4 ms·

A little hyperbolic, based on a single line from an exec at a different company in a single ad. I get this is a great way to promote their brand, but it seems

by themgt 10y ago

A little hyperbolic, based on a single line from an exec at a different company in a single ad. I get this is a great way to promote their brand, but it seems pretty close to your standard in-group clickbait marketing: 1) pick a big target everyone can hate on 2) blow something minor out of proportion so you can claim outrage / assert your values 3) profit

AznHisoka 10y ago
i agree. i also think Microsoft isn't encouraging people to lose sleep and work in soccer games, at bed, etc. People already are doing it and Microsoft is simply putting out an ad that speaks and resonates with those people.
- ekianjo 10y ago
  A big company should aspire to make life better, not worse. People don't need to work more than they already do (unless they really want to, which is fine, but most of the time they are expected to be always available).
  - AznHisoka 10y ago
    Tell that to McDonalds, Marlboro and hundreds of others. A big, capitalistic company's only goal is to satisfy their stakeholders, nothing more.
    - aaimnr 10y ago
      Yes, and by creating such a public resentment they won't satisfy their stakeholders. So it's our job to write articles like DHH wrote and make them as visible as possible. No company is able to foresee all the negative consequences they can cause (they should try, however, because it will and should hurt them). It's up to the society to create strong negative signals that will counteract and negate positive economic signals coming from any activities harmful to the society.
  - TheAnimus 10y ago
    But this can be better. I'll have taken about 8 weeks holiday this year. But for about half of it I'll do 30 min or even 2 hours work. Actually it's been less than half. That's a pretty sweet deal. I've still got that ability to take a good few contiguous days off, completely relaxing so to speak. But I'm more relaxed after spending 5 min checking on progress in my absence, as I know when I come back to work full time, it won't be hell.
  - Mithaldu 10y ago
    To be honest, for some people this does make life better. I look at it from the perspective of an office programmer become freelancer, working from home. For a number of earlier jobs i had work could only be done in the office due to technological or security restrictions. Heck, even for a number of my clients i first had to work on-site, then figure out how to migrate things to a remote setup. But now i work entirely from home and never even visit any offices. This has freed me up considerably. I still get the same amount of work done in practice, but the hours i bill are now half of what i spent previously just in the office. Even less if you consider that i have zero commute anymore. And yes, i have worked in weird places and at weird times. Bathroom, bed, weekend, 2 am, at a conference in another country. But the difference is, those things were me responding to emergencies. Emergencies that in all cases would have come up the same regardless of where and when i was. Having set up the technology i had meant the difference in practice for me was: Instead of spending an hour to get to the office at 2 AM and back, i got up from the bed, walked to the computer, fixed the problem in ten minutes and went back to bed. My life got considerably better.
  - youdontknowtho 10y ago
    A big company aspires to make money. Nothing more, nothing less. Most of the time that means asking people to do "more with less" for more hours. It's part of the system. Anytime that you read about a company that does it differently you are seeing an aberration. Let them have some pressures applied and they will revert to the norm. Also, if you are reading about them it's because they are news not the norm.
  - kj01a 10y ago
    >A big company should aspire to make life better, not worse. Why exactly?
scandox 10y ago
It would hyperbolic if it didn't represent a reality for many people and wasn't part of a definite trend in modern work. I agree he uses the strategies you mention, but he does it in this case to attack something real. Asserting values is not intrinsically a negative. His rhetoric is profane and aggressive which would not be my style, but it does appear to be effective these days.

by themgt 10y ago

AznHisoka 10y ago

i agree. i also think Microsoft isn't encouraging people to lose sleep and work in soccer games, at bed, etc. People already are doing it and Microsoft is simply putting out an ad that speaks and resonates with those people.

ekianjo 10y ago
A big company should aspire to make life better, not worse. People don't need to work more than they already do (unless they really want to, which is fine, but most of the time they are expected to be always available).
- AznHisoka 10y ago
  Tell that to McDonalds, Marlboro and hundreds of others. A big, capitalistic company's only goal is to satisfy their stakeholders, nothing more.
  - aaimnr 10y ago
    Yes, and by creating such a public resentment they won't satisfy their stakeholders. So it's our job to write articles like DHH wrote and make them as visible as possible. No company is able to foresee all the negative consequences they can cause (they should try, however, because it will and should hurt them). It's up to the society to create strong negative signals that will counteract and negate positive economic signals coming from any activities harmful to the society.
- TheAnimus 10y ago
  But this can be better. I'll have taken about 8 weeks holiday this year. But for about half of it I'll do 30 min or even 2 hours work. Actually it's been less than half. That's a pretty sweet deal. I've still got that ability to take a good few contiguous days off, completely relaxing so to speak. But I'm more relaxed after spending 5 min checking on progress in my absence, as I know when I come back to work full time, it won't be hell.
- Mithaldu 10y ago
  To be honest, for some people this does make life better. I look at it from the perspective of an office programmer become freelancer, working from home. For a number of earlier jobs i had work could only be done in the office due to technological or security restrictions. Heck, even for a number of my clients i first had to work on-site, then figure out how to migrate things to a remote setup. But now i work entirely from home and never even visit any offices. This has freed me up considerably. I still get the same amount of work done in practice, but the hours i bill are now half of what i spent previously just in the office. Even less if you consider that i have zero commute anymore. And yes, i have worked in weird places and at weird times. Bathroom, bed, weekend, 2 am, at a conference in another country. But the difference is, those things were me responding to emergencies. Emergencies that in all cases would have come up the same regardless of where and when i was. Having set up the technology i had meant the difference in practice for me was: Instead of spending an hour to get to the office at 2 AM and back, i got up from the bed, walked to the computer, fixed the problem in ten minutes and went back to bed. My life got considerably better.
- youdontknowtho 10y ago
  A big company aspires to make money. Nothing more, nothing less. Most of the time that means asking people to do "more with less" for more hours. It's part of the system. Anytime that you read about a company that does it differently you are seeing an aberration. Let them have some pressures applied and they will revert to the norm. Also, if you are reading about them it's because they are news not the norm.
- kj01a 10y ago
  >A big company should aspire to make life better, not worse. Why exactly?

scandox 10y ago

It would hyperbolic if it didn't represent a reality for many people and wasn't part of a definite trend in modern work. I agree he uses the strategies you mention, but he does it in this case to attack something real. Asserting values is not intrinsically a negative. His rhetoric is profane and aggressive which would not be my style, but it does appear to be effective these days.