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

Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise

nypost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 527 posts

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

#361

Post by erfgh »

jraby3 wrote: post #160
Johnny555 wrote: post #57

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…

We have one annually for my company. It's at a casino, with a few scheduled meals and some activities (video game room, trivia done by a professional company). It's voluntary and employees are allowed to bring their spouse. I think it helps a lot with communication, especially since we are a distributed team and most peoplr don't see each other. But it's hard for me to know for sure, no one tells the owners the truth…

> I think most people think of it as a free vacation.

It's not free if the company is paying for it.

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

#362

Post by xyzsparetimexyz »

amelius wrote: post #262
xyzsparetimexyz wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy rocks. Fired for being fun

Sounds like a case of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_clown_paradox > Sad clown paradox is characterised by a cyclothymic temperament, which encourages the creation of light-hearted humour in a professional setting, despite inner turmoil.

So?

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

#363

Post by Hendrikto »

pif wrote: post #273
jraby3 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have one annually for my company. It's at a casino, with a few scheduled meals and some activities (video game room, trivia done by a professional company). It's voluntary and employees are allowed to bring their spouse. I think it helps a lot with communication, especially since we are a distributed team and most peoplr don't see each other. But it's hard for me to know for sure, no one tells the owners the truth…

> I think most people think of it as a free vacation. I'm shocked that someone does NOT think so!

Is it really a vacation if you have to spend it with your work colleagues?

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

#364

Post by 72deluxe »

psd1 wrote: post #319
not-kinsale-joe wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK had the most unhinged work drinking culture I had ever seen.

Amen. I only got my first job in tech because i put away 6 pints in the pub after the interview. We conducted interviews after lunch, for this exact purpose. I saw good candidates interview but decline the pub afterwards - they did not get offers. That company had at least two pub sessions a week, typically running to six rounds or more. We hit our medically-recommended maximum weekly intake by Tuesday; Fridays were…

This sounds like hell. At one place I worked, they had free pizza on Fridays so the developers could sit around and socialise. If only they realised that socialising was the last thing the developers wanted to do (many of us on the spectrum) and awkwardly standing around chewing whilst avoiding eye contact; I wonder if they still do it?

Pubs sound even worse.

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

#365

Post by ljm »

kilroy123 wrote: post #323
Johnny555 wrote: post #57

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'll offer another antidote. Every single place I have ever worked at that had such retreats had a big layoff within ~6 months. It's like the CEO or execs see there are a lot of problems and think this will magically fix all the "issues". It doesn't, so they turn to the next solution. Just fire a bunch of staff and start over.

Probably see it as the easy way out because actually bringing about change in a culture that is already entrenched is hard work and they don't have the mettle for it. Or don't trust the org to be on board with it.

Easier to just do a reset instead of thinking about how one might bring effective change over a reasonable period of time.

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

#366

Post by happymellon »

mlrtime wrote: post #350
happymellon wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't want to hear about your religion, and I don't want to see your Jesus Loves You gifs posted to the all tech Slack channel.

This says a lot more about you than them.

It says a similar amount about both of us.

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

#367

Post by lelanthran »

chrisldgk wrote: post #307
ionwake wrote: post #271

I know some of the younger folk may not realise reality is stranger than fiction, but I too have been on a "work mandated drink alchohol bus" where I remember even though I was young, I was terrified the whole time wondering why we were being forced to drink infront of C suite; forced on a hell ride through the black country ( Thats a region in England). One might think it was naive and odd for me as a young autistic…

I remember at the ad agency I used to work at (somewhere around 2018) we used to have a happy hour every Friday where from 5pm onwards all drinks (including booze) in the cafeteria were free, which led to people of all departments including C-Suite to get together and drink. I remember it as a good time though, I don’t remember anything ever happening that led to people having repercussions for employees. Then again,…

When I was still in my early 20s, at my first office job, drinks after hours (beer, wine) were free from the company kitchen.

Only took part once (because I was new, first week and all), saw how openly employees spoke to the directors (luckily nothing came of it), and never again in my life ever consumed alcohol in front of a boss.

As GP said, it's a full on soft power thing - always keep your wits about you when in the presence of colleagues and bosses.

There is no safe space at work; you can be fired!

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

#368

Post by tchalla »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #146
rdtsc wrote: 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…

There's a huge difference between being yourself and not having a filter. I absolutely think people should be themselves at work. In my mind this generally means not acting like a robot or treating other people like toasters. It is psychologically crushing to operate in a they're all workplace where people do that. The best managers I've ever had were those I could discuss my emotions or that of my team with. That sa…

The challenge is that your line for filter is another person's line for censorship and a third person's line for "not being yourself".

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

#369

Post by alibarber »

72deluxe wrote: post #364
psd1 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amen. I only got my first job in tech because i put away 6 pints in the pub after the interview. We conducted interviews after lunch, for this exact purpose. I saw good candidates interview but decline the pub afterwards - they did not get offers. That company had at least two pub sessions a week, typically running to six rounds or more. We hit our medically-recommended maximum weekly intake by Tuesday; Fridays were…

This sounds like hell. At one place I worked, they had free pizza on Fridays so the developers could sit around and socialise. If only they realised that socialising was the last thing the developers wanted to do (many of us on the spectrum) and awkwardly standing around chewing whilst avoiding eye contact; I wonder if they still do it? Pubs sound even worse.

I know this sounds awful - but perhaps hiring people that would turn their workplace into what you just described was exactly what they (as an organisation, not necessarily individually) wanted to avoid, just, perhaps not by overtly saying it.

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

#370

Post by 72deluxe »

alibarber wrote: post #369
72deluxe wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like hell. At one place I worked, they had free pizza on Fridays so the developers could sit around and socialise. If only they realised that socialising was the last thing the developers wanted to do (many of us on the spectrum) and awkwardly standing around chewing whilst avoiding eye contact; I wonder if they still do it? Pubs sound even worse.

I know this sounds awful - but perhaps hiring people that would turn their workplace into what you just described was exactly what they (as an organisation, not necessarily individually) wanted to avoid, just, perhaps not by overtly saying it.

Perhaps, but if they wanted any of their 6 million lines of COM-laden C++ to continue working into the future, they'd need those sort of people.
Post reply on HN