Never had a beet at a ballgame.

yourefired.jpg

You guys are seriously nuts. And would probably be breaking the law.

You can't trust vegetarians??

Who said anything about "expecting" anything? You just said you would fire them for not eating the hotdogs, even if they didn't complain.

People may be having too much fun?


Not in our experience. What did DNegs tell you about pokerstars rake changes? Definitely not trustworthy.

We are at a baseball game in America and they wont eat a hotdog.

Personally I'm not vegetarian, and am fine with hotdogs, but I think it is nuts to expect much of employees in such a situation. If I was even at such an event, I would already be considering it doing a favor for my boss, and if I had to be there for a decent amount of time, over a mealtime, and was not provided with free food that I considered edible, I would be even more pissed off.

Never could stand these kinds of events, where employers waste the company's money, and then act like they're doing everyone a favor, when really employees have to waste their own free time, doing something they would probably not want to do otherwise, spending more time with people they probably don't even care to spend any time with, but already have to spend 8 hours a day at work with. I guess a low tolerance for putting up with this kind of bull**** is one of the reasons I don't have a corporate job.

You're basically the opposite of a dream co-worker.
The baseball game junkets I've been on were days games. It is amazing that you've managed to turn a gift and a potential team building exercise into a burden and an example of how corporate America screws everyone. Please never take me on the clock to a sporting event where you tell me "thanks for the good work you do" and feed me free dogs. If you really want to screw me, open bar. See "that's why I can never have a real job". foobar sees this as a corporate benefit he's providing. That's the bull**** you can't stand? Having to show up most every other day and do actual work must be worse than water-boarding, then. Think of the daily dread of pretending to be civil to the nice person at the front desk as you walk in.

Poker really is the perfect career for some. The daily benefit of explaining to 90% of the dealers why you'll never tip them. Eagerly awaiting the next opportunity to demand a setup. Berating tourists for playing bad starting cards. All the best.

Well, I wasn't thinking of it being on the clock, but still I think these kinds of things are a big waste of time and money for everyone. But it's pretty ridiculous to assume because I don't like being forced to attend social functions (with people I didn't choose) would mean I am rude to people at the poker table. I wouldn't even be rude to anyone at the social functions, I would just not enjoy them in the least. I understand foobar thinks he is providing some kind of benefit; I'm trying to point out that it may not be a benefit for everyone, and that I think he is wasting his money and effort doing that kind of thing.

I think it's a cool thing to do, especially if you live in DC and his is probably the caps best ever shot to win a cup. If you despise hockey and people alike then just politely decline and say you can't make it

I would much rather work for someone that did nice things like that for his employees than somebody that didn't.

Eeeeeeeeyore

Maybe, unless you went to try to be friendly, and then you got fired for not eating the hotdogs...

the hot dogs just speak to a larger problem that likely would have surfaced eventually.

Sure, it's likely that you would have noticed earlier someone was a vegetarian, making you even more of a douche for just supplying hotdogs and then getting offended by his not eating them.

I can't believe you accuse me of trolling you.

I mean, really. As ridiculous as the notion is that someone would ACTUALLY fire someone for not eating a hot dog (it was a joke), your overreaction is equally ridiculous. Hot dog haters aren't a protected class and I suspect most non-government, non-union workers are employed at will.

If your employer asks you to attend a ball game, go. (This goes to JL too if invited to a communist rally / soccer game.) Show up late, thank the host for thinking of you, eat some food, nurse a glass of wine, mingle a little, leave early, go back to work. I attended a SF Giants game once where I never found out who they were playing. It's a goddamn social event.

I have no problems with vegetarians, they are much healthier than I am and will likely outlive me. I show no problem with people bringing tofu burgers to a company picnic and I have no problem with people not eating hot dogs.

But yes. If somebody was an invited guest to a a baseball game ands risky asked for a vegetarian alternative to hot dogs hey would not be a good fit for whatever company I ran.

Conversely, if I was hired by birkenstock as in house legal and showed up at their company hack and sack retreat and acted normal they should have every right to fire me

He certainly didn't seem like he was joking to me, and his followup posts seem even less so. While I am not a vegetarian, it appalls me to think of someone discriminating against them. They may not legally be a protected class, however (unless it is for religious reasons).

And C, I really don't "accuse" you of trolling me, just call it that to be silly. I just think we both like to argue, and often about opposing sides of the same issue. I still like your posts and would be happy to see you in person again.

A group of people not eating hot dogs at a baseball game is a communist rally

You'd be three-hack-slapping with the best of them, and in 15 minutes in they'd think you were old buddies with John Stalberger from way back.
He was absolutely trolling you. Take it to the bank.
Let's say it costs between $10k and $30k to recruit and train a new decent employee, on the low side. Could be much more depending on the industry and time -- people were handing out $10k-$25k signing bonuses around here and were giving away BMW Z3s in the valley during the tech boom. That's in addition to paying internal $5k-$10k referral bonuses, so you're rushing towards $50k in cost of acquisition. Most people are pretty happy to have the odd $100/head excursion to the ballpark once or twice a year and that feeling cared for/appreciated goes a long way towards them saying "I'm not that interested in looking around" when a recruiter calls. Does a 50x ROI sound terrible to you? That's just on the money side, as I'm sure plenty of CEOs just like going to work in a place where their employees are happy. It is either this or hire expensive team-building consultants, who'll just recommend a company picnic.

Are back and forths with chillrob ever enjoyable?

This entire back and forth tilts me.

1) as a private business owner, foobar is "wasting" his own money to do this outing
2) given his username is foobar, I assume he does work in technology. Believe me when I say that a guy working in software in DC is getting compensated well. Things that'll cause him to leave include a poor working environment, bureaucratic nonsense, and especially a poor relationship with upper management. Good employee treatment can go a long way in retention.
3) many of my best friends now are people I met at work. It's pretty easy to be miserable when you approach the work world with the assumption that everyone is a douchebag until proven otherwise.

Also, it was clear that jon_locke was making a joke, but fit clearly matters in an organization. If everyone fit the culture for one, it might mean that you wouldn't spend the entire time at a social outing being miserable around everyone.

I think someone from work even introduced you to this stupid game.

But in all seriousness, I took a team I managed to a baseball playoff game. We bought great seats, had all the beer/food we could drink/eat, and I think everyone had a grand old time. A few people couldn't make it for various reasons and I understood and didn't hold it against them (why would anyone do that?).

I'd much rather work in places that do these sorts of things vs places that don't ....

Foobar

If your employees all feel the way that chillrob does about attending the game in a premium luxury box, I know quite a few individuals from my area who would be extremely grateful to attend. We also sure as hell wouldn't demand you foot the bill for food, in fact we would be happy to pay for the catering and the pre-game happy hour ourselves.

Hopefully your employees appreciate the gesture. I am assuming that this outing is in no way mandatory, and that those who are into the idea will enjoy it immensely.

Go Flyers

True fact, I somehow have a degree in business leadership. Also surprised everyone is convinced I'm joking (maybe but maybe not).