My wife's company tried to screw its employees, so they torpedoed the company right back.

[Annie]

@Captain_Midnight

Well, for one thing, human beings are inherently greedy. The CEO’s on top do not care one whit about the workers. They do not have any compunction to take a perfectly good company/good situation and flush it down the toilet if it means just one more penny in their pocket than they made before.

The bad economy is no accident. The economy was set up to make workers into servants and keep them silent. Say one word different, and you are out on the street. “Corporate culture”? More like North Korea! The employees who do have a job will work nights, weekends, overtime, whatever, to stay away from home, stay away from their families and children, just to make some greaseball motherfucker in New York City just 1% more than last year.

On that theme, I’d like to quote GMRyujin, who made it to my tagline file with this nugget:

@GMRyujin

You’re probably going to spend your life working for a company that’d kill you and sell your organs if it got the CEO a third gold-plated bathtub for himself and his hookers. You can be talented, well-trained, highly experienced, and a loyal employee and they’ll still ship your job overseas if it’ll let the CEO get more hookers on bath night

[Ogre]

@ENugent

My father worked for a chemical company for the first twenty years of his career. It was bought by a bigger company, then his portion was spun off and sold to someone else, and that company decided to move them from northern California to Mobile, Alabama. My father actually found in the fax machine a memo saying that they expected that most of the older employees would choose to take their severance instead, so the company would be able to unload the deadwood and just keep the young, cheap employees.

He consulted a lawyer, who pretty much told him that while he had some really good evidence, litigating was still going to be too expensive and risky to be worth it. So he took his meager severance package, as did all the other older employees. The bastards got just what they wanted.

See, that’s where it falls apart. They had already let most of the old, old staff go outright.

[Nava]

@E-Sabbath

Yeaaah, they know they’re in trouble.

Gotta love companies that charge you for their product and then expect you to be your own customer support.

[bdgr]

@Robot_Arm

There was a good Mexican restaurant that I’d go back to, though.

Oh man…I have nightmares about what passed for Mexican food in Provo.

[E-Sabbath]

Note that searching my quote will get you the entire press release, which I was slightly hesitant about linking directly. It’s full of… fun.

In other news, I have a friend or two who might be affected by this. Well, who will be. It wouldn’t be appropriate to say anything now, but in X days, this thread should probably be revived.

[Enderw24]

So is Provo where software companies go to die?

[descamisado]

I moved a company to Provo just to watch it die.

[Munch]

@Isamu

It must be a really funny joke, I mean fricken hilarious.

Meet the Team: Christie Kent, Our Newest Addition | SirsiDynix

Damn. Look at those “worked at Sirsi since ____” dates! That sucks Ogre.

[Happy_Booker_1]

@B.Serum

If you want some folks to boycott the @$$holes, you should drop some (more) clues.

For folks in the library business, the clues are very pointed.

[MsWhatsit]

@E-Sabbath

Note that searching my quote will get you the entire press release, which I was slightly hesitant about linking directly. It’s full of… fun.

FYI, someone has linked to this thread in the comments of the press release. I just thought maybe the OP should know.

[Duke]

@Nava

Gotta love companies that charge you for their product and then expect you to be your own customer support.

Yeah, that’s pretty much par for the course any more. I’ve worked with two fundraising database systems. I ended up writing the international address module for #1 because their original effort was so bad it never worked (and AFAIK they still use it; of course neither I nor my employer ever saw 1p from that).

Database #2 is real fun. They have set up a “user group” which sounds remarkably like the one that the company under question here has set up. The User Group works like this:

User Group: We’ve identified a number of bugs and other problems which could be cleaned up in the database program. They are (this, this, and this).

Database Company: These are known issues. We’re working on repairing them.

User Group: These are the same bugs and other problems which we identified over two years ago.

Database Company: These are known issues. We’re working on repairing them.

Basically, the “user group” is where ideas go to die. Four years ago I came up with a very simple add-on for the database program, which created a canned report that a lot of fundraising offices use on a regular basis. The add-on was so simple that I figured in the interests of nonprofit camaraderie I’d offer it free of charge to anyone who wanted it. Hell, I even gave Database Company #2 a free shot at it. The agent I talked to looked at it, agreed that it was a wonderful product that they’d love to implement, and took it back to the home office. I still get people asking me about that add-on. At least a few other places are using it on their own.

Last year, in desperation, Database Company #2 went open-source. Within weeks, add-ons the company had stalled on for years started being developed. There’s a clever add-on put together by two part-timers in North Carolina that solves problems which a whole fleet of “developers” at their office couldn’t do. Hopefully we’ll have more soon. Let the part-timers show them up.

This database company has been screaming at the top of their lungs that a new version of their database will be launching soon. The last major version was released in 2000, so it’s sort of time it happened. Well…the beta was in 2008 and there is still not even a hint of a release date. “Maybe 2012” mumbled the last guy I talked to. However, one of the company’s plans is going ahead full steam…they’re purchasing every company in the field that has even a hint of a good idea, and shutting them down. I can think off the top of my head of five different software companies that have been folded into Database Company #2. All of them were doing impressive, creative work. None of them are any more…

So, yeah, I can sympathize with the users of this product who essentially are being asked to be their own customer support. That’s what we’ve been doing for years.

[Cat_Whisperer]

And that’s why my membership here is such a bargain.

[elucidator]

How many programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Hardware issue. Contact your vendor.

[tdn]

@elucidator

How many programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Let’s try rebooting your light switch.

[vd]

@tdn

Let’s try rebooting your light switch.

Nah, that’s customer service. Close all your windows, go outside, come back in, and see if it’s changed.

[tdn]

@vd

Nah, that’s customer service. Close all your windows, go outside, come back in, and see if it’s changed.

If that doesn’t work we can try putting a patch on the lightbulb.

[Daithi_Lacha]

@tdn

Let’s try rebooting your light switch.

Try unplugging and plugging the lamp back in.

[SteveG1]

For the past several decades, there have been countless stories of how long term loyal employees and management at many companies got totally fucked once the MBAs, suits and raiders take over. It’s about damn time the people turned the tables on the fuckers.

I hope the damn suits lose every thing they fucking have in the world.

[aruvqan]

@SteveG1

For the past several decades, there have been countless stories of how long term loyal employees and management at many companies got totally fucked once the MBAs, suits and raiders take over. It’s about damn time the people turned the tables on the fuckers.

I hope the damn suits lose every thing they fucking have in the world.

I know that I have had a long standing dream of winning a lottery and getting enough money to start a company and actually run it well, with the actual employees considered. Small things, like a more european approach to vacations, actual reasonable benefits, comfortable work environment. Human resources that is actually meant to work with the employees instead of against them. Really, it seems that most people just want a decent employer, with decent wages, benefits, vacation package, comfortable environment.

I think companies are too caught up in making a profit NOW that they forget that the employees deserve respect also.

[smiling_bandit]

@aruvqan

Small things, like a more european approach to vacations, actual reasonable benefits, comfortable work environment. Human resources that is actually meant to work with the employees instead of against them. Really, it seems that most people just want a decent employer, with decent wages, benefits, vacation package, comfortable environment.

I would suggest you are wrong. What peoplpe want more than anything is not perks and pay, but actual influence on the job. People want to make decisions, and that’s what tends to make for happier workers. Everything else is just your ultimate compensation package, which ends up being personal and negotiable if you really want. But companies who focus on that worse and pay more than companies which focus on giving people a voice.

I think companies are too caught up in making a profit NOW that they forget that the employees deserve respect also.

Well, not for very long.