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

351–360 of 492 posts

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#351

Post by eusto »

ben_w wrote: post #213
eusto wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming the "fuck you" was the one that fired her. However you choose to understand free speech, being needlessly rude as a media representative of a company should get you fired.

Assuming accurate reporting, in the absence of a social media clause that, when shown, your boss agrees you don't need to sign? Doesn't pass the sniff test. (Curiously, I've just seen someone walk past me with "duck off" printed on their T-shirt. But then, culture here in Germany is much more liberal about both word and deed — it's American cultural norms that made the autocorrupt inside my quote marks).

I don't understand. What sniff test? And what do you mean by "assuming accurate reporting"?

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#352

Post by Shaanie »

Osmose wrote: post #226
constantly wrote: post #4

I would have fired this person as soon as humanly possible for basically (actually) telling customers of the company to go F themselves, and making horribly insensitive and inappropriate jokes at their expense. imho the point of this article seems to be to tell the story where big bad VMWare or the target of VMWare’s employee’s ire stomped on poor VMWare employee, but I think it makes the employee look bad. I would a…

> basically Unfortunately it's not basic; the ability to strip all context to make this about being mean to a customer makes for a poor argument. The government isn't just _any_ customer, whether you think the firing was justified or not. The DoD enjoys a ton of taxpayer budget money and a sanctioned right to kill people if it deems it necessary. And it was proactively recruiting at a tech conference for software tha…

The comments were personal attacks on the speaker, not aimed at the government or the military. There's a huge difference between those.

If the engineer had posted something criticizing the military outside of the context of the conference and without personally attacking the speaker, nothing would have happened. In fact, I bet the engineer had already done that multiple times before.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#353

Post by Shaanie »

newaccount74 wrote: post #267
matheusmoreira wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The government did not send police to their house to arrest them A government official used his position of power to get a critic fired over a personal insult. I'm not sure what "free speech" is good for if government officials can just get you kicked from your job for exercising it.

Canceling people for their offensive comments is hardly something new.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#354

Post by Demotolo »

grimgoldgo wrote: post #172
Demotolo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? While I have an internal meeting I would NOT assume someone is life tweeting this.

An internal meeting is a much broader category than "a disciplinary meeting to issue a verbal warning from hr".

[dead]

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#355

Post by rys »

Osmose wrote: post #285
revelio wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even worse than that. She took the $40k in return for agreeing to not disparage VMware. She then immediately started disparaging them, but it was "in private" whatever that means, so she presumed she wouldn't get caught. And then once her preferred candidate is in the White House she figures it's now safe to violate her agreement in public too, thus keeping the $40k AND going back on her word. She stiffed VMware once…

"Stabbing you in the back" is pretty strong language for posting social media about a personal experienced at a job she no longer has at a company that will barely see any consequences from this post using a right that literally the government has granted all workers now. Like what world do you live in that people don't complain about their old jobs such that you think it's that unacceptable?

Agreed. As to the world lived in: most people are so enthralled with money that any risk to earning more in the future is unacceptable to them, sadly. Companies then bank on that behaviour to help sweep things under the rug.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#356

Post by eusto »

Yizahi wrote: post #299
King-Aaron wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have signed an employment contract, then it's perfectly normal to be required to restrict your personal opinions when you are representing your employer. This isn't some dystopian concept. This is how grownups behave. You are welcome to be an edgelord on your own time anonymously.

It is quite dystopian in general. We are in an early stages of a corporate dystopia all across the world. Very polite and grownup dystopia. For instance it only took 8 years for my employee to stop working with an aggressor country, responsible for killing tens of thousands in those 8 years. And they were both fulfilling contracts for customers from that country and employing contractors there. Neither me nor practic…

"early stages of corporate dystopia". If anything, we're on the other side of it where companies are being held to some ridiculous standard that we don't even hold elected officials to. Remember Netflix having to fire Kevin Spacey for being accused of something that the president of the United States actually admitted to? How does this fit into the dystopian medium you think you live in?

I'm obviously not condoning abusive behaviour, I'm using this as an example of how much scrutiny there is on these corporations.

It's the same in this case: you're taking the view that a company should allow itself to be dragged into politics by the employee who publicly represents it. Surely that's wrong, isn't it? Companies should not be involved in politics. That's specifically what you are against when you call them dystopian.

This person, who I assume is an US citizen, is absolutely allowed to criticise the army, but they should do it as a citizen. Ultimately, the army serves the citizens and corporations serve customers.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#357

Post by colpabar »

cmdli wrote: post #24

> "Being as I’m not an idiot, I elect to bring a witness of my own (@lizthegrey ). She slightly livetweeted that conversation until VP VMware tells her to stop. " This, I think, is the point that caused the firing. It's pretty clear that if you choose a witness who then posts everything publicly that you are not discussing in good faith. Like, it's your right to speak your mind, and maybe you think you are in the mor…

If anyone is wondering who lizthegrey is, search for “consent accident” on your favorite search engine.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#358

Post by [deleted] »

jossclimb wrote: post #70
constantly wrote: post #4

I would have fired this person as soon as humanly possible for basically (actually) telling customers of the company to go F themselves, and making horribly insensitive and inappropriate jokes at their expense. imho the point of this article seems to be to tell the story where big bad VMWare or the target of VMWare’s employee’s ire stomped on poor VMWare employee, but I think it makes the employee look bad. I would a…

Engineers with unicorn / my little pony avatars is a slight red flag to me. I am as socialist as they come (I am not even American, I am Brit and a left wing), but I always try to not engage with those folks on twitter, to easy to get caught up in personal attacks if anything you say is remotely misunderstood. It can quite easily turn into a digital lynching.

[deleted]

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#359

Post by newaccount74 »

swarnie wrote: post #309
theobeers wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The screenshot of the DoD recruitment pitch from the conference set off a little "military-industrial complex alarm" in my mind. To be clear, I wouldn't have tagged the guy in a mean tweet. I would have just frowned and gone on with my day. But I think it's crucial that the voices of people like this blogger be present in tech communities.

I can't help but think "glass houses" Imo its more acceptable and moral to work in the defence of your nation than to design increasingly intrusive data harvesting / advertising machines. But as ever there isn't a correct answer and everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I think it should be okay to complain about both without being fired for it.

Re: That Time I Posted Myself Out Of a Job

#360

Post by newaccount74 »

wiseowise wrote: post #148
The_Amp_Walrus wrote: post #13

why does employer not say "dear whoever, this employee is clearly an idiot, and whatever they say on their private twitter does not represent our views" seems easier than firing someone

Why would you want to keep toxic person in a company?

Then they should be fired for being toxic, not for stepping on the wrong guys toes.
Post reply on HN