With Her Blog Post About Toxic Bro-Culture at Uber, Susan Fowler Proved That One Person Can Make a Difference (recode.net) 347
Kara Swisher, writing for Recode: It was Lao Tzu who said that "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." In the case of complete and utter change reeling through Uber right now -- culminating in the resignation of its once untouchable CEO Travis Kalanick -- it turns out that it began with one of the most epic blog posts to be written about what happens when a hot company becomes hostage to its increasingly dysfunctional and toxic behaviors. It was clear from the moment you read the 3,000-word post by former engineer Susan Fowler about her time at the car-hailing company that nothing was going to be the same. Titled simply, "Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber," the essay deftly and surgically laid out the map that the media and others would use to prove to its out-to-lunch board and waffling investors that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick had to go. In her account, Fowler was neither mean nor self-righteous, although in reading the story that she laid out about her horrible time there, it would have been completely fair for her to have taken that tone.
butterfly erection (Score:3, Interesting)
In retrospect, it is interesting to see that a reflective blog post from an engineer ended up in the casualties of CEO, most of the senior leadership and a few board members. Maybe the cracks were already there but nevertheless it has been surreal seeing this unfold in the space of 5 months. It is almost like watching the butterfly effect in action.
Re:butterfly erection (Score:4, Insightful)
NOw...let's see if anyone will hire her now, after all of this....
She brought down a 'toxic' CEO, ok....but now, is she a bit 'toxic' too?
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She sounds mature and reasonable in her attitude and communication. I'd hire her.
Re:butterfly erection (Score:5, Interesting)
People do get forgotten over time.
While the effect of her actions may have long lasting effect. Her name will probably will not last long. So when looking for a job, chances are the background checks are not checking for activist fame, but criminal and job skills. Most companies even if they don't want to hire someone like her. May do so especially if she doesn't start ranting during the interview.
Re:She's out on her own. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm represented by Verve and InkWell. [susanjfowler.com] And it looks like she's doing the public speaking circuit.
She's an author. I know this is shocking for some people on Slashdot, but she has a personal brand that exists independently of her tech job.
But, I have to agree with the GP, she's not going be hired by anyone ever.
According to her blog post, she left Uber and works at Stripe.
The HR software used these days will catch it and her application would be deleted.
I was out of work for two years, underemployed for six months, and filed for chapter seven bankruptcy in 2011. During that time I was told repeatedly by recruiters that I was "unemployable." The day after my bankruptcy got finalized, I had a new full-time job. The opinions of recruiters and HR software are overrated.
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As an aging fat white male, you have no power, so they can fire your ass easily if you misbehave.
I'm more likely get someone else fired for misbehaving because I document everything. Documentation is powerful.
Re:She's out on her own. (Score:4, Insightful)
You are a buffoon, and a fraudulent blow-hard, who could not engineer his way out of a wet paper bag, even armed with a skill knife and a pair of scissors.
Not sure why everyone keeps mistaking me for an engineer. Not everyone in IT is in engineering or management.
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Now go fraudulently bill more hours to your employer for doing janitorial work.
Someone has to clean up after the engineers. I once spent a week at Google taking out the trash after the network engineers got finished building out a data center.
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Yes, those people are called "janitorial staff."
The janitorial staff are the people who pick up the cardboard boxes, garbage bags and waste baskets left out in the hallway. They don't do port mapping, pulling decommissioned servers or removing 100' network cables from the overhead tray because 10' cables weren't available.
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Why do you do that?
You want to insult me? Fine. I reserve the right to drive you nuts — or ignore you.
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Isn't that abuse? And a violation of this site's TOS?
Complain to management.
As well as a violation of your own "personal brand"?
In what way?
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So, your personal brand includes the fact that you abuse other users of sites you frequent?
That you think Slashdot matters in the real world is cute.
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You are a monkey-drone who acts like he is something far bigger and better than he really is.
That's a problem because...?
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He wildly over-reacts to the slightest criticism because he has zero self-esteem.
ROFL
Re:butterfly erection (Score:4, Insightful)
NOw...let's see if anyone will hire her now, after all of this....
According to her blog post [susanjfowler.com] that she wrote in February, she left Uber in December and started work at Stripe in January. When a push came to a shove at Uber, "I had a new job offer in my hands less than a week later."
She brought down a 'toxic' CEO, ok....but now, is she a bit 'toxic' too?
The men who work at Uber should probably be viewed as "toxic" by future employers, as the bad boy mentality drives out good people.
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I've seen this trend in online games, like MMOs. Ie, some of the same nerds who got picked on in school turn to an stereotypical jock attitude when online, Nice and polite in person, lack of all civilized behavior behind the keyboard. Especially in competitive parts of the games, whereas the real jocks would have had coaches teaching at least some sportsmanship, the nerd turned competitive player has had no such training and thinks teabagging is perfectly normal.
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NOw...let's see if anyone will hire her now, after all of this....
She brought down a 'toxic' CEO, ok....but now, is she a bit 'toxic' too?
Not in a million years. She's positively radioactive. The rest of her career is going to be on SJWelfare, which is why we're hearing talk about the "toxic bro culture," which is a dog whistle to the SJW Feminist types.
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Actually, she is. Going public with something like that is not acceptable, except if all other venues are exhausted and there is solid proof. That does not seem to be the case here. In actual fact, she has a duty to be loyal to her employer in this regard even after not working there anymore.
The only ones that are going to hire her now are those that want her as a poster-girl. Anybody else will not touch her with a 10-foot pole. It does not even matter whether her claims are true or not for that.
Re:butterfly erection (Score:5, Insightful)
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Why would she be "toxic" for reporting illegal activities that took place?
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There's a sad truth to human memory. We don't always remember why we recognize a name or a face. The boss may not remember that you screwed up royally, but he remembers you... that often turns into raises and promotions when your name crosses his/her desk alongside the other hundred names.
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NOw...let's see if anyone will hire her now, after all of this....
She brought down a 'toxic' CEO, ok....but now, is she a bit 'toxic' too?
Depends, if a company with integrity is looking for an honest worker or a company then she'll have no trouble. If its a shoddy company with a corrupt culture, she should look elsewhere.
Re:butterfly erection (Score:4, Insightful)
Not excusing harassment, but going the HR route is the worst way to handle what should be an adult-adult situation.
You're assuming that the other person is an adult. It might surprise you that not everyone who grows up is an adult. I've met more than a few children in the workplace. HR can either send them away or babysit them. If HR decides to babysit them, it's time to find a new job elsewhere.
Re:butterfly erection (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:butterfly erection (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:butterfly erection (Score:4, Insightful)
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No, but it's hard to argue the point that the blog post got a lot of people, who wouldn't otherwise be interested in the matter, looking at the corporate culture at Uber.
If it hadn't been for her blog post, would the CEO still be there? Maybe, maybe not. With as toxic as the culture was there (and probably still is to an extent... that shit doesn't change quickly), it probably wouldn't have been long before he was given the heave-ho. He might have lasted through the end of the year.
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I'm not saying that the CEO being a toxic dude-bro was the sole reason that he got ousted. I'm not even saying it was the main reason. But the VCs almost certainly considered it along with all the other reasons that they already had.
Yes, the fact that he wasn't pushing for an IPO was probably a big reason. But when a company has that bad of a public image problem, it doesn't help attracting investors for an IPO.
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I'm not saying that the CEO being a toxic dude-bro was the sole reason that he got ousted. I'm not even saying it was the main reason. But the VCs almost certainly considered it along with all the other reasons that they already had.
Yes, the fact that he wasn't pushing for an IPO was probably a big reason. But when a company has that bad of a public image problem, it doesn't help attracting investors for an IPO.
It's always fun to equate the downfall of a large fish to the actions of a little fish, especially when you are one (I'm one too). The problem is that the big fish don't even notice the little fishes and couldn't care less about their ranting and ravings unless there is something to be gained.
In my opinion, the VCs wanted him out to go forward with an IPO. He was dead set against it The fact that the Uber culture was exposed had no bearing on him leaving. They would have gotten rid of him anyway. In my
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Unfortunately, there is no way to be sure from the outside whether this was the right thing to happen or not. Public opinion is rarely in sync with actual facts.
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I suspect that if you looked a bit more closely at the editors posting patters it is based on posting shit that gets the local neckbeard crowd rilled up. Accusations of sexual harassment and other brogrammer stuff tends to bring out a lot of people bitching about how it isn't real and how there is not enough evidence and so on and so forth, this results in a very large number of page views for the site.
Want it to stop, maybe stop commenting on them.
Obligatory Dalai Lama quote (Score:5, Funny)
"If you think you're too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito."
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No, they hide at places that are warm, they also have special anti freezing in the body/blood.
And finally: human inhabitated areas hardly freeze in summer at night.
In Lhasa it is 23:00 right now and about 16 C / 60 F.
Uber Gets High Kalanick (Score:5, Insightful)
Film at 11.
It's doubtful that Travis was the only problem child at Uber. He probably hired like-minded pals who remain in power there, so this won't be the last we hear of problems at Uber.
But this isn't "bro culture" or "toxic masculinity", he's just an everyday, run-of-the-mill, common asshole. Plenty more where he came from.
Re:Uber Gets High Kalanick (Score:5, Insightful)
But this isn't "bro culture" or "toxic masculinity", he's just an everyday, run-of-the-mill, common asshole.
"Bro-culture" and "toxic masculinity" are just side-effects of being a common asshole while having a penis.
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Toxic femininity is just side-effect of being a common asshole while having a vagina.
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toxic shit comes in different colors but it all smells bad.
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Toxic *blank* is just a side-effect of being a common asshole while having *specific trait.*
Makes for a great mad-lib. Might even work out for a two-card question for Cards Against Humanity!
Re:Uber Gets High Kalanick (Score:5, Informative)
Here's hoping.
Uber lost $2 billion last year (billion with a "b"). I guess you're right, that's amazing.
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If you want to label it then this is an example of rape culture.
If
I think the one who wants most to label things, generalize, and stereotype is you. You know, kinda like how certain people would just label you as an example of SJW and push on stereotypes on you, insisting you believe in things you don't actually believe in.
The ironing is delicious.
Not that anyone was literally raped as far as we know
Sure, and you're not literally fighting for social justice, nor are you literally a warrior. Doesn't mean SJW isn't an apt description of you and what you do!
It's like at the end of Temple of Doom
Sure, the Hollywood industry - which largely leans left - is highly
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Never heard of the Cult of Personality, eh?
People in power tend to attract and keep the company of those like themselves.
BAH! Everybody hates Uber (Score:3, Insightful)
It was an easy target. Let's see her try that with a real company with real money, not some damn unicorn that barely exists at all. This story is one about the triumph of political correctness, not civil rights.
Re:BAH! Everybody hates Uber (Score:4, Insightful)
This wasn't about political correctness, it was about common decency, and Uber's lack thereof.
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This wasn't about political correctness, it was about common decency, and Uber's lack thereof.
You see, this is about political correctness.
Back in my day, being politically correct was simply called not being a jerk.
The problem is people have confused the fact that it isn't illegal to be a complete arsehole with the imaginary right to be a complete arsehole. We've enshrined those who are pointlessly offensive, but demonised those who rightfully call them a cunt and tell them to jog off.
I have a vast collection of racist and sexist jokes, they're good fun because they're just jokes. However
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Oh, fuck you. She was propositioned for sex on her first day at work by her immediate supervisor. If you think that's "chivalry" or "romance" or that having a problem with that is "political correctness", then frankly, you're a piece of shit.
Re:BAH! Everybody hates Uber (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, every pat on the butt or peck on the cheek is 'harassment'.
no, it's harassment, without scare quotes. The chivalrous thing to do is to keep your hands off your coworkers until you're invited.
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no, it's harassment, without scare quotes. The chivalrous thing to do is to keep your hands off your coworkers until you're invited.
That's a double standard. It sounds like you are saying that only the woman should be allowed to "make the first move" by inviting the man, and that the man is never allowed to initiate anything (since he has to wait to be invited).
Even if we remove gender from this, under your theory, no could ever initiate anything, since they would have to wait for an invitation, but the invitation its self would be initiating, which can't be done until the other person invites you, and round and round we go.
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I'm not advocating a double standard.
Let me rephrase: the chivalrous thing to do is to keep your hands off your coworkers until there's clear agreement you both want more.
Intimate relationships should start with talking, not with one party grabbing the other's ass.
Re:BAH! Everybody hates Uber (Score:5, Interesting)
I would posit, that the overuse of harassment or discrimination by those on the left, women and minorities have been what has rendered the terms less useful, and overused and abused.
Sure, there are plenty of real occurrences of these abuses, however when so many folks found out they could make $$$ by crying 'wolf' and suing....well, the legitimate cases got lost in the mass of fake ones, and now....everyone is scared at the places of employment.
Its getting harder and harder to fire someone that is incompetent due to them being afraid of the fired employee crying discrimination or verbal sexual assault.
And that really isn't "political correctness"...that is mostly from the left screaming racism/sexism at anyone that either disagrees with them, OR may have actual studies that may show there actually are differences between the sexes, or races or racial cultures that are either pro/con when compared to other races/cultures or the opposite sex.
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I would posit, that the overuse of harassment or discrimination by those on the left, women and minorities have been what has rendered the terms less useful, and overused and abused.
I would rebut, that the denial of harassment and discrimination, by those who don't want to admit it is a problem, mainly those on the right, existed back when they were dismissing such complaints out of hand, without even the pretense of consideration.
Sure, there are plenty of real occurrences of these abuses, however when so many folks found out they could make $$$ by crying 'wolf' and suing....well, the legitimate cases got lost in the mass of fake ones, and now....everyone is scared at the places of employment.
If only. The people who are scared are the ones who have legitimate grievances, but will be immediately be meet with cries of making it up, and otherwise being dismissed and ignored. The harassers, however, feel comfort in the defense they can easily arise.
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It was an easy target. Let's see her try that with a real company with real money, not some damn unicorn that barely exists at all.
Uber's profitability is not yet real and may never be. Their impact, however, is seismic.
Re:BAH! Everybody hates Uber (Score:5, Insightful)
Being sexually propositioned on your first day by an immediate superior and then punished when you turned them down is not and never will be okay. And that has nothing to do with political correctness. These facts have been more or less confirmed by Uber themselves. If she "tried" this at a "real" company, her boss would have been fired on the spot.
I had the pleasure of meeting Susan at a conference before this all started and it saddens me that someone obviously so bright had to deal with that kind of bullshit.
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Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
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I've been trying to make a difference for 4 years and all I've found is I'm drowned out by children. People talk about the plight of the poor and start attacking the rich instead of proposing solutions--as if they don't care about the poor at all, but rather about attacking someone they hate.
It's surprisingly-hard to sell a 0.9% marginal reduction of payroll taxes, a 2.5% marginal reduction of corporate income taxes, and a fat boost in individual and household discretionary spending. People find all kin
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Exactly how is reducing corporate taxes going to help the poor champ?
Record profits have shown that companies wont increase wages or hire more people. So how is increasing those profits going to help anyone.
Protip: IT WONT. They hire the people they need at the minimum they can get away with paying, and that WILL NOT CHANGE. Claiming otherwise, especially after the fail of trickle down, is confirmation bias.
Income taxes and corporate taxes should be raised to offset the fact that the taxpayers are hav
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People talk about the plight of the poor and start attacking the rich instead of proposing solutions--as if they don't care about the poor at all,
Yeah they don't care about poor people. Ask them when was the last time they complained about homeless people? Someone should fix those problems, but it's not going to be me!
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It's not that so much as the dialogue. "Look at how much poverty we have! The rich need to pay their fair share!" "How will that help?" "They have too much money!" .... what?
I'm looking hard at the politics now as I seriously consider addressing the problem [universal25.org].
Yes, assuming she was right of course (Score:3, Informative)
Because if it turns out that what she said was not truthful, that would only be another example of SJW-witchhunts of which we have had way too many in the past decade.
No, I am not a friend of Uber at all. While they may shake up (positively) the encrusted taxi market in some countries, in others they have shown that they are unable to play by the rules while still making money. Like in Germany.
Re:Yes, assuming she was right of course (Score:4, Informative)
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Why would she lie about it? Even if she wins, many people will be reluctant to hire her now. The legal challenge is a huge financial risk, especially if she doesn't have really concrete evidence.
Unless you actually believe in those mythical raving SJWs, and from her writings she doesn't seem to be that way at all, failing to use common feminist terminology that is normally associated with those mythical beings, it doesn't make sense to do this on anything other than solid principal. That's why all the other
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Toxic to who? (Score:4, Insightful)
My wife works in the medical industry and more or less ignores what happens in technology. However this entire time with news stories on NPR and the nightly news she was firmly against 'bro-culture' and sexism in technology.
When the Uber Miami Memo leaked I showed it to her as 'evidence' for the toxic, misogynistic, bro-culture that was everywhere. She read it through twice and then came back with, "Ok, so where's the sexism that people are complaining about?". Every single thing in there she thought was completely reasonable. ("Don't have sex with someone that is above you or in the same group.", "Don't do drugs".)
There is a narrative that a lot of people are pushing and a lot of other people are onboard with defending without sitting down and listening to what some individuals consider offensive and toxic.
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She read it through twice and then came back with, "Ok, so where's the sexism that people are complaining about?"
It's in the fact that memo contained new policy, put in place to address a history of problems caused by a company culture that didn't have those basic and obvious norms. Even the CEO apparently hadn't previously felt it important to avoid sleeping with his subordinates. The fact they felt it necessary to tell employees to get permission from someone before having sex with them is particularly chilling.
Proved That One Person Can Make a Difference (Score:2)
Michael Knight would be proud!
Well, okay, "person", not "man", but yeah, same thing. "Person" sounds very awkward in that context somehow. English needs to learn from these other languages that have gender-neutral pronouns that we can use to keep from offending the overly-sensitive. Otherwise it seems so forced when we have to force nouns into pronoun duties.
We've yet to see (Score:2)
I think this is way too premature. She was complaining about the bro-culture. It still is a bro-culture. Firing a CEO is a nice consequence, but it is no where near a solution.
If I had to guess, I'd say that in one year, everything will revert back to the same.
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And it's attitudes like this that bring the entire male species into disrepute.
Re:Sounds like ... (Score:4, Funny)
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Also, when did we become a species?
Since forever. [dictionary.com]
3. Logic.
One of the classes of things included with other classes in a genus.
The set of things within one of these classes.
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I do not agree. They bring one AC in disrepute and that is it. People that generalize unsophisticated statement like that to a whole gender are not better than the one that just made that statement.
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And it's attitudes like this that bring the entire male species into disrepute.
If Silicon Valley males were a species, then the local women would be unable to mate with them and their tribe would expand only through recruitment.
Oh wait --
Re: Sounds like ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course not.
And young attractive females have always had an easy time âmaking a differenceâ: allegations of sexual improprieties against men have often been fatal to the careers of those men, or simply fatal when the abuser was a white woman and the male was black.
The idea that this is some newly developed superpower by women is not just laughably historically ignorant, it is offensive.
Re: Sounds like ... (Score:2)
DYAC. abuser should be accuser
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You must travel in strange circles. My efforts and contributions to having children have never been reviled. Except that time my mum caught me practising.
On the other hand my wife's some of my wife's contributions deserve plenty more respect than mine - she was the one who suffered through 9 months of pregnancy (plus long term effects) and pushed giant meatsacks out her twat.
God, I'm such a sucker for a trolling.
Re: Sounds like ... (Score:2)
Last time I looked, male was a sex.
Re:Snowflake kills company... (Score:4, Interesting)
It is now in the process of growing up a bit. It may not make it to grown up, but this was a needed kick in the slats.
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In terms of accounting employees are both. Calling someone who is suffering from an injustice a snowflake is just ignoring the problem. The gender equality in tech is a big problem. These companies are scaring off 50% of the potential workforce due to a bad environment.
Re: Snowflake kills company... (Score:3)
I don't think potential means what you think it means.
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She already works at Stripe and would be happily hired by any company that isn't run by a bunch of sexual predators! Suck it, regressives! Hahahahaha!
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Look one article up from this one.
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It's the very next story in my RSS feed, dummy.
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If you know about interesting articles regarding AMD and their chiso, why don't you post them on /. instead of complaining about the lack their of?
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So we should stop coming here and just write our own web sites if we want Technology news?
Re:Slashdot editors don't care about Tech (Score:4, Insightful)
This is a community site.
Everyone, even ACs can post articles.
Sure, you can 'write your own site' and then you still complain that certain news is not posted in time ... so what is your point?
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What if the change I want is for people to stop obsessing about the latest media storytelling and the unspeakable tragedy of imperfect emotions-optimization and focus on real world concerns instead?
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It's not like anyone has to be a hyper-political douchebag. Why do so many people decide to go that way? It obviously doesn't make them happy.
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That's usually how it works, with guys like that. The world would be a much better place if "bros" didn't take the word No to mean "your penis is tiny".
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Sweet Jesus, you wouldn't work for our company *ever*. What kind of shithole employs you? Anybody?
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Well, probably. If I had to walk on egg shells about what and how I say, I definitely wouldn't want to work at your company. The one I work at - there are no power games, no backstabbing, no snitching, no underhanded tactics, if you screw up you'll get an earful, but if the customer fucked up, you may feel safe the boss won't try to throw you under the bus to retain the business relationship. And if you tell a rude joke, nobody gets offended because we don't hire whiny assholes.
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That manager simply should reconsider if having 'an open relationship' is the right thing for him. ... if
And using company chat, that isprobably recorded, to hook up is a bit embarassing anyway.
I definitely would not like it if a coworker is sitting with me at my place and sees 'dirty chat' in my messanger 'by accident'.
On the other hand again: We europeans don't get why america is so prude that approaching one you like at work is considered harmful. In Germany abiut 30% of the married couples meet at work
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No, simple "not interested" was insufficient.
A manager should not be hitting on his subordinates in a professional setting. That applies even more on the first day when the people don't even know each other.
And then there's the unwarranted details about his sex life, which can earn disciplinary action regardless of supervisor/subordinate status.
In most places, that's an automatic trip to HR. Where I work, it's likely an immediate termination unless his manager wants to fight for him.
In other words: "I expected they would fire him and promote me to his position."
I see you saying that. I don't see her or anyone else saying it.
The s
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Mmm yes, delicious regressive tears, this is what I came here for! Now I can leave satisfied.
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That doesn't bother me much. I'm becoming kind of a fan of Trump these days. [cracked.com]
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Ease off, Travis, you'll be a CEO again. Don't worry.
Re: What it made clear to me (Score:2)
Why? Simple: because I don't want to run the risk that she accuses me of sexual harassment. Evidently, the burden of proof is very low, and there is no recourse for the accused.
Re: What it made clear to me (Score:2)
So because the people of Salem executed a bunch of witches, there must have been witches in Salem? Sorry, I have no basis on which to judge the truth of her allegations.
And it doesn't matter anyway. I consider the professional response to a bad working environment to quit, not to file lawsuits or write revenge posts. Even if her allegations are true, she is not the kind of person I would want to work with.
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