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Microsoft Fires Mac Fan For Blog Photo

Posted by timothy on from the camera-un-obscura dept.

christor writes "Microsoft has fired a full-time temp employee after it discovered that the employee posted in his blog a photo and story concerning Microsoft's purchase of what looks to be around 18 G5s. Check out the blog entry, Even Microsoft wants G5s, and the one that follows it. Microsoft fired the blogger, despite an offer to take the posting down. Note that this is not a free speech issue, even though the blog was hosted on a non-company server, because Microsoft is not, yet, the government. But it does present several other interesting issues, including that of the trade-off between the bad publicity that comes from the firing and whatever bad results follow when employees feel free to post such things."

3 of 1,087 comments (clear)

  1. What really worries me... by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... and what should worry you too is his job description, full-time temp employee. Sounds like Microsoft was getting all the benefits of a full-time employee without having to worry about any of the associated costs. And if companies like Microsoft, with its $60 billion cash reserve can pull this kind of crap, what does that say about today's job market, labour laws and how skewed they are in favour of big business?

    Heck, being a "temp" probably made firing him that much easier.

    Should he have been fired for breaking confidentiality? I don't know, because I can't even see his side of the story (as his site is /.ed). But should he have been a "full-time temp employee"? No fucking way.

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
  2. Re:Of course they want Macs. by stevesliva · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well sure, if ya'll want me to lay it out. When I interviewed for an internship with MS's Mac Office group in 2001, there were big turquoise G4s sitting right on people's desks and a big lab full of just about every Mac PowerPC model ever released. Shocking! And you know what? The developers were even using a non-MS IDE. Astonishing!

    --
    Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
  3. Re:Where were those G5 going?!? by Maserati · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The DoD and intelligence community may very well ban picturephones for security reasons. They banned Furby's because of the recording chip.

    --
    Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951