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[mainiac]

So please tell me how shitting on entire DC metro area fake was a sequitur to a single sarcastic comment which included "/s".

[SalmonGod]

More resources = more access to a broader range of solutions to a problem = more efficiency and greater output at scale

Example from my industry.  FedEx can offer services smaller logistics business can't, because they own their own fuckhuge fleets of planes and trucks and hubs everywhere, so they can streamline everything under their own control.  Some of their hubs are large enough that they even have their own customs officers on-site.  Others have to complicate things and burn more money on hiring other business to fill in the gaps where in-house resources are lacking. 

I work for a moderately large but still family-owned freight forwarder that prides itself on not being asset-based.  This means to fly a shipment from Asia to USA, we have to hire other businesses to handle trucking, warehousing, flying, document couriers, and sometimes specialized messengers for customs.  FedEx just has the customer drop it off at their nearest service center and everything else is 100% handled by FedEx employees.  Now we do have major advantages over FedEx, but providing overall efficient service for good prices isn't among them.

And the obsession with public image can work both ways.  If the corporation decides they can bury a problem instead of dealing with it ethically, they will.  There was sexual harassment buried and neglected by HR at the 120+ employee office I worked at with FedEx.  The victims were intimidated into silence.  Small businesses have less resources to make their people feel like they're too insignificant to seek recourse.

At the hub, FedEx literally had PR management teams whose sole purpose was to deflect media, silence witnesses, and generate acceptable narrative if there was ever an accident.  I got to indirectly see them in action one winter when a lift fell over that someone was using to de-ice the wing of a plane.

[mainiac]

And the obsession with public image can work both ways.  If the corporation decides they can bury a problem instead of dealing with it ethically, they will.  There was sexual harassment buried and neglected by HR at the 120+ employee office I worked at with FedEx.  The victims were intimidated into silence.  Small businesses have less resources to make their people feel like they're too insignificant to seek recourse.

Yeah this kind of shit happens.  But small business people can just harass people and then fire them and it's impossible to prove 99.9% of the time.  It even makes it harder for the harassed person to get a new job because getting fired looks bad on your work history.

[Sheb]

So please tell me how shitting on entire DC metro area fake was a sequitur to a single sarcastic comment which included "/s".

The /s doesn't mean your statement cannot be insulting? Like, you had fake praise that was sarcastic implying that RedKing was an asshole who considers remembering the name of a waiter the same as a connection. There might have been a second layer of sarcasm, but we can't divine that.

[mainiac]

Well then I'm sorry that I crossed a line but frankly I think Redking was being a massive fucking asshole.

[WealthyRadish]

That one followed by "/s" ?

That's the attack I was talking about, yeah. I have a hard time myself when I attempt to tease or prod someone (often ending up saying something hurtful to my instant regret), but that really came off as little more than an unprovoked personal insult. There are a lot better ways of making that point, and since this is a discussion that I find very interesting myself, it's disappointing to see it derailed into insults.

[Sheb]

Well then I'm sorry that I crossed a line but frankly I think Redking was being a massive fucking asshole.

How was he being an asshole? He only started ranting about DC after your "/s". Before that he just said some rather cliché stuff about small business.

[mainiac]

Yes, I mean after.

[SalmonGod]

I'll admit RedKing's response was more than was called for.  In-context, I wouldn't call it a massive asshole response.  But this is what you guys have had going on for a long time from both sides.  Frequent jabs and overreactions.

[mainiac]

I should not have said something that would move things in that direction.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

You all had salt without me?

My....my life has no meaning now....

[RedKing]

You use /s that the same way that Trump says "I'm not gonna talk about Bill Clinton's infidelity."

It allows you to level some bullshit aspersion and then if anybody protests, claim it was just a joke.

And my point was that your experiences in DC are not applicable to other places, because DC is not like other places.
By its very function as the hub of government and lobbying, it's full of duplicity and power dynamics and inauthenticity to the gills.
But I'll admit I should not cast aspersions about an entire city full of high-priced lawyers and corrupt politicians. /s

[mainiac]

I think you are perfectly sympathetic and nice towards the low wage service workers you deal with and I think it comes from empathy not aristocratic privilege.  I think this because it's true of nearly everyone I have ever met (the remainder being noteworthy assholes).

[SalmonGod]

And the obsession with public image can work both ways.  If the corporation decides they can bury a problem instead of dealing with it ethically, they will.  There was sexual harassment buried and neglected by HR at the 120+ employee office I worked at with FedEx.  The victims were intimidated into silence.  Small businesses have less resources to make their people feel like they're too insignificant to seek recourse.

Yeah this kind of shit happens.  But small business people can just harass people and then fire them and it's impossible to prove 99.9% of the time.  It even makes it harder for the harassed person to get a new job because getting fired looks bad on your work history.

Also, I was absolutely not disagreeing with you on this point.  I know this is true.  I was just remarking on Rolan's point that obsession with public image and powerful HR departments can easily work in both good and bad ways.  And which way it goes depends on the crunchy details of the situation - equations of liability vs potential spin, and what will work best for the company, whether ethical or not.

As for discrimination, yeah... big businesses have powerful HR departments and obsession with general public image.  Small businesses... no real recourse unless you know the boss (and hope it isn't the boss).

[mainiac]

I think the bigger deal though is that federal anti-discrimination laws actually have teeth when a business is big.  And if we have a Supreme Court that isn't hostile towards class action lawsuits, that will just get even more true.  Or dare I say it, we might even have unions.