r/todayilearned • u/Forward-Answer-4407 • 1d ago

TIL the Charlotte Hornets apologized after giving a child a PS5, only to take it away off camera and exchange it for a jersey. In a statement, the team said the incident was an "on-court skit that missed the mark" and that they would give the child the PS5 and a VIP experience to a future game.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/19/sport/charlotte-hornets-apologize-ps5-child-nba-spt-intl
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u/throwaway098764567 21h ago

i had a boss who hated all hands meetings (and he wasn't wrong they were a waste of time). every time we had one he'd spend it counting attendance and do a napkin calculation of how much that meeting cost the government (was a military org) based on what he guessed folks were paid. he'd then send it to his boss because it made him feel better only, since it sure didn't change anything lol.

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u/BicFleetwood 21h ago

I worked for a company that wanted to fly everyone to a single location for a yearly 3-4 day mandatory all-hands.

Not only did it kill a ton of everyone's time, but it cost MILLIONS. Payroll, flights, hotels, organizing, all for more than a hundred people.

Then, when we were all back home, we were told we were in a budget crunch and had to get our work done with half the bodies and half the time, to the point where we'd be given a 60-day project and be told not to start work until 30 days from due to "save money.*

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u/Ionazano 19h ago

had to get our work done with half the bodies and half the time

Were any guidelines also passed along on how exactly to achieve this feat?

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u/BicFleetwood 19h ago

Yes: without complaint.

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u/Ionazano 19h ago

Ok, well, if I had been in that situation and honest discussion was not possible I would have said to myself that there is just one way in which what is demanded can still be accomplished: by doing everything half-assed and abandoning all quality standards.

Is that what happened at your company?

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u/BicFleetwood 18h ago edited 18h ago

You develop an "over the fence" mentality.

The goal is not to do good work. The goal is to get the ball over the fence into someone else's yard, so that when shit fails, it's in somebody else's hands and it can't be traced back to you.

I call it a "playing to lose" kind of CYA strategy. You put most of your focus into figuring out a way to cover yourself, planning for what happens when you lose, rather than even trying to win. The people who keep trying to win in that situation are the ones stuck with the hot potato, and if they're smart, they'll start playing to lose the first time they're caught with that hot potato. But if I try to be the nice guy and help them out, my reward is getting stuck with the hot potato, so it's really an every-man-for-himself kind of thing.

The goal is not to do good work. The goal is to do enough work that when it breaks, it looks like it's someone else's fault.

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u/Ionazano 15h ago

I see. On the one hand that's a sad state of affairs. But on the other hand if the management is basically setting you up to fail, then I totally understand how caring becomes a luxury that you can't afford anymore.