I disagree that it went wrong. I don't see why the stuff they got punished the most severely for was I inherent to their success -- fundamentally, scraping, not re entering records, and a good user experience for employers is what matters.
They could have done without the "macro" -- fucking spend a week extra training your people. Some other compliance stuff. This was just laziness on their part, not fundamental to their business
At least 2 states launching formal investigations to your practices of a regulated industry? Then the CEO was fired for "the macro" which he authored. If you write the goodbye, it's a resignation, but if someone else does it's a firing.
If that's not wrong, I don't want to be right.
Full disclosure: messing with my money IS messing with my emotions.
I agree the CEO seriously fucked up -- I'm arguing it is actually worse, because he didn't need to do that to build a great business, either -- it was just a lazy shortcut. Zenefits could be a great company without doing things like the macro, and while being compliant with the regulations (or, in cases where the regulations are ambiguous or wrong, at least breaking them in ways which are defensible legally and in the court of public opinion.)
They could have done without the "macro" -- fucking spend a week extra training your people. Some other compliance stuff. This was just laziness on their part, not fundamental to their business
I'm very optimistic that Sacks will fix this.