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A Twitter engineer who created cartoons poking fun at his own company was fired

businessinsider.com

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Re: A Twitter engineer who created cartoons poking fun at his own company was fired

#41

Post by shswkna »

jleyank wrote: post #2

This is to be expected. Elon wants to say whatever he wants. He wants his friends and associates to be able to say what they want. The rest of you all... No, do as you're told. Note that he bought Twitter, not you.

As an employer I expect, at the very least, that employees act in the interest of the company - 100% - while they are employed and at work. (Provided that they are healthy and take care of their own fundamental needs first)

If they act in a way that is not in the company’s best interest repeatedly, then that is not a foundation for continuing the relationship.

Would you stay in a relationship where your partner keeps doing things that irk you repeatedly at a fundamental level, just out of goodwill for your partner? No, you would separate because it is your choice to make.

The employer-employee relationship is slightly different though in an important way: The employer has to set the direction and priorities for the company, not the employee.

Re: A Twitter engineer who created cartoons poking fun at his own company was fired

#42

Post by ackfoobar »

bitmunk wrote: post #39
realgeniushere wrote: post #14

Self test for whether you’re full of it or not: if you think this was unjust, do you feel the same way about Google firing Damore? If not, why?

Damore was (with a lot of benefit of the doubt) totally clueless. Sure, he'll talk about how he thinks that discrimination is bad, and how he doesn't approve of sexism. He turns around and says that women are just neurotic and "more people focused", based on suspect evidence. Of course you will point out that he was juts talking about the population, and reducing people top that is very bad mkay. He is totally not ta…

> are just neurotic

His claim was that women on average score higher in neuroticism of the Big Five personality traits. Very different from "just neurotic".

> suspect evidence

The psychometric stuff seems pretty solid to me. Are you a science denier?

Re: A Twitter engineer who created cartoons poking fun at his own company was fired

#43

Post by nitwit005 »

shswkna wrote: post #41
jleyank wrote: post #2

This is to be expected. Elon wants to say whatever he wants. He wants his friends and associates to be able to say what they want. The rest of you all... No, do as you're told. Note that he bought Twitter, not you.

As an employer I expect, at the very least, that employees act in the interest of the company - 100% - while they are employed and at work. (Provided that they are healthy and take care of their own fundamental needs first) If they act in a way that is not in the company’s best interest repeatedly, then that is not a foundation for continuing the relationship. Would you stay in a relationship where your partner keeps…

If your partner is repeatedly doing something annoying, you'd tell them to stop, not immediately break up.

Most companies seem to solicit feedback or suggestions from employees. Ignoring employees means ignoring everyone that actually knows what's going on.

Re: A Twitter engineer who created cartoons poking fun at his own company was fired

#44

Post by SmileyJames »

tssva wrote: post #9
kakali wrote: post #6

This is the same person who did comics at Google. Their work was a highlight during my time there. Google even used their comics for basic employee training. I’m surprised folks say that we can’t be critical of own employer. Our employers are not lords or kings. We choose to work for them and can replace them.

> I’m surprised folks say that we can’t be critical of own employer. Our employers are not lords or kings. No one is saying you can't be critical of your own employer. They are saying there are repercussions to being critical and loss of employment is a common one which should be expected. > We choose to work for them and can replace them. They choose to employ us and can replace us.

Why is this dead?

Re: A Twitter engineer who created cartoons poking fun at his own company was fired

#45

Post by danuker »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #31
landemva wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you thought it was the most money you could make. Maximum income is not my goal. Livable income, much free time, and minimal taxes is closer to where I would be if I was looking to work at all.

> Livable income, much free time, and minimal taxes This and "most money you can make" are synonymous. The most disposable income you can have per hour worked. That's it. That's what "maximum income" means.

No. "Maximum income" is different from "maximum income per hour".

One implies income at the cost of free time. The other maximizes free time spent while having sufficient money.

Re: A Twitter engineer who created cartoons poking fun at his own company was fired

#46

Post by simplotek »

midoridensha wrote: post #36
simplotek wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one is saying you can't be critical of your own employer. They are saying there are repercussions to being critical and loss of employment is a common one which should be expected. Why do you feel that the expected outcome of being critical is being punished instead of addressing the root causes of these issues? I mean how do you expect problems to be pointed out and addressed?

>I mean how do you expect problems to be pointed out and addressed? Apparently, at Twitter, you don't.

> Apparently, at Twitter, you don't.

Twitter is itching to shed people any way they can, so the problem lies elsewhere.

Re: A Twitter engineer who created cartoons poking fun at his own company was fired

#48

Post by tssva »

simplotek wrote: post #15
tssva wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m surprised folks say that we can’t be critical of own employer. Our employers are not lords or kings. No one is saying you can't be critical of your own employer. They are saying there are repercussions to being critical and loss of employment is a common one which should be expected. > We choose to work for them and can replace them. They choose to employ us and can replace us.

> No one is saying you can't be critical of your own employer. They are saying there are repercussions to being critical and loss of employment is a common one which should be expected. Why do you feel that the expected outcome of being critical is being punished instead of addressing the root causes of these issues? I mean how do you expect problems to be pointed out and addressed?

Most companies I have worked for have a means to point out problems in an internal non-public manner. Once you bypass those to go public you generally lose the trust of your employer. Why would you employ someone you can no longer trust?

Re: A Twitter engineer who created cartoons poking fun at his own company was fired

#49

Post by tssva »

SmileyJames wrote: post #44
tssva wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m surprised folks say that we can’t be critical of own employer. Our employers are not lords or kings. No one is saying you can't be critical of your own employer. They are saying there are repercussions to being critical and loss of employment is a common one which should be expected. > We choose to work for them and can replace them. They choose to employ us and can replace us.

Why is this dead?

Because some people can't accept there are consequences to actions.

Re: A Twitter engineer who created cartoons poking fun at his own company was fired

#50

Post by juliusgeo »

tutorialmanager wrote: post #37
BeefWellington wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at IBM years back. If there's one thing that binds current and former employees together it was the shared stitch & bitch about the company's way of doing things. That would frequently happen in large public slack channels and to my knowledge (first and second hand) nobody was ever punished for that kind of talk. However, that was internal, between employees. Often it was about frustrations with how the comp…

My first job was at IBM in 1991 when the "Akers memo" came out. I was amazed by the internal discussion that ensued online and how open people were with complaints about the company.

I wasn’t even alive in 1991, but reading that memo sounds very familiar given the recent statements companies like Meta[1] have made in anticipation of recession. I wonder if Meta has internal discussion in the same way.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/technology/meta-facebook-...

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