Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

shkspr.mobi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 348 posts

Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

#171

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

pwodhouse wrote: post #96
itronitron wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhere down that path one of the executive admins should have put the brakes on that particular book purchase. The fact that they didn't says something about the company. If she was the only person that received 50 Shades and other people received different books then that is an obvious case of harassment.

Sometimes the admins will let a horrible decision be realized because they want the decision makers to face the consequences. Or maybe there's another 50 SoG book that about suits for accountants. Or they confused 50SoG with Lean In, another book about women getting ahead in the corporate world

"Fifty Shades of Emacs"

I'm not going there.

Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

#172

Post by deogeo »

radcon wrote: post #40

I worked for a company that was always handing out cheap tokens of their "appreciation" (we all knew they didn't appreciate the employees but I guess they figured pretending might reduce turnover). Sometimes it was a free pretzel or water ice, other times it was a Thank You email that sounded like it was written by some cheap marketing AI. You could also get a "Shout Out" in the monthly newsletter that nobody read, b…

> Sometimes it was [..] water ice

...what?

Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

#173

Post by FireBeyond »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #51
StavrosK wrote: post #34

We need to find a name for a gesture so small in its generosity that it ends up being offensive. No bonus would have left me disappointed, but a $50 bonus would have made me angry. Like when Delta gave a food voucher to make up for a 5-hour delay on a 30-minute file. The voucher was for $3. Fuck Delta.

When my entire engineering team was laid off, work organized farewell drinks for us. Except they didn't actually budget for this. Their idea was that the whole office would go out and... celebrate? Us being laid off? And pay for it ourselves?

When something similar happened to me in the first dotcom crash, my boss at least had the decency to say "screw it, I'm putting it on my company AmEx", and even when he went home, he told the bartender "Keep it open all night, and add a 25% tip" and told us to stay as long as we wanted.

We did.

Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

#174

Post by ravroid »

Thiez wrote: post #149
ravroid wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I first started out as a software dev for an agency, I was offered $9/hr. I took it because it was more than the minimum wage I was making at my restaurant job. After a few months they rewarded me for my hard work by giving me a raise of $1. At the time I was grateful but now I realize what an insult that was.

A wage increase of over 10% every few months doesn't sound so bad. I don't suppose it was a regular thing?

That was the only raise I received unfortunately. But once I realized that the work I was doing produced the same value as salaried employees, I learned to use leverage to negotiate better compensation. I haven't waited around for a raise ever since.

Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

#175

Post by JakeStone »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #51
StavrosK wrote: post #34

We need to find a name for a gesture so small in its generosity that it ends up being offensive. No bonus would have left me disappointed, but a $50 bonus would have made me angry. Like when Delta gave a food voucher to make up for a 5-hour delay on a 30-minute file. The voucher was for $3. Fuck Delta.

When my entire engineering team was laid off, work organized farewell drinks for us. Except they didn't actually budget for this. Their idea was that the whole office would go out and... celebrate? Us being laid off? And pay for it ourselves?

Man, when my company got shut down in the dot com days, after the 10am all hands, I said screw it and took my entire team out for drinks until about 4, out of my own pocket.

As far as I'm concerned, that's the way you do it if you're going down with the ship. Drink with the crew, pay for them, and tell stories and try to make plans as you slip into the waters. 19 years later, I'm still friends with all but one who disappeared to the offline somehow.

Ended up giving my director a slightly embarrassing hug when we got back in, but we'd been through enough over the past that she forgave me and we're still friends.

Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

#176

Post by JakeStone »

FireBeyond wrote: post #173
pavel_lishin wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my entire engineering team was laid off, work organized farewell drinks for us. Except they didn't actually budget for this. Their idea was that the whole office would go out and... celebrate? Us being laid off? And pay for it ourselves?

When something similar happened to me in the first dotcom crash, my boss at least had the decency to say "screw it, I'm putting it on my company AmEx", and even when he went home, he told the bartender "Keep it open all night, and add a 25% tip" and told us to stay as long as we wanted. We did.

Kudos to him.

Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

#177

Post by tzakrajs »

bluedino wrote: post #70
tzakrajs wrote: post #66

Christmas 2010, HostGator gave everyone an e-cigarette or some other option but since we were mostly 20-somethings working there the vast majority chose the e-cigarette.

I bet the next week was glorious if everyone smoked them at their desks

It was, there are probably some videos of us double, or triple barreling them and blowing clouds everywhere. My throat still hurts thinking about that day.

Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

#178

Post by duskwuff »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #171
pwodhouse wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes the admins will let a horrible decision be realized because they want the decision makers to face the consequences. Or maybe there's another 50 SoG book that about suits for accountants. Or they confused 50SoG with Lean In, another book about women getting ahead in the corporate world

"Fifty Shades of Emacs" I'm not going there.

For the sysadmins, there's always "Savaged by Systemd"...

Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

#179

Post by Balgair »

deogeo wrote: post #172
radcon wrote: post #40

I worked for a company that was always handing out cheap tokens of their "appreciation" (we all knew they didn't appreciate the employees but I guess they figured pretending might reduce turnover). Sometimes it was a free pretzel or water ice, other times it was a Thank You email that sounded like it was written by some cheap marketing AI. You could also get a "Shout Out" in the monthly newsletter that nobody read, b…

> Sometimes it was [..] water ice ...what?

https://www.ritasice.com/

Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced

#180

Post by Balgair »

vinceguidry wrote: post #156

One of my hobbies is to dream up fun ways to shame the higher ups. The basic gist of it is that you have to thread a needle between the fiction that you as an employee care about the business and the business cares about the employees and the reality that the business primarily cares about increasing profits and the employees just don't want to be bothered by silly management tactics. So in order to be successful at…

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/
Post reply on HN