Work Culture Death Watch - The "New" AOL.....

Remember AOL?  That company used to rock.  Pay your $9.95 a month (only $14.95 for unlimited, or was it $19.95?), and you could dial in to that great "walled garden" of content and have that trendy @aol.com email address as well.  I held onto "Prodigy" (give a shout out if you remember that DOS-looking screen) for awhile, but finally moved over to AOL as well.

Then, broadband happened.  AOL first reacted as all market leaders do initially to critical threats, by  ignoring the trend and thinking their market leading position would get them through the storm.   Then, they thought that loyalty of all the users longing to hold on to their email addresses would stop the bleeding.  By the time they finally opened up content to non-subscribers, Google had already built the ad-driven model and figured out how to make money without subscribers.  And AOL has slowly become less relevant each month.

Need more evidence AOL is dead?  What if I told you that the CEO of AOL was asking employees to reach out to all their friends and tell them about all the cool stuff they can find by cruising AOL?  Still not enough?  What if I told you the same CEO was unsatisfied with the employee response to his request, and asked for examples of how they forwarded the marketing pitch, with those examples sent directly to him?

By now, you are surely grimacing.  But the story appears to be true according to emails forwarded to the Silicon Valley tech gossip rag, Valleywag:

"Before the holidays, AOL products chief, Kevin Conroy, urged employees to send a form letter to their friends, family members, and business contacts talking up AOL's new products. "Team, excitement about the work we are doing ... starts with each one of us," Conroy emailed. His top down directive did not spark any bottom-up fervor, it seems, as he had to forward the message again on Friday, asking employees for examples of get-out-the-users emails they'd sent."

If you are a glutton for punishment, you can also see the emails with the request and the follow up here.

Requests like this represent a work culture, and a company, in free fall.  Asking for your non-sales associates to push product kills morale and has the smell of death all over it.  After all, folks are in careers outside of sales for many reasons - one important one being that they consider the sales process very confrontational and it doesn't fit what they want to do professionally.

Still, I understand why a company in trouble would ask for the help.  All hands on deck and all that.

But, when you ask for proof that employees are pushing themselves on their friends, the end has to be near.   

Comments

[HR Wench]

"Asking for your non-sales associates to push product kills morale and has the smell of death all over it." AMEN! Fabulous post.

[Ask a Manager]

Well said. And fascinating to read the emails.

[HRM26]

What a shame...such potential!

[Paul Hebert]

Looks like I'll be the lone dissenter...

I think employee referral programs are great!

Wait for it...

Only if the employees work for a good company that has a product worth talking about.

What you've highlighted is a good idea implemented poorly. If Apple provided an incentive to their employees for getting friends and family to buy a MAC would you have the same response? I think not.

Employees should never be forced to shill for the company. In this case, the CEO's goal should be to create a company and product that people would like to sell. Instead of micro-managing a bad idea.

If I ran AOL my first response to a less than enthusiastic response would be to get them in a room and ask why they don't want to do it - then fix that problem first.

[Dave Dixon]

Are you saying that for my organization to be like the Patriots that I must start off the year by cheating in some way or spying on our competetors in order to have the "perfect" year? They definatly know how to win, but at what cost?

[Kris]

Dave -

Whether you currently work for AOL or are referring to another organzation, you're making leaps from post to post that don't connect.

See the Pats comments string for my take on the reference to cheating. That post and this one are different, and I think you are taking them out of context by trying to compare them.

My opinion is that orgs should only ask non-sales employees to push product via incentive programs (Thanks Paul!!). And asking employees to send the CEO proof that they are promoting the company to their friends? Surely you don't think that is a good thing, do you?

You are kidding me right? What kills morale quicker than that?

Thanks - KD