Advice to new managers: don't joke about firing people

Re:Advice to new managers: don't joke about firing people by pjc50 on Wednesday June 10, 2020 @12:08PM (#23478691)

The thing about punching down is that, because of the power differential, you don't hear back when you've gone too far. You may even get the victim smiling and laughing along with you, for their own safety.

But people remember, and talk among themselves, and your name becomes known, and maybe one day there's a huge backlash. And the backlash looks disproportionate, but should really be considered in proportion to the decades of incidents it's in response to.

(You can see this happening in real time with statues of racists, especially in the UK)

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Re:Advice to new managers: don't joke about firing people by whatok on Wednesday June 10, 2020 @03:44PM (#23481197)

Name one notable comedian who has made their career from solely "punching down" and not from being genuinely funny. This is a borderline non-existent problem that has its own self-filtering mechanism; no one is going to pay money to see a set of someone solely "punching down".

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