7 ms·
I Can’t Work Under These Conditions
- riffer 16y agoOk, I’m off to go review HR policies, or something. On the upside, there’s a guy here named Brian from corp dev and I think with enough pressure he’s going to tell me all the other acquisition deals AOL is working on. It pays to be an optimist.
- wccrawford 16y agoWait, you think your company can be bought out by another company and NOT have a meet-n-greet? I would think it seriously odd if everyone tried to ignore the change and the new overlords didn't introduce themselves.
- borism 16y agoI don't think Warren Buffet or other Berkshire people do a lot of meetings after a buyout. Sure, they bring him over to show to an average worker, but they're not there to manage. If they don't believe in firm or management they won't invest in the first place.
- dugmartin 16y agoMost of their buyouts are private because the founder wants to retire or the heirs don't want the hassle of running the company. In either case the people in Arrington's role don't stick around because they already have professional management in place.
- jorkos 16y agothat's actually not true, they like the founders to stick around; Buffett is great at keeping founders around long after Berkshire buys them
- jmtulloss 16y agoYou two have opposing statements, and neither of you backs up your argument.
- borism 16y agoI'm sorry, I don't get it. What two opposing statements does he have? And also I don't see what argument is he trying to make in your opinion. From what I see he makes factual rebuttal of previous (incorrect) statement.
- flogic 16y agoYeah. It's completely unsurprising. It also looks like a chunk of the meeting is getting them situated with HR. It's mind numbing but better than getting situated with HR via phone tag.
- BrandonM 16y agoSee http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1744273 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1744273. The article (at least its title) isn't serious.
- neurotech1 16y agoApparently the smiley was left of the HN Title. Considering Michael Arrington put a Dilbert cartoon in the post, I assume this is meant as humor.
- jshen 16y agowhich is funny because it's true
- tseabrooks 16y agoArrington seems to be unreasonably excited about the gifts. What will he do when the dump truck pulls up with all of the 'recycled' AOL CDs as gifts. :-)
- jakevoytko 16y agoThey'll do what everyone does: use them as coasters, play dangerous frisbee games, and test their quality by breaking the CDs in half with their bare hands. Theoretically they could connect to the Internet by accidentally sticking it in a CD tray, but I suspect TechCrunch already has Internet access.
- unohoo 16y agoomfg - your comment resonated so well, I couldnt stop laughing. These are the very same things I used to do with the cd's.
- kno 16y agoMan this is funny, thank God I havent seen the AOL CD in a while
- jodrellblank 16y agoThen you need this AOL Help page: http://help.aol.com/help/microsites/microsite.do?cmd=displayKCPopup&docType=kc&externalId=223798 http://help.aol.com/help/microsites/microsite.do?cmd=display...
- rradu 16y agoHaving difficulty deciding if that page is a joke from AOL. The emphasis with the red squares is a little much (see this one: http://help.aol.com/Platform/Publishing/images/insert_cd_cd_drive.gif http://help.aol.com/Platform/Publishing/images/insert_cd_cd_...)
- gvb 16y agoYou forgot microwaving them.
- zacharycohn 16y agoAfter noticing this was written by Arrington, I think this was clearly tongue in cheek, and partially meant as a display of "Look, here's some proof that TechCrunch is not really changing and is not going to censor stories due to various financial interests. We're still going to complain about things that are dumb, and I think meetings are dumb."
- count 16y agoAt least until after the meeting...
- mahmud 16y ago"New shit has come to light! .. I mean, there has been a new development pertaining to our expected level of professional conduct .."
- MrJagil 16y agoOfftopic: When I read this post the first time I thought "Gee, ya think?", but then I was reminded of how obvious something can be in your mind, yet so insanely difficult to formulate. The gist of Arrington's article might be very clear in my mind, but I doubt I could have formulated it as precisely as Zach did without trouble. The world is a wondrous thing...
- BrandonM 16y agoYou think it was clearly tongue in cheek? Did the smiley face help you out? :-)
- dtf 16y ago"Kick someone's ass on the first day, or become someone's bitch. After then, everything will be alright." This seems to be Michael asserting his place in the pecking order, in his own mischievous way :-)
- tptacek 16y agoI think this has more to do with Arrington asserting his place in the industry pecking order; "no, really, see, I'm not AOL's bitch."
- jdoliner 16y agoI still think that at some level Michael Arrington approved this deal because it meant one more story he could break. He's clearly crossed from dedication to addiction.
- danilocampos 16y agoIf that's so, I bet he's pretty sore with Om Malik these days.
- warwick 16y agoCan someone explain what "Working Session" means to me? There's nothing listed for them to work on.
- bostonvaulter2 16y agoI'm guessing that they're not going to find out what they're working on until they start. Perhaps its something like ranking all the employees.
- edw519 16y agoObscure clause on Page 47 of the M & A documents: "This deal becomes null and void if any internal AOL documents end up on Techcrunch.com before the end of the due diligence period." </just kidding>
- Tichy 16y agoGifts, what could it be? A mobile built from AOL CDs perhaps?
- kno 16y ago"STFU and go cash your check, numnutts."
- bmr 16y agoThis smells contrived, as if TechCrunch will somehow be cooler if it rebels against its parent a la Reddit v. Conde Nast.
- kirpekar 16y agoI wonder how much he is being paid to attend that 3 hour meeting
- some1else 16y agoThis article is a better put "Service Temporarily Unavailable" message. Way to make news when you're too busy to do real journalism :-)
- spyne-02139 16y agoLest anyone forget the absolute utter dirt bags running the show at AOL, let me regale thee with all time hit #1 "Cancel the account" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmpDSBAh6RY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmpDSBAh6RY Good luck Mr. Arrington, and better luck getting out.
- weel 16y agoI think he just wrote a blog post. He can apparently work under these conditions.
- wtracy 16y agoAm I the only one who thinks it's funny that he published the agenda of their internal all-hands? At least where I work, these things always have "confidential" in tiny print in a corner for no obvious reason.
- werftgh 16y ago2:30-3:00 Return to their desks and start looking for new jobs?
- illumin8 16y agoDid anyone else find it hilarious that an entire section of time is blocked out for "Administrative Happiness"?
- Mz 16y agoWe have a big meeting coming up soon where I work. I can very much relate. I was recently thinking "That something like 1500 man hours wasted on all this togetherness when we could be accomplishing something."
- dbrannan 16y agoSo, we can assume there will be nothing worth reading on TechCrunch tomorrow.
- bad_user 16y agoI hate HR orientation :(
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- ck2 16y agoJust don't forget to turn in your badge when you leave. AOL took like $50 out of my last paycheck for mine!