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Admin
Not funny because he's the President?
Not funny because he's Republican?
Not funny? Why not?
[^o)]
Admin
From:
http://www.bash.org/?search=lowermybills&sort=0&show=25
<Ben174> : If they only realized 90% of the overtime they pay me is only cause i like staying here playing with Kazaa when the bandwidth picks up after hours.
<ChrisLMB> : If any of my employees did that they'd be fired instantly.
<Ben174> : Where u work?
<ChrisLMB> : I'm the CTO at LowerMyBills.com
*** Ben174 ([email protected]) Quit (Leaving)
Admin
<font style="font-family: Verdana;" size="5">If you tell me who did it I will punish you less.
That is all.
--Dwight K. Schrute
</font>
Admin
Wow... more than 50 posts, and not a single "the real WTF is..." post.
Can I try?
The real WTF here is that --
um....
Nope, drawing a blank. WTF???!?!?!!?1one!!1!!eleven1!1!!1onethousandeleventyone1111!!!!!
Admin
Comedy.Gold.
Admin
But if you live right, it needn't be the last.
Admin
Good point.
I don't disagree with the CEO's sentiment. The guy in the elevator deserves it. However, just having to send that kind of email should point out that there are problems in the company.
If I were the CEO, I probably wouldn't have sent the email. I would have tried to find the guy and fired him for that (or something else). Then I would make sure to never hire the tattler.
(I can't be a CEO - hair's not good enough.)
Admin
This is certainly an eyebrow raiser, but hardly WTF worthy. I love this site and I read it everyday, but let's not let it become an InternalMemos.com clone.
I believe the tagline for TDWTF is "Curious Perversions in Information Technology", but this post has nothing to do with IT.
Admin
Yeah, the CEO is a jerk and his people skills suck. But his advice is good advice. If I were unhappy at my situation, then griping behind the back of the pointy-haired-boss has to be the worst possible solution. Any of the following would be better:
1. gripe straight to the boss (possibly risk getting fired)
2. quit
3. suck it up without complaining
4. make a real effort to see things from the PHB point of view (it is possible that I'm the ignoramus and not the boss - so why not give the benefit of the doubt?)
Laughing about how stupid the point-haired-boss is may make the next five minutes more bearable but it does nothing to solve the problem or alleviate your long term suffering.
Admin
Ah, no, actually the CEO proved that the employee did the right thing. The CEO goes into fire-and-brimstone mode if anyone complains. Complaining clearly is not allowed. This means nothing has ever been fixed or improved under that CEO's reign.
It's easy for those of us whose workplace is not hell to forget or remain unaware of just how bad it can get.
Do you really think it never occurred to the employee to quit? As you get older, you'll encounter all sorts of reasons why quitting isn't an option:
- You have a family to feed, and can't afford to spend even a few weeks without a job.
- You work such long hours that there's no time to look for another job.
- You have hundreds or thousands of dollars (or pounds, pesos, etc.) in stock options coming to you. Quitting means you lose them.
- Quitting would mean losing your medical insurance. (COBRA helps, but you still have to pay for the insurance, and in my experience, you pay more than was originally withheld from your regular paycheck.)
- You feel loyalty to your work and don't like to abandon what you've started.
- You feel loyalty to the people with whom you work (aside from the CEO).
- There are other jobs available but they would represent a much longer commute.
- No other available jobs are accessible via public transit, and you cannot afford an automobile and/or gas.
- The CEO (or another manager) has promised, or directly implied, that he'll hand out dreadfully negative feedback about you to the next employer.
- The CEO (or another manager) has convinced you that you're incapable and worthless and have no hope of finding other employment. Don't underestimate the power of this; it's a nasty situation that's actually pretty common.
- The CEO (or another manager) regularly assures you that a significant raise is just around the corner (even though at every performance review he finds a convenient reason to deny you said raise).
Admin
I'm Spartacus!
Admin
You missed it:
The company had to cut pay and slash benefits, but they had the money to pay a recruiter to hire a candidate. There's a WTF!
Admin
<font style="font-family: verdana;" size="1">
</font>
<font style="font-family: verdana;" size="1"><font size="2">I'm hoping there's a catapult involved.
</font></font>
Admin
I vote for funny. I thought the title should have been "The Decider..."
<FONT size=2>"But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for..." this company is for that guy to be fired.</FONT>
Admin
Ah I misread. Oops.
Admin
Personally, I think my (Thankfully former) boss really took the cake with this one.
We were having to take on new clients just to pay the wages for the work done already. And, with the guy oweing me 5 months wages he dared to suggest that my occasional web browsing was causing problems. Considering that I was the only developer on staff that hadn't walked out or been fired (Yes, really), and I was sharing the office with a graphic designer (Who's forte was anime and cartoons, not exactly the kind of thing wanted for professional sites) and a Network Engineer (And that was it), I doubt that.
And considering that the design briefs we'd get would consist of a series of pencil-sketched pages of how the interface is supposed to look, with no detail on what linked to what, what data was being stored, or in fact what was required (That was all in the boss' head, except he never told us what the client wanted, and when he finally approved a program we'd take it to the client, who would promptly inform us it was all wrong), I left. And he STILL owes me £5,000 in wages (+ interest for over 2 years now).
</rant>
Admin
<font style="font-family: verdana;" size="1">
<font size="2">Actually, I wouldn't mind... there's no way in hell I'm paying $45 a month to look at some marginally humorous corporate letters.</font>
</font><font style="font-family: verdana;" size="1">
</font><font style="font-family: verdana;" size="1">
<font size="2">True... but it's nice to have a break from all the VB-Java-.NET-SQL-etc. bashing that normally goes on here. Let's call it "Casual WTFriday".
</font></font>
Admin
Burns: Look at that pig. Stuffing his face with donuts on my time!
That's right, keep eating...Little do you know you're drawing
ever closer to the poison donut!
[cackles evilly, then stops abruptly]
There is a poison one, isn't there Smithers?
Smithers: Err...no, sir. I discussed this with our lawyers and they consider it murder.
Burns: Damn their oily hides!
Admin
So how long you been in the workforce, Gomer?
would you rat on a fellow employee for shit-talking the company?
Admin
"Laying people off never, ever results in a better company."
Absolutely untrue. At my last job, three people were laid over the course of as many years. Each time it made the company stronger. These were people with poisonously bad morale that did nothing but complain and depress the rest of us. The environmental improvements were almost immediate.
Furthermore, a firing is not a layoff. A layoff is when you're not necesarily doing a bad job, but the company can't afford to keep you on staff. A firing is when you've fucked up. It's an important distinction, especially if you want to get unemployment benefits, another job, etc.
Admin
reminds me of a great demotivational poster ...
sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all the unhappy people.
http://www.despair.com/demotivation.html
Admin
Importance, please.
Admin
The recruiter probably asked the candidate why he wasn't interested, and the candidate gave an honest answer. It's not obvious to a lot of young people that in general, recruiters are not working for you, they are working for the companies that they are recruiting for.
What's really absurd is the thought that the recruiter and CEO can bring him back in just to narc on somebody in some kind of line-up. Good management attitude!
Admin
Thought the CEO approach was much less than professional, the bitching of an employee does nothing to solve the problem. I could imagine one of the complaints was they were over worked. If so, why chase someone out the door who could help reduce said workload.
A litany of complaints is not a solution. It just makes one sound like Bob Kerry.
Let the political flame wars begin!
Admin
Why do you assume that this hasn't already been tried? Maybe he did, and that's the reason he's telling potential employees to avoid the company. It's certainly possible.
Admin
That's all you need, right there. "The only reason any of my employees can be unhappy is if it's his fault!"
You need a special king-sized ego to even conceive that notion, let alone believe it --- yet Jim has no trouble believing it and enforcing it upon all of his subjects.
Admin
The "f---ed up" people got fired because they were poisonous, depressing complainers. They did NOT get laid off because of budgetary constraints.
I think then, the quote "Laying people off never, ever results in a better company", still holds true then. Just fire 'em to build morale in the troops you didn't have a problem to begin with and stay far away from the passive(aggressive?) "lay off" strategy. [8-)]
Admin
OMFG ROFLMAO!!!!!!!
</chrislmb></ben174></chrislmb></ben174>
Admin
I like the recruiters I work with to know that I am interested in helping them to make money by placing me. The best of them do not give the back end of a rat for my skills - they just want the commission for placing me. This kind of thing places the situation in crystal clear focus for them.
So - in my order of importance:
1. The recruiter has to know why I am not taking the job they offer - I do not need him lowering his efforts to find me a job because he thinks I am hard to place due to personal requirements.
2. I want the recruiter not to send me on bozo interviews.
3. There are brownie points to be made somewhere here.
4. Maybe a wakeup call will help the company in question. I know this one is weak - that is why it is last.
I haven't thought about it much. This actually is looking more like a good management interview question.
Admin
i know a guy who quit his job via bullhorn once...
he flyered and postered for the even like a band show, and came into work that day with about 60 random people who were there to watch.
and as much of an ass that he was, it still was the funniest thing ever.
Admin
Assuming, of course, that the candidate is accurately and truthfully recounting the story. The CEO doesn't seem too interested in getting to the "truthiness" of it all, just wants to put a head on a pike to help him in his disastrous struggle through life.
Admin
The problem with management reacting (perhaps erratically) to something by trying to get rid of dead weight is that the good people usually see the pain coming, and bail, because they can, and the dead wood that can't find new jobs winds up staying
Admin
Wow, so many comments, a nice post to stir up the masses ;). In all seriousness, I can see both sides on this one....
CEO: Obviously not a people person, but probably has a business to run, and in today's cut throat business world no one has time to pamper their employees with motivators.
Instead of alienating the employee with the loose tongue via an offensive email, The CEO would have had much better luck sending out an email with concern for his employees happiness, something like "I am concerned that not everyone is happy working here, and I urge them to come and see me so we can discuss opportunities and ways to fix this".
Employee: Never bad mouth your boss, peers, or corporation in front of others at the work place, just as you'd never s**t where you eat. Most employees gossip in the work place, so anything you say will get back. If you're at the point where you do not care for the place in which you work then it is time to move on, but do it with respect and professionalism - you never know who you may end up working for in the future.
I was once in a position where I hated the place I worked and my position required that I recruit new candidates. I had the strong temptation to tell each interviewee that the place sucked, but this would have been unprofessional. I was being paid to represent the company, no matter how bad it was, which meant I had to bite my tongue and volunteer all the good things about my employer. I made sure that I didn't lie when asked direct questions about the inadequate health plan, long working hours and poor pay, but never said anything detrimental about the company, and refrained from personal comment. The candidates made up their own mind in the end; some went running for the hills after asking the right questions, others saw it as better than unemployment. Me... I ended up leaving in the end because I couldn't stomach the rose colored picture the company wanted me to paint.
Finally, I agree with a comment made earlier... it's not just about the money. Sure we all get paid for work (some no where near what they are worth), but that doesn't mean we should put up with boring, non-motivating tasks, and receive emails like that sent by Jim above. A pay check is not a license to treat an employee like a drone; we thrive much better on motivation and exciting work. Remember it's not just a job; it's a career for some of us.
Admin
That's bad for a CEO...
I once had a manager who said "I would fire two thirds of you if I could" to her IT staff.
Admin
Besides all the reasons already given (family to feed etc.), maybe the shit-talker is responsible for an important project that would inevitably fail if he/she quit right now. While this person probably does not care about what happens to the company if the project fails, he/she might care a lot about what happens to the inocent customer.
Admin
Sounds familiar. While at a miserable (ultimately failed) startup, I helped interview a candidate named Greg, along with a couple co-workers. We were honest, and told him similar things--basically, what he was in for. Nothing detrimental about individuals, mostly about how there were lots of challenges in store. Same stuff we told everyone else, including people who hired on.
Greg ended up writing a long whiny letter, declining the offer he eventually got, stating that we were largely to blame. We were called in on the carpet by a VP; she chewed us out for an hour or more and made some veiled threat about getting fired for doing things like that. I found out soon after that the a-hole Greg was only shopping in order to get a counter from his current employer.
Greg, you know who you are. Any time you want your ass kicked, come see me...
-J-
Admin
A little?
Hmm...
<font size="5">A little?</font>
Admin
Maybe they'll shoot him from a cannon? That would be quite the firing!
Admin
I think you just nailed it all on the head. Makes me started to wonder how well I left the last job I was at, and if that would cause problems in the future. The thing reassuring me is that the people above me were all in dead-end jobs, and didn't have the skills to be hired by anyone else.
Admin
I've heard that Saddam Hussein was a little uptight with his management style as well. [:D]
Admin
Why should we wait? We know who he is. Jeff S., I expect better of you. If you do not want to follow him, shape up.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Chief Evil Officer
WTF Corp.
P.S. Sadly, I can imagine some execs writing such a letter.
I think I am evil enough. After all, I am ending this post without a "Sincerely,". The death toll could be incredible.
Admin
Amazing how much information you can suck out of a single email written in a totally understandable huff.
So you're either a psychic or a ... well.. whatever.
Admin
My guess is he meant that he'd be fired... out of a cannon... into the sun.
Admin
"Understandable" is a bit of a stretch. Sure he should be pissed (provided the candidate wasn't worthless, there's no way to know that now). Also, you can learn a lot about people even from a single heated letter. For starters, you learn that they can write really heated, bitchy letters. It usually snowballs from there.
Admin
About the most stupid thing a CEO can say is "if you don't like the company, leave right now". Because that implies "No matter how important you current work for the company is, how difficult it would be to replace you, how much we have invested in you, if you feel bad, leave us alone. Don't feel responsible for the further fate of the company, we are already doomed anyway."
Admin
I've often told recruiters, "Yeah, that company you sent me to is a) clearly in a death spiral, b) asked several illegal questions during the interview, c) is a sham, etc. You might want to cash any checks they've sent you before they go bad."
Not that I ever worked with a recruiter of any integrity, though. They all sort of deserved each other.
Admin
No, they're working for themselves and generally screw both the potential employee and the potential employer. I can't tell you how many times a recruiter submitted my resume to a company for a job that I had no experience for.
Admin
We don't actually know the employee's side of the story. Maybe he complained directly to the manager about something, and the manager kept turning him down, so he was especially grumpy about working there that day, and already looking for another job.
It's easy to blame the employee for being "cowardly" and praise the manager for "having balls" when we only hear one side of the story.
Admin
Whichever side allows us to discuss balls, that's the side I'm on.
Admin
I'm just thinking about the candidate's perspective. Ignoring other requirements and assuming I think I could find a job somewhere else, I would be a bit spooked by the employee in the elevator saying "don't join us". I would be a great deal more spooked by the telephone call saying "we'll give you a sack of money to identify this guy so we can fire him." And, between those two things and without other severe mitigating circumstances, that would be enough for me to reject just about any offer they could throw me.
The elevator employee's etiquette is, at the very least, quite questionable. I do have to say, though, that it's likely that employee thought that he/she was doing the candidate a favor. I know I'd appreciate the warning if I were the candidate.
And, thusly, I don't think I would feel comfortable backstabbing the disgruntled employee for a small check and/or "brownie points". How big would the check be? How much financial damage have I just done to the employee who tried to warn me off? How magnified is that damage as a result of whatever condition it is which has made this employee stick with a job despite its unpleasantness? How well would I sleep? I'm not saying that the action on the part of the elevator individual was entirely appropriate, but I'm also saying I can understand saying something like that, especially if you've had a bad day and you don't think too hard about it first.
If I were the candidate, I'd at least refuse to do the identification. I might show up, say "it wasn't any of these people", demand my check, and go find a different job. If I were thinking fast enough, I might be tempted to submit a bogus description so I could say "it wasn't any of these people" with impunity... although if I were thinking that fast, I probably wouldn't mention the incident to the recruiter in the first place.
Sad, sad events. Best of luck to the lot of them.