https://www.theverge.com/news/644769/microsoft-fires-employee-protestor-war-profiteer
" It is also concerning that you have not apologized to the company, and in fact you have shown no remorse for the effect that your actions have had and will have."
SAY YOU’RE SORRY OR THE COMPANY WILL BE SAD
It’s comically ironic that the author of that note thought the whistle-blower should apologize to the dirtbag for saying something.
If you don’t want people to be upset about your supporting genocide, then please consider not supporting genocide
It’s fucking wild how many people simply won’t consider not supporting genocide.
Look it isn’t that I won’t consider not supporting genocide, it is that your tone and the manner that you bring up the fact that I support the genocide makes me feel bad so out of spite I will continue to support the genocide, and now how do you feel?
This is all your fault.
/s
yelling and finger-pointing at the CEO before a live audience of thousands of attendees
oh nooo not finger pointing, thats so outrageous, unlike killing thousands of children
and making hostile, unprovoked, and highly inappropriate accusations against the CEO, the Company and Microsoft generally
the truth cant be hostile or inappropriate and the accusations were certainly not unprovoked
remorse for the effect that your actions have had
I think they were expressing remorse. Just, you know, remorse about the killing. Not the loss of face to the C-levels.
That is the real crime here …
Embarassing rich people or losing profits. Their lives are what really matter, wouldn’t want them to be inconvenienced in any way.
Have they said thank you once?
They want him to apologize for calling out Microsoft helping Israel murder children.
Soy Microsoft, tbh
Linux being better than ever couldn’t have come at a better time.
IBM had a role in the holocaust. Those numbers tattooed on everyone in the concentration camp? Those were IBM ID numbers for the punch cards.
If IBM staff protested about their role, it’s been lost to history. But it’s repeating today with Gaza and the staff who speak out are being demonized. Israel’s Lavender AI is being used to kill civilians. History will prove this woman and the other employees right in the end.
Ironic because Thinkpad T- and P-series laptops are some of the most robust machines you can get for a reasonable price these days.
Of course, the IBM that launched the Thinkpad line is a completely different company than the IBM that helped commit WWII atrocities… But it doesn’t matter anyway because they sold the entire PC division to Lenovo 20 years ago.
Ironic
Is it though?
No
IDK, we should ask Alanis Morisette
History will, but these people have made a stand, achieved nothing, lost their jobs and won’t be remembered.
While I wholeheartedly agree with her message, the reality is that any employee that interrupts a company event to criticize the company until they are escorted out of the room is gonna be fired regardless of the accuracy of their statements. We should be appalled at Microsoft’s complicity in Gaza, not that they fired an employee.
I applaud her for her stand, but she and everyone knew this would result in her termination.
Not wrong there, though I find it humorous they expected her to apologize in the dismissal letter
I don’t see the humor in it anymore. Whenever it comes to even admitting the crimes happening to/in Palestine, it’s always decent people getting the entire book thrown at them, while others who actually do something evil get off scott free.
You can’t just ask for accountability for crimes. You have to kiss the ring and you have to be made an example of. What we are seeing with the response to student action is actually unprecedented and it’s genuinely unhinged. And it’s not just the US, it’s most of Europe too.
It’s not enough that our brothers and sisters in Palestine are getting rounded up and massacred. You have to support it with every fiber of your being or you’re a terrorist. After planing my whole life to move to the West I’m now genuinely scared I’ll be jailed for thought crime if it keeps getting crazier.
I know that’s not the intention, but saying it like that slides into apology territory.
We should be absolutely appalled at the firing, maybe to a lesser extent, but there is no better time to point out this than during a big event.
It’s kinda like saying ‘protestors should not disrupt public spaces’, like they have done everything else, what else do people need to wake up and draw the line?
And we can be hopeful for companies to have solid principles where if they are accused of genocide that they reflect on their actions instead of firing, and hope for a future where that’s the expectation instead of apathy.
Don’t anthropomorphize companies. They don’t have principles. Companies are essentially nothing but incentive structures designed to maximize profits. You wouldn’t expect an algorithm or a machine to have principles so why would you expect that of a company?
Companies aren’t inanimate objects. They’re groups of people. They absolutely do have principles, it’s just for corporations those principles are usually “fuck everything besides money”.
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Coops are companies that are worth championing in a capitalist setting, no? While money and capitalism is ever prevalent and seemingly necessary to interact with for survival, it’s good to have an option like a coop. Or actually an open source based coop.
Yes, there is nothing surprising about this.
I feel good about cancelling my 365 subscription, and I will continue to feel good about switching to Linux when windows 10 hits end of life. Not giving this company another dime.
I recommend you to do the switch now. Linux is more accessible than ever and there is no reason to give them any more of your data. Also it helps you to transition step by step where it might take a bit longer to get used to a different way of doing things.
I actually do have Linux installed on a spare drive. I haven’t booted it up for a bit, but I’ve started getting used to how stuff works. I should boot it up again.
I cannot recommend switching to Linux enough! Linux mint is a solid, stable OS with a thriving community and ample support for newcomers.
There are alternatives to nearly everything, yes YOU CAN absolutely live without microsoft or google tracking your every move, stealing your data, selling it and using that profit to fund unethical bullshit. Take back control, you will never regret it.
Someone broke into my house on Tuesday and installed Linux Mint on my previously windows ThinkPad so I’m setting that up with all my productivity software today.
Fun fact I thought that my sound card was just gradually dying because I lost onboard speaker output 5 years ago, and lost any BT audio output last week, but it all came back after Mint was installed so I guess it was just windows being windows this whole time. I honestly just accepted that she would never speak again from her onboard speakers.
I installed pop os yesterday after repeatedly saying I hate Microsoft all week. Bye windows 11!
AutoHotKey on Wayland is my entry barrier. Not a fan of X11
How hard is it to distro hop on your daily driver without losing your userdata/homefolder
Put it on a separate partition and you can easily keep it for each new install. I did that for quite a while.
syncthing is pretty great
Ventoy is entirely unrelated to preserving user data. It’s just a tool that lets you drag-and-drop multiple ISOs onto a flash drive without having to image it every time.
Mint for general use.
Nobara or PopOS for gaming.
Edit - you know what’s dumb about silent down votes? If you have an opinion, share it.
wow! first I’ve heard of this
Switch to Linux. Don’t use Microsoft email. If possible don’t use MS Office and if you currently need it, encourage Libreoffice, OnlyOffice, etc
Regardless of current politics, this is great advice anyways for a lot of people. These alternatives are very user friendly now a days, including many Linux distros. They will do almost if not all what a user needs. Few exceptions.
For Europeans the illusion American reliability is rapidly fading as well. If BDS is not a good angle consider cybersecurity as well.
One small problem: some services won’t let me change my e-mail for dumb reasons, thus I’m struck with MS for now.
In the past when I’ve had to migrate emails I’ll set up automatic forwarding for anything important like that. Then switch the services you can. Idk if something like that could work for you and it is admittedly a bit of a pain to keep track of. Could limit MS influence on your stuff though
Textbook retaliatory, I hope they have a nice retirement
Sue the company and bring the details in to a the court of law.
Washington is an at-will employment state. Businesses may fire any employee at any time, for any or no reason, as long as they are not violating any employee protection laws. Speech is not protected.
Retaliatory firing can still be sued, problem is proving it of course.
According to the state of WA dept of labor and industries these constitute retaliation:
Retaliation An employer cannot take adverse actions against an employee who exercises a protected right, files or intends to file a complaint, or who has discussed potential violations of their rights. Prohibited adverse actions may include:
- Terminating, suspending, demoting, or denying a promotion.
- Reducing hours or altering the employee’s work schedule.
- Reducing the employee’s rate of pay.
- Threatening to take, or taking action, based upon the immigration status of an employee or an employee’s family member.
- Subjecting the employee to discipline, including write-ups, verbal warnings, points, etc.
Suggestion if you’re still stuck on Windows (or use Steam on Linux).
Ooooh I didn’t know this is possible. Need to do it with EA as well
EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard…
Yeah I’m almost exclusively buying indie now. The enshittification of a lot of the games released by the big studios has also gone a long way in helping me not want them!
Same, same.
Hopefully they will find better jobs with better employers.
For everyone who uses Windows, try Linux. Don’t be scared to try something new, most things that are worthwhile come with some sacrifice. Sometimes, if we don’t leave our comfort zone, we miss out.
I will provide a small guide, but there are tons of resources on the internet.
See the ranking on the right hand side here: https://distrowatch.com/ You can pick something from there on the top of the list.
Watch YouTube to learn more about each Linux distro that you find interesting.
I personally would recommend Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distros, as they have the widest support.
You don’t have to wipe your Windows-installation completely, instead you can dual-boot. This allows you to pick Windows or Linux when you start your computer. If you feel comfortable switching entirely, you can wipe out Windows and keep Linux exclusively.
Just be careful when you partition your drive, don’t accidentally overwrite your Windows installation (if that’s not what you want to do). Make a backup copy of your most important files on a separate external drive before the installation.
what else do you expect :D it’s always about the money, if not helping jews would be more profitable they would do that.
We have reviewed our internal policies and found our employees do not share the same values as us.
Yep, you are 💯 correct that this is what they did. Regardless of industry, is why unions are so very important. “At Will” employment is too easily abused, and even if this could somehow be considered a wrongful termination (ANAL, but protesting a company’s social-political viewpoints is not protected like gender, age, race, etc are) it can be costly and time-consuming to fight it in courts by yourself.
Unions, unions, unions… In Steve Ballmer’s voice.
Apalling.
I guess most everyone else that works at microsoft is cool with this.
Saint Luigi guide us.
I mean this person apparently was cool with it for years up until this point so…
Everyone needs to learn about Open-Source, Community-Made stuff, & more useful terms to know