More Layoffs at Rocket Boy Construction as Company Again Suspects Sabotage – WGB
The drama in Build A Rocket Boy continues to be exciting, although in the same way watching a volcano erupt near a city can be terrifying and fascinating.
This time the company has announced its third round of layoffs. No exact numbers have been shared, so it is unclear how many are affected and how many employees remain at the company.
“Today we are announcing another number of layoffs. This is a very painful decision,” wrote CEO Mark Gerhard on LinkedIn. “The people who are leaving our team have invested a lot of talent, passion and time into building what we believe in. Letting our colleagues go is not something any leader wants to do, and I know the impact this will have on individuals, families and our wider community.”
The manner of the declaration takes a sharp turn, however, when in the next section Gerhard takes responsibility, but also insists that the party has been the victim of what he previously described as “spies, vandalism, and criminal interference.”
“As leaders we take responsibility for the results of our projects and subsequent decisions. At the same time, delivery time is affected by factors beyond the usual operational challenges and the competitive environment.”
“In the past months we have been working with external partners and legal advisors to investigate the criminal activity that occurred during our launch,” continued Gerhard. “That work took longer than expected, but has now resulted in overwhelming evidence of organized espionage and corporate sabotage involving MindsEye. Because this matter is now headed for prosecution, we cannot discuss the full details at this time.”
If you want the full disclosure of what Build A Rocket Boy says happened to them, read it all here. The short answer is, they say that several employees were working with journalists and a UK company called Ritual Network in some sort of million euro smear campaign. The ultimate goal seems to be to damage both Build A Rocket Boy and its game, MindsEye.
However, more than just claims as Build A Rocket Boy insist they have evidence and are aggressively pursuing legal action against those involved. As crazy as it sounds, weird things happen all the time, so we’ll have to see how it all plays out.
It is interesting that under the LinkedIn post announcing the dismissal, a former employee of Build A Rocket Boy named Jordan Rey, who was the Lead Platform Engineer, defended the company’s claims: “I myself was targeted by a group of people who made a secret server of Discord to dox and insult BARB. This even came to SWATing through a Platform Engineer who was not fully aware of MiEyear France. launch, I know the truth that criminal activities occur to target BARB.”
Regardless of whether or not there is a conspiracy against the company, re-posting the title – despite not being able to say anything about it – in a post announcing layoffs is a move that doesn’t sound right.
I will be watching how this develops with great interest.
