The Dark side...or the Black Side, Whatever.

There is always some kind of black side to any business. Be it selling out to someone who has absolutely absurd ethics, being there because you 'need' the money, or simply performing actions (yourself) that is against company policy. Fannie Mae almost felt the sting of what is known as a logic bomb after they let go some of their IT employees. For a lot of people out there the word logic bomb does not set off to many sparks in your head. Because of this we have the internet (we all know my explanations are paltry at best):

From the desk of Wikipedia:

A logic bomb is a piece of code intentionally inserted into a software system that will set off a malicious function when specified conditions are met.

In Fannie's case the specified condition was actually the 31st of the month. Luckily someone found the mischievous piece of code and dropped their balls on it...problem solved right? Well no, because this one action puts to shame the entire IT industry. IT folks usually struggle their freelance or corporate way and really do not need any kind of help when it comes to being unappreciated or taken as goof-offs. Most of us hustle like no tomorrow in order to bring people peace in the complex world of information technology. Corporate entities out there, not all of us are mischievous, insipid fools who are only looking out to screw you. A short rant and the pic is an ode to an phenomenal Lost episode on the 28th.

It Is Not Really How You Do It...

Well actually folks, folks in this regard being huge companies, it does matter how you do it. If you mess up and understand, if only for a moment that it was your fault then it is fully on your hands to take responsibility and correctly apologize to your tribe. Be as real as possible because in the end that is all we, the user care about. One of the best letters concerning this dire matter was written by the CEO of Hulu, Jason Kilar.

Apparently Hulu axed their entire It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia content making everyone who has ever watched the show through the awesomeness that is the Hulu service a little po'ed. Hulu did this without a note to the users or a warning that the content would be removed at a set time in the future. People raised a stink and demanded some type of exclamation and who better to deliver it then the CEO. It just seems lie CEOs still love to sit back and bury small holes in their mountains of money in order to hide from their users. Seeing a CEO accomplish a problem with a letter of apology is not only warm and cuddly but it shows that perhaps things are officially changing within the world of CEOs (especially those involved in newer startups). Another man who hits these problems in a refreshing yet still completely professional manner is host of Wine Library TV, Gary Vaynerchuck (I spelled it right on the first try, huzzah). Gary understands, maybe more then all of us why people like to see the real side of human beings.

Remember, to be completely true to your tribe and don't for once think that this comes easy. People need to work at it every day, devising ways to implement themselves into their community and how to do it in an effective and pleasing way. Never slack and always hustle, peace y'all!

Cutting Corners

Getting "let go" is always a bad thing. Most of the times it is due to downsizing issues or other random reasons that frankly are nonsensical reasons. However, getting laid off a week before Christmas is a huge slap in the face. Here is the issue at hand: You work for an employer that has already laid off plenty of people simply because they can not find enough "expensive work" for them to do. Lets start by defining "expensive work." This type of ideal is found in high functioning businesses that only choose to do the projects that they want to. Often times these projects are for multi-millionaires or simply done to raise the firms self image. This creates a problem especially now when the credit crunch is putting these millionaires back into their portfolios and off buying new homes. The problem already is visible, you have walled yourself into a community of people who are not buying and you have removed extra workers from being able to find business in other areas via research.

Stepping back yet again, lets look at what this firm wants to be thought of. They want to be open and building a community among themselves but none of them talk to each other unless they absolutely have to and although the entirety of the studio is open it is dead silent. In addition to all this basic shit, you have two people in charge who have no idea the first thing about running a business or basically anything that starts with the letter B. After working with these people as a part time gig for half a year I realize all these little problems but they, like any problems with a company should not deter an employee from attempting to better the overall firm. However, betterment seems to have been cut off for these folks which is shame because they could have done some truly great stuff. Good luck all in your separate endeavors because lets face it, it is going to end up like it really quickly.