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Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

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Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#111

Post by astura »

gowld wrote: post #92
chrischen wrote: post #38

"Dozens of social media accounts were tweeting angry things, including many death threats, at both Roy and Marriott. This seems especially odd considering Twitter itself is officially banned in China, and thus can be accessed only by residents breaking the law or by bot accounts." Not sure why they assume that "dozens of social media accounts" of pro-China supporters is not possible. They're making some weird assumpt…

Furthermore, Twitter may be banned, but the government propaganda office certainly has access if they want it.

Right, not only that but they may also actively employ people to spread pro-China messages on Western sites. Like Russia does.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#112

Post by kylnew »

Honestly, Marriott is a terrible chain with contempt for its own customers. Every time I use a Marriott (not always by choice) I’m insulted by the quality of food for the price they ask. I once got $10 ‘fresh squeezed OJ’ at breakfast before knowing the price and realizing they were pouring it from a Tropicana container. So when I hear this story I’m not even remotely surprised by Marriotts behavior. Upper management has its head so far up its own rear end this is par for the course.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#113

Post by badosu »

tatersolid wrote: post #95
analog31 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there another country that has "at will" employment to the extent that the US does?

Pretty much all of them except a few European nations.

I am not sure about that... Not in Brazil at least

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#114

Post by dlgeek »

chrischen wrote: post #56
lostlogin wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were in China would you really find it insulting that Tibet is considered by some to be its own country? It was invaded, and I can’t really see any other way to characterise what happened.

That depends if you think some Americans would be offended if you claimed Hawaii was its own country. It was also invaded and then forcibly gentrified and colonized. That's not to even mention the entirety of the United States. It's not so much if China has legitimate claims on Tibet so much as it's the pot calling the kettle black. The greatest conquerer on Earth and its modern beneficiaries telling another country…

> The greatest conquerer on Earth and its modern beneficiaries

What'd England and the commonwealth do now?

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#115

Post by kodablah »

chrischen wrote: post #56
lostlogin wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were in China would you really find it insulting that Tibet is considered by some to be its own country? It was invaded, and I can’t really see any other way to characterise what happened.

That depends if you think some Americans would be offended if you claimed Hawaii was its own country. It was also invaded and then forcibly gentrified and colonized. That's not to even mention the entirety of the United States. It's not so much if China has legitimate claims on Tibet so much as it's the pot calling the kettle black. The greatest conquerer on Earth and its modern beneficiaries telling another country…

> That depends if you think some Americans would be offended if you claimed Hawaii was its own country

Of course not. They'd just ignore you. Not force you to suspend online sales to your 300 stores in the country. Why is there always someone willing to twist things into a pretzel in search of moral equivalence when it comes to China or Russia? There's no pot. There's no kettle. Using your leverage to force a company to stop doing business for a liked tweet is uncool for any country.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#116

Post by garmaine »

mirimir wrote: post #66
jonathanyc wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American, I wouldn’t be offended if a Chinese person suggested that all non Native Americans should leave America. I wouldn’t think that would be reasonable, although I would acknowledge that we could do much more to help rectify the situation that still exists today. I would likewise be not offended (but might feel slightly uncomfortable) if someone told me that California, my home state, should be returned to…

There are activists who argue that all of the southwestern US should be returned to Mexico. And indeed, the idea generally isn't that unpopular in Mexico. For what that's worth.

Californian here. Why would that be “offensive”?

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#117

Post by throwaway45074 »

cylinder wrote: post #54
corobo wrote: post #21

The meat of the story is that Omaha man worked for Marriott hotels on customer support. Their support system allows their agents to like tweets. The man appears to have inadvertently clicked like on a tweet while dealing with a large influx of support messages (due to a promo going on) thanking Marriott for listing Tibet as its own country which was a huge no-no due to Mariott's presence in China. Execs fire him as a…

The real story is he has no employment rights because he's in America and he's "at will." They can dismiss him because they don't like his lunch selection that day and he has no rights. That's at will employment. This type of situation plays out all over the country everyday.

And yet all I see on HN is talk about how hiring a single false positive is supposedly so calamitous that it's better to reject (and waste the time of, and insult) tens, hundreds, or even thousands of false negatives.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#118

Post by zeth___ »

elefanten wrote: post #55
zeth___ wrote: post #27

Up next, all atheists and homosexuals get fired from any company that deals with Saudi Arabia. We can't let backwards dictatorships have any say in how a democracy is ran. Marion should be made an example of in the US. Say a wink wink nudge nudge major tax audit of every single Marion hotel.

This isn't an example of anyone having a say in how the government is run. Any kind of extra-legal and arbitrary "making an example" of a company domestically would be disastrous to confidence in the market. The better implementation of your objective would be to create a policy (enshrined in rules) first, then go after anyone who violates it.

>Any kind of extra-legal and arbitrary "making an example" of a company domestically would be disastrous to confidence in the market.

The market is in place to serve the country, not the other way around. Corporate charters are given by government and can be revoked. Colluding with a foreign country that we have a strained relationship with should be grounds for at least looking at the company much more closely.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#119

Post by JetSpiegel »

eagsalazar2 wrote: post #65
cylinder wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real story is he has no employment rights because he's in America and he's "at will." They can dismiss him because they don't like his lunch selection that day and he has no rights. That's at will employment. This type of situation plays out all over the country everyday.

Forcing employers to keep employees they don't like, for any reason beyond discrimination, isn't the answer. The better answer is, IMO, better social safety net so people making $14/hr don't end up on the streets just because their job goes away.

The Flexi-Security approach to social security. The hard part is making sure companies pay their dues.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#120

Post by astura »

peapicker wrote: post #17

If Marriott were really serious, they should have fired the survey writer instead. They again, maybe that person was fired too. But as to appeasing China, well... I'm not sympathetic.

No one to fire - the survey was provided by an outside company.

Marriott needs to compile a "list of countries" to provide to third party vendors in the future.

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