Inside Uber's Aggressive, Unrestrained Workplace Culture (cnbc.com) 192
Excerpts from Mike Isaac's report for the New York Times: Interviews with more than 30 current and former Uber employees, as well as reviews of internal emails, chat logs and tape-recorded meetings, paint a picture of an often unrestrained workplace culture. Among the most egregious accusations from employees, who either witnessed or were subject to incidents and who asked to remain anonymous because of confidentiality agreements and fear of retaliation: One Uber manager groped female co-workers' breasts at a company retreat in Las Vegas. A director shouted a homophobic slur at a subordinate during a heated confrontation in a meeting. Another manager threatened to beat an underperforming employee's head in with a baseball bat. Until this week, this culture was only whispered about in Silicon Valley. Then on Sunday, Susan Fowler, an engineer who left Uber in December, published a blog post about her time at the company. [...] One group appeared immune to internal scrutiny, the current and former employees said. Called the A-Team and composed of a small group of executives who were personally close to Mr. Kalanick, its members were shielded from much accountability over their actions. One member of the A-Team was Emil Michael, senior vice president for business, who was caught up in a public scandal over comments he made in 2014 about digging into the private lives of journalists who opposed the company. Mr. Kalanick defended Mr. Michael, saying he believed Mr. Michael could learn from his mistakes.
the enron of this generation (Score:5, Insightful)
loses money
sex fueled culture
no definitive product
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Also describes the entirety of social networking.
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uhm, burma shave??
motivation (Score:2)
Now, that's what must be a highly motivating work environment
One must wonder how their hiring process works, i.e. letting such characters through the gates, since recent reports don't paint a pretty picture.
Re:motivation (Score:5, Interesting)
In most companies, someone pulls a stunt like any of the ones listed here, and they're quickly smacked down, or fired outright (depending on the incident). Judging by the rumors and reports of incidents at Uber, that wasn't the case there. Instead, HR seems to have been told to ignore and protect "high performers" in a penny-wise/pound-foolish policy that leads to the sort of culture like you see described. What happens is that when people don't get punished for the first few things, they start to realize that the normal limits don't apply, and the bad sorts start pushing the envelope. Eventually you get a workplace culture where all sorts of stuff is tolerated, and you wind up with a toxic work environment.
Re:motivation (Score:4, Insightful)
A homosexual slur is likely to get a very strong reprimand. Threatening to beat someone up or grabbing someone's breasts is almost certainly going to see you escorted off the premises. Uber sounds like one fucking terrible place to work.
Re:motivation (Score:4, Insightful)
You have just described our entire political and economic system. The "bad sorts" have pushed the envelope right to the top..
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In most companies, someone pulls a stunt like any of the ones listed here, and they're quickly smacked down, or fired outright (depending on the incident).
Unfortunately, I don't think it's the incident that determines the response, it's the pay grade of the offender.
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We still have legacy polices in place that readily allow for that.
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From the tone around here these days, I'm sure they have no problem finding idiots that think common decency is beneath them.
Re:motivation (Score:5, Funny)
"The beatings will continue until morale improves!"
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"Another manager threatened to beat an underperforming employee's head in with a baseball bat."
Now, that's what must be a highly motivating work environment :/
One must wonder how their hiring process works, i.e. letting such characters through the gates, since recent reports don't paint a pretty picture.
That sounds like the sort of thing where someone is quoting Bon Qui Qui (Mad TV; https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]) and says, "I will cut you!" or something, and the receiving end takes it as a threat.
Granted: The first rule of public speaking (or just about any kind of presentation) is to Know Your Audience. KYA. Applies to everything. You shouldn't tell jokes to people who may not get them, or may take offense at them...unless you're a stand-up comic. KYA. But that sort of professionalism isn't taug
Re:motivation (Score:5, Insightful)
"Another manager threatened to beat an underperforming employee's head in with a baseball bat."
Now, that's what must be a highly motivating work environment :/
One must wonder how their hiring process works, i.e. letting such characters through the gates, since recent reports don't paint a pretty picture.
It's not the hiring process that's creating the problem, it's senior management. Management would have heard about the incident (or similar ones), and they had the ability to discipline both the manager to grabbed the baseball bat as well as his manager who didn't do anything about it. Instead they let the incident go, perhaps even laughing about it and treating it as an example of a passionate manager motivating his people.
It's like corruption in Russia, they didn't get that way by hiring corrupt government officials, they got that way by demonstrating, at the very top, that corruption was tolerated. That same baseball bat manager might have been a perfectly decent manager in a different organization, or weeded out if he couldn't play along, but put in an organization that didn't restrain his tendencies he becomes a menace.
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> It's like corruption in Russia,
That's funny because "Russian corruption" goes back way further than Putin.
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manager to grabbed the baseball bat
It doesn't say he actually grabbed a baseball bat. Needs context. I wouldn't be shocked if this were an "aww, man, I'm gonna kill whoever didn't reload the printer, haha!" that when it's time to get someone fired/smeared is reported as "Bob threatened to murder employees who didn't complete tasks properly."
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Negan will hire anyone, but loves to bash in heads with a baseball bat. One could certainly call "perform well so you do not die" to be a highly-motivated work environment.
"Rape, murder, arson, and rape." (Score:2)
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He likes rape. [youtube.com]
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You said 'rape' twice...
Looking at another menu [wikipedia.org], I'd say there's not much rape in this item.
Goes both ways (Score:5, Interesting)
And my ex-manager (woman) was at a poker game at my house, raving drunk and after losing a hand to me, threw a handful of ceramic poker chips in my face as hard as she could. Not that it surprised anyone because she occasionally comes to work drunk. Not that anyone will do anything about it because she's a she.
And then there's the manager of our finance department (black woman) who doesn't feel unprofessional screaming at me on the phone and calling me names - while I'm on speaker phone with her - while people in other offices come to listen in amazement. She developed a billing workflow for our entire business unit, and after deploying it at the END OF THE QUARTER with no testing - which caused no end of headaches - I dug through to figure out the errors, drafted a corrective action plan to fix it and sent it to her - which culminated in this legendary phone conversation where she was screaming at me on the phone about how I was too stupid to figure out how to use the workflow...
I documented all of this, got supporting statements from my colleagues, and went to HR - who basically said that she's untouchable because she's a minority and a woman. I work for GE; not exactly a small-time company. We have all the expected training, HR-enforced compliance...hell, when someone does something that grabs the attention of a regulatory body in a bad way, people get fired. The people involved get fired. The people who weren't involved but heard about it punitive career action for not proactively taking steps to report it up the chain of command. The people who weren't involved and didn't hear about it, but were in a position that they theoretically SHOULD have heard or known about it get formally reprimanded.
But God help that there be a woman, or for double damage a minority woman...and rules go out the window.
Re:Goes both ways (Score:4, Funny)
Don't meet with your managers in your off-time, at your house, for anything, especially if they're women
If someone screams at you on the phone hang up
These are great suggestions
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Re:Goes both ways (Score:5, Informative)
It's one thing to go to the corner pub, or to go to lunch once in a while. I honestly would never hang out with a manager at their house.
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That depends entirely on the manager and your relationship with them. Not everyone is a career oriented thunder**** and this goes for both managers and people.
Re: Goes both ways (Score:2)
It was a poker game - at my house - with most of our department - and it was our Christmas get-together.
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If someone screams at you on the phone hang up
Someone should pass that advise along to the Prime Minister of Australia. :-)
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I documented all of this, got supporting statements from my colleagues, and went to HR - who basically said that she's untouchable because she's a minority and a woman.
I don't understand why you say, "Goes both ways". It seems like the same problem. Someone is abusive at work, but getting away with it due to poor management. This isn't "going both ways", it's "going the same way".
Unless you're just trying to make some kind of "I hate 'political correctness' and affirmative action!" argument, in which case, that's kind of off-topic.
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No. It does go both ways. It's only acknowledged when the victim is acceptable. Otherwise it gets ignored. There's a particular narrative and anything that falls outside of that narrative will be ignored, belittled, or denied.
This very article is the perfect example of this "narrative curation" in action.
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Ok, so what's the "other way" that it goes? In the one case, you have "aggressive behavior by an employee goes unchecked because of poor management." What's the other way?
Are you interpreting one of the examples to be "aggressive behavior by management goes unchecked because of poor employee behavior"? Because then it would make sense to say, "It goes both ways." But I feel like, in both cases, it's a problem of bad management.
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Maybe they don't read /. and think you're a bad guy :-)
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Ah, unsubstantiated anecdotes, those will do in place of actual data. No no, don't worry about naming the company or anything that might let someone verify or refute your claims, we will just take your word for it.
FWIW the one time I've personally known anyone to get fired for being drunk it was a black guy. I don't read anything at all into that, it's just a meaningless data point. It does cancel out your anecdote though, so at least we are at neutral buoyancy again.
Re: Goes both ways (Score:2)
And went to... (Score:2)
I documented all of this, got supporting statements from my colleagues, and went to HR
Aha, I see your mistake.
When your "I went to..." statement does not end with "the troublesome's persons direct supervisor", then you have done nothing except cause grief for yourself.
Companies don't change in response to HR reported threats. They clam up and protect the status quo. Hint: you reporting a problem is not the status quo...
If instead you report to a manager above the troubled employee, well now you are giving
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I documented all of this, got supporting statements from my colleagues, and went to HR
Aha, I see your mistake.
When your "I went to..." statement does not end with "the troublesome's persons direct supervisor", then you have done nothing except cause grief for yourself.
Companies don't change in response to HR reported threats. They clam up and protect the status quo. Hint: you reporting a problem is not the status quo...
If instead you report to a manager above the troubled employee, well now you are giving the company a chance to quietly sweep a problem under the rug... there is nothing large companies and high level executives like more than some good rug sweeping. Heck, they might even lay off her whole division just to be sure!
Actually, in both cases I did go to the person's direct supervisor.
In the incident of the poker game at my house, there were 10-15 other people there - all co-workers. The story made it to her boss (my boss' boss) before I talked to him next. He was an empty suit - GE has its share of people who talk a good talk, but don't follow through on anything.
In the incident of the finance lady, I actually started with my boss. I was so enraged that I wanted to violence this person - I went to talk to my boss, too
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I documented all of this, got supporting statements from my colleagues, and went to HR - who basically said that she's untouchable because she's a minority and a woman.
Bullshit
I can tell you want it to due to affirmative action, but I don't believe that they would tell you that, even if it was.
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Re:Goes both ways (Score:5, Interesting)
So...is she an ex-manager because you moved on, or someone did something about that behavior?
I got the fuck out. I took a demotion and a pay raise and moved to another team....which was difficult because of the "You're my best project manager so I'm going to give you a shitty performance review so that you have to stay on my team and make me look good" problem.
That said, I'd have taken the easy way out, if HR told me what you claim they told you, and sue. Especially, if she had been abusive to you. Jackpot!
One doesn't really sue GE. Especially an individual...or at least me - with a fairly long military career behind me, where I've been called worse and hurt worse. I'm just pointing out that it goes both ways. Stories like mine don't make national media...unless I'm a woman. Then I can blog about it, sue my employer for sexual discrimination, and even when a court rules against me - still make national headlines.
That said, your tone really stands out as misogynistic. Not saying you are, but it just comes across that way. Perhaps, it was the rant about affirmative action and focused on women and minorities,
No - not a misogynist....this story is about men mistreating women in a corporate culture. Stories like this make national headlines. The reverse stories do not. Just like domestic violence - news only reports one side of it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... [huffingtonpost.com]
What's her name accuses men at Uber of sexually harassing and holding her down and it makes national news. I report women at GE assaulting and physically abusing me, and I'm a misogynist. See my point?
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No one called Fowler a man-hater because she didn't want to get propositioned by her manager.
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No - not a misogynist....this story is about men mistreating women in a corporate culture.
It sounds from the summary that male and female employees are being mistreated, so why are you making this claim?
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No - not a misogynist....this story is about men mistreating women in a corporate culture.
It sounds from the summary that male and female employees are being mistreated, so why are you making this claim?
He's not, the AC did and that is really just a troll.
Most people who read the GP's first post simply read it as his manager was abusive and probably borderline incompetent and sociopathic. Doesn't matter about the gender. Sadly these people are good at covering their arse, the OP got out peacefully with his dignity intact, which is a good end to the story.
I've had similar treatments at a previous job. Bullied until I lashed back, then having that used to extend my probation. I was the highest performi
Eric Holder will get to the bottom of it! (Score:1)
Not so fast... (Score:1)
If this story is really true, there is a huge lawsuit in Uber's future... Given that there really hasn't been such a lawsuit yet, I'm a bit hesitant to just accept all this at face value.
ANY attorney who can pass the bar could win a civil judgment of epic proportions if there is *any* evidence to substantiate that this kind of harassment is a regular happening and the company isn't doing anything to curb it. Now I'm not saying that it's not happening, only that I'm a bit skeptical about such stories comi
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Your shallow grasp of the cost function of suing a big, madhouse employer (while you're quietly vesting, among other things) leaves pretty much the whole of human history unexplored.
Of course, if you have no supportive social network within your professional niche worth two nickles to rub together, this is an easy trap to fall into.
"Oh, the gap in my resume circa 2017? That's when I took off an entire year to s
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I've been sued by a former employer who I had felt it necessary to quit without notice with a wife that was 9 months pregnant and no job prospects in sight. I think I understand the implications of what I'm saying here. Try to get a job when your last employer is lying about you, basically accusing you of all sorts of unethical behavior and threatening to sue prospective employers if they hire you. It was a bad time, a new baby, medical bills and paying a lawyer, but staying would have been worse so I'm
Leaving a bit out (Score:5, Informative)
The boob-grabber got fired, as CNBC fails to note (but BusinessInsider does)
The baseball bat thing is probably a reference to Scarface. Whether a manager actually was referencing the movie when making the "threat" or the person talking to the reporter was using it for inspiration for making shit up, I couldn't say.
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Since this was at a "company retreat in Las Vegas", I'm going to guess it had less to do with company culture and more to do with Mr. Grabby drinking too much to worry about consequences.
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It could also be the woman acting flirty, then blowing up when someone grabs her tits.
It could also be the woman manipulating someone whose job she wants to get.
There are lots of possibilities, and the total lack of ability to know what the issues at hand might have been is one reason journalism like this is practically worthless: It sets things in a direction they might not need to go.
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While I do agree the fact that he was fired is significant, you have to wonder what kind of culture is at the company where he thought this was something he could get away with.
That's a real work of circular logic there. Even though it was not tolerated, the fact it occurred shows that the company tolerates it.
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Baseball bat would have been from Untouchables not Scarface.
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"enthusiasms"
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There's exactly one named source here and claims of 30 anonymous interviews and other documents, none of which are given to us to evaluate. Given that they claim to have witnessed cocaine use, which is a felony, I have to question why they did not go to the cops at any time. Incidentally, the boob-grabber was fired within 12 hours. I don't think any more could reasonably be expected of Uber.
We don't have the information to judge them, they should go to the courts. The fact that they have gone to the pre
Re:Leaving a bit out (Score:5, Insightful)
So you're defending them. Nice...
God dam it. The truth is more important that which side you're on. FFS, this attitude is why American (heck, Western) politics is so toxic.
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You would get mod points if I had them.
The idiocy comes from a lack of compassion or at least critical thinking, plus overly-emotional decisions along with lack of knowledge.
No Coffee (Score:2)
My experiences in other companies and opinions... (Score:1)
> workers are somet
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In general I would frown on any employees, but in particular a manager, getting into a shouting match, homophobic slur or otherwise. In a manager I would find this particularly disturbing, because you should really be promoting managers based on leadership qualities, and shouting at your subordinates doesn't display leadership, it displays bullying. As to a specifically homophobic slur, like it or not, we live in a litigatory age, and, as you point out, if the staff member being yelled at were gay, then you
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In a manager I would find this particularly disturbing, because you should really be promoting managers based on leadership qualities, and shouting at your subordinates doesn't display leadership, it displays bullying.
Shouty managers were common for Baby Boomers and earlier. There's still a bit of that culture around, and I've had a few shouty managers over the years (mostly guys born before 1960, one born in the 60s). It's an effective way to deliver the emotional message that someone is underperforming and needs to change, when sometimes trying to connect rationally doesn't work. I'm glad it's now mostly faded from current management, but it's a valid approach for leadership (there's a reason drill sergeants and mari
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Of course there has been in a lot of research on management styles, some of it predating WWII which suggested that bullying management style may bring about short-term gains, but usually at the cost of a paranoid and low-morale organization which can negatively effect long term performance.
I've only been yelled at once in my working life, and while it scared the shit out of me to be sure, the only take-away I had was that my boss was a fucking asshole. I could only work as fast as I was going, and because h
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The problem is that it is a shitty manager who insults any subordinate. If you have a problem with a member of your team, you take them aside and try to deal with it. If it rates disciplinary action, then so be it, but that can still be done respectfully. Either we are adults who can behave with some decorum, or we are unruly children. I won't have unruly children as managers, period. Behave appropriately or you will be demoted. Calling anyone a "fag", get into shouting matches with them, and I will be maki
Well isn't that just aw-ful. (Score:2)
>A director shouted a homophobic slur at a subordinate during a heated confrontation in a meeting.
If this is such a major sin by Uber's standards that it's worth mentioning in a slam piece, then Uber must be far cleaner than their business practices would suggest. It's not like undercutting established taxi service with VC money is in any way "innovation", or "disruption" except in the sense of what George Soros likes to do.
Not suprising (Score:5, Insightful)
I had an issue with my manager once (not about sexual harassment, but about an ethic issue since one of the company value is conduct business with uncompromising integrity and professionalism) and I went to the HR. The HR wasn't very helpful and unless I want to make a big issue out of it, there is nothing they are willing to do. The best they could do is if the manager decide to retaliate and there is a paper trail, then they might do something about it. Reading between the line, they infer I should transfer out and that's what I did. I went and talk to other people that dealt with HR before and they schooled me on the true function of HR.
The purpose of HR is not to help you the individual employee. The true purpose is to protect company from liability and any issues that might result in hurting company's profitability. In Uber's case, the HR did exactly that, protect the company from loosing "high performing" manager since Fowler is just another engineer that they could have replaced. In their view, she is nothing special and would only hurt company's profitability while losing a "high performing employee" that would help the company make money. So they would do anything to help sweep the problem under the rug. I'll bet once the investigation has concluded, they would make an example out of that manager and make some cosmetic changes. Once this blows over, everything will back to the same ol' same ol'.
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The Register is decent if you can stomach the sarcasm, slashdot has clearly been taken over by the white supremacist legions.
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That certainly explains all of the virtue signalling and SJW propaganda.
Re:Mostly, send the snowflakes to Venezuela (Score:5, Insightful)
So you think managers threatening to kill someone or calling them a homosexual slur is just fine? If I was in charge, there would be a whole lot of people being marched out the door. I certainly would never tolerate anything like that (I'm management now). Manager or regular employee, if you cannot behave with a modicum of decency and manners, then you won't long have a job anywhere I manage.
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So you think managers threatening to kill someone or calling them a homosexual slur is just fine?
Could be. Depends on context. Lots of people have told me they were going to kill me.. slurs are rarely invoked in a literal sense. Language isn't an exact science and like it or not language belongs to everyone. Not just you or a minority of perpetually offended loudmouths who demand language be (re)interpreted in ways that draw maximal offense.
Coupled with an agenda or specific worldview common understandings of messy imprecise language can be wildly distorted with ease.
Just because a person from one
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People tend to hire people who are like themselves. Uber is like that because Uber's owners are like that.
If you owned Uber, it would probably be different from top to bottom. And it would probably never have gotten to the size that Uber is, since you probably wouldn't have had the ego to flagrantly violate the law and advance your company in the market through assholery.
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Oddly enough, one of the best teams I was ever on was a group where people didn't collectively have steel rods up their asses. It ran well and efficiently. Teamwork was excellent. The boss was demanding but did a very good job at cultivating talent being much more effective at genuine "social justice" than most people that like to whine about it loudly.
It actually worked better than a climate of terror inspired by threats of litigation.
Despite the apparent "evil locker room atmosphere", people didn't push i
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Wow, so you think any kind of expectation of good behavior is fascism? I suspect in real life you don't behave that way, but the Internet and anonymity affords you the freedom to make believe that you're some sort of Milo-like entity. And look where his big mouth got him.
Re:Mostly, send the snowflakes to Venezuela (Score:5, Funny)
... make believe that you're some sort of Milo-like entity. And look where his big mouth got him.
A date to the junior high prom?
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Because that's the only standard of behavior that matters. "Does it make money?"
You do realize the Alt-right are the conservative's new useful idiots, and as Milo's exile shows, once the idiots cease to be useful...
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This is why I wish Slashdot would get rid of ACs. I have no idea who I'm debating. Are they responding to what I wrote? Are they the parent?
AT any rate, lots of people of every stripe care about money. Whoever you are, the AC I was responding to heavily suggested that Milo is vindicated because he makes lots of money. How that squares with your post is beyond me.
Re:Mostly, send the snowflakes to Venezuela (Score:5, Insightful)
I heard a rather heated argument the other day at work. It was heated because the devs were up against a deadline, and the debate was (from what I gathered) whether to push a fix forward or not for the next release. Not once did I hear any rudeness toward other team members by those in the debate. Any swearing and most of the frustration was directed at the code and process, not other people.
More to the point, such a culture is set by the guys at the top. Our boss isn't the type to rant or yell at others, and in turn, everyone understands that such behavior doesn't belong at our company. Simple as that.
It's entirely possible to remain civil with fellow employees at all times, even when you're frustrated or tense. It's not exactly *necessary* for a company to behave that way to be successful, but all in all, I'm going to prefer working at a company in which people are expected to remain civil with each other.
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> so in your mind, treating people the way you would want to be treated is fascism?
That is such a stupid way to put things. You have no idea how people want to be treated. You very likely couldn't handle being treated the way that that many of us would happily tolerate or even prefer.
That's not even getting into the interesting stuff.
You would melt into a puddle of goo if I applied the Golden Rule you.
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Send the bigot to Venezuela and Somalia instead? Why keep those assholes around? Just because he's the CEO's college drinking buddy doesn't mean he's worth keeping around. Awww, did the executive whine when he got laid off, send him to Uzbekistan!
This is a WORKPLACE, you have to be part of a TEAM. If you start fighting amongst yourselves and shouting abuse because your mother never taught you how to behave in public, then you deserve to be fired.
Now let's sing along together. Uber(tm), Uber(tm), Uber A
Homophobia and suicide (Score:4, Insightful)
Awww, did someone call you a faggot? He's a meanie!
There's solid data showing that suicide rate is higher among bi- and homo- sexual youth (teens and young adult) than among their heterosexual peers.
This is believed to be strongly linked to the difficulty of feeling accepted. The more a young individual with an unorthodox sexuality and/or gender identity feels rejected by the surrounding society, the higher the risks of suicide.
Check again the summary, it was not a young internet shouting homophobic slurs at a senior officer, it was the other way around.
By keeping a climate were "being [homophobic slur]" is considered as a bad thing, that senior officer is actively contributing in a small part in the lack of self acceptance and higher suicide rates among non-heterosexual young people.
It's not about being ridiculously excessively nice to people so they feel special snowflake.
It's avoid to keep a general situation were young persons feel so much rejected by the society that suicide seems a better alternative.
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Lady, why does it matter what HR said? Call the police, report them, sooner rather than later. If not for yourself, for the next person. Then get yourself some help dealing with this.
You might consider a civil suit too if the HR folks really had that attitude about it... Junk like this is unacceptable.
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I wouldn't brush off someone threatening to beat my head in with a baseball bat. I'd be calling the cops.
Re:Shocking!!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
tech is a small world; make waves and you may not be working in your field again.
we have mostly killed unions and workers refuse to band together because... reasons. (shrug).
and so, there is no one to speak for the regular worker. not really, not anymore.
we need jobs to pay the bills. its pretty powerful to hold that over someone's head.
this is the unwritten rule. complain and you find yourself out of work and unable to GET work (in some extremes). now, if you are a white male and older than that magic number, you will try even HARDER to avoid being fired or making 'trouble' for managers at work.
until we get a proper balance of power, the worker will continue to be abused and have no real recourse. not in the US and CERTAINLY not in trump's US ;(
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It has always surprised me how little protection a US worker gets. Like your health care system; it sucks compared to the rest of the modern world (unless you are rich)
There seems to be this culture in the US of : There is nothing stopping you from becoming rich and powerful; and if you don't work hard enough, then you don't deserve anything.
Its like a society that got stuck at the selfish adolescent stage if independence, rather than moving to the mature state of interdependence. (ie like the EU, Canada, A
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Cultures differ. I find the European mindset of desiring the state to provide for their needs to be immature. Maturity, in my opinion, requires a realization that no one has a right to another person's labor....no matter how much they claim to "need" it.
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Cultures differ. I find the European mindset of desiring the state to provide for their needs to be immature. Maturity, in my opinion, requires a realization that no one has a right to another person's labor....no matter how much they claim to "need" it.
I get that: and I look down on people at the outer suburban shopping centre who are mooching off my labour.
But. we already have plenty of overproduction of the basics of life, with tons of automation coming that will displace lower skilled jobs. So were are heading for a more socialist society whether we like it or not, and the USA is behind the 8ball on this paradigm shift.
Re: (Score:2)
your caring for fellow man is SO TOUCHING....
current phrase that the kids, today use, to describe folks like you:
"I GOT MINE, FUCK YOU."
that's the phrase. as long as I get what I want, the hell with everyone else.
selfish prick, you are. and everyone else like you who trumped the US to that orange doofus.
Re:Shocking!!!! (Score:4, Insightful)
I wouldn't brush off someone threatening to beat my head in with a baseball bat. I'd be calling the cops.
Good idea, but if you don't have it on tape, it's your word against his, and the result is he gets a mild warning "say, Jim, you should be more careful in how you phrase things, ha, ha, some people are taking it wrong," while you get tagged as "too sensitive" and "not a team worker" and are the one let go at the next downsizing.
Re:Pretty common (Score:4, Insightful)
It's what happens when you let sociopaths into senior management. The advice I received many years ago about "toxic employees" is that while companies should throw them out as soon as possible, quite often, because they have some sort of narcissistic personality, they ingratiate themselves with their bosses, move up the corporate ladder, where they become nightmares to everyone else and create an incredibly toxic environment. And they can significantly harm a company in the process, driving out talent along the way. I cannot imagine why any company would tolerate this kind of behavior, or would allow such a workplace environment to persist. Apart from the risks of expensive lawsuits, such a workplace will have low morale, wallow in inefficiency, and ultimately gain a reputation as a shit place to work.
Re:Pretty common (Score:4, Insightful)
It's what happens when you let sociopaths into senior management.
Corporate management selects for only 2 things: sociopathy and ability to deliver results. The higher up the ladder you climb, the more that it becomes entirely about sociopathy. This is true of almost any large organization, but especially corporations. It's not clear how to fix this, given humans are what they are, but at least recognize the world you live in.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That could be taken as a physical threat against the President.