Comment On Print or Fish

WTF!

I wish I knew more people like that.

I really want to believe the fish-in-the-office story is true.  I want to believe someone high up knows that screwing customers is not a sustainable business model.  But it smells of embellishment as much as it smells of fish.

Then again, if it makes some of us smile a little and stop squeezing our stress-dolls so much, maybe the veracity isn't what's really important.

Anonymous:

fist omg

 

fist?

 

Anyway, good story, I like hearing about guys who actually stand up for virtuous things like honesty.  It happens so infrequently in business nowadays.
 

It IS a fish story after all, so embellishment isn't hard to believe.

VGR:

I really want to believe the fish-in-the-office story is true.  I want to believe someone high up knows that screwing customers is not a sustainable business model.  But it smells of embellishment as much as it smells of fish.

Then again, if it makes some of us smile a little and stop squeezing our stress-dolls so much, maybe the veracity isn't what's really important.

I had the exact same reaction when I read Tom's submission.

Do I believe everything happened exactly as Tom (who heard it from, presumably, Roy) desribed it? Yes, I'd bet money on it. Not my house, though.

Do I believe in Roy? Absolutely. I've met people with Roy's ethics. I've known people who've had cajones the size of Roy's. Surely, there's bound to be at least someone out there with both =-)

Alex Papadimoulis:

Today's story is a lot different than most the stories I share here. It's not one of incompetence, failure, disaster, or anything like that -- in fact, it's kind of the opposite of that. I thought it'd be a nice lead-in for the four-day Thanksgiving weekend.

 

you are hoping that most of the readers already left for long weekend or will forget this by the time they come back after the weekend.

can't stand such an optimist piece of shit on this site :)

 

Roy has balls & ethics.  I like Roy.  I wish I worked with Roy.

 Oh, boy.
 

 

Sounds fishy

nice!

too bad most people don't have the CAJONES to do what Roy did with the herring.  I would want to know if the printers/hardware/software was buggy....

<nice/>

The fish...they are herrings...duh? :P

There is no red herring jokes yet?

Lummox:

Anonymous:

fist omg

 

fist?
 

The trolls will often say "fist" instead of "1st" because filters usually delete or modify those kinds of posts. That's why /. they'll say "frothy pith". Fark changes "first post" to "boobies" and changes the timestamp to an hour later than the actual posting time.

Or it could be a typo. 

I hope this is true.  If it is, Roy is my new hero.

 

*swoon* 

Alex Papadimoulis:

Perhaps the best example of Roy's uncompromising ethics was when he was the head-of-sales at a large IT hardware company. One of their clients was looking to purchase a very large quantity of certain make of printers. What the client didn't know was that the printer was riddled with defects, about to be discontinued, and its manufacturer was known to renege on its warranties. This meant even a bigger margin on the sale.

...

The sales staff arrived in the office at their normal time and were greeted with an unbearable smell and some rather unusual orders from their boss: load up their car with herring and get to selling. Roy joined them and left a message for the president, "we're out selling whatever customers will buy."

If the fish smelled that bad, the customers would probably have been better off with the printers.  Fresh fish should have little or no smell.

This is Roy's world.... we merely live in it.

 

I'd really like to think of myself as being just as honest as Roy. I doubt that 100% of the events in the story happened just like mentioned - but stories like Roy are like Superman or Jesus - they all provide a gold standard for us to strive for, to better ourselves.

I had a client once who was very clearly suspicious - not of me particularly but just generally. I swallowed numerous implicit accusations until finally reaching my limit.

So I told him one time: "Mention the word 'screwed' or 'hostage' one more time and I walk. I will never, ever, betray your trust.".

And that was that. I did exactly as I said, he never again treated me with suspicion or discourtesy, and I worked for that company until it was sold to another company.

I think we are all missing the point here, people:

Roy created and sold multi-million dollar businesses and is ready to retire at age 36. I need a good idea, fast. I just turned 37.

 

 

Fish! shoudl be the new fist

> fist?

Misspellings of "first" are to trip up any filters that automatically remove/tag first post trollers.

See also: pr0n.

captcha: tango

what's tango from? or jsut Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot?

Anonymous:

If the fish smelled that bad, the customers would probably have been better off with the printers.  Fresh fish should have little or no smell.

You snipped out the "The next morning at the crack of dawn" - by the time the employees arrived, the herring couldn't possibly have been all that fresh.

Boobies!

And it's the kind of stories that end with a "If I had an email, I would be a janitor at Microsoft" punchline.

 I like it though. It reminds me of me when I was Roy's age.
No, wait.  Roy reminded me when I was his age, at my age.
Uh. When I was his age, he reminded me of my age, when I was his age.

And I'm a dropout too.
 

unklegwar:

I think we are all missing the point here, people:

Roy created and sold multi-million dollar businesses and is ready to retire at age 36. I need a good idea, fast. I just turned 37.

 

 

 

Well, I'm 34. If things continue to go to plan, I'll have my million-dollar business sold when I'm around 40.

 
/Sucks to be behind.

//Wife is happy, tho

A story about Phishing?

I know people that sells software that has bugs and customers do not know they are buying software with bugs.

Should we buy buckets of herring?

Sounds like the editors need to lay off the dodgy Amway self-improvement cassettes.

Anonymous:

I'd really like to think of myself as being just as honest as Roy. I doubt that 100% of the events in the story happened just like mentioned - but stories like Roy are like Superman or Jesus - they all provide a gold standard for us to strive for, to better ourselves.

I had a client once who was very clearly suspicious - not of me particularly but just generally. I swallowed numerous implicit accusations until finally reaching my limit.

So I told him one time: "Mention the word 'screwed' or 'hostage' one more time and I walk. I will never, ever, betray your trust.".

And that was that. I did exactly as I said, he never again treated me with suspicion or discourtesy, and I worked for that company until it was sold to another company.

Superman? Superman never worked hard for anything. I suppose he's moral; but his morality comes from an egotistical understanding that there's really nothing that can stop him. He is a tyrant about enforcing the rules. Furthermore, Superman's great deeds don't come from him being clever or smarter or more dedicated or a better person. No, he gets everything that makes him unique from a difference he was just born with. If he lived on Krypton, he'd be just another scumbag. But because Earth's yellow sun gives him powers, he is able to horde them over us and rub our faces in this fact; a fact that he had no hand in and is merely the result of his illegal immigration to the United States.

Superman's whole schtick is the same as if I went to a group of school children and, with simple riddles, double-speak, and mathematics, bargained them out of their lunch money. No, Superman is no one we should look up to and, in fact, should be looked upon with fear. What happens when he decides he's no longer amused just being an enforcer of rules? What if he decides to start making rules? What then?

sincerely,
Richard Nixon 

Richard Nixon:

his morality comes from an egotistical understanding that there's really nothing that can stop him.

It's not egotistical if it's true. 

Richard Nixon:

But because Earth's yellow sun gives him powers, he is able to horde them over us

lord it over us.

Richard Nixon:

What happens when he decides he's no longer amused just being an enforcer of rules? What if he decides to start making rules? What then?

Never happen - he's a simple farm boy at heart. 

themagni:

Lummox:

Anonymous:

fist omg

 

fist?
 

The trolls will often say "fist" instead of "1st" because filters usually delete or modify those kinds of posts. That's why /. they'll say "frothy pith". Fark changes "first post" to "boobies" and changes the timestamp to an hour later than the actual posting time.

Or it could be a typo. 

 

Rather, when it was popular on Slashdot to get the first post on an article, people would clamour to post anything they could just to be first.  This often led to people typign 'fist' as a typo of 'first'.  As this was a common typo, over the years, people began intentionally typing fist (there are several other common typos that are used, but fist is the most popular by far)

Ah yes, you appear to be refering to Truth, Justice and ...

<Political Satire Warning>

The AMERICAN WAY!

</Political Satire Warning>

Richard Nixon:

Superman? Superman never worked hard for anything. I suppose he's moral; but his morality comes from an egotistical understanding that there's really nothing that can stop him. He is a tyrant about enforcing the rules. Furthermore, Superman's great deeds don't come from him being clever or smarter or more dedicated or a better person. No, he gets everything that makes him unique from a difference he was just born with. If he lived on Krypton, he'd be just another scumbag. But because Earth's yellow sun gives him powers, he is able to horde them over us and rub our faces in this fact; a fact that he had no hand in and is merely the result of his illegal immigration to the United States.

Superman's whole schtick is the same as if I went to a group of school children and, with simple riddles, double-speak, and mathematics, bargained them out of their lunch money. No, Superman is no one we should look up to and, in fact, should be looked upon with fear. What happens when he decides he's no longer amused just being an enforcer of rules? What if he decides to start making rules? What then?

sincerely,
Richard Nixon 

themagni:

Lummox:

Anonymous:

fist omg

 

fist?
 

The trolls will often say "fist" instead of "1st" because filters usually delete or modify those kinds of posts. That's why /. they'll say "frothy pith". Fark changes "first post" to "boobies" and changes the timestamp to an hour later than the actual posting time. 

Richard Nixon:

Anonymous:

I'd really like to think of myself as being just as honest as Roy. I doubt that 100% of the events in the story happened just like mentioned - but stories like Roy are like Superman or Jesus - they all provide a gold standard for us to strive for, to better ourselves.

I had a client once who was very clearly suspicious - not of me particularly but just generally. I swallowed numerous implicit accusations until finally reaching my limit.

So I told him one time: "Mention the word 'screwed' or 'hostage' one more time and I walk. I will never, ever, betray your trust.".

And that was that. I did exactly as I said, he never again treated me with suspicion or discourtesy, and I worked for that company until it was sold to another company.

Superman? Superman never worked hard for anything. I suppose he's moral; but his morality comes from an egotistical understanding that there's really nothing that can stop him. He is a tyrant about enforcing the rules. Furthermore, Superman's great deeds don't come from him being clever or smarter or more dedicated or a better person. No, he gets everything that makes him unique from a difference he was just born with. If he lived on Krypton, he'd be just another scumbag. But because Earth's yellow sun gives him powers, he is able to horde them over us and rub our faces in this fact; a fact that he had no hand in and is merely the result of his illegal immigration to the United States.

Superman's whole schtick is the same as if I went to a group of school children and, with simple riddles, double-speak, and mathematics, bargained them out of their lunch money. No, Superman is no one we should look up to and, in fact, should be looked upon with fear. What happens when he decides he's no longer amused just being an enforcer of rules? What if he decides to start making rules? What then?

sincerely,
Richard Nixon 

 

Oh, it's a little late for all of that. 

Richard Nixon:

Superman? Superman never worked hard for anything. I suppose he's moral; but his morality comes from an egotistical understanding that there's really nothing that can stop him. He is a tyrant about enforcing the rules. Furthermore, Superman's great deeds don't come from him being clever or smarter or more dedicated or a better person. No, he gets everything that makes him unique from a difference he was just born with. If he lived on Krypton, he'd be just another scumbag. But because Earth's yellow sun gives him powers, he is able to horde them over us and rub our faces in this fact; a fact that he had no hand in and is merely the result of his illegal immigration to the United States.

Superman's whole schtick is the same as if I went to a group of school children and, with simple riddles, double-speak, and mathematics, bargained them out of their lunch money. No, Superman is no one we should look up to and, in fact, should be looked upon with fear. What happens when he decides he's no longer amused just being an enforcer of rules? What if he decides to start making rules? What then?

sincerely,
Richard Nixon 

I suppose it's possible to be expose one's nerdiness even on a site like this, but the Red Son arc of Superman comics centers around just that - except in the context of the soviet union. And it's been explored in less blatant and less serious ways many times since the bust of the goody-goody superheros in the 70's, but that story is noticeably better written and less superficial. [/OT]

Roy would be a bitch to work with on regular occasions, I guarantee, but I'd rather work with him than the slick, sleazy types who gravitate to high-pressure sales work, and end up costing the company significant hidden costs.

Herring are a bit much, but ethics matter.

See also <a href="http://www.bignose.org/blog/index.php?/archives/134-Corruption-and-GDP.html">corruption perceptions</a>.  In which countries do you want to live?  How do they score?  What does this teach us?

 

This concludes your elementary-school-teachers-have-a-point moment.
 

Carnildo:

When will people learn?  The proper spelling is "Frist psot!", or, for more style points, "FRIST PSOT!!!!!11!1!1!!111!one!!!eleventy-one!!1"

Actually the WTF is that the trolls wrtie comments, not posts. So they should write FRIST COMMENT, and not FRIST PSOT

If only all sales / marketing people were like that... i might enjoy working with them then, rather than just putting up with it... or loathing it...

 

I would like to take this opportunity to give Roy a 'Great Big Virtual Handshake' TM.

 

I have read a lot of stories here and sometimes wished that some of them were false. Now I hope that this is true. Maybe, and only maybe, there is a little hope for the humanity after all... or maybe I'll change my mind after reading next Monday post.

Happy Thanksgiving to all US'ers :-)

 

unklegwar:

Roy created and sold multi-million dollar businesses and is ready to retire at age 36. I need a good idea, fast. I just turned 37.

I figured several schemes long ago that would allow me to retire at 30. Some were illegal, but most were legal enough, just boring that I didn't want to do it. Even sitting here at 32, knowing that I could have been retired now, I'm glad I didn't make the decision to do that.

Now none of the schemes were 100% sure things, but I believe that odds that I could have pulled it off were in my favor.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

VGR:

I really want to believe the fish-in-the-office story is true.  I want to believe someone high up knows that screwing customers is not a sustainable business model.  But it smells of embellishment as much as it smells of fish.

Then again, if it makes some of us smile a little and stop squeezing our stress-dolls so much, maybe the veracity isn't what's really important.

as "amazing" as this sounds, it wouldnt surprise me if it were true. After having worked with some of the sleeziest salesmen possible, who should've been fired for their deplorable practices (think "forgetting" to apply discounts, deception, racism, etc) that got away with it despite numerous complaints, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this Roy fellow pulled off this stunt without getting fired, assuming he was as good a salesman as is suggested.

Nice story.  I don't know how much of it is true though.  Nice nonetheless.

 

Re Superman:  When going to the superd***ery site, you have to understand that devoid of context, the covers really do make superman look like an arse.  But that's exactly why they're funny.  See FAQs.

Also, Superman does work hard.  He's not godlike.  He strains his limits too, especially post Crisis.

Superman going evil is the exact concern of Cadmus.  Nuff said.

 

 

No chance that story is true.......Come on......

 

<true value="false">false</true> 

Ok. I truly understand the disbelieve. How do you think I felt when "the fish salesman" in my group of friends said: "hey, I just became head of printer sales at XYZ, and I drive this huge new car", while we (the friends) were all driving along in our first 15 year old hope-it-ll-start bucket of rust? So the next time we meet, I ask him about his new car, he takes me out and... Well, it was green... Car's shouldn't be green. And I hated that radio that had an LCD slide out and flip up. Sigh.

Another example (I could keep going): currently his company is being hired by Vodafoon and one of the bills is overdue for 3x the normal payment time. So Roy sends a "congratulations" letter to Vodafoon, for setting a new record. He signed it with "chief bean counter". Roy's major plus (aside from being smart) is that he is very good with words. He always nows to find that thin line where you but a message across with humor and underwater punt at the same time, but without hurting anyones feelings (too directly).

So, to the fish: no, I did not witness this first hand, but after so many times not believing and being wrong about it, I can only say that "I'm a believer" now and that this fish thing really happened. The story as posted here has some writers freedom to it, but the essence stands (or swims I should say) and Roy is thinking about retiring. And he is younger than I am. Sigh :-)

 

Alex Papadimoulis:

Do I believe in Roy? Absolutely. I've met people with Roy's ethics. I've known people who've had cajones the size of Roy's. Surely, there's bound to be at least someone out there with both =-)

 

cajones??? if you mean balls, then I guess it's COJONES twe word u're looking for... Unless you meant "drawers"

 

 

Anonymous:

Alex Papadimoulis:

Do I believe in Roy? Absolutely. I've met people with Roy's ethics. I've known people who've had cajones the size of Roy's. Surely, there's bound to be at least someone out there with both =-)

cajones??? if you mean balls, then I guess it's COJONES twe word u're looking for... Unless you meant "drawers"

 

 

Of course he meant drawers. Everyone knows that americans are prudish. Drawers also refer to underwear. Hence, instead of referencing what could be considered a rude body part, he cleverly referenced the underwear instead. Yeah, that's what he meant.

 

;}

 

Mikademus:

Welcome to the middle of the thread!

Where can the fish be?

It's such a fishy fish!

And it went wherever Roy did goOOOoooo
 

The world needs more people like Roy.

tongue-in-cheek here, but... 

Richard Nixon:

Anonymous:

I'd really like to think of myself as being just as honest as Roy. I doubt that 100% of the events in the story happened just like mentioned - but stories like Roy are like Superman or Jesus - they all provide a gold standard for us to strive for, to better ourselves.

I had a client once who was very clearly suspicious - not of me particularly but just generally. I swallowed numerous implicit accusations until finally reaching my limit.

So I told him one time: "Mention the word 'screwed' or 'hostage' one more time and I walk. I will never, ever, betray your trust.".

And that was that. I did exactly as I said, he never again treated me with suspicion or discourtesy, and I worked for that company until it was sold to another company.

Superman? Superman never worked hard for anything. I suppose he's moral; but his morality comes from an egotistical understanding that there's really nothing that can stop him. He is a tyrant about enforcing the rules. Furthermore, Superman's great deeds don't come from him being clever or smarter or more dedicated or a better person. No, he gets everything that makes him unique from a difference he was just born with. If he lived on Krypton, he'd be just another scumbag. But because Earth's yellow sun gives him powers, he is able to horde them over us and rub our faces in this fact; a fact that he had no hand in and is merely the result of his illegal immigration to the United States.

Superman's whole schtick is the same as if I went to a group of school children and, with simple riddles, double-speak, and mathematics, bargained them out of their lunch money. No, Superman is no one we should look up to and, in fact, should be looked upon with fear. What happens when he decides he's no longer amused just being an enforcer of rules? What if he decides to start making rules? What then?

sincerely,
Richard Nixon 

 

Jesus? Jeses never worked hard for anything. I suppose he's moral; but his morality comes from an egotistical understanding that there's really nothing that can stop him. He is a tyrant about having to follow HIM. Furthermore, Jesus' great deeds don't come from him being clever or smarter or more dedicated or a better person. No, he gets everything that makes him unique from a difference he was just born with. If he wasn't the son of GOD, he'd be just another scumbag. But because GOD gives him powers, he is able to horde them over us and rub our faces in this fact; a fact that He had a hand in and is merely the result of him being born from a Divine being.

Jesus' whole schtick is the same as if I went to a group of school children and, taking my daddy with me and having my uberpowerfull daddy show off, force them out of their lunch money. No, Jesus is no one we should look up to and in fact, should be looked upon with fear. What happens when he decides he's no longer amused just writing decent fantasy being used as rules but actually says what he wants out clear to make those rules? What then?

 

(okay, that wasn't entirely straight, and I get your point. But I was just showing that Jesus isn't a good example, either. Take Nelson Mandela or someone really real instead...)

> The world needs more people like Roy

Although I agree with mr. Roy's ethics, I think he could pull off the stunt because he didn't need that job- the job needed him.

He worked there because he *wanted* to rather than because he *had* to. Point being, if the printers would have been sold, he wouldn't have wanted to work there anymore anyway. So there was nothing at stake, really.

It's a lot easier to have balls if you have nothing to lose.
On the other hand, anyone with a rent to pay and a salary just big enough to get by better not try this.

 

Anonymous:

I like it though. It reminds me of me when I was Roy's age.

No, wait.  Roy reminded me when I was his age, at my age.

Uh. When I was his age, he reminded me of my age, when I was his age.

Like the "IT  Crowd" reference, by the way!

Anonymous:

> The world needs more people like Roy

Although I agree with mr. Roy's ethics, I think he could pull off the stunt because he didn't need that job- the job needed him.

The trick is to become someone that the job needs, not someone that needs the job.

Once you are there, it is easy to pull such stunts, but being so good, that you can ditch your current job at any time, is the real heroism here.

Captcha = photogenic, just like me.