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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

#371

Post by Asooka »

jpttsn wrote: post #363
intopieces wrote: post #25

Even if it wasn't an accident -- even if he saw the Tweet, and on behalf of Marriott and in full intention of broadcasting such, he clicked "Like" on this tweet, it's completely insane he would be fired for it. The tweet exhibits a positive sentiment. I would not expect most people to know that this sentiment matters to China. This is another example of China exerting influence on the open web, and it's shameful that…

Thought experiment: a Russian multinational, Gazprom maybe, likes a campaign tweet for “Free Alaska.” How does it come across in America?

President Trump tweets "my big red shiny button bigger than Gazprom CEO's shiny bald head!", a thousand verified twitter accounts blast him for bad international relations. Across the American web many different opinions are raised, debated, trolled, and flamewars rage for a couple of days. Someone posts an image edit of President Trump swinging his tiny hands at a caricature of Putin. There are cats. Nobody at Gazprom gets bothered at all by this.

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

#372

Post by exolymph »

curun1r wrote: post #268
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.

Or the real story is how much businesses kowtow to the Chinese government and enable their human rights abuses. I would be quite happy to see Marriott face blowback in the US and other parts of the world over this as people show their support for a free Tibet. Letting China browbeat businesses into submission for the privilege of operating in that market isn't a good thing and more businesses need to be made to decid…

> Letting China browbeat businesses into submission for the privilege of operating in that market isn't a good thing

I don't think "letting" is a very accurate word in this case — Marriott could pull out of China (likely at a loss) but the company doesn't want to because it would be financially stupid. In fact, as a public company Marriott is mandated to act in its shareholders' best financial interests.

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

#373

Post by jakeogh »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #366
banned1 wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a different world. The US is a free country. You are free to work wherever they accept you. A job is not a right: you cannot demand anything that someone else must provide you. And people for the most part are free to start a business pretty much whether it should exist or not regardless of anybody else’s opinions.

And all of this is different from NL or most other European countries how? Hint: it isn't, we just have sensible protections against wrongful termination.

"sensible" is meaningless. Everyone gets to make up their own def. Parent is correct, the US is a free country, which means beyond some _very_ simple rules we don't try to think for employers, we let the consumers do that. That's the point of a functioning market.

I prominently tell companies why they don't get my business, and Marriott will hear from me next year when I call, waste their time gleefully explaining how I might have used their services but they fired a guy to kowtow to China.

Even better, this is gold on his resume.

In the US we don't pretend we are smarter than other business owners. The socialism route of adding regs to "fix" regs is self defeating. Treating people like fools makes them fools eventually.

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

#374

Post by exolymph »

chillwaves wrote: post #273
um_ya wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Your employees are also the profit generators so I would say it just comes with the territory.

> Your employees are also the profit generators

Not universally true.

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

#375

Post by exolymph »

Asooka wrote: post #371
jpttsn wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thought experiment: a Russian multinational, Gazprom maybe, likes a campaign tweet for “Free Alaska.” How does it come across in America?

President Trump tweets "my big red shiny button bigger than Gazprom CEO's shiny bald head!", a thousand verified twitter accounts blast him for bad international relations. Across the American web many different opinions are raised, debated, trolled, and flamewars rage for a couple of days. Someone posts an image edit of President Trump swinging his tiny hands at a caricature of Putin. There are cats. Nobody at Gazpr…

> Nobody at Gazprom gets bothered at all by this.

Ahh, there's the unrealistic part. Unless by "bothered" you specifically mean "bothered by government personnel"?

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

#376

Post by exolymph »

YSFEJ4SWJUVU6 wrote: post #178
tinza123 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not that hard to imagine being fired by "clicking" likes, let's not oversimplify like this. Official tweeter accounts carry weights. Plus this is not about China at all, what if this is a Nazi tweet? An ISIS tweet? An anti-LGBT tweet? It's either the company's way of dealing with PR problems, or the employee's misconduct, but not about China.

A dictatorship like China raising the issue over Tibet is the equivalent of (an alternative universe) powerful Nazi Germany getting someone fired in the U.S. over liking a tweet about Jewish rights issue.

Surprised this is being downvoted. Example: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/tibetan-tells-of-ch...

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

#377

Post by Tehnix »

beagle3 wrote: post #330
greglindahl wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Denmark is famous for having a social safety net that makes sure laid-off employees have the skills to get a new job. It's a happy medium between excessive employee protections and lack of employee protections.

Safety net is definitely there, but my Dane friends actually told me it’s really bad for small businesses to the point that small businesses won’t hire for desperately needed work because it is impossibly expensive to let anyone go.

I've never heard anyone express that concern. Rather, I would think the reason why small businesses won't hire would more likely be because the wages are so high here.

You can quite easily hire for work for small periods, e.g. summer job style.

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

#378

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

_ptgt wrote: post #319
michaelmrose wrote: post #135

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 th…

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 (...) the brainwashers (...)

In the last four decades, the poverty rate in China has fallen from over 90% to below 10%.

http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/images/ChinaSpecial...

Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty, most people have seen a radical improvement in their standard of living in the last decades.

Do you really think the main reason why they don't rise against their government is "propaganda" and "brainwash"? How many well-informed and not-brainwashed people would choose to support a revolution (with the associated risk of violence, chaos and deaths) when the statu quo is a fast, steady and practically unrivaled increase in everyday living conditions, even if the government is authoritarian? I don't think many would, regardless of whether their culture were Chinese or Western.

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

#379

Post by Asooka »

paradite wrote: post #290

Chinese citizen here. A few points that I want to make after reading some comments: 1. I would be personally offended if anyone or any organization lists Tibet as a country. 2. Lots of Chinese people would be offended too by this. Reasons for 1 and 2: - It is a piece of wrong information - The wrong information directly contradicts what is considered basic knowledge in China - That basic knowledge happens to be on th…

1. Tibet IS a country, no matter what your excuse for a government has poisoned your mind with. They're an independent country and you have no claim to their territorial sovereignty. Just because you drove some tanks and killed some people does not legitimise your claim to Tibetan territory.

2. Fuck those people.

I think it's quite telling of Chinese people that while you list other countries as valuing good behaviours, you yourself base your value on being respected for being a bully. Oh, and if you really live in China: 天安门广场大屠杀 have fun explaining this one to the censors.

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

#380

Post by nasredin »

jpttsn wrote: post #363
intopieces wrote: post #25

Even if it wasn't an accident -- even if he saw the Tweet, and on behalf of Marriott and in full intention of broadcasting such, he clicked "Like" on this tweet, it's completely insane he would be fired for it. The tweet exhibits a positive sentiment. I would not expect most people to know that this sentiment matters to China. This is another example of China exerting influence on the open web, and it's shameful that…

Thought experiment: a Russian multinational, Gazprom maybe, likes a campaign tweet for “Free Alaska.” How does it come across in America?

A more appropriate example would be the Crimean annexation, which only a handful of countries recognize.

Also IIRC a lot of these companies are state-owned or owned by Kremlin-friendly oligarchs. Not really a private corporation.

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