
I Can’t Work Under These Conditions - Mazy
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/30/i-cant-work-under-these-conditions/
======
dtf
"Kick someone's ass on the first day, or become someone's bitch. After then,
everything will be alright."

This seems to be Michael asserting his place in the pecking order, in his own
mischievous way :-)

~~~
tptacek
I think this has more to do with Arrington asserting his place in the
_industry_ pecking order; "no, really, see, I'm not AOL's bitch."

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edw519
Obscure clause on Page 47 of the M & A documents:

"This deal becomes null and void if any internal AOL documents end up on
Techcrunch.com before the end of the due diligence period."

</just kidding>

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zacharycohn
After noticing this was written by Arrington, I think this was clearly tongue
in cheek, and partially meant as a display of "Look, here's some proof that
TechCrunch is not really changing and is not going to censor stories due to
various financial interests. We're still going to complain about things that
are dumb, and I think meetings are dumb."

~~~
count
At least until after the meeting...

~~~
mahmud
"New shit has come to light! .. I mean, there has been a new development
pertaining to our expected level of professional conduct .."

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neurotech1
Apparently the smiley was left of the HN Title.

Considering Michael Arrington put a Dilbert cartoon in the post, I assume this
is meant as humor.

~~~
jshen
which is funny because it's true

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riffer
_Ok, I’m off to go review HR policies, or something. On the upside, there’s a
guy here named Brian from corp dev and I think with enough pressure he’s going
to tell me all the other acquisition deals AOL is working on._

It pays to be an optimist.

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wccrawford
Wait, you think your company can be bought out by another company and NOT have
a meet-n-greet?

I would think it seriously odd if everyone tried to ignore the change and the
new overlords didn't introduce themselves.

~~~
borism
I don't think Warren Buffet or other Berkshire people do a lot of meetings
after a buyout. Sure, they bring him over to show to an average worker, but
they're not there to manage. If they don't believe in firm or management they
won't invest in the first place.

~~~
dugmartin
Most of their buyouts are private because the founder wants to retire or the
heirs don't want the hassle of running the company. In either case the people
in Arrington's role don't stick around because they already have professional
management in place.

~~~
jorkos
that's actually not true, they like the founders to stick around; Buffett is
great at keeping founders around long after Berkshire buys them

~~~
jmtulloss
You two have opposing statements, and neither of you backs up your argument.

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borism
I'm sorry, I don't get it. What two opposing statements does he have?

And also I don't see what argument is he trying to make in your opinion. From
what I see he makes factual rebuttal of previous (incorrect) statement.

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tseabrooks
Arrington seems to be unreasonably excited about the gifts. What will he do
when the dump truck pulls up with all of the 'recycled' AOL CDs as gifts. :-)

~~~
jakevoytko
They'll do what everyone does: use them as coasters, play dangerous frisbee
games, and test their quality by breaking the CDs in half with their bare
hands.

Theoretically they could connect to the Internet by accidentally sticking it
in a CD tray, but I suspect TechCrunch already has Internet access.

~~~
gvb
You forgot microwaving them.

~~~
awakeasleep
And _you_ forgot charging them up on a dremel

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jdoliner
I still think that at some level Michael Arrington approved this deal because
it meant one more story he could break. He's clearly crossed from dedication
to addiction.

~~~
danilocampos
If that's so, I bet he's pretty sore with Om Malik these days.

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bmr
This smells contrived, as if TechCrunch will somehow be cooler if it rebels
against its parent a la Reddit v. Conde Nast.

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warwick
Can someone explain what "Working Session" means to me? There's nothing listed
for them to work on.

~~~
bostonvaulter2
I'm guessing that they're not going to find out what they're working on until
they start. Perhaps its something like ranking all the employees.

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ck2
Just don't forget to turn in your badge when you leave.

AOL took like $50 out of my last paycheck for mine!

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weel
I think he just wrote a blog post. He can apparently work under these
conditions.

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Mz
We have a big meeting coming up soon where I work. I can very much relate. I
was recently thinking "That something like 1500 man hours wasted on all this
togetherness when we could be accomplishing something."

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some1else
This article is a better put "Service Temporarily Unavailable" message. Way to
make news when you're too busy to do real journalism :-)

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illumin8
Did anyone else find it hilarious that an entire section of time is blocked
out for "Administrative Happiness"?

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dbrannan
So, we can assume there will be nothing worth reading on TechCrunch tomorrow.

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wtracy
Am I the only one who thinks it's funny that he published the agenda of their
internal all-hands?

At least where I work, these things always have "confidential" in tiny print
in a corner for no obvious reason.

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Tichy
Gifts, what could it be? A mobile built from AOL CDs perhaps?

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bad_user
I hate HR orientation :(

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spyne-02139
Lest anyone forget the absolute utter dirt bags running the show at AOL, let
me regale thee with all time hit #1 "Cancel the account"
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmpDSBAh6RY>

Good luck Mr. Arrington, and better luck getting out.

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werftgh
2:30-3:00 Return to their desks and start looking for new jobs?

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kirpekar
I wonder how much he is being paid to attend that 3 hour meeting

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kno
"STFU and go cash your check, numnutts."

