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Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

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Re: Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

#191

Offsite retreats seem like a bad idea in general, I've never been to one where I felt the team or company worked together better afterwards, and I've seen some spectacularly bad results... like the time the facilitator tried to get to the bottom of tensions between the CTO and head of sales (the classic problem of "Engineering isn't shipping features fast enough" and "Sales is selling features before even consulting…

I feel like our offsites, especially in a post-COVID remote world, tend to improve communication and productivity. People get to know their coworkers, and feel much more comfortable working cross-functionality. I've had some bad experiences, of course, but overall I've found it to be incredibly worth it.

Huh. Reading your comment and the parent above - maybe retreats aren't "therapeutic", but "exacerbatory" - as opposed to making interpersonal relationships uniformly better (bad -> good and good -> better), they make good relationships better but bad relationships worse?

Re: Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't bring your whole self to work, the rest of us don't need that from you. Be polite, congenial and professional. You have the rest of your day to let it rip however you'd like.

Maybe not your whole self, but I'd like the people I work with to feel safe talking about their family, their disabilities, their religion, their culture or subculture, the things they love doing, whatever makes them human.

Their humanity does not serve the bottom line.

Re: Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been working in this industry for 20 years. Nobody gets fired for this, not at Netflix or any of the other studios. Especially a VP. I don’t know how to express how unlikely any of this is. This was an excuse, not the real reason.

So they couldn't come up with an excuse that would have been a legitimate reason?

Also HR has bad employees / agent once in a while.

Re: Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a balance though, isn't it? Like, sure, don't bring your whole self to every single bowling game, you're there to bowl so focus at the task at hand. Nobody is going to have a good time if every bowling game devolves into every little emotional issue anyone in the group is having. But that doesn't mean those relationships originally started at the bowling club need to stay purely about bowling, a big part of comm…

I mostly feel that people should be more selective about who and how they open up to in general in life. There's a lot to talk about that's not your past experiences with depression, and those don't need to be talked about to 99% of people, and discussing them too early is an easy way to burn bridges before they're even built. I definitely talk to my coworkers about what I did this weekend, or travel, or the weather…

I once had a coworker tell me about his young son's circumcision. Not really something that should be discussed in the office...

Re: Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly feel that people should be more selective about who and how they open up to in general in life. There's a lot to talk about that's not your past experiences with depression, and those don't need to be talked about to 99% of people, and discussing them too early is an easy way to burn bridges before they're even built. I definitely talk to my coworkers about what I did this weekend, or travel, or the weather…

I once had a coworker tell me about his young son's circumcision. Not really something that should be discussed in the office...

My high school government teacher told us about his vasectomy.

Not related to the thread but your comment just reminded me of that.

Re: Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

#196
Allow me to correct the headline for you:

> Multi-millionaire Netflix executive, known for profanity-laden tirades and shotgunning beers at corporate events, claims without evidence he was terminated for medically sanctioned ketamine use

Re: Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

#197
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not your whole self, but I'd like the people I work with to feel safe talking about their family, their disabilities, their religion, their culture or subculture, the things they love doing, whatever makes them human.

Their humanity does not serve the bottom line.

[deleted]

Re: Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

#198
post #56

> Adam Mendler, a workplace expert, told Inc. that this kind of exercise carries real risk when companies invite openness without ever clarifying how that vulnerability will be treated afterward. I always felt that those trust exercises, "bring your whole self to work", "let us pay for a personality test so we can know each other better" are all ruses to find the most gullible people and then take advantage of them o…

>>> bring your whole self to work

This one always seemed like an "invitation" to demonstrate that you have the correct life experiences and attitudes.

Like those holistic admissions essays that sprung up when universities got banned from explicitly treating applicants differently based on race.

Re: Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

#199
Last retreat I went on the CFO drove drunk around 350 miles to get there. The CEO insisted on heavy drinking for everyone. Then he ordered one of everything on the menu the next morning at a Cracker Barrel for himself and wasted a ton of food. I found out he had a cocaine addiction about a month before the company was acquired. They also had orgies in the office break rooms and gave out a machete to everyone as a Christmas gift. Amongst the many crazy times…

My fraternity was more tame and we used to have guys gazing each other in the main room during parties.

Re: Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like our offsites, especially in a post-COVID remote world, tend to improve communication and productivity. People get to know their coworkers, and feel much more comfortable working cross-functionality. I've had some bad experiences, of course, but overall I've found it to be incredibly worth it.

Huh. Reading your comment and the parent above - maybe retreats aren't "therapeutic", but "exacerbatory" - as opposed to making interpersonal relationships uniformly better (bad -> good and good -> better), they make good relationships better but bad relationships worse?

I would very much agree with this. If you’re at an offsite and it goes that badly, things probably weren’t solid to begin with.
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