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I'm not saying I'd give them a chance to hack. I'm saying there's a chance I wouldn't have fired a star performer immediately on hearing they had been hacking.

I'm not saying I'd give them a chance to hack. I'm saying there's a chance I wouldn't have fired a star performer immediately on hearing they had been hacking. If it was someone I could afford to part with, I would, without a warning. The behavior in this blog post shows extremely poor judgment.

jonathankoren 5y ago
But you have to fire them. You especially have to fire the star performer. Saying the rules don't apply to certain individuals will destroy your team. There are plenty of policies that will get you immediately fired at many companies. Inappropriate data access is always one. And let me tell you from experience, EVERYONE is replaceable. Just do what you'd do if he left, or dropped dead. If you can't handle those contingencies, you have something deeply wrong with the organization of your team.
- aardshark 5y ago
  I'm interested to hear what real-world experiences have lead you to think this way. From what I've seen, exceptions can always be made and people will often put up with it, depending on the circumstances. Look at the number of people in here who don't believe what the OP did should be a crime, and don't consider his actions immoral. You're telling me those people wouldn't accept a little rule-bending if they were on the team? I can't agree.
  - jonathankoren 5y ago
    If your point is that some people will accept some rule breaking, then rule breaking is okay, I simply don’t agree. Of course some people will accept rule breaking. There’s always people that will justify it post hoc. There are also others that won’t. The real problem is you’ve now created a culture of rule breaking. Soon everyone will be violating policies as a matter of due course. This is exactly how you get lawsuits and criminal complaints. If you’re lucky, you just have a toxic culture that hurts recruiting and retention. People here always complain about “politics”, but that’s exactly what this is. If you need examples of where exceptions came back to bite people and companies in the ass, it’s everywhere. Theranos, Uber, Zenefits, Google, the list goes on and on. Even so, I fully expect advocates for capricious enforcement (ie protecting their friends) will further justify it by saying something about how the fines and settlements were “good business decisions” or something, because self justification knows no bottom.
    - aardshark 5y ago
      I get the impression that your argument seems to be strongly motivated by your own moral values. I'm not saying that rampant rule breaking should be encouraged, but I don't see the slippery slope that you do. I've always found zero-tolarance policies to be rather unfair.

jonathankoren 5y ago

But you have to fire them. You especially have to fire the star performer. Saying the rules don't apply to certain individuals will destroy your team. There are plenty of policies that will get you immediately fired at many companies. Inappropriate data access is always one. And let me tell you from experience, EVERYONE is replaceable. Just do what you'd do if he left, or dropped dead. If you can't handle those contingencies, you have something deeply wrong with the organization of your team.

aardshark 5y ago
I'm interested to hear what real-world experiences have lead you to think this way. From what I've seen, exceptions can always be made and people will often put up with it, depending on the circumstances. Look at the number of people in here who don't believe what the OP did should be a crime, and don't consider his actions immoral. You're telling me those people wouldn't accept a little rule-bending if they were on the team? I can't agree.
- jonathankoren 5y ago
  If your point is that some people will accept some rule breaking, then rule breaking is okay, I simply don’t agree. Of course some people will accept rule breaking. There’s always people that will justify it post hoc. There are also others that won’t. The real problem is you’ve now created a culture of rule breaking. Soon everyone will be violating policies as a matter of due course. This is exactly how you get lawsuits and criminal complaints. If you’re lucky, you just have a toxic culture that hurts recruiting and retention. People here always complain about “politics”, but that’s exactly what this is. If you need examples of where exceptions came back to bite people and companies in the ass, it’s everywhere. Theranos, Uber, Zenefits, Google, the list goes on and on. Even so, I fully expect advocates for capricious enforcement (ie protecting their friends) will further justify it by saying something about how the fines and settlements were “good business decisions” or something, because self justification knows no bottom.
  - aardshark 5y ago
    I get the impression that your argument seems to be strongly motivated by your own moral values. I'm not saying that rampant rule breaking should be encouraged, but I don't see the slippery slope that you do. I've always found zero-tolarance policies to be rather unfair.