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Closing Time At Microsoft's Campus Pub
theodp writes "Just three days before the Spitfire pub was to open on Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division campus, TechFlash reports that Microsoft got cold feet and pulled the plug on the project, leaving the bar's owner and his 22 employees in the lurch. 'I am completely stunned and disappointed by the decision,' said now lease-less owner Jonathan Sposato, who's stuck with space built out as a pub, complete with a giant bar, a fireplace, and eight beer taps. (He says it wouldn't be economically viable to refit it as a restaurant.) Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos confirmed the company's sudden change of heart: 'The goal was always to create a cool gathering place for employees, but to do so in a manner that's consistent with a business environment. We decided we should do something more appropriate, and that meant not having a pub.' The new pub had been in development for more than a year."
"The goal was always to create a cool gathering place for employees..." Where? The state unemployment office?
Some of these people "...left other jobs to work in the pub" That was a really sleazy move by MS.
I'm taking bets that this contract dosn't put the cost of this "change of heart", where it rightfuly belongs.
Hurray for the MS Legal teem, once again ensuring that Microsoft can screw it's business partners with impunity.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
I see nothing wrong with employees being able to hang out after hours and maybe even some informal brainstorming could take place. Way to not think differently MSFT. How very boring and corporate America of you.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
My thoughts exactly. Just another form of expression of a basic truth. The fact that a key investor was a former Microsofter only makes this a little sweeter. Consider the words of the great philosophers Mr. T and Nelson.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
No idea if that is true or not (I don't even live in the same country), but if so it's a most egregious case of screwing the majority to appease a vocal minority.
It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
Unfortunately very true.
While I disagree completely with Microsoft's position, your assessment sounds like a crock. What are you basing your information on? What is your definition of large minority? If the campus were in Utah your comment would have a ring of truth and the pub would probably be illegal anyway. I spent half my life in the Puget Sound area and the other half in Utah. I know for a fact that the Mormons in Washington tend to keep to themselves. Good Mormons know the 10 commandments, one of which is "Though shalt not Judge...". Exceptionally clever Mormons, who actually study their own Doctrine, know that forcing people to do what they think is right is in fact Satan's plan. While the facts of your stated opinion are not impossible, I find them highly improbable.
-Anonymous lil'biotch
And someone is modding down anyone who agrees with you.
I'm all for putting a pub in anywhere, including an existing pub (imagine an infinite series of pubs...). That said, does Google have any pubs on their campuses? Honest question, really.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
Most companies don't have bars on their campus. There could be a ton of reasons they switched their opinion. But suddenly coming out and saying the mormons are now the master of Microsoft is ridiculous.
Microsoft isn't a single entity, the company didn't have a change of heart, it was some small division of Microsoft who was in charge, and they thought it was a good idea until someone higher up cancelled it. Did mormon influence cause that higher up to make the change? If you have proof I'll believe you, but until now it sounds like an empty rumor. But that's way different than saying Mormons own Microsoft.
Qxe4
If the bar fails for any reason, including Microsoft killing it, Microsoft gets all their intellectual property. A deal's a deal.
Just like Sendo on phones.
One wonders if after all these years and this many examples: if the lawyers of Microsoft's potential partners aren't carefully reading the contracts and advising their clients with due diligence, what's in that failure for those lawyers? It could not be possible that Microsoft subverts the legal counsel of their abuse targets first, could it? That would be unethical and unfair. Oh, wait...
They just need to send management to the pub... let them occupy their time with darts and vomit while the engineers work on fixing their operating system.
Smaller companies not, but if you are big enough to have a sports and social club, then you often have a bar. There is a reason for this, a beer or two in a convivial atmosphere loosens tongues, and you don't want people talking shop in front of every Tom, Dick or Harry.
See my journal, I write things there
What can't Mormons do?
Use logic and common sense.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I think you are mostly correct in that Mormons weren't the only influence for MS higher ups to drop the pub. However, I don't doubt this guy's story at all. LDS leaders and organized groups in their religion are always trying to establish their religious beliefs as the law of the land. Screw the Constitution I guess, unless it benefits them.
Just look at the California gay marriage issue:
Note this is people in Idaho and Utah trying to influence an election in California. I can tell you, if people in California tried to influence an election or legislation in Utah, they'd be going apeshit about it. For the next 10, or perhaps 100 years they'd be whining and complaining to anyone who'd listen that people in California were trying to persecute and oppress them.
I live in Idaho,and just last week, I heard an offensive ad on the radio denouncing some stimulus bill because it relaxes the number of alcohol permits. I wonder who paid for this ad? The ad was claiming alcohol causes "crime" and all sorts absurd crap. Methinks the US has just as many religious zealots as they do in the Middle East. If someone doesn't believe in religious freedom, what are they doing in this country?
It's way more likely that the decision to can the bar came from the attempt to get public bail out money to build a bridge connecting two campuses that has a highway dividing them.
MS is already being criticized for not needing the funding because they make more then enough to build it themselves, now think about the public backlash if Obama or whoever does reward MS and they announce the opening of their on campus bar. It would be like what we have already seen with businesses having meeting at high dollar vacation resorts or flying private jets to Washington to beg for money and so on.
In the state of Washington, you need permits and licenses to sell alcohol. If the mormons or any religious organization was apposed to the pub, we would have known when they objected to the purchasing of the permits and licenses. The GP is just expressing fear of religion or a disdain for a certain brand of religion. I noticed where he believes what someone else told him without questioning it so he may be the victim of someone else in that boat.
You are completely missing the point. According to the story, they contracted with someone to do a lot of work and waited until he was almost finished to tell him they didn't want what he did. No contract terms can change the fact of that being abusive.
Before software was Microsoft's method of delivering evil (in my opinion). Now Microsoft top managers are apparently investigating other delivery methods.
Well, at least my opinion that MBAs and CEOs are illiterate is confirmed.
Para. 1: "... alcohol is anathema to business - in customer facing roles ..."
Para. 2: "... essential lubricant - high level sales, conventions, customers who offer it to salesmen."
You don't think we have a fundamental inconsistency here? I'm not poking fun at the poster, but at business mores.
...time and time again I have heard how various people and businesses who have "partnered up" with Microsoft for various projects were screwed by Microsoft in various ways. I recall things like a phone maker who developed some stuff for Microsoft and then Microsoft caused and created some condition where the phone maker was in breach of contract and then Microsoft claimed all the IP for themselves leaving this other company out to dry. There are lots of other stories where Microsoft screwed people and businesses on deals as well. The lesson that nobody ever learns is NOT to trust Microsoft.
But usually, you hear about Microsoft deals going bust harming other tech businesses... not things like this! But it is still more of the same. Someone changes their mind and "poof!" it's all gone.
If I could, I'd live in a dry county. It drives away the people who need to have intoxicants to survive.
Yeah... when the US made alcohol illegal in the 1920s all the drinkers just moved to Canada. It certianly didn't suddenly make a large percentage of the population criminals, divert tons of resources and money to enforce it, and of course it didn't make the mob rich.
I think you need to move out of your neighborhood into a nice gated community that doesn't allow those pesky lower class people in.
For the record, I don't drink.