This job exists today and it is called CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) or other variants :D
You need to be highly qualified for that job
OP is jokingly referring to the FB/Cambridge Analytica scandal
An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)
81–90 of 166 posts
Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
That reminds me of a 19th century con man I read about in the wonderful book "Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present" [1]. He came to some big city posing as a successful businessman seeking investors for some new enterprise. He would give as a reference the president of a local bank located on the other side of town. When the potential investors went…
That sounds like something out of Hustle a TV show the BBC produced about a group of contract artists.
[deleted]
Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)
#83Not surprising that large companies would have 'stooge' employees in place for just this sort of thing. I have heard of it happening in at least one major store chain here many years ago. Kind of reminiscent of one of the first episodes in the series 'Suits' where Louis Litt is interviewing a new junior employee for the firm, and he pulls in another junior mid-interview to dress him down and dismiss him in front of t…
I once worked with a guy who would literally “do voices” on the phone to pretend to callers that he managed a whole team of people.
I knew a guy who ran a business which designed and sold PCBs. He'd make up different names to stamp on PCBs. Designed by Joe Bloggs, Code by Derek Smarts, Layout by Jamie Simple, etc. He wanted the business to seem bigger than it actually was.
Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)
#84Yes, while working a telemarketing job for quick cash secretly I encountered just this sort of thing. I had spent all of my graduation gift money meant for my first apartment right after high school and had to take a night shift somewhere. I found this telemarketing place and they had a dead simple test they used for prospective hires. My friends told me they would hire anyone no matter what. Surprisingly, someone fa…
Sorry if this should be obvious, I've read it 3 times and still don't understand this bit: > They also did this because they cashed every last check of every employee that left and there were a lot of those. "They also did this" - Who also did what? The candidates accepted the job? The company hired the fake guy to get sacked? And who cashed whose checks? Did they cash them before or after they left? And why does tha…
The company kept the "last check" of the employees who quit (probably by no-showing which is why they didn't pick up their last check) so the company got a few hours of free labor from each employee.
"They did this" means they had the actor convince the applicants to take the job. The more employees they hire, the more free hours they get (since the quitters don't pick up their last check)
Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)
#85Many years ago I delivered pizza while in college. When it was time to move on my manager and I decided to have some fun. For the last three days I was there I delivered to every terrible customer we had, then had a little fun at their expense. Like the guy that routinely refused to tip a single penny and said 10 pennies make a dime. I handed him a dime and told him now he didn't have to wait for 9 more pizzas. It wa…
I understand that it's a bit impolite not to tip, but surely it's much more impolite to hold a grudge against someone for not tipping. If you want more money, put your prices up.
I think there's a difference between not-tipping and telling the employee you're not going to tip them, especially by some stupid "10 pennies make a dime!" saying, as if the employee wasn't smart enough to know that or save money.
Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also heard the story of a digital agency that rented a huge space, painted the walls with bright colors and hired a bunch of actors to pose as employees. The idea was to deceive and close a deal with a potential big client that insisted in visiting their offices.
Uh, a good friend of mine did that a couple of years ago when he started a new design agency. He was going for a large government contract and they insisted on an in-house meeting as part of the pre-tender process. He had a large office space already, in preparation for growth, but only 1 employee at that stage, so he got his high school aged daughter in, as well as some of her friends to sit in the empty desks and p…
"Fake it till you make it", huh.
Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)
#87Many years ago I delivered pizza while in college. When it was time to move on my manager and I decided to have some fun. For the last three days I was there I delivered to every terrible customer we had, then had a little fun at their expense. Like the guy that routinely refused to tip a single penny and said 10 pennies make a dime. I handed him a dime and told him now he didn't have to wait for 9 more pizzas. It wa…
I understand that it's a bit impolite not to tip, but surely it's much more impolite to hold a grudge against someone for not tipping. If you want more money, put your prices up.
I'm guessing you're not american? Their attitudes towards tips are different than, for example, those in continental Europe.
The way I understand it, service staff are criminally underpaid (by our standards). This is workable because they make up for the income using tips, which works because tips are larger (I'm not sure which way around cause and effect is here).
This means that when someone in the UK might withhold a tip due to bad service we're just removing a bonus, whereas in the US we're effectively removing their pay for serving us. Not tipping is a much stronger action.
To respond to your 'prices' comment directly - the person delivering the pizza doesn't get to set the prices. They have to take the job that they can in a service industry that pays peanuts on the basis that people will earn tips. And the business doesn't have any incentive to do anything about it - they get to pay people less and therefore keep margins high and/or charge lower prices to compete.
Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)
#88Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand that it's a bit impolite not to tip, but surely it's much more impolite to hold a grudge against someone for not tipping. If you want more money, put your prices up.
I'm guessing you're not american? Their attitudes towards tips are different than, for example, those in continental Europe. The way I understand it, service staff are criminally underpaid (by our standards). This is workable because they make up for the income using tips, which works because tips are larger (I'm not sure which way around cause and effect is here). This means that when someone in the UK might withhol…
This has always bothered me when I visit. I tend to over tip just to make sure.
My visits are short, and the level of service would normally deserve a tip anyway.
Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry if this should be obvious, I've read it 3 times and still don't understand this bit: > They also did this because they cashed every last check of every employee that left and there were a lot of those. "They also did this" - Who also did what? The candidates accepted the job? The company hired the fake guy to get sacked? And who cashed whose checks? Did they cash them before or after they left? And why does tha…
The company kept the "last check" of the employees who quit (probably by no-showing which is why they didn't pick up their last check) so the company got a few hours of free labor from each employee. "They did this" means they had the actor convince the applicants to take the job. The more employees they hire, the more free hours they get (since the quitters don't pick up their last check)
Got it, thank you. I had misread "every last check" as in "every last one" i.e. literally all of them, but actually a "last check" is just the last time the company pays you.