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An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)

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Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)

#31

Post by SteveGerencser »

Many years ago I delivered pizza while in college. When it was time to move on my manager and I decided to have some fun. For the last three days I was there I delivered to every terrible customer we had, then had a little fun at their expense. Like the guy that routinely refused to tip a single penny and said 10 pennies make a dime. I handed him a dime and told him now he didn't have to wait for 9 more pizzas.

It was terrible, but fun at the same time. Every call back to the store was greeted with an "Oh that's terrible", "we've had a few other complaints about him" and "I promise he won't be here tomorrow".

Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)

#32

Post by tyingq »

hermitdev wrote: post #25
tyingq wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Urgh. That's such a basic leadership thing (scold in private) that it just infruiates me that someone wouldn't get that. Hopefully your boss figured that out or was moved out of a leadership position. It's roughly the equivalent of a developer that writes shit code with concurrency issues, basic code smells, etc...that would be drummed out in short order. For some reason, we don't hold leaders to the same standard.

The company I work for, until this month, primarily employed contractors for all development work. When asked why a commonly used utility nearly always segfaulted at exit, response was: it's normal, just ignore it. Part of the reason they are no longer employed by us.

Good for you. And hopefully leaders are held accountable for similar basic skill and quality assumptions. Chewing out your direct reports in public is just amatuer league.

Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)

#33

Post by chepaslaaa »

sametmax wrote: post #15

That's the beginning of the excellent book "au bonheur des ogres", where you learn that the hero's karma is to be a scapegoat. It's his job. It's his relationships. Also when a bomb explodes, of course, all evidences point toward him even though is the very definition of innocence. Wonderful work from the great Daniel Pennac, which can stand on it's own, but has follow up tomes that are just as nice. And I just looke…

Daniel Pennac certainly stands among the many great french writers.

Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)

#34

Post by Consultant32452 »

Retric wrote: post #26
Consultant32452 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we should revisit our immigration policy that punishes China for having "too many" immigrants to the US and also our University policies which racially discriminate against the Chinese for being over-represented. If this trade/economic war is going to keep heating up, we might as well try to steal as many of their best and brightest as possible.

I do think we get their best and brightest. Gaming credentials is an art form in China and can't be taken at face value.

East Asians have some of the best outcomes of any demographic: higher income, more educated, lower criminality, lower divorce rate, etc. In a country that is arguably designed to maximally benefit whites, they are beating white people at basically everything. This goes far beyond gaming credentials, it's real world outcomes. We could stand to lower our bar with them a little and still get ahead.

Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)

#35

Post by zaroth »

shubb wrote: post #7
whoisjuan wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also heard the story of a digital agency that rented a huge space, painted the walls with bright colors and hired a bunch of actors to pose as employees. The idea was to deceive and close a deal with a potential big client that insisted in visiting their offices.

As a student I was hired as a temp for a 1 day contract. When I arrived they were just setting up the open plan office. We were asked to bring laptops and given stacks of paper and a phone, and told to work though the files, calling the numbers. It was weird to recieve little training for what seemed to be an investigator type role. Mid way though the day a bunch of suits arrived, toured the office, and went into a m…

It's like reddit writing prompts is leaking!

Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)

#37

Post by tzs »

whoisjuan wrote: post #4
cyberferret wrote: post #2

Not surprising that large companies would have 'stooge' employees in place for just this sort of thing. I have heard of it happening in at least one major store chain here many years ago. Kind of reminiscent of one of the first episodes in the series 'Suits' where Louis Litt is interviewing a new junior employee for the firm, and he pulls in another junior mid-interview to dress him down and dismiss him in front of t…

I also heard the story of a digital agency that rented a huge space, painted the walls with bright colors and hired a bunch of actors to pose as employees. The idea was to deceive and close a deal with a potential big client that insisted in visiting their offices.

That reminds me of a 19th century con man I read about in the wonderful book "Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present" [1].

He came to some big city posing as a successful businessman seeking investors for some new enterprise. He would give as a reference the president of a local bank located on the other side of town.

When the potential investors went to that bank to check out the reference, they found a busy, well equipped, and well furnished bank, full of well dressed obviously upper class clients conducting business. When they spoke to the President and other officers all they heard was praise for the honesty and business skills of the con man. The marks would then make a large investment.

When the con man left town with their money and they realized something was wrong, and then went to the bank to try to find out what was going on, they found an empty building with a "for lease" sign, and many of the people they had seen as customers and employees in the bank were now seen to be beggars, prostitutes, and such from the neighborhood that the con man had hired to play customers and employees.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Bloodletters-Badmen-Narrative-Encyclo...

Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)

#38

Post by DrScump »

whoisjuan wrote: post #4
cyberferret wrote: post #2

Not surprising that large companies would have 'stooge' employees in place for just this sort of thing. I have heard of it happening in at least one major store chain here many years ago. Kind of reminiscent of one of the first episodes in the series 'Suits' where Louis Litt is interviewing a new junior employee for the firm, and he pulls in another junior mid-interview to dress him down and dismiss him in front of t…

I also heard the story of a digital agency that rented a huge space, painted the walls with bright colors and hired a bunch of actors to pose as employees. The idea was to deceive and close a deal with a potential big client that insisted in visiting their offices.

This is, more or less, the premise of the film "The Sting":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sting

Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)

#39

Post by squiggleblaz »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #13

This works as long as he doesn't get fired twice in front of the same customer.

The point is to discourage the customer from complaining because of the harsh treatment the customer will receive. Therefore yes, if it comes to that, it has failed.

Re: An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010)

#40

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #34
Retric wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think we get their best and brightest. Gaming credentials is an art form in China and can't be taken at face value.

East Asians have some of the best outcomes of any demographic: higher income, more educated, lower criminality, lower divorce rate, etc. In a country that is arguably designed to maximally benefit whites, they are beating white people at basically everything. This goes far beyond gaming credentials, it's real world outcomes. We could stand to lower our bar with them a little and still get ahead.

Though edged out (in the US) by South Asians, I believe.
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