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

omaha.com

311–320 of 548 posts

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

#311

Well, I certainly won't be staying at any Marriott hotels any more. That's an abysmal way of handling things.

Is it? It seems like a very standard way of handling things. Also, Marriott is definitely one of the better mid-range chains.

> It seems like a very standard way of handling things.

Does that make it not abysmal?

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

#312
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More often, you assert. But have you got any evidence to say so?

Can confirm, I run a business. The biggest expense to my company are the employees. All the regulatory requirements and bullshit that comes along with it, not to mention the risk of an employee suing the company for whatever reason. There's a lot of risk hiring employees, that's why I try to minimize the number of employees I have to hire, whenever possible.

Every company tries to minimize the number of employees. But the fact remains that the employee always takes on more risk, as being fired at the wrong time, say during the crisis we just had, might end up in homelessness. Yet companies love to pretend they are the ones taking the risk and need the right to abuse employees, fire then at will, don't oay a living wage and all that.

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

#313
post #110

It may not look like it, but this is equivalent to accidentally pressing a missle button and it hit the country on the other side.

Yeah, Americans seem pretty indifferent on such issues, probably because they oppress others too well and don't get to hear such things themselves. What if a major French company lists the Falklands under Argentina? What if open street map deletes Israel? What if Airbus "likes" a tweet from a middle eastern man that calls for the complete removal of US forces from Iraq? Things like that matter, and really piss off th…

totally agree. All that hypocrisy caused by ignorance. They just don't understand how sensitive such matters are before they even try. Sad!

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

#314
The real story here is not the at-will status of American employees, but the extraterritorial application of law. A Chinese worker is familiar with Chinese censorship and policy and know that Tibet is a third rail issue. You cannot possibly expect a low-level employee in Nebraska would know this. So when a country (like the U.S., like China) tries to impose its laws (like the U.S. did in New Zealand to Kim Dotcom) you have unexpected consequences. As countries seek to criminalize webhosting (FOSTA), the Internet will be increasingly siloed. If you want to know what the Internet will look like in twenty years, look at North Korea. Connections outside extremely limited. Ony North Korean laws apply. That is the direction we're headed.

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

#315
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More often, you assert. But have you got any evidence to say so?

Can confirm, I run a business. The biggest expense to my company are the employees. All the regulatory requirements and bullshit that comes along with it, not to mention the risk of an employee suing the company for whatever reason. There's a lot of risk hiring employees, that's why I try to minimize the number of employees I have to hire, whenever possible.

Simply put, the harder it is to fire someone, the harder it will be to get a job.

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

#316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the GP who brought up this topic. I actually am American and now working at a managerial level in Australia. When I ran into trouble with someone on my team performing at a poor level, I was a bit exasperated with these regulations and how they required me to put him on a performance improvement plan rather than immediately dismiss. I was frustrated, but it forced me to talk it out with him. We did a bit of a res…

Plenty of white collar businesses in the US use performance improvement plans. But that would be a ridiculous remedy in a business with thin margins like a restaurant - some businesses need the freedom to hire and fire quicker.

No they don't. If they need it their business is terrible and should not exist. I live in the Netherlands and our restaurants do just fine without being allowed to fire at will and without the need for tips to give employees a decent wage. It's called sane labor laws.

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

#317
post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> nobody I know would ever want to emigrate to the US

And yet people want to get here so bad they illegally stream over the border by the millions.

> I see a lot of refugees trying to get to Germany and Sweden

It's a lot harder to walk from Europe to the US.

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

#318

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…

No, that’s wrong. It’s just one of the lies you Americans love to tell each other.

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

#319

Lets be real about America's relationship with China. They are our enemies. Both parties seek to dominate the globe even if nobody is anxious to do so bullets and bombs. Both parties have values that can never be reconciled. How do you reconcile the notion that man ought to be free with a society that believes in lifelong servitude and a mans proper place under each others boots. A society that poisons its people and…

I don't think the issue is Chinese culture, but it is Chinese leadership--which, admittedly, has encouraged and created a culture of concerning nationalism and subservience to authoritarians with no respect for human rights or rule of law.

If you look back in contemporary Chinese history, there are several episodes where influential groups were openly supporting a more democratic society.

It wasn't Chinese culture that stopped them. It was Mao, the CCP, the tanks in Tienamen Square, and the more recently the ubiquitous propaganda and censorship.

I agree that the CCP is an enemy we should we wary of. But we should be just as wary of writing off any large group of fellow humans as enemies. The enemy is the brainwashers themselves, not their victims.

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

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of young people in France are on short-term contracts, precisely because long-term employees are hard to fire. Imagine that you are a startup in France, with long-term employees, and suddenly you realize you screwed up, and you have to cut your expenses in half. Today, that means your startup is dead and all employees are screwed, but in the US, your startup continues with a much lower valuation. Which is bette…

Startups are a form of volatile research projects that could be done better in a corporate environment. Startups provide precarious and unstable employment, and on average they fail and lead to unemployment. I personally love working on new, potent ideas, but this is not a viable model of development for society. "Gig economy" is getting out of control, and it's better to kill the startups than to let people abuse th…

> Startups are a form of volatile research projects that could be done better in a corporate environment.

Check out "The Innovator's Dilemma" by Christensen. Innovation doesn't come from established corporations. It comes from startups.

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