pulleman
Asta [AMP]looking at the epstein ballroom that Microsoft "donated" money to and thinking back on how they used to get salty at me, a lone engineer, when I took too long to do my annual "compliance" training which involved watching a video and taking a quiz about how it's wrong and against company policy to bribe public officials for preferential treatment in business.
"at least they paid you for your time" yes, but did they pay me for the insult
they put a lot of money into those training videos! They were very proud of them. In hindsight, I suppose the amount of attention they paid to bribing/quid pro quo relationships should have been a tell.
lostdoco
Ash
David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)Are you talking about the Standards of Business Conduct ones?
The first one of those I did was the first instalment of the soap-opera versions. In it, every single engineer was male. Everyone in the sales org was female, except the person in charge of the org, who was an old white man.
I pointed out that this was Microsoft portrayed as Microsoft aspires to be and was entirely full of gender stereotypes. I managed to get this escalated quite far: apparently no one (up to and including Nadella, who signed off on the content) had realised that this might be a bad thing.
Su_G@david_chisnall
OMG: “…apparently no one (up to and including Nadella, who signed off on the content) had realised that this [M$ internal business conduct training full of gender stereotypes including total absence of women] might be a bad thing.” What Century was this in? (only half joking) 😐
Oh, it was so much worse than a ‘total absence of women’. There were women, but they were entirely in the sales org, not the engineering org. And the manager for the sales org was a white man, even though almost everyone we saw in that org was a woman.
There were other more subtle stereotypes, but there were absolute screaming ones like this, which made it clear that Nadella’s push on diversity and inclusion meant very little.
@david_chisnall
So depressing! But thanks for amplifying that comment. How late was it (still) like this to your knowledge David? And did it ever change (& then I’m wondering how is it now…). 😐
@aud
So depressing! But thanks for amplifying that comment. How late was it (still) like this to your knowledge David? And did it ever change (& then I’m wondering how is it now…). 😐
@aud
@david_chisnall
OMG! 2018!! I am shocked now as well as depressed. 😐
Estarriol, Terrorist DragonOne of the most baffling thingsis, who the feck builds ballrooms these days, even the ones in hotels etc are wedding venues and conference halls, not ballrooms.
Is this some Trumpain plan to make Strauss great again?
Tim 🛥️🌈
Bill
James Wells@Thebratdragon
So Chump believes what Bannon has been saying that he is going to be allowed to run for a third term. So to his way of thinking, he will get a good 4 - 6 years of usage of The Jeffery Epstein Memorial Ballroom and maybe, just maybe he can finally throw a party that people will want to come to instead of having to come to
Cameopilot
Sarah E Bourne@Thebratdragon @aud He can't even dance
Matti_Vuori@Thebratdragon @aud Well, he couldn't say it will be used to host wrestling...
Scubyw@aud https://mstdn.social/@ukrdef/115434194354819377
Unfortunately, the one who 'wants to wing it' lives 'in the moment' as he has forgotten what he said/did yesterday. If his minders (e.g. Hegseth) don't guide him just before a meeting, he will just utter a 'I don't know, why don't you ask them'?
Unfortunately, the one who 'wants to wing it' lives 'in the moment' as he has forgotten what he said/did yesterday. If his minders (e.g. Hegseth) don't guide him just before a meeting, he will just utter a 'I don't know, why don't you ask them'?
Defending Ukraine (@[email protected])
KYIV POST: Putin Envoy Claims ‘Deal Close’ on War With US and Ukraine Despite Sanctions Kremlin envoy claimed that Russia, the US, and Ukraine are nearing a diplomatic deal to end the war, even as Putin refuses concessions and new US sanctions take effect. https://www.kyivpost.com/post/62939 #World
EndlessMason@aud "Which of the following situations might introduce a conflict of interest..."
hold the fuck up, when is anybody going to offer me, a developer, a nice bottle of Champaign? Wait, is everybody out here getting bottles of Champaign?!
zbrown@EndlessMason @aud at one job there was this arguably over-produced video involving puppets — bespoke to the company, albeit probably a decade or more old — about not taking bribes, and honestly it was kinda fun.
Never did figure out what someone in my lowly position was supposed to be able to do that would even slightly attract a bribe though, especially if we discount things that would be blindingly obvious.
James Henstridge@aud I imagine that even if a company is okay with giving bribes, they wouldn't want random employees making those kind of decisions.
They'd probably want to treat it more like the "making public statements" part of the compliance training.
derptron
toerror
Inc Hulk 🧪@aud All change! Corrupt donations to the King is now obligatory for Microsoft!
Once sucked-in, they can’t escape, like in all abusive relationships.
Once sucked-in, they can’t escape, like in all abusive relationships.
Jon@aud it reminds me of the time the annual sexual harassment training video was done by the SVP of Human Resources, who rumor had it was having an affair with a woman in his organization. Turns out the rumors understated it: he was having an affair with three women in his org, one of whom and been on the search committee that decided to hire him. It was so bad they actually wound up getting rid of him.
Rasmus Lindegaard@aud today i just read that Microsoft has been invited into a committee here to help advice on what technologies to use for the future of Education.
How democratic. And our politicians have been bleeting so loudly about digital sovereignty.
VessOnSecurity@aud Maybe in those ancient times the public officials weren't so easily bribable.
fuzzyfuzzyfungus@aud Tragically, we did not get around to a "Domestic Corrupt Practices Act" in time. FCPA, though.
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE@aud Yeah, I find all the compulsory ethics training that American corporations require their staff to do utterly bizarre as well.
But the small print doesn't say that making such "donations" is wrong: what it actually says is that making such "donations" *without first going through the proper corporate approval process* is wrong.
pedestrian cyclist@aud May those who never bribed a dictator by building him a golden ballroom throw the first stone...
JF 
@aud Ah yes, those corporate training are bonkers.
As someone that used to work for HSBC, we got a tsunami of those (in addition to the annual boatload) when they settled with the DOJ for their dirty deeds with the mexican cartels.
Nothing to do with your work, responsibilities. Just corporate ass covering. Totally lost it the day they enrolled my department on the credit card opening training (needless to say we had nothing to do in that process)
Simon Keating@aud @GossiTheDog reminds me of the time at HP when we had to take training about protecting proprietary company info when all the leaks were coming from the board
Aaron
Leonid
UncleRico@shsbxheb @aud In our company, there is a distinction between 'employees' and 'managers'. Even though managers are also employed by the company, they are treated differently. Lower-level managers will probably follow the same rules as an average employee. However, the higher up the ladder you go, the more flexible the rules become. This is because managers act like entrepreneurs and take risks.
ComputerNut43@aud haaaaaaq Mic Drop.
Random Geek@aud @inthehands did yours include phrases like "avoid even the *appearance* of impropriety?"
@aud
If you do it it's bribery. If the company does it, it's lobbying.
If you do it it's bribery. If the company does it, it's lobbying.
Western Infidels@aud In other words, "bribery decisions are above *your* pay grade."
shearichard
Jim Luther@aud I feel the same if I replace “Microsoft” with “Apple”.
kate
obscurestar@aud Remember when the Bush administration dropped all charges in the anti-trust suit Microsoft lost. No? Not surprising. They did it less than a week after September 11th, 2001 while everyone was distracted. Weird, right?
@obscurestar @aud Around the same time the recount showed that W actually lost Florida and thus the previous year election?
I told people at the time that the GOP was going to use Sept 11th as their start of forever fascism and was banned from a group of people I knew because, they'd never do that it and I (by paying attention) was ruining a moment of unity.
I told the I'd take no pleasure in saying, 'I told you so'. When I was unbanned and things were so much worse than even I'd predicted, I took no pleasure in telling the , 'I told you so.' :(
Fals Fiction 💜🏳️🌈I remember a government's ethics training I went through that warned against accepting expensive gifts from any gov employee or contractor— even birthday or holiday gifts from a spouse or another person you live with.
"Expensive" was something like $200.
Several families had multiple people working in different departments without direct job interaction.
refraction 
@aud Microsoft is very well known for bribing public officials. I guess their answer is that "training" so they can go "it's definitely not company policy, promise"
Please Gently the Dragon@aud as a former Google employee and current Google contractor, I am convinced that nobody above L6 is required to do the ethics compliance test