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Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

wsj.com

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Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#61

Post by pekk »

Yhippa wrote: post #54
dominotw wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is hilarious https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Theranos-R... Advice to Management You are doing a good job. Stay in better touch with the employees. I think most people do feel appreciated but there are also some that are disgruntled and unhappy for other reasons. I see these people spreading negative energy. You should seek them and try and fix the problem. Is it common practice among upstart co…

What do you mean by pad the reviews? Coerce employees into giving mostly favorable ones?

I won't name names, but one thing I've personally seen is HR initiatives encouraging employees to write reviews, not necessarily coercively.

If well-known companies are doing that, it's not unlikely that some companies are directly instructing HR personnel to write favorable reviews.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#62

Post by taytus »

_audakel wrote: post #25

1 - Theranos should have been more transparent, but what startup doesn't stretch the truth or even leave out data on occasion? It is a fine line between lying and hustling. Startups can often talk about something that doesn't exist yet like it does because they can move fast enough to build it. 2 - I worked at a medical startup in Palo Alto and I can attest that it is incredibly hard complying with all the FDA rules.…

Elizabeth, is that you?

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#63

Post by pekk »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #37
bane wrote: post #16

Walgreens managers also grew increasingly frustrated in recent weeks with Theranos as they sought information about the extent of test reports it had corrected or voided. This seems to be a common thread in the stories I've read about Theranos, an almost pathological inability to provide basic information upon request. I can only guess that Holmes' notion of open and transparent communication is defined very differen…

Astroturfing Glassfoor should be considered fraud. It's giving information to potential employees while omitting material information (that the company is the oposter) for purposes which financially benefit the company and its backers.

Just like institutionalized discrimination, prohibiting this has no teeth when nobody can prove it's happening.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#64

Post by randycupertino »

dominotw wrote: post #18
bane wrote: post #16

Walgreens managers also grew increasingly frustrated in recent weeks with Theranos as they sought information about the extent of test reports it had corrected or voided. This seems to be a common thread in the stories I've read about Theranos, an almost pathological inability to provide basic information upon request. I can only guess that Holmes' notion of open and transparent communication is defined very differen…

This is hilarious https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Theranos-R... Advice to Management You are doing a good job. Stay in better touch with the employees. I think most people do feel appreciated but there are also some that are disgruntled and unhappy for other reasons. I see these people spreading negative energy. You should seek them and try and fix the problem. Is it common practice among upstart co…

My old job made us write positive reviews on company time. Basically anywhere that says, "keep doing what you are doing" as the advice to management and/or the reviews are ALL either 1 star or 5 star reviews, you know they are fake.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#65

Post by enraged_camel »

Yhippa wrote: post #54
dominotw wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is hilarious https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Theranos-R... Advice to Management You are doing a good job. Stay in better touch with the employees. I think most people do feel appreciated but there are also some that are disgruntled and unhappy for other reasons. I see these people spreading negative energy. You should seek them and try and fix the problem. Is it common practice among upstart co…

What do you mean by pad the reviews? Coerce employees into giving mostly favorable ones?

Post fake reviews.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#66

Post by delish »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #53
dang wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not going to find many defenders of Theranos at this point, but that doesn't mean this isn't a bad comment to post to HN. We ask users here to post reflective comments, not ones that try to maximize fury—no matter how right you are or how angry you feel. The fact that you end your comment with a cheap slur about "more civilized countries" is indicative.

The "civilized countries" snark at the end was pointless and annoying, I agree. But still, I'm not sure why knowingly swindling ordinary people should be anything other than criminal, whether it's done in the guise of a medical service or as a simple street con. There were people in Theranos who knew exactly what was going on, knew the human cost of it, had the power to stop it, and still pushed forward. How are they…

>I'm not sure why knowingly swindling ordinary people should be anything other than criminal

We (or, to speak for myself, I) should understand:

how often does fraud happen in this industry as compared to others

what causes it

whether it's stoppable once started, and whether other companies have stopped when they've started

how different are kinds of fraud in companies

These example questions are statistical. I'd so much rather spend time getting a statistical picture of the situation than maximize fury against one bad actor. I think "blaming people"--as a way of conversing--is low-quality dialogue. This is how I agree with dang that the above comment is not what I'd like to see on hn.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#67

Post by tb303 »

bane wrote: post #16

Walgreens managers also grew increasingly frustrated in recent weeks with Theranos as they sought information about the extent of test reports it had corrected or voided. This seems to be a common thread in the stories I've read about Theranos, an almost pathological inability to provide basic information upon request. I can only guess that Holmes' notion of open and transparent communication is defined very differen…

Theranos' relationship with GlassDoor is rich. You should have seen the posts up there before Theranos went after them with lawyers.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#69

Post by enraged_camel »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #19
FreedomToCreate wrote: post #4

It still baffles me that Walgreens got into this partnership in the first place. A complete failure of due diligence.

Well yes and no. Remember that they have a really well connected board of directors and a lot of people put their reputation out there based on information they believed to be true. The managers at Walgreens don't know how to design, validate, and certify laboratory tests and procedures so they are kind of at the mercy of the folks who tell them they do. And while it would have been within their rights to send an out…

The board of directors should have someone with sufficient background and subject matter expertise to be able to read the description of a technology the board is considering and say, "wait a minute, this sounds too good to be true." That should trigger due diligence, which can involve, among other things, sending an outside party to audit Theranos.

The fact that Walgreens has no such person on their board is their failing, in my opinion.

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