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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

#301

Post by B-Con »

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…

> If liking a tweet will infuriate the largest (by population) country in the world, maybe $14/hr support agents shouldn't be able to one-click like tweets.

I think this is the most pragmatic thing mentioned yet.

Social media accounts are a real-time, globally visible way to communicate with the world. Treat it with respect. If you care about subtle mess-ups then have a review system or something.

I'm guessing the ideal PR person running the account is:

* educated in how that platform works (aka, young and social media savvy)

* experienced in the plethora of ways PR can go wrong (or well for that matter). "I know this looks innocent, but it's best to remain quiet on issues of X", for example.

and I'd guess that's a sweet spot that's probably hard to fill with one person.

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

#302

Post by anonforthis323 »

toss1 wrote: post #103
djrogers wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure Tiebtan independence is a problem that Marriott can solve.

Tho they can't solve it single-handedly, they can refuse to be part of the problem by kowtowing to the Chinese Communist Party. And in case it isn't clear: the only proper attitude to this kind of bullying from the likes of dictatorial regimes is Eff 'em. China are only trying to bully everyone into helping propagate a lie. The fact is that they invaded the country of Tibet in living memory and it's leader still live…

Well bullies recognize bullies. They even like to hang out with other bullies. Big businesses didn't get to their position by being nice. They bullied their way to the top.

That's why I'm guessing that Marriott actually views China's reactions as reasonable.

But I do agree that China's handling of the Tibet situation is poor. They should take a look at how America was able to pacify the natives. Set aside some land for the Tibetans, let them have their own casinos or temples or whatever they want. Then in 100 years or so, the public image of it will change.

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

#303

Post by jeena »

banned1 wrote: post #274
KyeRussell wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proponents of a largely deregulated labour market love talking about France. As someone working in Australia—a country with labour laws that are more sane than France (and definitely the U.S.)—instantly bringing up France just tends to stink of a false dichotomy and a line of rhetoric from people that try to justify the U.S.'s unjustifiably unfair labour laws. I suggest that people who aren't familiar with Australia'…

You don't have to empathize with a business owners. It's their resources at play. So they simply will do business elsewhere. I don't have to open an office in France. I just don't. It's too much hassle. I open it wherever I want. So if an employee loses out by not being hired by me (or I lose out by not hiring some French awesome person), then so be it. But the point is that the US environment is more friendly for bu…

I would like to see that poll because nobody I know would ever want to emigrate to the US, especially now with that idiot president you have.

On the other hand I see a lot of refugees trying to get to Germany and Sweden which have at least the same if not stricter labour laws.

Reading your comment I feel that you live in a really strange bubble which allows you to think like you do.

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

#304

Post by anonforthis323 »

tim333 wrote: post #77

tl;rd Marriot employee dealing with 1000s of tweets liked: >Friends of Tibet congratulate global hotel chain #Marriott International for listing #Tibet as a country along with #HongKong and #Taiwan. pic.twitter.com/SXKWb20v3e China freaked out and >forced Marriott to suspend all online booking for a week at its nearly 300 Chinese hotels. A Chinese leader also demanded the company publicly apologize and “seriously dea…

If I remember correctly, China didn't "freak out."

A bunch of Chinese patriots freaked out and started to tweet/weibo it and brought it to the attention of the Chinese government.

At that point, the government had to act, otherwise, they would be seen as soft on separatism.

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

#305

Post by sverige »

John_KZ wrote: post #156
banned1 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why many companies don’t hire many people in France http://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/knowledge/publications/14...

This is also why people in France have stable, long-term jobs, instead of being fired by Wallmart every 6 months due to some war veteran scheme that allows them to save 0.1% on employee salaries. In this particular case, if the man wasn't trained appropriately to handle international PR while doing so, the wrongdoing lies with the company. The article itself seems to adopt a certain attitude that I really dislike. Fo…

> It's not like China is exceptionally evil or something.

China isn't. The Chinese communist government is, though.

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

#306

Post by erikb »

a) It can't be a dream job if you get fired for liking a tweet. The dream job only existed in your head and getting fired hit you with the truth that your fantasy ad reality don't match.

b) Midnight on-call support is not a dream job. Have you ever worked in anything that is close to customers? These jobs are a pain in the a and mostly underpaid. Also you can always, always find another job like that.

c) He didn't get fired for a like. He got fired because his actions resulted in losing millions of dollars. In such a situation someone needs to get fired. It doesn't matter if anybody is at fault or not. It must have consequences. And as the lowest level employee in the chain it's easy to fire you first. Sh*t happens.

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

#307

Post by drawkbox »

A data bill of rights might be the issue of our time.

No matter if you are in a free country or anywhere in the world, people should be able to have opinion that is represented in their digital form.

The US could lead on this and we would be smart to push for it.

Also, maybe with our surveillance society there is some path to forgiveness if people makes mistakes. Everything now is too much of a permanent record which was always feared and not fair for the human condition where people make mistakes and change.

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

#308

Post by skookumchuck »

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.

Anyone can also quit at any time. Doesn't matter if they need you or not.

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

#309

Post by ggg9990 »

erikb wrote: post #306

a) It can't be a dream job if you get fired for liking a tweet. The dream job only existed in your head and getting fired hit you with the truth that your fantasy ad reality don't match. b) Midnight on-call support is not a dream job. Have you ever worked in anything that is close to customers? These jobs are a pain in the a and mostly underpaid. Also you can always, always find another job like that. c) He didn't ge…

a,b) A dream job can be a dream job solely for paying $14/hr when every other job you could get paid $9.

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

#310

Post by throw7 »

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 how web forums are the worst way to converse with real people all across the world.

How can we at least get back to the NNTP type of control we had in the 90's? HN is teetering on failure, and I'd just like to get back to NNTP? :(

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