you're lucky if they don't slash your tires. They aren't gonna care about your metrics. We had to put up fences around the car lots where remaining employees worked to ensure the people who were laid off don't destroy transportation or property. The situation is always unique; the problem here is that your cost and ramping up depended a good deal on hardware and unique machining. That's always a pain to encompass on overhead. Not saying your job is easy, or that you made all the wrong choices; just one really big one that screwed with other people. You're the leader. Just own it.Dont complain about taxes, don't complain about the way things are. Just own it, its your business. You made it from nothing, and you are at the helm. I agree with the sooner the better.

[@oosn0b0ardroo]

This is all a fair critique. 2 things I would say: 1. I think the CEO HAS taken a good amount of accountability for the decision to scale to the degree they did. Could he be doing that that MORE? Maybe? For all we know he IS in the privacy of Wyrmwood boardrooms - but it's not that he's NOT doing it. 2. Every business decision carries with it a certain degree of risk. You CAN choose to scale beyond current demand, heck you can go way beyond if you have reason to believe it's warranted based on forecasted sales. Sometimes those gambles pay off, and sometimes they don't - hindsight is always 20/20. When you get the big gambles right it results in big payoffs, when you get them wrong you pay for it. Ultimately the CEO has to decide if he wants to be more aggressive (resulting in greater gains or losses) or less aggressive resulting in slower more organic growth. What we're watching unfold here are the consequences of a higher risk decision, which, unfortunately didn't pan out as they hoped. Did someone make the wrong decision? Yes. But again, that's easy to say in hindsight... Had the plan worked it's possible they would have had a profitable company and a massive bump up in revenue and ultimately, valuation. Nevertheless, we agree - these things are never simple or black and white.

[@cwxgames468]

@@langgalea4330 going from what two years out from getting a product you paid for to a few weeks if that would never have happened if they didn't scale up the way they did and there would have been so much more burnout or injuries from the workers being over worked.

[@baldingape]

I tend to agree on the scale of the workforce. However, as for the speech: which one are you talking about? The one to the remaining employees? Yeah, not great. I don't remember if that was one to the laid off employees, but I can assure you of one simple thing: once they hear "you're getting laid off" they basically don't hear much of anything else. What you tell them beyond a) keeping it short, and b) (briefly) thanking them for their contributions doesn't really amount to anything. I've been parts of a few layoffs, and the worst thing is when each person gets taken into an office for a conversation. Ultimately, the complaints about the speech are bikeshedding. People are complaining about the only thing they have the experience to assess. I've been a part of plenty of underwhelming (and downright tone deaf) CEO speeches. It's not the end of the world. I think a lot of people are looking for a reason to criticize Doug because he's a polarizing presence (one of the reasons for the company's success is his passion). I think the hate is silly; Doug is one of the most tireless advocates for the customers. If only most CEOs actually gave a shit about customers at that level.

[@marcdunlap7414]

The people on film he was "giving his speech" too were Not the ones being laid off, they were the ones they Kept... He was telling them Why their friends weren't there and why they weren't going to be back soon

[@bradleyhurley6755]

The problem is the initial table Kickstarter, where they didn't really have a choice but to scale to produce the tables as they weren't going to be able to bring in enough money to keep the company open long enough to fulfill that Kickstarter. Dough already had to end Pennsylvania's legacy manufacturing to even attempt to keep the kickstarter from bankrupting the company.

[@Eyrrll]

This video was a Reddit-tier analysis of KZbin commenters. It comes off a bit hostile towards the audience… which is weird.

[@cwxgames468]

Only if the shoe fits

[@1987martyn]

Yup, imagine making videos because you want to be transparent, then getting pissy when people critique you. Transparency isn’t just about showing the process; it’s about being open to feedback and understanding how your actions affect others. If you can’t handle criticism, maybe reconsider the tone of your 'transparency.'

[@christopherwarsh]

That’s a fair analysis

[@joshh1835]

the beginning of the end

[@WesloPresto]

@@joshh1835That’s definitely what it feels like

[@giblesdestruct]

At the end of the day it does come down to bad management choices. That does not mean a Guillotine needs to be put up and Doug dragged out. It means the management team needs to look at what they did wrong and learn from it. That's where I feel these videos should have gone. Not endlessly and defending yourselves. People are allowed to make mistakes but take your lumps and move on.

[@zarekodynski9077]

I said this on another video, but Bobby said it in this video anyways. They ramped up on size (and therefore production) to accommodate the increase in sales so that customers could get their orders faster. That means they ramped up production to be higher than sales, otherwise the lead times wouldn't shrink. It's very simple. This means that they were at an unsustainable size as far as employee quantity. As Bobby said, the hope was that in cutting lead times for customers that sales would increase to allow less or even no layoffs. But they can't be a high quality company that serves their customers right if they sit around getting longer and longer lead times for customers because they don't want to do layoffs after lead times are reduced. On the other side of the same coin too, if they don't do the layoffs, then they will make damn sure that everyone in the company loses their job when they go bankrupt and have to shut down. So it's a shitty part of life, but people get laid off. It's the nature of business to grow and shrink over time, you cannot just have the mindset of, "I will never lay anyone off." Because your business will eventually fail and everyone then is left looking for a job instead of some people.

[@PeruvianHeadShrinker]

I appreciate how honest they are in general. I would love to see series on WL focused SOLELY on marketing demonstrating all their mistakes and learnings. One of the best parts of WL is showing the TRUE chaos and difficulty of running a business. Yeah they make mistakes and it's ugly and imperfect. But these are way more real than most B-School case examples. You learn way more about how business actually works vis-a-vis their bumbling. But they do learn. It would be wicked awesome if they did on the Marketing side and owned just how much they F'd that up this past year.

[@iansalmond726]

I completely disagree. It's almost impossible to say it was bad management choices. It's easy to cast stones with hindsight. Here is a question? What if the economy heated up and demand went up? Then management would look great. Anybody who has run a large business knows. You make the best guesses with the info you have and hope for the best. Also the weird notion of guessing wrong is somehow bad management is strange. Nobody guesses everything right. In fact, a company who gets lucky the first time and guesses everything correct will most likely go out of business. Why? Strong companies are built through adversity. Are there things they should have done better? Sure. But that in no way equates to bad management!

[@Awol991]

As he said they had to scale up to meet demand/get rid of the backlog. In hindsight the people hired could have been told "this is a 1 year temporary job", but the hope was to keep the business going at the faster rate, so there was no expectation of it being a temporary job. But they could not see forward in time so they could not make that statement.

[@giblesdestruct]

@iansalmond726 bad management choices include small mistakes made that add up at the end. Every bad choices compounds all the way back to when they were in the Garage or the choice to make their first Kickstarter. People are allowed to make mistakes. My comment was not to say that they aren't allowed to make them everyone is, but it is the choices we make that lead to where we end up. My criticism is not that they made the decisions they did, it's that they are trying to obfuscate blame. Doug says in this video it's fair to criticize him for these layoffs. I feel like an acceptance of that and moving on is a better way of handling this than simply sharing blame around.

[@Jcraft153]

Doug, this was a terrible response to a worse situation. Its at most disrespectful. At least, insulting. I work in business process management, who knows the jobs of people that find this channel interesting. It would have been better if you never addressed them and to that end i honestly hope you dont read or address mine.

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

It's an unsub for me. Like imagine being this tone death and having such a low reading level at the same time

[@ElectricR0MEO]

No mention of Doug’s garbage, tone deaf speech? Cool cool

[@soapboxk2203]

We did get to talk about Doug's FU bit coin money though.

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

Yeah the thing 90% of the comments were about. It's like these guys are politicians now.

[@1987martyn]

Doug, this isn’t about “not knowing business.” It’s about recognizing that business is about people, too. These decisions will always be scrutinized, especially in a community-driven company like Wyrmwood, where trust and goodwill are critical. While layoffs may have been unavoidable, the timing is what many are questioning. A 50% reduction suggests the financial challenges weren’t sudden, and acting earlier could have provided employees with more preparation time, minimizing the strain during the holidays. Leadership isn’t just about making hard decisions-it’s about making them with foresight, empathy, and a commitment to balancing business needs with the human impact.

[@joshuastanden]

I was one of the ones that said I'm not sure I would have put these videos out. I'm a business owner, and I stand by that. Its not unclear to me what the situation was as far as business solvency vs staffing and the current sales climate for the company. I simply said "I'm not sure I would have put these out" - Transparency is great and all, I can get behind that - my concern is the broadcasting of the heartbreak. and effectively saying "fuck your feelings" to the people that comment on the videos is pretty strange to me. I am simply saying maybe let the episode on layoffs be a single episode that says "we have to make some hard choices, some people will be leaving the company, her's what the restructure will look like" and then simply not broadcasting the layoff meetings or the "you're still here" meetings. Let us know you're shipping a shit sandwich to people, but you don't have to film and broadcast the people eating the shit sandwich. Someone said it already in the comments your reddit-tier reaction to what you consider reddit-tier criticism is pretty telling. I'm still going to watch, because man I love some of the personalities, but I'm still going to say "I'm not sure I would have put these episodes out like this" Edit: Thanks for having Rich on to show some "real feelings", which, apparently isn't something afforded to the viewers of Wyrmwood. Secondly, Doug seems to have a pretty dim view of commentary here - Are you really that hostile to the temperature of your viewership? Have you forgotten how much positivity there is in these comments? Maybe not these videos, but in other videos. We're rooting for you and Wyrmwood in general. But we are "just being honest" too in our reactions. I hope you aren't as tone deaf with your employees as you are with your fans sometimes.

[@miniwing]

At least once a year a series of this kind shows up and they still post it all to wyrmlife

[@EmoKillsBest]

I'm sure this will be a positive episode.

[@whiteb68]

Bahahahaha! The Doug rants are awesome!

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

Just excuses. Doug looks more like a man child each episode

[@workaccount3872]

Doug has the confidence of a man who's never been punched in the face before....someone should change that.

[@TangleTrail]

"Hi I'm Doug. I'm actually incredibly insecure about what the internet says, but refuse to acknowledge any valid criticism, admit my own faults, or accept responsibility"

[@WyrmLyfe]

oh hey doug

[@john-alotofnumbers]

@@WyrmLyfe Interesting this is the only comment that gets a response. I suggest sorting by most voted in addition to "newest" to a true feel for what your community is saying

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

​@@john-alotofnumberswhoever is in charge of the account agrees with the comment obviously.

[@DiceFarmer]

8:00 Doug... if you're looking for sympathy or understanding, maybe don't do it while bragging about how rich you are?

[@soapboxk2203]

Challenge he will fail every time.

[@dealbreakerc]

He wasn't bragging. He's stating the fact that he has money so his decisions around layoffs weren't about putting more money in his pocket. He isn't in the business to get personally wealthy.

[@nautica1504]

@@dealbreakerc get off your knees

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

Talks about his stupid Tesla and his crypto all the time. Like bro, that's loser talk

[@vulgocaju]

If you don't listen to people, if you're so arrogant at the point of dont being able to learn, failure is waiting for you next corner, buddy.

[@Chindogg]

The problem isn't the fact that layoffs had to happen, it's that Doug made a poor decision by his own admission and half the workforce had to be laid off. Then on top of it he decided to make another speech with the remaining employees about extracting the maximum amount of productivity from them. Doug screws up, gets to keep his job, and gets to tell his employees that he's going to work them as hard as possible to make up for his screw up. All put on public display for content. After the last PR disaster you'd think that you'd realize that this isn't exactly the smart play here. Yes business is hard and the market is harsh, but there's a straight line from Doug's decisions to comments saying Doug's an asshole. Love the products, but Doug needs to swallow his pride and take a step away from the business because these stunts in public is killing the company.

[@TakeACloserLook96]

Wyrmwood, you can't have your cake and eat it too. You sometimes brag about how "transparent" you are, but then during the "article" scandal, you said "well it's a vlog / it's not real / we are putting on a show". You can't pretend to have the Pros of both without the Cons. I also feel you mischaracterized a lot of the criticism and only addressed a few points, and not the major points that were being repeated. Though Doug ignoring things isn't new: we were provided a video that showed Doug literally go against the suggestions HIS OWN HR recommended on how to handle things. So while it sucks Doug ignored the KZbin comments, we are in good company along with Troy.

[@Brigmz]

Can we get an off shoot channel that is just "Oops all Ian woodworking"? Genuinely tired of "The Real Housewives of Massachusetts starring Doug and his bitcoin wallet" rage bait.

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

My gf and I started watching because it was about actual design process/work and craftsmenship. We're engineers and like to see how ppl approach and solve problems. Now it's too much drama, excuses and low effort bullshit

[@darkcardking]

"The boss makes all the decisions" Doug... YOU DO MAKE ALL THE DECISIONS! YOU made the choice not to hire a CMO. YOU chose not to listen to Troy. YOU did that. Those are on you. YOU are your own worst enemy. And until you realize that, and learn from those mistakes, YOU are going to be your company's biggest problem.

[@wescrowther655]

Doug chose not to listen to the marketing guys when they HAD them in PA when they said, get into stores and furniture shops. Doug wanted them on the production floor.

[@annafantasia]

Yep, he has been for years and continues to be his company's biggest problem

[@MrCam143]

"We did absolutely everything" .. except hire a marketing officer to help increase sales to prevent the rightsizing that took place

[@bradleyhurley6755]

I don't think marketing would help. The initial increase in demand was from their original Kickstarter, where there wasn't any alternatives for the gaming table. Today you can find dozens of companies making tables cheaper than Wyrmwood. You also only need one table. Wymwood isn't going to be able to get those initial customers to buy another table.

[@VagabondTE]

​@@bradleyhurley6755 A challenge for you.. Walk around a mall or any shopping district and ask people if they've ever heard of Wyrmwood or even a gaming table in general.

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

​@@bradleyhurley6755they needed help in other ways for sure, but Doug doesn't admit he's wrong until it's too late

[@taylormademadness]

@@bradleyhurley6755 from a marketing specialist perspective there is a huge issue with their marketing strategy. They are failing to tap into new markets. They pivoted into the furniture space without any knowledge of the industry or how to market themselves in that category. The focus has been on MGT where there was a proven demand and easy crossover from the previous gaming market they were already established in. But then continued to develop skus that leaned away from that market and failed to generate the demand for those products

[@bubba1682]

But they put up a new Kickstarter all the time! What Marketing do they need?! /s

[@tyrand]

These Doug ramblings are so fucking cringe when his employees are just sitting there and can't say anything.

[@Wowlissel]

It's a little funny because I didn't really mind the first video, but this one is rubbing me the wrong way a little bit. Now not because of what was said, honestly I agree with most of it. But it's because of what wasn't addressed. Now I watched the first video in question like 1h after it came out, and the biggest thing the comments were saying, at least at that point, was that the speech that was held after the layoffs was bad. They said that it was bad for morale, and that Dough refused to acknowledge fault. Now I will say it was definitely not the best speech I have ever seen, and it probably didn't do any wonders for morale, but what I think is irrelevant, the comments were loud and clear. If transparency is what you're after, then I would say reply to that criticism, even if it's something as simple as "heard and acknowledged", that is what I was missing from this video. I also think that is the part in the layoff situation where you need no experience running a company to have an opinion on what was being said and/or how it was delivered. If anything just being a worker probably gives you greater insight. That is why I'm a bit disappointed in that video, I really only cared about seeing your response to that criticism.

[@HazardGoat]

Sounds to me like if you had to lay off half your staff, YOU are the ones who don't understand business.

[@winningsince1992]

No, the secret is they knew they would probably have to fire them once they caught up. The hope was they wouldn't but it was the most likely senerio. However they had to hire people to get caught up.

[@RothOfKhan]

I noticed a few things in this video that are important to address: Doug made it clear that the intent was to give people the most information as soon as possible, and said that should ALWAYS be the focus. Bobby then said “we knew we did not need the company to be as big and run as hot as it currently was” and “it wasn’t news to us” that they were running at a deficit. So my question - were the staff made aware of this reality throughout the process; that they were likely going to be cut? If they were, and they had time to prepare, then I think you handled this well. But if they weren’t, and you spent months making decisions when you knew it was a virtual inevitability that this was the outcome, then it’s clear your whole video here is just PR bs.

[@nautica1504]

"were the staff made aware of this reality throughout the process" what do you think?

[@nyxus007]

People are upset as mismanagement that cost people their jobs and the response is "but I'm RICH" is nuts

[@williamandjinninemiller581]

Doug has an issue with bouncing all over the place. For instance, explaining the severance for the layoffs good information. Complaining about taxes that include unemployment that could be absolutely vital to half of his staff that by his own words were good employees that he wouldve kept had they had the work like they hoped feels like an odd choice.

[@williamandjinninemiller581]

incase my first message was too harsh I do want to say it's crazy comparing Doug to CEOs of billion dollar companies who are actively explaining how to provide less of a service for more money, while cutting employment all during record profits.

[@PeruvianHeadShrinker]

@@williamandjinninemiller581 I concur. I think if every company had a vlog there'd be a lot more Mangione going on around here. WW for the most part is on the BETTER end of the spectrum. They just happen to be the only ones out there putting this shit out. Yeah it might be "entertainment" but that's a helluva lot more than a typical quarterly report when it comes to nuts and bolts of decision making.

[@williamandjinninemiller581]

It's clear he strives to provide an excellent product with great customer service. He has also stated multiple times to pay employees as much as possible even to the detriment of benefits which I don't agree with, but I will admit is a finer line for businesses that are not massive corporations.

[@MelissaQueen-y7w]

"I'm not wrong, you are wrong.". Genius.

[@breezyflow1]

I am certain there are comments that are correct. There's literal documented videos of the failure of the company lol, but please address (only) the comments that were indeed wrong. Mat says we put up the whole story, then I guess viewers have a good idea about what goes right and wrong then? lol From what I read, most people were unhappy about 'how' people were let go. Or completely ignoring HR advice, and giving this unhinged speech instead while delivering bad news LOL. Doug talks about others (reddit) think the way people they think. Proceeds to talk about how people should do things the way they are.

[@bobbymcdaniel9282]

I think a majority of the business savvy individuals understood why the lay offs were necessary. It's not THAT people were laid off. It's HOW the situation was handled. The speech given to remaining workers felt awful. Moralle was sucked out of the room and it was hard on everyone, and Doug said "we're gonna squeeze every bit of productivity out of you". That feels bad

[@nautica1504]

business savvy people generally don't have to lay off half the company while also deciding to make distributions to themselves because they made really bad decisions and over staffed to make $1000 puppy beds

[@attackins1470]

Wow, what a childish way to handle this. Good job guys.

[@thecuriousboardgamer]

I agree with everything said except two things: 1) So you addressed the misguided criticism... what about the legitimate criticism? 2) Taxes causing more layoffs is Reddit-level analysis. Taxes exist in a marketplace. If that 11% never existed you would have previously, in some combination, hired more people, paid people more, charged less, or gathered more profit for yourself. As you proudly declare shareholders arent getting profit, you still would have had to cut those people. People with little understanding of economics always think taxes exist in a vacuum and don't consider the marketplace.

[@Lugh314]

Here's the thing.... Business is business, and if you don't have the work, you don't have the work. It is what it is..... ....but when you tell people you intend to continue profit sharing and dividend payouts while also doing layoffs... It's not hard to draw the conclusion that you value profits over people. Also, side thing for this eps specifically: a lot of your viewers are not American, and 'two weeks' severance' in a lot of places is not a gift, it's the minimum mandated by law.

[@crazedlasher6309]

“Doug wants to reward the shareholders for the first time, like ever!” - Bobby, a shareholder. Yeah, right after laying off half the workforce. That’s the point. I have a MGT in my dining room. I recommend them to my friends. It’s a great product. But ya’ll thought you could keep selling luxury gaming furniture and see infinite growth, without making any significant changes to marketing, during an inflationary time where people had less and less discretionary income. That isn’t Reddit-tier analysis, it’s reality.

[@dpeter99]

All of this is like just soo American. Where I live the standard contract has 2 months of advance notice. I don't think any of the commenters wanted them to do this after the holidays but way before. A competent company management should have seen this in September already

[@ShadrolGER]

@@dpeter99 Virtually everything of this story would be illegal in most european countries. a) pure management decision - no employer-employee agreement b) no compensation c) fire at will without notice d) mass firing e) paying out dividends after layoff The only thing not illegal is them being rude about it.

[@damianthedm]

Don't forget the video like 2 days after the layoff video that talked about how awesome their black friday sale was for revenue.

[@christofferhammarstrom]

Way to miss the point. Nobody is upset because they don't understand business and think the layoffs weren't necessary. People are upset because Doug is a tone deaf AH who monologues at people, while lacking the basic empathy and self introspection to understand what people are actually upset about.

[@Switchblade39]

Well no a lot of comments did complain about things they just don't understand.

[@m3rcier808]

All of those complaints are made based off not actually knowing much. Wyrmlife is a very small glimpse into their inner workings; not a full view. Not to mention, Doug has a very public history of saying things on Wyrmlife to generate views and comments. 😂

[@1987martyn]

Yeah, the rant he did in front of the group in the last video was uncalled for, unprofessional, and unnecessary.

[@iansalmond726]

That's not true. There are all kinds of comments of bad management. They showed a meeting discussing the best way to lay people off. If they didn't care when Friday came they would have handed out pink slips. Do I think they could have done better? Yep. I would have consulted some other people. Clearly they don't really know how to do this. I've been through this kind of stuff before. There is zero way to do this so no one is upset. Somebody will always be upset.

[@cahduh]

THIS

[@celeb0rn]

100% chance this company will be doing the same layoff video this time next year

[@Switchblade39]

Do you honestly think they are going to grow to fast again and then drop off. I can't see them have something bigger then gaming table.

[@1987martyn]

@@Switchblade39 They dont have to grow again to need layoffs

[@soapboxk2203]

I suspect this is the beginning of the end. The layoffs might have saved the company in a vacuum, but with the amount of exposure that Wyrmlife puts on the company, the negative backlash from how Doug completely lacks the skills to handle situations like this is going to erode sales.

[@Switchblade39]

@@1987martyn but that was the reason for the layoffs. If they just do steady growth they shouldn't have any reason to remove staff unless the company goes bust but that's a completely different thing to these layoffs.

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

​@@Switchblade39buddy. I don't wanna call you dumb, but things can happen many times for different reasons. His comment was about his distrust about how the company was run and how the response to the backlash proves management does not actually understand what they claim to understand. Thus they'll be failing as a company in the future if no changes are made and they'll need to layoffs ppl again. That will follow with another video about how it has to happen blah blah blah and only they know what's going on. Even tho there are business owners, consultants, and management of much larger companies just watching them fuck up

[@d_dave7200]

Lol. This is so dumb. There's useful info in this video, but not providing the info needed in previous videos is again your mistake. You guys reek of abdicating responsibility for stuff. Saying "whatever we do we'll get criticized" is a great way to ignore useful feedback on anything and everything. Half of this video is commenting on things people weren't even really criticizing you about. Almost nobody said the layoffs shouldn't happen. It was a process and details argument. The other half is commenting that people jumped to conclusions based on information you didn't provide. Greedy CEO? Oh, you mean like 90% of companies. Most CEOs in this country are overpaid, even in medium-sized businesses. On steroids in corporations. Folks were assuming the obvious from a guy who has expressed dumb conservative talking points and owns a fancy car. It's a pretty unsurprising assumption. If you didn't want to make that assumption happen, provide more info. Severance? Should be a month not 2 weeks, but I guarantee it would have made the comments milder if you'd said that they're getting it., and explained the rationale for before Christmas Doug pay cut? It would be good leadership to take a pay-cut when you do layoffs. But when you say you make less than JV, that's understandable depending on the exact figure. Though if you're as wealthy as you say, you could still do it for optics/symbolism. So the point still stands, and again you didn't provide this info or discuss the idea on video. And yeah, you guys still failed to build the business the way you needed to, and folks have pointed out material ways that happened -- opportunities missed. This is obvious to anyone who has accountability for themselves, and it's reasonable to say. Maybe it was always unlikely to succeed, but you picked a strategy and it failed. And yeah, Doug's speech was not empathetic and sucked. No reference to that in the video, which was maybe the biggest theme in the comments. Look, I love WW and want you guys to succeed, but you do need to learn how to take responsibility and learn properly from your mistakes. Not every comment is useful or constructive -- I get that. I agree with the pushback on "not putting this on YT". That's like your whole marketing model. So clearly you can't listen to every comment. But you sure as heck need to learn from the good feedback.

[@cwxgames468]

So not yours

[@1987martyn]

Isnt the point of opening up comments to videos on youtube to open yourself up to critisism and compliments....Doug only wants compliments though it seems

[@dpeter99]

I was going to leave a similar comment, so you saved me from typing all of this out. I think Dug needs to learn the meaning of empathy and also not call their core audience stupid. Maybe we are not all Bitcoin millionair CEOs so we might not be able to see his exact perspective, but most of us do work at companies and have been laid off before so we might know how the other side feels. I don't think the comments were arguing about pushing the downsizing to later but rather sooner so it is not too close to the holidays. The two weeks of severance feels way too little but that might be my European ideology. Maybe in America it is acceptable. (Here I have a 3 month notice period, you still work and get payed) This should have been a simple video where they state like 3-4 facts that were left out and everyone would be fine. But yet they just talk about how hard it was and how we could never understand their elevated thoughts from down here. Claiming to be transparent while not giving us the important details. And they are surprised when we assume the worst. I think I'll unsubscribe for a bit, I don't need to see this shit show. Also it is not like I can afford any of these luxury wood things. Maybe when I get Bitcoin rich LOL

[@cwxgames468]

@dpeter99 I'm sorry where the fuck did he call their core audience stupid? Maybe go and rewatch it they addressed some of the comments that were being disingenuous. What were important details for us to know? They have said several times before the layoffs that they hoped the sales and the work flow would catch up to where they were running at. And the fact there was 2 weeks severance here is actually an amazing thing, we are "supposed to" give a two weeks notice to not burn bridges but companies can drop us for any reason. At least in most places. Amazon wouldn't even talk to us about what's going on we would just be out of a job, end of story.

[@d_dave7200]

​@@cwxgames468 Considering I restated like 90% of the criticisms people were making, that would be the same as not listening to any of the comments.

[@Taylorisafarmeryo]

I wish there was a way to claw back my view and get back that 11 minutes.

[@stpatty3310]

In a way you can--thanks to (in part) your comment, I'm not going to bother watching the video. So you can save OTHERS that 11 minutes at least!

[@damianthedm]

The past week has made me miss the thumbs down button for videos more than usual.

[@JoGuev7177]

​@@damianthedm what you talking, there's still a thumbs down button.

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

​@@JoGuev7177engagement event like our comments help the video. Good or bad. KZbin does not care. How do you think the main channel on new KZbin accounts are 99% the worst humans alive

[@jamesholder5613]

Looking forward to the next video where Doug says we’re all idiots for saying he didn’t address the speech.

[@Bladecom]

I found myself understanding their stand point of the layoffs when they first addressed them, however the only thing that really upset me was the words addressed to the remaining employees. Where I would have little faith going forward to work for or with Wyrmwood.

[@displeasedsociopath5939]

I couldn't even finish Doug's speech in the last video. I decided that I would rather gaze blankly at a wall for half an hour than to listen to that tone deaf hooplah.

[@remarka6le927]

It’s increasingly evident that the only person demonstrating a lack of understanding here is Doug. Your selective approach to addressing the issues raised by the community speaks volumes. You’ve chosen to engage only with points that serve your narrative, while conveniently ignoring the broader concerns-concerns that the majority of comments have consistently highlighted. Your response comes across as both dismissive and tone-deaf, failing to acknowledge the genuine frustration of those impacted by these decisions. If the business isn't greedy, why were management and the media department seemingly exempt from the recent cuts? The appearance of favouritism undermines trust and calls into question your priorities as a leader. Why does the HR department exist if their expertise and guidance are so frequently disregarded? Their very purpose is to mediate and address workplace concerns, yet their role appears redundant under your leadership. Why has poor management become a recurring theme under your tenure? Instead of taking accountability, you perpetuate the very issues that erode morale and destabilise the organisation. I think you sum up your views well in this video: "I just don't care" It’s not just about the decisions being made, but the consistent mismanagement and disregard for feedback that continue to alienate those who are directly affected. Leadership isn’t about evading criticism or silencing dissent; it’s about owning mistakes, addressing concerns with integrity, and working towards genuine solutions. Until these fundamental issues are acknowledged and rectified, it’s difficult to see how trust can be rebuilt or how progress can be achieved.

[@BeaverValleyLabs]

"We have two weeks of work..." Then why is it if I order a table from the Store, I'm told it's a 4-5 month wait? Then why is it if I jump in the Kickstarter, I'm told it won't ship until late March, at the earliest? In two weeks, it went from "we have two weeks of orders" to 4+ months? Damn, that's impressive...you laid off half your production work force, and THEN were rewarded with a flood of orders. That's...unusual. Even if you account for a 2/3 reduction in output from a staff half the size (and that's UNLIKELY...it'll be more like 1/3), but even if you did...2 weeks becomes 6. At most. Not 4 months. The math doesn't math. I'm genuinely curious as to how I have this wrong. I'm sure I must, because Doug wouldn't lie to everybody. The truth would out. People talk when 40%+ get laid off. You would see it here. You would see it in Reddit. Looking at the backer numbers on KS, it doesn't seem to be coming from there... Were Holiday sales really that strong? With the layoffs?

[@rachaelmiller6913]

"I have bitcoin I can retire" then goes to call commenters and fans selfish yikes not a good look.

[@OscarAlvarezJr]

LMAO as an auditor who works middle management in the big 4; Ya'll talking about the books a year ago to this today is sus big time. Maybe IDK should have your accountant get their shit together on how you have a big cash reserve to nothing very fast. Also Doug, you straight up have big projects incoming that yall have been working on this year and you didn't plan to market it outside of Wyrmlife? Your IG straight up isn't correlating to buys. Interesting to see the media team go lose anyone....

[@TheRich4187]

Doug..you say the f*cking feelings have very little to do with the world, but you and Bree expressed your "FEELINGS" and rolled those eyes and sighed like children. And unless I'm wrong, but I'm watching a video because your feelings got clipped and you're all butt hurt at the moment! That aside, ppl get the business side of things, but my point along with a few others was you knew where the trend was heading months ago and could have let them go in Sept or Oct. This makes that "the longer you wait the worse it is" trash. And when you put your business online to make more money, don't get upset when ppl respond. Grow up.

[@DwarvenCore]

I think assuming your audience that follows a business channel doesn’t understand business is an odd thing to say. But for a transparency video, including that these folks were taken care of with severance pay would have been a good way to avoid the backlash.

[@travmadison2000]

Since when has this been a Business channel???? I was always under the assumption this was a "Hey we make cool shit, wanna see how its done" channel..... I mean ive watched every episode they have produced and vary rarely do we get business like information.

[@VagabondTE]

​@@travmadison2000 This channel is many things. And yea, business is a big part of it. Is ultimately the story of Wyrmwood, and Wyrmwood is a business.

[@TakeACloserLook96]

@@travmadison2000 Have you missed all the videos where Doug and others get into the details about health insurance, taxes, shipping, how to price products? Sure it's a vlog as well, but they gives TONS of business advice and details on this channel.

[@zarekodynski9077]

@@TakeACloserLook96 Just because they make videos like that doesn't make that the primary content they produce. It is mostly about cool woodworking stuff, and giving customers the ability to see what goes into making the products they buy.

[@ultrasupreme]

After the news that got bobby in hot water and the workers complaining of the company culture etc a few years ago, they put out a video that said that wyrmwood is more or less edited marketing not reality. Presenting their dirty laundry is clearly thought out, it may be a bad approach, but its not like layoffs happened and they said well we have to show this. they could have edited it all out. they think this will help them sell stuff. I think they are wrong.

[@Adrian-n9h]

The doug speech is the only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth from the lay offs and I saw a lot of comments in agreement. Shame that didn't get addressed here. I do really like Doug and that didn't change with the lay offs or this video. Acknowledgement that the speech was bad would've been nice. Not even an apology just "yea that was in poor taste"

[@MelissaQueen-y7w]

Doug is only going to argue with the dumbest arguments he can find and not address anything else.

[@negativeidk8158]

this should be seen as a monumental failure, it's the 2nd or 3rd big layoff? Like I understand that business is business and we aren't there to see the whole scale of everything going on. but the layoff speech was a disaster, your reaction to people being upset about your failure is bad. You make good product but it is an expensive product, so sales are going to be lower than production most of the time. This could have be unilaterally handled better than it was. I do hope that you guys turn this around and get workers back and get them good work and more good product out the door.

[@cwxgames468]

Do you mean during covid? Cause that is literally the only thing I remember being a "big layoff"

[@1987martyn]

Companies grow and shrink over time thats understandable , but having to shrink 50% is a sign that things were bad for a long time and you did nothing about it. Own the failure and move on, dont get pissy at the comments pointing out your obvious failure to do something constructive

[@soapboxk2203]

@@1987martyn This for sure. The whole situation smells like there should have been staff reductions 6 months ago, probably around 25%. That would have slowed the production output while still bringing down lead times.

[@damianthedm]

@@soapboxk2203 It really does feel like their response to "we aren't catching up on lead times" was "increase production to 200%!" when it should have been "increase production to 125%" Like sure, you still have lead times. You have lead times longer than you do now. But you also put yourself at a point where you aren't literally working yourself out of work.

[@denmoore92]

Any chance to hear from Troy at any time soon about all this? Or was he laid off too?

[@H3_Industrial_Complex]

We really have stupid people in these comments living check to check sticking up for a guy who, literally in this video said he could retire off of his bitcoin But yeah, what a nice guy

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

Again, missing the point. No one thinks layoffs cannot happen. That's insane. Not a single person claimed that. Have you guys been hanging out with politicians or are you being this dumb on accident??

[@sophiawilliams1174]

Sometimes good business moves still suck on a human level… you might not like the pushback but what were you expecting?

[@sporkmaster5000]

I think a big aspect of this is that wyrmlife does humanize both the people in the company, but also the company itself. These are a bunch of goofy guys on the internet, not corporate husks. So when they start making hard, very businesslike decisions it presents some tonal whiplash, and people expect this more chill and personable company to have a more human answer than fire a huge portion of their workforce before the holidays, even if that's not a realistic possibility.

[@fazzz]

Arrogance of this guy. Sheesh. We understand how tough business is. We hate the way you have done this. For all the world to see. No dignity to staff. No respect. Plenty of people here have their own businesses. Stop patronising people.

[@davidmartin6672]

My biggest question while watching this is why Bobby is sitting with a roll of toilet paper within reach.

[@joshuaprice7306]

Because it’s some bullshit

[@advkow]

I must know!

[@Psibound]

probably using it to blow his nose its cold af.

[@benjarvis2424]

Oh not again

[@TheBlackClaymore]

How about cleaning the white board. Seriously guys grow up

[@keithmcbride2032]

Find it very interesting that they thought this was a good thing to release to the people they want buying their products. None of this is good.

[@Jibberish81]

You’re perfectly within your right to run your business however you want, and sometimes that means you have to let people go. That’s business. I get it. The people that seem to think that you need to fall on the sword and sacrifice yourself and your investments, are completely out of touch. The business, within reason, needs to come first in a capitalist society. That’s just the reality. What you don’t seem to understand, is that the way you decided to handle these layoffs, made you come off as a complete a$$holes. There was no reason to show a lot of the footage you did. The awkward way your remaining employees stood there as you justified the layoffs in front of KZbin was incredibly awkward and insulting. Layoffs are not fun for anyone, but you could have handled it with a lot more tact. Keep building your amazing products, but please do a reality check on your “transparency”.

[@cwxgames468]

I completely disagree. I'd rather have "what was shown" as an employee than. A boot out the door and a shrug as they walk back by.

[@Jibberish81]

⁠@@cwxgames468I don’t understand what your point is. If you had been an employee, you would have been there to experience it, so you wouldn’t need video. The video is for us, not the employees?

[@cwxgames468]

@@Jibberish81 I never said it was it was for them. I said that what we saw is what I would prefer if I were an employee. I don't see how you took my comment any other way... Maybe you are who other comments are talking about 🤔

[@Jibberish81]

⁠​⁠@@cwxgames468ahh, I understand you now. Yeah I don’t know why I read it that way.

[@joshuaprice7306]

My whole problem was basically this HR: you need to do it this way. Doug: FUCK IT WE ARE DOING IT LIVE

[@baldingape]

It's doubtful this is the only set of discussions they had, and even more doubtful that each one was like this. I would imagine Troy worked hard with the rest of management to put together as good a severance as feasible, and also that he would have put together a good communication package of all the services that the affected employees have available to help them (COBRA, unemployment, etc.). There are many ways for HR to drastically improve the layoff process. That doesn't mean they are the magician with all the right answers for everything and should make every decision.

[@TangleTrail]

"I have bitcoin, I can retire" Then do it, or announce that you'll be taking no salary going forward. If profit share is a drop in the bucket, then forego it. If you care about the success of the business, and you're doing so well, what reason do you have other than greed?

[@paulhostettler8581]

Because people who do work should be paid?

[@PJZ]

You keep acting like a petulant child and you're going to lose loyal customers for Wyrmwood, Doug.

[@danmur15]

My biggest question is when did you have enough data to know you were going to lay people off? I understand not being able to push the layoffs back, but the table have been on the website for a while so it's very surprising that you had no idea until last week

[@thecuriousboardgamer]

There's only two possibilities: they knew for months and just hoped they could turn it around (naive) or they didn't know until recently (ignorant). So, they're either naive or ignorant. Which is it?

[@allencosborn]

They addressed this in the video. They knew this was a likely outcome and could have done layoffs months ago, but chose to reduce lead times & build inventory while simultaneously trying to stimulate website dales to prevent or reduce the quantity of layoffs. This is also why there has been a heavier focus the 2nd half of the year featuring what the custom shop can do (higher margins for some 'stock' options) as well as the Mario table. They know they have saturated the tabletop market and are trying to find marketing appeal outside of their current core market.

[@danmur15]

@allencosborn Doug also made a big point in the video about notifying the employees as soon as they knew, but that's pretty contradictory to what you're saying. If they really were pivoting to custom shop for that reason then they definitely had time to do them earlier

[@soapboxk2203]

@@allencosborn Yep. They wanted their cake and to eat it too. They kept all these people months longer than they could afford to in an effort to build inventory and reduce lead times. This was a calculated burn period, and Bobby said it as plain as day. They knew they weren't getting out of this nosedive.

[@TheVergile]

You really arent helping yourself by pretending you are the victims. “it was hard letting people go” “oh and the payroll taxes” “no one understand how hard it is to keep the lights on”. Doug said feelings dont matter, just reality. Then this blade cuts both ways. Stop it with the waterworks. I know things are different in the usa where people get a hard on for capitalism. But where i am from a good company is one that has responsibilities. You built your whole business model on the back of workers long term job security. The whole kickstarter large volume production and rapid expansion for a few months followed by having way too many people once those orders are fulfilled is predestined to result in people loosing their jobs whenever the orders run out. Im not saying this model is bad. Like any other business models it has its pros and cons. But at least man up and face the fact that going this way was your choice. You cant profit of the benefits without accepting the responsibility of the drawbacks. And the ones paying for this isnt you but the workers you hired for jobs you always knew wouldnt exist the moment infinite explosive growth stopped. At the same time this rapid growth models also leans heavily on investing in the company. machines, bigger workshops, etc etc. Money that isnt saved to prepare for rainy days or even out the waves between kickstarter pushes. Advantages and Disadvantages. What im saying is: you are right. those layoffs are ultimately unavoidable. unless you can go from one explosive kickstarter to the next filling up your books with a years worth of orders in a week it has to happen. But whats missing from these videos is a bit more “thats on us” and less “oh woe us, we already are doing sooooo much for the people we laid off”

[@jeramyfiscer8732]

Sounds like Icarus flew too close the sun.

[@scotteaves5410]

I do know business You ramp up seeing Dollars instead of controlling your growth. So, you don't have to do massive layoffs Remember Geek Chic.....

[@theokogod6711]

Making a KZbin video scolding the audience who you’ve alienated by your previous out-of-touch KZbin videos is an interesting PR strategy. So was saying that Doug and the other C-suite members had enough money they didn’t need to worry right after they released a video of Doug berating people during a mass layoff. But it must really be hard for the CEO to read KZbin comments.

[@seanbrinkman6733]

I appreciate that this is posted, I know that it's hard conversations, there are lives behind all the layoffs, but you guys are super transparent compared to other companies and that helps grow others that start up to prevent running into the same situations. I also want to add, that during the pandemic, MANY industries grew off a false set of cash flow that did not exist if there was the stimulus used from people that didn't need them. This effected many industries and not just board game, hobbies. It was all over the place with quick hire for demand, and realizing their current cashflow after.

[@geoffreyjohnston4047]

comments being bad or not this video just seems like angry whining about people being upset you laid off people lol. business is tough we get it. dont throw a pity party and upload the video of it.

[@dale333]

I have owned a business and if you were so surprised by these layoffs that you HAD to do it just before holidays, you failed at business. You should have seen your production/demand issues a year ago at minimum. This was a predictable event that you either failed to manage correctly or didn't care enough to manage it.

[@paulhostettler8581]

What industry did you work in that you could reliably forecast global shipping crises, political policy turnover, market response to novel product lines, market share saturation, economic downturn, and rising cost of business before they ever happened? Do you possess the power of prognostication, or are you just exercising survivorship bias?

[@dale333]

@ he specifically stated that order volume was the problem. In a later video they stay openly that they knew it would be a problem. Additionally, you don’t need to be predictive. There was no emergency crisis that caused this situation. It was a slow moving oncoming train that they ignored. Again verified by them at a later video.

[@paulhostettler8581]

@@dale333 Surely you can appreciate there are myriad factors that can effect order volume. I think this is an issue where we know the end result, and we remember telling Doug he should have hired a CMO way back when, and so we've made an unverified correlation that had Doug listened to us and hired a CMO, that he would have seen a sufficient order volume to preserve the hundred or so folks he had to lay off. But that's not necessarily true. He could have hired a CMO at a premium expense, seen identical market conditions resulting in identical order volume and ended up with contractual obligations necessitating even more layoffs. Our speculations are consequenceless, Doug's decisions are not.

[@dale333]

@@paulhostettler8581 It was made clear by Doug that they were aware of the order volume decline, it was then stated again in a later video. I’m not speculating, they admittedly saw the issue and managed it poorly at the expense of their employees. That’s fine if you want to run your company that way, many do. My issue was his statements that they were trying to be ‘humans’, when it was definitely NOT managed that way.

[@jameshobbs638]

So I guess as a rebuttal can we title this as " Your Reaponse Is Trash"? The majority accepts the business reasoning there's not debate there, it's the delivery.

[@taylormademadness]

Once again Doug fails to take accountability. The comments and issues most people have is your lack of accountability and the inhumanity around the situation. I think we all understand that layoffs happen but Doug failed to understand that as CEO the blame always falls on him. And the language around protecting the core and the “is what it is” blasé attitude came across as gross and disrespectful to the circumstances

[@FluffyCajun]

You know, I am so glad I am able to make my own gaming equipment. This video with so many others just shows how trash the admin is of Wyrmwood and another piece of evidence of why I never bought their stuff.

[@stevefox2931]

Holy crap, laying off your employees before the holidays, the Doug speech, and now just gettign pissy with the customer base. "The work just isnt there right now". Yeah i doubt thats gunna change with Doug in charge and videos like these.

[@overlordock]

Yeesh. I'm sorry but putting all the viewers in the same basket saying that, everybody that has an opinion other than yours is wrong is very reckless. The only business drive that you guys currently have is your followers and your reputation. Being this insensitive about a sensitive topic could hurt the trust of your followers and your sales quite a bit. You hired an HR team to deal with those issues and yet you chose to ignore them, hurting both Wyrmwood and your personal reputation. There's a fine line between being confident and being arrogant and in my opinion, this is pure arrogance. Bragging publicly about your personal wealth after having laid off this many employees is truly disgusting. Additionally, do not make the mistake of thinking that nobody here knows how to run a successful business when I am sure, some of us have ran businesses larger and more complex than Wyrmwood. People aren't trying to tell you guys how to run your business, simply that you did the right thing for your company the wrong way.

[@Adustus]

Love to hear that you do these videos because they're honest while you've got a disclaimer in the description about how these aren't real to cover your ass.

[@Lancer723]

Surely posting a KZbin video and blasting your audience will help. It comes across as really thin-skinned that instead of investing time into the business, they spent all this time and thought into reddit and youtube comments, then posted an entire video about it. Shit, do they not recognize the shift in the comments over the last couple years is a direct result of your own poor business practices being rightly called out, and then the childish responses that come out? Y'all need to do some serious introspection.

[@aaronk6496]

What? You guys didn't like the "do nothing so the entire company goes under" plan?

[@birkvanrillaer4787]

All I am curious is if there was any thought or restraint on showing us the Doug speech. I still think it could have been handled much better. But I do appreciate seeing the transparency.

[@TakeACloserLook96]

Yeah, Doug calling it "censorship" when commenters said "maybe this shouldn't be here". When most of those comments I saw on the topic were like "Hey, it's a little odd to record a bunch of your employee's reactions to hearing so many of their friends were just laid off. Especially since all you are recording is Doug giving a lengthy speech that he already basically gave to the camera". It doesn't add anything.

[@anzo2856]

This is the primary reason why I have enjoyed watching the KZbin channel, the transparency of growing a business and all that it entails. It's not all sunshine and roses, as we all know, but with open communication, everyone can make their own mind up and hopefully understand why a certain decision is made. I hope you guys continue on with reckless transparency, as it gives me the opportunity to be a fly on the wall in so many different scenarios that I would not have the option to experience otherwise. You guys keep doing you!

[@nodwas11]

Doug is a Reddit tier CEO so I'm not sure why he's so critical of the comments. He's just digging the hole deeper. Sometimes he needs to talk less.

[@WyrmLyfe]

I'm just glad we're all using "Reddit" as an insult. 💖

[@soapboxk2203]

Doug: "I don't need more money. I already have a lot of money. I like a lot of people I work with, this is fun to solve problems. Reddit tier analysis blah blah blah...." My dude. You're playing with people's lives here. Your customers are putting huge amounts of money into your products. Your employees are relying on you to run a successful business because they are investing themselves into your company and mutual success. The fact that you think bragging about how a profit share from Wyrmwood would be trivial for you is so, so telling about how you don't understand the real human thoughts and feelings your audience, employees and customers have. Crypto bro mindset to the max. It's all a game for you, but it isn't for your employees. Your arrogance and lack of comprehension is staggering.

[@wescrowther655]

Considering his wealth is crypto bitcoin….

[@paulhostettler8581]

You sound like the sort of fellow to be more comfortable shopping at Walmart and Amazon. No ambiguity in the business model there.

[@cornelious2]

Bring on the Hateraide it's also better to know before spending crazy for the holidays than just after.

[@quasarinfinity3235]

Stop abusing your workforce

[@Dragonslairminis]

Doug: "I wouldn't rehire 50% to 75% of the people we let go even if we had the business."

[@paulhostettler8581]

Half of all people are below average.

[@Bluemooism]

I didn't realize being hostile to your customer base added up to business value but what the fuck do I know with my reddit tier analysis😂😂😂😂 I also am a paying customer who has spent thousands and probably will continue to spend thousands. Just chill, not everything has to be a big thing, a lot of the KZbin stuff I think is in poor taste, it's not a good look.

[@mallenwho]

Understand this one, Doug. I was ready and prepared to buy an MGT with all the trimmings for your Aus shipping Kickstarter. After this, I am taking my business completely elsewhere. Probably to a local Australian craftsman who won't have the same features or technology but will have Australian Woods and less of a bone headed approach to management and politics.

[@DarkenSeyreth]

First, Holy shit! I got the featured comment! How does that even happen? I have been on the other side of layoffs twice in a row now, once it was a "so sad, see you later" and another time it came with a severance. Both were massive companies that felt like they were doing it for greed reasons, both right before my birthday. What i think a lot of people forget is Wyrmwood is essentially still a small business. They are probably on the razors edge a lot of the time. Layoffs suck, especially this time of the year, but it is a much better option than "Sorry, we're not solvent and need to shut the doors" which my partner was the HR person for once.

[@ThereisNoCarrollinHR]

I've always appreciated that you guys feature both the good and the bad things that happen within the company. Yes, maybe being part of one of the bad things can feel bad, but it also provides outsiders the view of how things on both sides are handled. Almost every company wants to avoid bad press, and you guys are airing your own "bad press". I like that it allows the viewers the ability to show that these decisions are in fact made by humans. And the fact we know all of the names and faces of the leadership team, which also allows for unhappy people to see that the person they're hating on is in fact a human being that DOES care, is nice. In most companies we wouldn't get to see the people like Crazy Ed do his little experiments. I hope you guys recover and are able to regain your lost employees, for both their sake and yours.

[@ultrasupreme]

Just take some responsibility. Insulting the entire comment section by debating the weakest comments is petty bullshit. The real story here is you overstaffed, tried to dig yourself out and failed so you had to do layoffs. its not "the environment", its not taxes, its not the customer, its not the comment section. its your decisions that led to a rug pull of people who likely thought they had a stable job. I'd be very interested to see how many of those laid off were talking unionizing or reporting Osha violations... I wonder what kind of overlap was there. Doug seems pretty happy to get rid of 50% of the 50%....

[@baldingape]

If you have a massive layoff and you aren't thinking "well, there's a bunch of those that we won't miss from a work perspective" then you've worked at some amazing places and you should count your lucky stars. Most fast-growing companies hire like crazy and focus more on getting bodies in the door than they do in hiring all the best, and it's very often not until a layoff that they end up getting rid of low-performing (but not totally incompetent) workers.

[@the13th]

Layoffs always stuck and no-one ever understands how hard it is

[@Myst031]

You care about their opinion so little you had to make an entire video saying their opinions are worthless. The layoffs are understandable, the way it was handled with your terrible speech, putting it on youtube, and now getting pissy that everyone didn't praise you all. I've finally unsubscribed from you guys, this was amatuer hour.

[@donaldking5791]

This video does not help you or ease the pain you had to go through. You would have been better served by not posting this and look very defensive and bitter. This is not a good look.

[@Horsewomann]

I had an old boss who called meetings because his feelings were hurt by random comments he overheard. I worked for an ambulance company and pulling those crews out of their coverage areas DIRECTLY LEAD to people dying because it took longer to get them help. So, I have a bit of a knee jerk reaction about meetings held to respond to comments that hurt someone’s feelings. Layoffs are way better than straight firing. Layoff indicates a chance for coming back and can help get unemployment easier. I’d rather be laid off than fired any day.

[@RatingHyperion]

We understand the business. It's not that we have a problem with. What we have a problem with is the "speech" you gave everyone who was left which you have very clearly not addressed here. The tldr of Doug's "speech" was essentially "you got to keep your job but next time this will be you on the chopping block" which is bullshit and you know it. We don't have a problem with the company. It's Doug's behaviour and comments he makes we have a problem with. Lashing out at Reddit (okay fair enough to a minor amount of comments made on there) and the YT comment section? We're not going to keep accepting you blaming the comment section for [insert problem here] when the comments are making a damn good point. Take accountability, stop blaming us. We're not the ones making the bullshit choices and it's how you're going to start losing viewers and customersif you keep hitting out at us.

[@Joshua_Tymchyn]

I'm seeing a ton of comments talking about the fact that Wyrmwood didn't listen to their HR department and do this in the correct way, but unless I'm mistaken, we're not seeing the full picture here. Just because we were shown Doug's speech, that doesn't mean HR wasn't involved. You can literally see HR walking in the background of the video! They were definitely involved and probably a lot more than we can understand, given that we have a single 10 minute video of the pie.

[@wisdombeyondyears]

Actually a business question. In a situation where you need to layoff a large portion of employees is it better to lay off everyone all at once or lay them off incrementally of several months? I’d expect everyone all at once like a bandaid to reduce the impact of morale long term and making retraining faster.

[@williamowen4758]

If y’all don’t want criticism, then don’t post your content. It’s your business run it however you like, but don’t expect everyone to be OK with your decisions. Instead of making this video spend the time and resources to forecast and plan so you’re not in the same situation next year.

[@stephencolosky97]

You should think about writing down these speeches beforehand and reading over them a few times before replying to something so controversial about your business

[@DetectiveMosely]

*me walking in with no idea what going on, doing 30 seconds of watching/reading* Oh, these guys suck...

[@Techpriest]

On the point of lay offs before holidays, something many people don't know is Black Friday is called that these days as many businesses go from being in the red (running at a loss) to being in the black (profitable) so a big reason why so many layoffs happen in that period is so many businesses, I'm guessing you included, are holding out hope that the holiday season brings in enough of a boon in sales to keep going and when that doesn't happen, cuts have to happen.

[@sinksurfer]

Balancing the headcount with inputs and outputs while also trying to predict consumer trends while attempting to manage the constant turmoil of market trends and industry uncontrollables…is really flipping hard. The fact that this leadership is willing to make decisions and put it out there is rare. This is an unfortunate event and a gamble to grow that did not pan out. Learn from this.

[@Canahedo]

The way they handled the layoffs really isn't the issue, especially if they gave people a severance. The issue is that they scaled too big too fast, and didn't account for "What if this best case scenario Doug is banking on doesn't happen?". The example I keep going back to is when a big online game comes out and has server issues, some people online complain that the company should hire more people. But the problem is, what do you do with those people once the problems are fixed. WW had a turnaround issue. They didn't hire people with the expectation that they were temp workers to scale up production, or given a defined contract they could plan around. They were told they had a job, and were then told "Oops, guess we were wrong, you're laid off". Good on WW for giving a severance, you should have mentioned that sooner. Good for WW for being this transparent, a lot of other companies wouldn't be. But the reality is that a lot of people worked to help build this company and get it to where it is, and they now get pushed out but the people whose bad planning led to the layoffs just get to keep on going as if they didn't cost 50% of the company their jobs. The fact that so many people's lives hinge on the whims of so few people is the biggest problem with privately owned businesses like this. WW wouldn't be what it is without all the people who actually make the products, but they are also the ones with little to no say in what happens.