I thought the following was an interesting internal memo to eBay employees. The site, InternalMemos.com, is a site where (generally pissed off) employees of various companies foward internal company correspondence, and the owner of this site posts it. (His other site is notorious Fu*kedCompany.com)



Anyway, this memo tells employees they cannot talk while at their desks. Interesting.



http://www.internalmemos.com/memos/m...p?memo_id=1701

Yikes!

oh well. if ebay employees don't like it, they should quit and find another job.















omg. i think i just channelled tame.

Ha! Did it feel pimp-a-liciously good?

actually, i just went and had a quick hot shower to get the "oogy" feeling off me. it didn't work. it's inside.

/hands Kreeli a tissue.



There there.

Mehh, I dont buy it. Ive taken business strategy courses (focused on improving employee productivity), and that memo runs contrary to the practices of all the major companies that we studied. That memo looks like a joke. If that is the way they run their business, theyre idiots, plain and simple.

Thus the basis of making fun of it.

Shamus, the guy who runs the site, owns several sites, and is always being threatened with legal proceedings for "putting up confidential company information".



Learn about him here and all his sites, as well his book, media coverage, etc.



http://www.pud.com/

Hey, with credentials like that, who can argue? "PUD" is the veritable "Jerry Springer of the Internet" after all. (I tend to trust every Pud I meet.) It looks like they do a thorough screening of all those memos, too.... Asking for the name of the submitter would probably squelch all that whistle-blowing going on. Isn't it "SafeHarbor", though, not Safeharbor?

Seems harsh, but I'll be willing to bet there is a reason for it. Probably too much gossiping and idle chitter-chatter going on.



Instead of a general memo - maybe they should take "guilty" individuals aside - which would be better for over-all morale.

I think it's fake.



Having social contacts at work enhances productivity.



(within limits)

I wasnt questioning the legitimacy of the site, I was questioning the legitimacy of the memo sent in. You said that people sent in copies of memos from the places they worked. I was questioning whether the piece that the worker sent in was actually true.

I would assume so. He's forever being sued by companies for posting confidential stuff that employees send to him. He's made an entire career out of this stuff.

Call me a skeptic, but I was thinking the same...

guess part of it comes from being in IT and having sooooooo

much bogus email about things that are typically found at

urbanlegends.com, both from the outside and from my co-workers sending out co-wide emails that are HOAXES...



I mean I could see how someone at E-bay or anywhere, might be unhappy with management, and decide to post a fake memo, in order to make management, simply look bad.....

Just my opinion, but the memo doesn't seem reasonable, to me, at least..



As an aside, Robert, do you know if or what they do to authenticate these memos?

I know I could forge one and make it look completely authentic...

No, actually I have no idea. With anything like this, I also take it with a grain of salt and not as fact. That said, this guy gets a lot of media coverage. I've seen many referneces that he has had to defend himself against a number of lawsuits and threats of legal action from numerous companies.



One would/could assume that posting something, claimed as truth, that obviously makes a company look bad, would be actionable in a court of law. Therefore, one could further assume that it would not make much sense to continue a site and having to divert funds for legal expenses if there was no validity to the postings. Then, to charge an access fee to read these memos, one could further assume companies would be seeking monetary judgements.



Because of reasons stated above, I tend to believe that there is indeed some validity to the postings. I have no doubt some are probably made up, but I also cannot be certain of that. I suppose one could always contact them and ask what verification process, if any, is in place.

Most of the stuff I see posted there is legit...this one makes me wonder. The wording seems odd...I dunno. It may have been done at a real low level.

That would be my first, best guess, too. Smart executives (and, let's face it, eBay is run by smart people or they wouldn't be where they are today) don't send memos like this. I've seen and written enough in my time to know that firsthand, too. But, some lower-level manager? Yeah, I've seen them do all kinds of stupid stuff.

I wouldn´t know how to work without informal talks. We have lots of quality groups going on in hospital, but the real, valuable information is to be obtained in the tea kitchen!