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

Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

omaha.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 548 posts

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#401

Post by madeofpalk »

ad_hominem wrote: post #255
cylinder wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the GP who brought up this topic. I actually am American and now working at a managerial level in Australia. When I ran into trouble with someone on my team performing at a poor level, I was a bit exasperated with these regulations and how they required me to put him on a performance improvement plan rather than immediately dismiss. I was frustrated, but it forced me to talk it out with him. We did a bit of a res…

Plenty of white collar businesses in the US use performance improvement plans. But that would be a ridiculous remedy in a business with thin margins like a restaurant - some businesses need the freedom to hire and fire quicker.

Plenty of restaurants exist in countries with sane workplace relationship laws, especially when they pay them at least minimum wage!

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#402

Post by chefkoch »

greglindahl wrote: post #211
realusername wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of young people in France are on short-term contracts, precisely because long-term employees are hard to fire. Having a long-term contract where you can be fired at-will any day is effectively the same as cumulating short-term contracts, so instead of a lot of people on short-term contracts, you just have everybody (100%) on short term contracts.

That's not the case in the US: employees have a lot more protection if they're a part of a "protected class". And, surprisingly enough, it works pretty well. I, personally, have a limited ability to be a part of a protected class, but that appears to work out ok for people like me. I've been fired once, and I got a better job as a result.

> I've been fired once, and I got a better job as a result.

I'm not sure that's the way it works if your a 49 year old customer care agent from omaha.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#403

Post by nasredin »

erikb wrote: post #306

a) It can't be a dream job if you get fired for liking a tweet. The dream job only existed in your head and getting fired hit you with the truth that your fantasy ad reality don't match. b) Midnight on-call support is not a dream job. Have you ever worked in anything that is close to customers? These jobs are a pain in the a and mostly underpaid. Also you can always, always find another job like that. c) He didn't ge…

A LOT of manual labor jobs are shittier (you can use bad words here BTW) than working in an air-conditioned office chatting on Twitter all day.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#404

Post by nasredin »

m3kw9 wrote: post #110

It may not look like it, but this is equivalent to accidentally pressing a missle button and it hit the country on the other side.

>>It may not look like it, but this is equivalent to accidentally pressing a missle button and it hit the country on the other side.

TBH I expected somebody to Godwin this whole thing, but the quality of people commenting on HN is just too damn high.

Guess your comment is as close as we gonna get.

Never thought the like button of one tweet can have such devastating consequences.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#405

Post by EchoAce »

jpttsn wrote: post #363
intopieces wrote: post #25

Even if it wasn't an accident -- even if he saw the Tweet, and on behalf of Marriott and in full intention of broadcasting such, he clicked "Like" on this tweet, it's completely insane he would be fired for it. The tweet exhibits a positive sentiment. I would not expect most people to know that this sentiment matters to China. This is another example of China exerting influence on the open web, and it's shameful that…

Thought experiment: a Russian multinational, Gazprom maybe, likes a campaign tweet for “Free Alaska.” How does it come across in America?

It’s a completely different issue though; there’s already a lot of built up politics regarding Tibet in China.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#406

Post by klibertp »

chrischen wrote: post #248
Turing_Machine wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said "modern beneficiaries", not that the conquest itself was modern. Maybe he was talking about Spain, Portugal, or the Netherlands.

I’m talking about Americans and everyone here benefitting from the fruits of the conquest. We exist because it happened, and to deny it is to deny our own existence.

You used the words: "the greatest conquerer" - it's just this that's doubted, not that the conquest happened.

Historically, in terms of area, or percentage of (world) population involved, there are strong contenders for the title, other than the one you mention. Not to mention, some capital cities are stuffed with treasures they looted a millennium ago - so if you mean "the amount of conquest summarized over history" then your "greatest conqueror" doesn't seem that special at all.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#407

Post by nasredin »

codeisawesome wrote: post #190

It's amusing how much dread is inspired inside when I try to make a comment here. Can't say anything without marking myself against one of the many parties here. What a drama!

If you don't speak up for yourself, somebody else will and you may not like what the say.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#408

Post by gbacon »

Tehnix wrote: post #367
darawk wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because they are taking a risk. If you make it harder to fire people, companies simply won't hire them in the first place. The harder it is to fire someone, the more dangerous it is to hire them . The more cautious employers will be about hiring in the first place. This is a real problem in countries that have strict firing laws.

>simply won't hire them in the first place Except that is simply not true, and very easily proven false simply by showing countries with actual employee protection and unions like e.g. Denmark.

The economist must consider both the seen and the unseen. Yes, people have jobs in Denmark 🇩🇰, but there are employment positions and opportunities that do not exist because firing regulations price them out of the market.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#409

Post by isostatic »

nicolas_t wrote: post #212
zapita wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incorrect. The French like to complain about their taxes, but it's not that different from California. Employee protection regulation absolutely is problematic in France, because it over-protect relatively small groups at the expense of everyone else. Small and medium-sized businesses are most affected by this. The transition from 40-ish people to 200-ish people is where the system really breaks down for Fren…

No different than California? Let's see. I don't know the numbers well in Cali but I know what I paid in France. I'd be curious to see what one would pay in California for a similar situation. For a 100,000 euros income as a sole proprietorship, I paid 42% altogether. From those 42%, 7% were income tax, the remaining 35% were Charges sociales which covers healthcare, unemployment and retirement benefits. When French…

100k euros in the uk is about £87k. That would be £77k gross wage or net of £52500 - about 40% total tax, do not excessively different to France.

Re: Omaha man ‘liked’ a tweet, then lost his job

#410

Post by HenryBemis »

corobo wrote: post #21

The meat of the story is that Omaha man worked for Marriott hotels on customer support. Their support system allows their agents to like tweets. The man appears to have inadvertently clicked like on a tweet while dealing with a large influx of support messages (due to a promo going on) thanking Marriott for listing Tibet as its own country which was a huge no-no due to Mariott's presence in China. Execs fire him as a…

And let this be a lesson to EVERYONE who works in Marriotts.

This is the very definition of "throwing under a bus". This is how fast Marriott (in the US of A) will throw you under the first bus that comes by.

This is how Marriott respects the individuals and has the capacity to handle a sensitive situation.

Post reply on HN