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

That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

cohost.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 492 posts

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#251

Post by jzb »

camillomiller wrote: post #77
King-Aaron wrote: post #18

> Being as I’m not an idiot Well, I'm afraid to say after reading this, I have to disagree. Common sense would have made me consider not posting an inflammatory tweet like that, to be perfectly honest.

Do you realize you are all reinforcing that business must come always first before personal expression? It is factual that one person was touting instruments of war, but by most comments here that’s seen as “the right” because it’s representing “business”. What you’re all saying implicitly is that the rights of a corporate employer to make money are always above the freedom to personal expression, by contract, by law…

The sticking point here for me is that this person was attending an event on the company dime. They were literally being paid to make the company look good by attending.

I’m still on the fence about this, I also think there’s probably context that we don’t have.

Tagging the speaker was also needlessly antagonistic. That IMO escalated it from snarking to picking a fight.

If they were at an event paying their own way, I’d be in agreement with you - but they were there to represent the company.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#252

Post by newaccount74 »

constantly wrote: post #95
newaccount74 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you fire someone for a few insults on Twitter then you belong in Kindergarten, not in a management position. Boy, I'm so happy I don't work for anyone, I'd hate to have to deal with sensitive pricks that think they can dictate what their employees say on social media.

If you maliciously and repeatedly attack people on Twitter, customers no less, while at a work conference on work’s dime then you belong in kindergarten, not having a professional job. Thankfully VMWare fixed that.

Look up the person OP insulted:

https://www.oxebridge.com/emma/op-ed-usafs-chaillan-knausenb...

OP was fired for stepping on the toes of a thin skinned official with a good network.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#253

Post by rmetzler »

wolframhempel wrote: post #165

I very much agree with the general sentiment here, but I want to make a separate point about tech's relationship to defense which is also portrait in these tweets. Much has been written about the DoD's funding of early Silicon Valley companies - but today, this relationship has been largely severed with giants like Google refusing to provide their tech for defense and military purposes. I THINK THIS IS A MASSIVE MIST…

So your view is that the military power of the US brings peace to the rest of the world?

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#255

Post by King-Aaron »

Osmose wrote: post #242
King-Aaron wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What alternatives do you propose?

I can't think through all the flaws but "criticism of the government is protected speech for employees" broadly seems achievable, which of course has tons of annoying details like "when is an employee speaking for a company vs for themselves, are personal twitter accounts an employee's own speech" or "what is a government entity" or "what is criticism" or "what is an allowed disciplinary response to grey areas" and s…

This wasn't even 'criticism of the government' at the end of the day, it was wholly unprofessional communication and blatantly rude.

Honestly I cannot believe people are bending over backwards to support the actions of the blog author.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#256

Post by the-printer »

swarnie wrote: post #220
theobeers wrote: post #100

She was right to speak out, and her employer was within its rights to fire her. As long as she subsequently found a job at a company that comes closer to sharing her values, it sounds like a win-win.

Speak out against what exactly? Defence is one of the most vital sectors in a countries continued existence, coming just after food and water.

There is something of a paradox that I feel exist, at least in the US, with regards to the defense sector. I don’t agree with its ethics or morals as they exists in the country, but I’m curious how others reconcile their privileges in comparison to other regions with the fact that said privileges can be attributed to the US’s tremendous military scale domestically and globally.

One could even argue that defense even precedes food and water at this stage also.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#257

Post by IshKebab »

gordian-not wrote: post #180
galkk wrote: post #80

That person should've been fired, and it happened. Good riddance. So what did I see "Fuck you" for slide where army officer praises Kubernetes and calls to join them. Then accusing him for blood on his hands. Then also connecting inability to negotiate better severance package when firing happened with Trump era... My opinion always is: if in any shape or form your posts are related to work (e.g. that person was twee…

If you’re truly curious and a Google employeee you should open moma and see how toxic she really was and how she was handled with kid gloves

What's moma?

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#258

Post by Osmose »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #237
geocrasher wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you retain the right to say F U to your government doesn't mean you have the right to say F U to your employer's customers while acting in the context of such employment.

They absolutely do have that right. They even exercised that right. The government did not send police to their house to arrest them. There are many governments that would. What they don't have is freedom from consequences. They don't have imnunity from being fired.

And perhaps that is a problem in a world where it costs an individual a lot if they are fired, and it (typically) costs a company much less. The result is a chilling effect on the right to criticize the government via corporate punishment, and just because it's technically legal or laundered through a corporation's actions doesn't mean it's a good effect to let continue.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#259

Post by ojhughes »

x3n0ph3n3 wrote: post #238
yumraj wrote: post #154

This sounds exactly like the person who first does something stupid, then instead of accepting their mistake doubles down on it and takes several steps to make it much much worse, and then when has to face the consequences blogs about it with a straight face while trying to get public sympathy. Is there a word for this kind of behavior? For what it’s worth, IMHO, VMWare comes across as extremely mature.

This person came from the Pivotal acquisition, which is saturated with toxic people who don't produce much of value.

They were ex-Heptio I believe.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#260

Post by HydianSnake1 »

bbor wrote: post #223
oefrha wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the fist bumps and cheers in these social media echo chambers won’t help them reflect. Unlike the OP who casually tagged some tech guy on Twitter and said “I’d shake your hand but the blood never washes off” (what the actual fuck), reasonable people won’t engage them on social media and tell them how incredibly toxic they are.

[flagged]

[flagged]
Post reply on HN