Fired Via Instant Message 367
JThaddeus writes "Yahoo! news reports that South Korea's third-largest credit card issuer, KEB Credit Service, fired 161 people--a quarter of its workforce--via mobile phone text messages. Hey, at least they got told, right? Afterall, they could have been like Milton."
"You've Got Vacation!" (Score:4, Funny)
Re:"You've Got Vacation!" (Score:5, Funny)
But now that I'm retired, yeah, that I call "sweet permanent vacation." Heh.
R:"Y'v Gt Vctn!" (Score:5, Funny)
ur frd. No jb 4u
n e mor. no $ in
bnk, cnt get cred,
cnt mk chex. Thnx,
sorry, Gd luck!!!!
-----
This SMS service
is provided by KEB
Credit Service
Re:"You've Got Vacation!" (Score:5, Insightful)
The message was... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The message was... (Score:5, Funny)
lmao.
Re:The message was... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The message was... (Score:5, Funny)
McFly -- READ MY FAX! (Score:5, Funny)
Well, at least they didn't get it ALL wrong in Back to the Future II... the message was just delivered on cell phones instead of paper [propworld.nu].
Where's my pizza rehydrator and hoverboard, anyway?
Re:McFly -- READ MY FAX! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:11 years too early (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess they need 11 more years to finish up the flying cars and Mr. Fusion retrofit kits... they can keep the double neckties and other fashion faux pases (like the sunglasses - ugh!)
Happened in the UK too last year (Score:5, Funny)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2949578.stm
Re:Happened in the UK too last year (Score:5, Informative)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/29 52194.stm
Re:Happened in the UK too last year (Score:5, Funny)
Speaking from his 3m mansion in North Rode, Cheshire, he said: "I'm absolutely devastated"
Why does slashdot not recognise Pound signs? Sigh...
The Milton Solution (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Insightful)
And much more expensive. When a company is bankrupt and shutting down, things like that just aren't quite an option.
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Interesting)
Not to mention the fact that this company isn't winding down its operations at all.
Now, to be fair, if I go on strike I would feel the company totally justified in letting me go after three days for job abandonment (in California, job abandonment is defined as failure to report in for three consecutive days without leave), so a notice of any kind to striking workers seems entirely unnecessary. But contracts and foreign law probably place entirely different requirements on this particular circumstance.
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, laws in the USA must be very different! Going on strike is totally different from job abandonment, workers strike is a legally valid option for Unions, which is turn are legally valid organizations of workers. Nobody can be fired for being on strike for 3,4 or more days, since a strike is a legal and valid form of protest. Not going to work for 3 days is a totally unrelated matter since I suppose that those days were not accounted for legally (sickness, pregnancy, etc).
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:4, Informative)
They are... from state to state, even. But in any case, legally recognized unions can legally strike in the US, at least under legally mandated conditions. ("Wildcat strikes" are another matter.)
I've never worked in a union shop, so that's about the extent of my knowledge... other than when the machinist's union at Boeing settles in for a protracted strike, it's a great time to shop the classifieds for a used boat, motorcycle, plasma TV or other big-ticket luxury item.
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Insightful)
So you like working for $0.25/hour, or whatever the employer decides to pay you that week.
For all their problems, organized labor unions (with laws protecting their rights) are a necessity to protect the common workers from exploitation.
Labor Strike != "not working". It is the only tool workers have for forcing fair negotiated wages and other compensation.
No, I'm not (and never have been) part of a union. Thankfully I'm in a profession which doesn't require that kind of protection. But Upton Sinclair and Tennesee Ernie Ford didn't get famous for bitching about non-issues...
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Insightful)
That's why I attempted to qualify my statement with "For all their problems...". And I was merely responding to the AC's cold attitude towards striking workers.
However, in this case, the company was going to go under anyway so these folks were screwed no matter what.
A good example of your point in current practice is the upcoming expiration of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement. The NHLPA (the players' union) is refusing to even discuss a salary cap, even in the face of an independent analysis of the NHL finances. I really think the NHLPA should reassess their position because a two-year work stoppage (as they are advising the players) would pretty much kill the NHL. Only us hard-core fans would be left (and I'd seriously look at where else I could spend my sports-viewing dollars).
The AC is a Manager (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The AC is a Manager (Score:4, Funny)
depends on whether you use tongue or not...
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:3, Interesting)
I disagree. Other companies will pick up the slack caused by the downsizing / folding of this company, resulting in new jobs - which the fired employees will probably snap up. Those other companies will make damn sure they are a little nicer to the union than the dead company was.
Sure, it's temporary hardship for this group of employees, but the whole workforce benefits in the long run.
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Insightful)
No union:
Company lowers wages, but employees can't quit (can't afford to move, find a new job, etc.). Employers can keep cutting wages and benefits to a "barely living" wage. With lower labor costs, the company can cut retail price, maintain rising profits, and gain from both ends. To compete, other companies must follow suit. Overall market wages go down. Nobody's wages are below "market", but "market" sucks.
With union:
Company tries to lower wages. Union responds, stops work. Company is forced to negotiate, and keep wages high. Even non-union workers benifit, since the market retail and market wages are higher, and there is competition on a decent-wage playing field.
This works, of course, until someone finds a supply of non-union labor and finds it's easier to import, but... well... that's free trade.
Too bad (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Insightful)
Workers don't benefit from destroying the employer but in some cases they do. For instance, if an employer has lower standards or wages than what one would expect in a particular society, workers won't lose much if such businesses go out of business. This is why labour supports minimum wage, even though it puts many companies out of business. It is much better for these low-wage companies to go out of business than to have them pay something very low.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Informative)
I would say that Korea may get to the point where that statement is as true for them as it is for us and other G7 countries, but it aint there yet.
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Insightful)
What's wrong with hiring a kid to help build a fence on a weekend and paying them little? The kid has few responsibilities, and isn't accomplishing very much. He'd also be happy to get the money.
What's wrong with hiring a highschool student to do low-wage work as he lives with his parents? $4.00 an hour might pay for all the gas & food he needs.
The thing about minimum wage is that you're assuming that it's a career position, when in truth it's often a passing job on the way to bigger and better things. It's not good when young people have no opportunity to work a low-level job. How are they supposed to get experience and become more responsible?
Instead, young people can't find a low-responsibility, low-pay job. So, they just don't work. Then, when they're expected to be independent, they have no job experience at all, they just have a High School degree, which is worth about as much as the paper it's printed on (as far as representing knowledge and responsibility).
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:4, Informative)
The thing about minimum wage is that you're assuming that it's a career position, when in truth it's often a passing job on the way to bigger and better things. It's not good when young people have no opportunity to work a low-level job. How are they supposed to get experience and become more responsible?
There are a ton of jobs at minimum wage! There is no shortage of them. You can literally find minimum wage jobs in retailing, fast food restaurants, factories, etc. I really don't think young people are out of jobs because of it. Perhaps this may be true for rural areas (with fewer potential employers) but in municipal areas, minimum wage jobs are plenty.
In any case, there is no such thing as a career. Maybe you have a career but most of the lower class people don't. If you think some people don't work minimum wage for most of their lives, you probably live in a world without any knowledge of what goes on around you. Just look around and you'll see what I mean. There are adults in minimum wage jobs such as fast food restaurants, cleaners, waiters in restaurants, factory work, taxicabs, certain sales, "homeworkers", lifting and moving, and so forth. These jobs are carried out by adults--not some students who live with their parents. You live in a parellel world not conscious of such situations. There are actually people who make around $15k to $25k per year even though they work 40 hours. These people are called the working poor. You might want to look it up.
Instead, young people can't find a low-responsibility, low-pay job. So, they just don't work. Then, when they're expected to be independent, they have no job experience at all, they just have a High School degree, which is worth about as much as the paper it's printed on (as far as representing knowledge and responsibility).
I just love the arguments coming out of capitalists these days (yes, you are one
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Insightful)
There are 25 million Americans are working full time for at or near minimum wage. If you eliminated their wages entirely, it would reduce the wage expenses of the country by 267 billion. That's if they were SLAVES. Total salaries and wages in the United States are roughly 6.5 trillion. Would you institute slavery to get a four percent discount at Taco Bell? No? Then, would you make someone work 80 hours a week just to be able to afford food and shelter so you could get a two percent discount on your McValue meal? 60 hours so you could get one percent? Where do you draw the line?
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem is sustainability. You cannot sustain an economy where people are paid less than it costs to survive. The result is usually revolution. There's more at stake here than whether or not you spend $1.50 or $5.00 on your hamburger. If you can't see that, there's no argument that will convince you.
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:4, Informative)
The free market is only able to create economic equilibria in very idealized cases (perfect information, rationality, etc-- see the work of J. Steiglitz on this issue). It will *not* sort out wage and supply to 'optimal' conditions left to its own devices. If you read any history, you will see that it took sustained political pressure to get such luxuries as a 40-hour work week and a decent living wage. Capitalism was perfectly content with steep levels of social stratification for decades until political movements forced significant redistributive measures.
Moreover, the 'free market' has always required government intervention-- once again, a glance at history will show that, depending on context, protectionism, nationalization, subsidies, and/or free trade, privatization and laissez-faire were required. Your Chicago School view of economics is pretty much obsolete in serious academia. It lives on in corporate-funded think tanks which have, ironically enough, political motivations.
iopha
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, I don't expect a libertarian-conservative like you to accept my view.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Informative)
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:5, Informative)
RTFA (Score:5, Informative)
South Korea's third-largest credit card issuer fired a quarter of its workforce via mobile phone text messages on Friday, after negotiations with striking unionized workers broke down.
The firm said it had no method for contacting striking staff other than using the short message service (SMS).
I suppose, to them, it would be no different than calling them all up directly, other than the fact that that would take too long (plus, you'd have to put up with them complaining about getting fired, etc.).Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper (Score:3, Interesting)
hmm (Score:5, Funny)
GOOD NEWS! (Score:5, Funny)
Sucks to be Corben Dallas!
It's what they had... (Score:5, Informative)
It's not the first time this has happened (Score:5, Informative)
Accident group was a bunch of ambulance chasing lawyers - you know the adverts - "have you suffered an injury - contact us and we'll sue for you" (and take a massive cut from any compensation).
Re:It's not the first time this has happened (Score:5, Interesting)
offices as I recall. It was hillarious seeng all these middle class
lawyer types lugging chairs and stuff out of the building.
The company director did a runner to Spain I think.
heh (Score:5, Funny)
And their response: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:And their response: (Score:3, Funny)
How Are You Gentelmen,
all your job are belong to us.
You have no chance to re-hire make your desk.
HA HA HA!
(I know, I know)
And the employees were left wondering... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And the employees were left wondering... (Score:5, Funny)
This happened before in the UK (Score:5, Informative)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2949578.stm [bbc.co.uk]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/204361
Before you lose it... (Score:5, Insightful)
My girlfriend who is Korean can friggen enter SMS messages by using the keypad faster than I can write them with a stylus on my p800; it is both awesome and scary at the same time.
Re:Before you lose it... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Before you lose it... (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember hearing a comment about the effects of using SMS so much in Britain and Japan; someone said teenagers are so used to using their thumb on their phone that the thumb has become their dominant digit, and they use it for things like ringing doorbells etc.
Re:Before you lose it... (Score:5, Funny)
I can see it now: (Score:4, Funny)
Tragic (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't help but wonder if this story would have been posted under "It's funny. Laugh" if it had been an American company firing American workers.
Is it only funny because it is happening half a world away?
Re:Tragic (Score:5, Insightful)
teh msg (Score:5, Funny)
u hv 4hr 2 get ur
stf out of ur dsk
hv a gr8 day cya
Fired OR? (Score:5, Interesting)
I do have to hand it to then for sheer cold-blooded brutality. The little devil guy that pops up over my right shoulder really got a kick out of this one!
Re:Fired OR? (Score:5, Funny)
It just wasn't working out; I just couldn't compete with this stupid, ugly green website.
I want my car back, too.
Don't bother trying to come crawling back, we're through.
Like this way of breaking up with you? It's Toni's idea. Savor the sweet, sweet irony.
Fearing Job Cuts (Score:5, Informative)
Just a sec, I need to jot this down in my notebook of things not to do: Item 694: Go on strike to prevent job cuts.
That done, Marjorie Kelly makes a good point in her work The Divine Right of Capital that employees are are the wrong side of the ledger. People are expenses not stake holders. This creates the negative feedback that as productivity increases wages go down...not up.
This strike and instant death messages shows that confrontational method of strikes does not work well in a market that is suffering from over capacity. What needs to happen is we need to figure out how to get more people from the expense side of the ledger into the stake holder side of the ledger.
Re:Fearing Job Cuts (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fearing Job Cuts (Score:4, Insightful)
For the free market to work, people have to have ownership of something. The game of selling your entire life to a company is a single transaction is not leading to optimal results. This game where the majority of people become 100% dependent on a single source of income is a farce. This episode of striking against a bankrupt firm and getting fired by text message can only be described as a comedy.
At least they got paid when they worked. (Score:5, Interesting)
The last I heard of him is that he was on his way to the probation department after his criminal conviction.
Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
KEB was firing
Worker: What happen?
Cellphone: Somebody set up us the IM.
AIM: We get message.
Worker: What!
AIM: Main screen turn on.
Worker: It's you!!
HR: How are you gentlemen!!
HR: All your jobs are belong to us!
Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, they had the cell phone number needed to send the sms - buck up and call them.
Gutless (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd suggest start working on your own business. It's not that hard to do. And with companies pushing more of the grunt paperwork down on already over-worked people, you might find it's less work than some of you are doing now. The big expense for most people is health insurance.
Re:Gutless (Score:4, Insightful)
You are really taking a job too seriously. It is not time invested with no pay back: those people were getting paid for that time. Whether they were getting paid enough is an individual concern. Keep in mind that they were on strike, while the company had no money...
No outplacement assistance, nothing. Tossed aside like a used Kleenex.
In your attempt to paint this as the giant evil corporation using people like Kleenex you missed that there will be a seperation package. Getting laid off is not pleasant. Firing someone is not pleasant on the individual level, either. With no way to get in touch with someone because that person is not coming into work how do you prepose the company should have let people know they should start planning for their future instead of chanting with signs in front of the company?
So... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:4, Funny)
TheBoss has sent you a message! (Score:3, Funny)
TheBoss: whoops
TheBoss: sorry but ur fired
TheBoss: ill give u good reference tho
* TheBoss sets status to Sorry *
TheBoss:
TheBoss: srry ur mad at me gtg byebye
TheBoss has logged out
Instant Message != Text Message (Score:5, Informative)
I'd be much more impressed if someone was fired via an instant message:
Bob has signed in
Bob says: Morning Alex
Alex says: Hi Bob
Bob says: You're fired.
Bob has left the conversation
Re:Instant Message != Text Message (Score:4, Funny)
Fired by text message? That's nothing! (Score:4, Interesting)
To be fair, it's not text messaging that is the issue. In many muslim countries saying, "I divorce you" three times is enough for divorce. SMS is just the medium for carrying the divorce messages.
Perhaps that explains the "You're Fired!" spam... (Score:5, Insightful)
What's to stop some spoofer/hacker/etc from sending out bogus, legit looking "You're Fired!" SMS - say from a stolen/borrowed/hacked cellphone or computer, etc of the company.
Even if it later is revealed the "You're Fired!" SMS were bogus, the damage is already done...
Ron
Dear Employee (Score:4, Funny)
Back in '78 (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess... (Score:4, Funny)
+5 Informative - You've been canned.
Re:I guess... (Score:3, Funny)
Oh the irony (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Oh the irony (Score:4, Funny)
All you need is 6 characters...
urfyrd
Legal strength ? (Score:5, Interesting)
There's also an issue about SMS authentication, do you think these 161 recipients know their HR manager GSM number and are able to verify the author of the message ? Could be anyone sending you that message : "you are fired. signed J.M. KEB Credit Service HR Manager"
Coming soon to your linux desktop (Score:4, Funny)
Could be worse (Score:4, Interesting)
couldn't get e-mail. Since corporate HQ was in another time zone, we
had to wait a couple of hours until the IT guys got in. The IT guys
passed the buck for a while until finally we were told that the folks who
couldn't get their e-mail were laid off.
Instant??? What's instant about an SMS? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Instant??? What's instant about an SMS? (Score:4, Informative)
Are you from the US? Here in Europe, delivery lags are pretty much a non-issue by now. I haven't had an SMS delayed by any significant amount of time (i.e. more than a few seconds) in years.
(Unless it's New Year's Eve, that is.)
I only know this for those messages to which I got immediate replies of course, but that is probably the majority of my messages.
Monday morning: (Score:3, Funny)
Boss: Err...
Joe Worker: My work mobile (cell) seems to have died this weekend, any chance of a new one?
/.ing & (Ir)Responsbility - OT (Score:3, Insightful)
Practically everyone on
I'm just asking for a little consideration from the moderators not a linking policy.
minus
(and no, I didn't go to this guy's site)
swingline now makes this stapler (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.swingline.com/html/1695.html
Just running an errand... (Score:5, Funny)
i jst at teh
GUNS n AMMO
STOR i am stndin
in lobby now l8tr
Worse ways of getting fired... (Score:5, Funny)
Your employer uploads pinkslip.txt to the CVS tree of the free software project you've been spending all your time on.
Your boss cracks your home machine and leaves the message "J00 ar3 n07 1337. F10R3D!!!!11!1!"
Boss takes you to a fancy Indian restaurant. When the waiter comes, he says "Yes, we're ready to order - by the way, Bob, Mahel here will be replacing you in two days."
They FedEx you a cell phone while you work, a la the Matrix. It rings, and when you answer, a mysterious deep voice tells you, "Look at the hall by the elevator. They're coming for you, Neo". You look, and you see a group of HR people coming to fire your sorry ass, being directed towards your cubicle. Being a geek, you immediately re-enact the scene where the agents(HR people) are trying to hunt Neo(you) while he talks to Morpheus(the mysterious stranger).
You think, "This is it. The thing I have been waiting for all my life - confirmation that I AM the One! Haha, I'm not a loser, suckers!" However all your hopes come crashing to an end when the guy on the phone says "Oh what the hell. You're fired anyway whether they find you or not. I've been leading you on for my own amusement, but now it's gotten boring. Clever hack, eh? btw, you're not The One, you'll never touch Trinity, and you're still just a loser without a job." In desperation you fling yourself out the 10th-floor window to confirm you have super powers or die trying. You die trying. However you prove the hacker wrong on one point when you DO touch Carrie-Anne Moss at the last moment of your life, crushing her to death between you and her motorcycle.
sorry (Score:5, Funny)
guys guys guys...
the boss(mr. kim) was on his lunch break, but he left his cellphone on the desk. i was wondering what could be a practical joke to play on my fellow colleagues and, well, ended sending these you've been fired messages. sorry if i scared the fuckin shit out of you.
i'll see you on monday at work.
Re:U R FIRED (Score:5, Funny)