Is the resignation actually related to layoffs or the title just clickbait? Because "amidst" means nothing concrete.
It would seem the actual article title is: "Thuan Pham, who fled Vietnam as a child and became Uber’s CTO in 2013, is leaving the company". Maybe it changed after posting, maybe not. But the clickbait we have now is a bit disingenuous. The article TechCrunch cites as its source has far less ambiguous wording:
"Layoffs of that magnitude, which haven’t been finalized but could be announced in stages in the coming weeks, could result in more than 5,400 of Uber’s 27,000 employees losing their jobs. Separately, Uber’s chief technology officer Thuan Pham—who joined Uber in 2013 and is the longest-serving senior executive at the company—has resigned from the company, said a person with knowledge of the situation."
I think what they mean is that they don't yet have proof it's related, but it's a factor reasonable people could think relevant.
And personally, I'm sure it is. There's no way that that discussions around his resignation didn't involve the pandemic. Even if he had planned 6 months ago to leave now, execs still should have said, "Hey, it looks really bad for you to leave right now, and your people would benefit from stability. Could you stay longer?"
This is a pernicious problem with journalism in general(or really, any writing that wants to convince you of some point of view).
Whenever I see the weasley language of "X happens amidst Y" or "As Y grows, X happens", I just assume that X has nothing to do with Y unless I am given evidence otherwise.
I think I should probably do that, but it feels so unnatural for me to be suspicious or cynical of so much at face value and assume that people are always trying to manipulate my thinking at some level. I may end up being more intelligent by doing this and have better outcomes in everything I do, but I'm not confident that I'd feel happier in the process.
If you were looking to maximize happiness, not reading anything beyond local news once every day or two and national/international news every 5-7 days would probably go a long way.
It would seem the actual article title is: "Thuan Pham, who fled Vietnam as a child and became Uber’s CTO in 2013, is leaving the company". Maybe it changed after posting, maybe not. But the clickbait we have now is a bit disingenuous. The article TechCrunch cites as its source has far less ambiguous wording:
"Layoffs of that magnitude, which haven’t been finalized but could be announced in stages in the coming weeks, could result in more than 5,400 of Uber’s 27,000 employees losing their jobs. Separately, Uber’s chief technology officer Thuan Pham—who joined Uber in 2013 and is the longest-serving senior executive at the company—has resigned from the company, said a person with knowledge of the situation."