I'm not going to claim that it's right in this situation, but calling people names and social ostracism is a very effective way to modify the behaviors of people. In no small part because people dislike it and it modifies incentives.

> is a very effective way

Is it? I think this an overstatement.

Who's calling people names?

How do you propose to change the incentives? The incentives are money. Surely you have something more helpful than whatever you wanted to accomplish with your retort.

If I told you to your face that you were "sick and vile" for trying to do your job to the best of your ability - without a hint of play or irony - you would probably complain to HR. Name-calling doesn't have to entail the use of nouns.

> you would probably complain to HR

HR are sick and vile

Sadism for financial incentives, just another day of user abuse at Microsoft.