Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job • Hacker News Board

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

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Post by darawk » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 8:24 PM UTC

Tehnix wrote: post #507

ceras wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to fire employees in Denmark. That's one reason why it's economy and employment rates are quite good for Europe, and while you think it proved your point, it's evidence of the opposite. See [1][2][3]. If you're interested in the academic research, someone above in the thread posted research links on the relationship between ease-of-firing and employers' willingness to hire. If you find those unsatisfying, t…

Except the reality is that most people are in unions, covering them quite well (around 1.8 million[0] out of 2.7 million[1] in the job market). Many jobs have a firing period of 1, 3 and 6 months, rising with the time you've been there. Sickness is a legal absence. Maternity and paternity leave is a legal requirement along with at least 5 weeks of vacation a year. [0] https://www.business.dk/arbejdsmarked/flere-blive…

Yes, but their labor market is still more flexible than other european countries, which is why their companies are more willing to hire.

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

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Post by kodablah » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 8:42 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #497

kodablah wrote: post #115

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> 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…

> Of course not. They'd just ignore you. Not force you to suspend online sales to your 300 stores in the country. That's because there's no threat to them. If the situation was tenser, and there was some open controversy about Hawaii, with another superpower taking sides, they could do all that, and worse.

For a liked tweet? No, not even in a tense situation. We have to stop excusing government sanctions for something like a liked tweet. It's a dumb equivalence and harms the real point by deflecting.

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

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Post by jlarocco » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 9:31 PM UTC

greglindahl wrote: post #202

jlarocco wrote: post #194

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. A lot of American workers are on short-term contracts, too, for nearly the same reasons. > 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 a…

By all means, if a country prefers economic suicide for startups instead of birthing the next Silicon Valley, it's a valid choice.

Yeah, that sounds great... economic strife for everybody so that a few well connected college dropouts can get rich on "Uber for Food" or a viral phone game.

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

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Post by jpttsn » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 9:43 PM UTC

intopieces wrote: post #467

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?

It’s ignored because Free Alaska is not a thing.

If it became a thing in Russia, would that count?

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

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Post by gnulinux » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 11:49 PM UTC

Retra wrote: post #458

gnulinux wrote: post #331

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As an "at will" junior software engineer, if I one day get fired for my lunch selection, is there any legal actions I can take, assuming I'm an honest, skilled, competent worker?

They probably won't tell you why you were fired.

And I can't legally demand to get more information, right?

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

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Post by HillaryBriss » Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 11:59 PM UTC

chrischen wrote: post #242

ucarion wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government of the United States does not demand that mainland China relinquish control of Tibet. Nor does the USA insist on censoring mainland controversies or on punishing foreigners who say inconvenient things. This difference is essential. You are free to criticize America. People, including politicians, regularly do so. China, despite claiming to be a strong, ascendant power, is remarkably sensitive when it c…

Marriott didn’t criticize China so much as enacted policy that China didn’t feel served its political interests and policies. As a result they retaliated by denying them the market and money making opportunity that they do not have a entitlement to in the first place. It’s no different from say US enforcing political policies such as the Nixon era drug wars against black and other poor minorities, sanctions against R…

But how do WTO rules and China's claim to have a free and open market fit into the discussion?

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

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Post by HillaryBriss » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 12:15 AM UTC

HenryBemis wrote: post #410

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…

And let this be a lesson to EVERYONE who works in Marriotts. This is the very definition of "throwing under a bus". This is how fast Marriott (in the US of A) will throw you under the first bus that comes by. This is how Marriott respects the individuals and has the capacity to handle a sensitive situation.

yeah. and I can't help but think that pretty much any US corporation doing business in China will throw employees and a whole lot more under the bus if they're told to do so in order to retain market access. is this consistent with the meaning of "free and open access"?

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

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Post by zapita » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 12:43 AM UTC

kgwgk wrote: post #386

Buge wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100k euros would be ~$124k. At that salary if you are single your marginal tax rate would be 28% federal + 6.2% employee social security + 6.2% employer social security + 1.45% employee medicare + 1.45% employer medicare + 9.3% California income + 0.9% California disability insurance = 53.5%. This doesn't include unemployment taxes (California or federal) which might be another 0.3-0.5%. Though for real math, the emp…

Note that you’re basing your calculations on a EUR 100k salary. His 100k are the sum of salary and employer-paid charges. It’s true that California taxes are high. But it’s also true that France taxes are higher. And, to be fair, bring with them higher entitlements.

They're higher in France but not meaningfully higher, hence my comment "not that different". In fact if you take into account the cost of typical private employer-paid healthcare, the cost might actually be higher in California.

And I maintain that taxes are just not high enough to be a major obstacle to entrepreneurship in France - and yes I am aware of the dreaded "charges sociales". The reason we hear so much about them is because complaining about high taxes is easy and not controversial. Unlike the topic of employee protection, which is deeply polarizing.

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

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Post by skookumchuck » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 1:35 AM UTC

grzm wrote: post #344

skookumchuck wrote: post #342

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The top companies in the US are all new ones (except for GE). AT&T is irrelevant today, as is IBM after it got disrupted by startups Microsoft and Compaq.

Sure, there's turnover. And there will likely always be cycles like that. That only means that companies don't last or innovate forever, not that they can't innovate. Out of curiosity, what criteria are you using for "top companies"? Looking at the top 10 of the Fortune 500 ( http://fortune.com/fortune500/ ) and their founding years: 1. Walmart (1945) 2. Berkshire Hathaway (1889) 3. Apple (1977) 4. Exxon Mobil (1870)…

By market cap. I'm a bit curious of your founding dates. Alphabet was formed from a restructuring of Google. Google was founded in 1998, not 1988.

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

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Post by garmaine » Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 1:36 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #493

garmaine wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you interpreted what I was saying correctly. Why should I be offended at the idea of the idea of my state joining my state seriously joining the Mexican federation?

It's an addition to the conversation, not a response. I'm not saying you should be offended, I'm providing context to this and previous replies so that other people who read this subthread can understand why California joining Mexico is a different situation from Tibet splitting from China and so responses differ.

Well for one the analogy is more like a New Yorker taking offense at the prospect of California (or Texas) joining Mexico. That puts it in a different light, although it’s stull not comparable to he forced displacement and ethnic inequalities that has happened and is happening in Tibet.

I don’t think PG really knows what he is talking about with respect to Tibet China relations if he thinks that analogy holds...