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Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by DamnYuppie on Monday March 05, 2018 @11:54PM (#16526947)
Why do people always believe the story that there was a solo perpetrator who acted alone and without the consent of the organization? Most likely they were nothing more than a sacrificial pawn in this scheme.
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by ChuckMcM on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @12:28AM (#16527073)
Are you saying that you think that I believe the story of a solo perpetrator? My only comment was that I gave Open Table props for firing the employee. Whether or not the company was complicit it is pretty clear to other employees that 'losing your job' is a very real possibility here. And that, in my experience, reinforces 'rule following' and 'ethical' behavior on the part of employees.
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by sokoloff on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @04:27AM (#16527828)
If the company was complicit or directed the behavior, firing an employee over it for PR sake makes their actions worse not better. That's what I read when I read "sacrificial pawn".
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by ChuckMcM on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @11:33AM (#16529861)
I agree with you that if the company did this to "get away with it" that it would be reprehensible. That said, by actually firing people it makes it hard for the company to do this again in the future, even if it wants to, because employees who remain are more careful about being compliant with activities.

In my experience watching company cultures, companies that fire employees for bad behavior (as opposed to reassigning or sending them for additional training) are less likely to be complicit in that behavior. And when this sort of behavior is uncovered at a higher level, more likely to fire the senior leader as well.

Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by xor1 on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @12:11PM (#16530170)
How do you know that they actually fired anyone?
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by freeone3000 on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @01:06PM (#16530635)
It's irrelevant whether anyone was actually fired - there's now a news article saying that someone was fired over this, which is the same (if not wider reaching).
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by sokoloff on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @03:04PM (#16531602)
If they didn't actually fire anyone, you don't think word would get around a 625-person company that the PR statement that a rogue employee was fired was BS?
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by srtjstjsj on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @01:20AM (#16527238)
OT only deserves props if they paid compensation for the damage they did. The employee represents the company.
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by DamnYuppie on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @12:15PM (#16530195)
I was not stating what you believed. Your comment set off a knee jerk reaction to this narrative that is all too common in today's media coverage of corporate malfeasance. It seems, to me, that the PR play book is to blame a single individual and then fire them.
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by ChuckMcM on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @01:33PM (#16530853)
Fair enough. As you can read, I am (gently?) pushing back against the narrative that all corporations are evil. :-)

I find I too have a knee jerk reaction to narrative arguments which seek to assert a generalization (as most of them do) against their enemy target. We are flooded with them these days pretty much everywhere we look.

I observe that a simple statement, "I give credit to companies that fire employees they discover have engaged in actions which violate their stated values.", is pretty standalone without narrative. And yet, it is contextualized by the reader into the narratives they either endorse or oppose.

And since narratives are crafted from a curated set of truths, things that would either disprove or dismiss the conclusions of a narrative are most vigorously opposed or pushed back upon.

It almost seems to me that the reality of a more nuanced and textured reality where many things are true, corporations can be both good and evil, and everything is evolving through experience and time, is the most frightening place of all.

Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by geomark on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @12:02AM (#16526980)
That brought to mind Sunday's Dilbert comic. http://dilbert.com/strip/2018-03-04
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by nkokonas on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @12:10AM (#16527008)
Correct. They have a pattern of this behavior IMO. See my Medium post on this subject, linked in the Eater article.
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by calt on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @12:52AM (#16527133)
Which brings up the topic of responsible disclosure of security vulnerabilities and leaked credentials.
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by imron on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @02:49AM (#16527520)
I'm just surprised they admitted it was an employee and not an 'intern' or 'third-party contractor'.
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by lr4444lr on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @08:13AM (#16528601)
Even if you're right, it's the kind of stunt the company can only pull once. No employee in their right mind would be the fall guy for this scheme again once they've shown that they'll throw someone under the bus.
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by xkcd-sucks on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @12:27AM (#16527069)
Screwed over a rival, and got to fire that dude who's a bad cultural fit.
Re:OpenTable Fires Employee for Making Fake Reserve Bookings by rdiddly on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @12:58AM (#16527162)
So they believe the employee acted alone eh? His name wasn't Oswald by any chance? Well I'm glad they got rid of the only dishonest person in the company. Phew!