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Nintendo Fires Employee For Speaking About Job On a Podcast
An anonymous reader writes: You may not have heard of Chris Pranger before, but he's one of the localizers that works to bring Nintendo games over to the west. He recently talked about the localization process for a small podcast, providing Nintendo fans some details about how games make it from Japan to the western world. Nintendo's response to the fan interest in the game localizing process? They fired him, of course. It's unclear what statements in specific Nintendo objected to and Nintendo, so far, hasn't explained its decision.
Not that I think it's correct, but wouldn't this be considered a normal response? He's not a whistlerblower so he can't say he's acting in the public interest.
Here is a simple rule - unless you have been specifically authorized, don't talk about your companies business in public. Chances are very good you signed an agreement to that effect.
Holy shit. Sounds like Homie is ready to eat a shotgun. I hope someone is keeping a close eye on him.
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This is a common and reasonable policy.
Evolution: love it or leave it
One of the worst examples was the kids school that Disney sued. Disney falsely claimed that by giving away or by charging minimal values, it opened them up to law suits from other locations demanding the same treatment. After it happened, Universal gave that school - for free - the use of their characters - Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, Flintstones, etc. That happened in 1989.
Funny how Universal never ran into any lawsuits demanding the same treatment. Not a single one in all of 26 years.
Zero tolerance parties never make any sense. You do NOT need to enforce a policy for the little things in order to be able to enforce it for the big things. A mere warning is most often more than enough than actual punishment. A letter written to the Day school - offering a $10,000 donation in kind of a license to use the Disney characters would have been more than enough to maintain their copyright. Similarly, a strict warning and perhaps a one day suspension (no pay) would have let this employee off without endangering the "no press" rule's sanctity.
Other examples are very very common. Cops routinely ignore people traveling at 58 mph in a 55 mph zone. Some businesses routinely let people leave early on the day before a three day weekend.
In most cases where someone/some group enforces a rule strictly it's because some shmuck has an agenda to push, not because it enforcing it loosely wouldn't work.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Chances are it WAS in the agreements he signed the first day of work.
With few exceptions, every place I've ever worked had boiler plate non-disclosure agreements that everybody was required to sign their first day. Most places even followed that up with training that explained what could and could not be said.
IMHO, it's NEVER a good idea to discuss work on ANY social media forum in any way. Stuff like this tends to come back to haunt you when you least expect it. It is an especially bad idea to complain about your work, past or present. It is just way to risky and could cause you trouble like this guy is in.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I have never worked for a company (even when I was an usher sweeping up trash at the movie theater) that did not have a very strict "do not talk to any media about the company" policy.
It's always been a very public and documented rule.
And that was working at a place with no IP or trade secrets.
Get it right man, it isn't Zero Tolerance, it is Zero Intelligence. Come on now. Seriously though, that is really what Zero Tolerance is about, removing any form of intelligence from the decision making process and assuming that one solution fits all situations. It truly Zero Intelligence. As you say it just doesn't make sense.
Some people with Top Secret / SCI clearance save classified information to their personal email servers while working at important positions for the government. Maybe the "little things" that get enforcement attention are the "little people" who transgress a little bit, and not the big people who transgress a lot.
This is a company disciplinary issue. You damn well better apply it consistently or you open yourself up to all sorts of grief.
I get sick and tired of hearing about all the grief someone will face whenever a human actually uses their fucking brain for once and makes a logical judgement call instead of sitting there like a mindless idiot making decisions only because of the unending threat of litigation that has paralyzed entire nations.
Where legal cases should have been laughed out of court we now have precedent. Fuck you very much for that shit, legal system.
You are assuming that the summary is correct, and he was fired for explaining the localization process. Far more likely, is that his manager has wanted to get rid of him for a long time, and this was just an excuse. Companies don't just ax an otherwise good employee for one mistake. There is almost certainly far more to it than that.
You also are under no obligation to fund or assist your detractors. The corporation, or more accurately, the owners of it, reserve to themselves the right to speak for their company and product. They hire advertising and legal departments to groom these statements and speakers in some cases.
You, an employee, do not have a right to go out and speak on behalf of the company if they don't want you to. It isn't your company.
Presumably he was aware of this. If not, it's an exercise left to lawyers. And any SJW movement of nerds to refuse to buy Nintendo stuff unless they hire him back.
Put your speech where your mouth is!!!!!!!!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
It seems Chris' heart was in the right place, but unfortunately he didn't seek approval before discussing company policy. Perhaps working for an open source company would suit his personality better. Best of luck, Chris, and don't let this get you down too badly. Sometimes what seems bad can actually be the best thing to happen to you.
That was Oracle though. They're probably contractually obligated to make the company look bad.
If they didn't, it just wouldn't be Oracle.
Japanese and Japanese controlled companies are all about the hierarchy, in ways almost no Westerner can imagine. They are little feudal empires, and this peasant dared usurp the rights and privileges of his betters. So he's fired, of course. He should be happy they didn't transfer him to India or Iraq before firing him.
I don't know why this would seem surprising to anyone. Did everyone miss the Konami revelations about how the managers treat their employees?