The VP Who Asked to Be Demoted: A Masterclass in Self-Awareness
episode
“HR Heretics” | How CPOs, CHROs, Founders, and Boards Build High Performing Companies
23 min
2 speakers
6 chapters
transcribed 16 days ago
Transcript
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What motivated Cynthia Baz to request her first demotion at Meta?
For today's Essential Heretics 101 feature, former Meta HR leader Cynthia Baslamit Schrahner talks about self-demotion for fulfillment, Meta's pandemic hiring explosion, brutal layoffs, and DEI resource group chaos. All right. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another session of HR Heretics. Hope you are all doing great. I'm so excited to have you on. So Cynthia Baslamit Schraner. I didn't know what name to call her because we have Baz Lamit, Baz, we have Schroner Schron. So I'm just gonna stick with the OG Baz. And like this person is so well known, has done so much stuff and has seen it all. Like great stuff, total disasters and shit shows. But the best part, she wants to talk about it all. And it's just like just like we do on this show, Nolan, we got nothing to lose.
It's real talk. It's real stories and we're gonna pull it out of you. We're so
excited to have you. I'm excited to be here. I think everything is fair game 'cause the only way you can make things better is share the things you screwed up and share the things you got right.
We're so stoked to have you on. So I want to start with the story you shared last week on LinkedIn. You shared a story at Meta about being demoted. Can you share that story with us?
I'd love to share the story with you. When I started at Facebook, it was about 300 people and we it was incredible growth. It was two thousand and eight. And so fast forward a couple of years and I had this large team and it was something I never thought I'd have. And I was loving I was loving the team aspect of it. I hated the job. I really just loved the client work. And I'd go to my boss all the time, head of HR. She loved me because I had helped her for years and years. We'd always make clients do you love, loathe exercises. What do you love and you get your energy from? And what do you loathe and you hate? And I loathed so much my job. I was like, Lori, here's my list. I hate this shit. I'm really bad at it.
She's like, you're not bad at it. You could be better, but don't worry, you're great. And we did this dance for about two years. And she's like, Well, Baz, you know we've been talking for two years now about you hating your job. I think it's now time to bring someone in over you. And I was like, Are you firing me? And she's like, No, no, no. There's tons of growth here. There's tons of opportunity. We've got a bunch of other recs open. You could do what you love to do, which is run tech. You love running tech. You don't love the business side or the sales side. And I sat there and I was shocked and I was like, Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. Cause like my heart was like. you know, crying and my brain was like, Hell yeah, hell yeah, finally.
And they were not reconciling. And I was like, Okay, I'm gonna walk away for a hot minute. And I went and I cried. And I had taken the shuttle in, so I couldn't even cry in my car. I had to like go cry in a conference room. I think I was in one of the breastfeeding rooms. It was so embarrassing. And I cried. And called my husband. He goes, You've been wanting this, you dumbass. And I was like, No, no, no. I've been wanting this in my head, but my heart never caught up with my head.
How did Baz’s second self‑demotion happen when hiring Christine Ellis?
And so we started the search and I hated all the people we saw. And then we meet this one woman. And I come out of the room and I look at Lori, my boss. And Lori's like, What do you think? I go, I'm not gonna say anything until you meet her. Lori comes out and we just high five and we jump up and down like she's the person. She was way better than me at all the parts of the job I sucked at. And it was like a weight was lifted. It was still embarrassing for a while. It was it was embarrassing. It took a couple months, but I knew it was the right thing. But when Lori dropped the hammer on me, I was like, for two years, you said I could fake it till I make it. Why me? And she's like, 'Cause it's time and we now need it.
And Yeah. I ended up figuring out what the trigger was for her finally. She never told me what finally turned her because it wasn't Cheryl. Cheryl wanted me to stay in the job, but it was finally someone internally who had a ton of credibility who's like, She's great, but she's hurting the growth of the function.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What motivated Cynthia Baz to request her first demotion at Meta?
0:03–2:55
2
How did Baz’s second self‑demotion happen when hiring Christine Ellis?
2:55–6:52
3
What role did the “Comparison is the thief of joy” mindset play in Baz’s ego struggle?
6:52–11:14
4
How did Meta’s pandemic hiring spree lead to a 10‑fold team expansion?
11:14–15:52
5
What were the three waves of layoffs that cut 8,000+ Meta employees?
15:52–20:02
6
How did DEI resource groups evolve from fun initiatives to corporate chaos?
20:02–23:45
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from “HR Heretics” | How CPOs, CHROs, Founders, and Boards Build High Performing Companies
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