Microsoft's Adam Orth Resigns Over Twitter Tirade

You don't comment publicly on your company's business or affairs, even when asked. That is a requirement at most tech and biotech companies, if not most companies in general. If you do so, you may be fired.
 
wonderfield said:
Can you point out where he spoke about unannounced products?
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I don't know why I even respond to your posts, you are just trolling to be trolling. Keep it up.

Everything he said was about MS customers complaining about the next Xbox's supposed always on requirement. Everything he said was mocking MS customers, their concerns about the rumors and he even mocked where they lived.

Anyhow,

A.) We know you don't work at MS.
B.) You have no idea what MS employees sign as part of their employment contract.
C.) You've never signed a MS contract or NDA,

making your "as far as I know' comments about the non-disclosure agreements laughable.
 
Wouldn't it be ironic if he ended up working/living in a place like Blacksburg, VA or Janesville, WI or here in Texarkana, TX internet hell, where your two ISP choices are Windstream 6mbps down/512k up or Cableone with 50mbps down speeds and a 100gb cap.
 
wonderfield said:
Can you point out where he spoke about unannounced products?
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Steve said:
I don't know why I even respond to your posts, you are just trolling to be trolling. Keep it up.

Everything he said was about MS customers complaining about the next Xbox's supposed always on requirement. Everything he said was mocking MS customers, their concerns about the rumors and he even mocked where they lived.

Anyhow,

A.) We know you don't work at MS.
B.) You have no idea what MS employees sign as part of their employment contract.
C.) You've never signed a MS contract or NDA,

making your "as far as I know' comments about the non-disclosure agreements laughable.
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He didn't speak directly about unannounced products. He did insult the peasants with no internet though.

I'm under NDA for some products and I wouldn't dare dance around indirectly referencing a possible product.
 
Steve said:
I don't know why I even respond to your posts, you are just trolling to be trolling.
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Nope, that's not my intention here.

Steve said:
Everything he said was mocking MS customers, their concerns about the rumors and he even mocked where they lived.
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Correct. That's what everyone's taking issue with, and for good reason (I'm not defending the guy, because he's obviously an ass and he deserves to have been ousted). But he didn't comment on unannounced Microsoft products.
 
KENNYB said:
I'm under NDA for some products and I wouldn't dare dance around indirectly referencing a possible product.
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Yeah, you can get away with it nine times out of ten, but it's not something worth risking. Perceptions can cause as many problems as actual information.
 
It's amazing how many people are completely oblivious in this thread regarding representing your employer. Something tells me those must be the kids.

When you publicly proclaim you work for a company, and start discussing the business of that company, you're representing that company whether you're on the clock or not. I'd be he didn't willingly resign, something tells me it was more of a matter of being voluntold "Look, quit and be able to claim you resigned so you have an easier time finding another job, or get fired".

Any company I have ever worked for over the past 15 years would have fired my ass if I did anything remotely similar to what this guy did, and the company policies regarding that have been very clear. Even without an NDA, causing such a public stink over a product is just not acceptable. As far as why Steve Ballmer can get away with it, he answers to the shareholders. As long as the shareholders are happy, Ballmer can do just about anything he wants. Adam Orth on the other hand probably had 10 layers of management directly above him, not including those in other organizations of the company that might have had a problem with what he did.
 
lilbabycat said:
Commenting on a comment about unannounced products is commenting about unannounced products.
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"Unannounced product" is not the same as "any feasible product that may or may not exist at any given time, now or in the future". He was speaking very generally about the prospect of always-on consoles and other devices, not addressing any specific rumors about specific or rumored products (based on the tweets I've seen, anyway).
 
wonderfield said:
"Unannounced product" is not the same as "any feasible product that may or may not exist at any given time, now or in the future". He was speaking very generally about the prospect of always-on consoles and other devices, not addressing any specific rumors about specific or rumored products (based on the tweets I've seen, anyway).
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Seriously? You must be just trolling now.
 
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harbingerofdoom said:
not that this really answers anything, but how would you know anything about whatever NDA he was under and what its contents were?
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I was just trying to get him to say which non-disclosure he violated, since he seemed to be of the belief that he violated one. Perhaps "to what NDA are you referring?" would've been the better way to get that across.

Meeho said:
Seriously? You must be just trolling now.
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Elaborate.
 
He was of the belief he violated an NDA? I didn't think there was any information from him regarding his resignation?

Anyways, it all boils down to one core point: his actions directly resulted in a shit storm of negativity for MS and their upcoming product, the new Xbox. Unfortunately, for whatever reason(s), he wasn't bright enough to realize his actions could snowball into what they did. Regardless,the severity of the response to his pompous negativity is not the issue really, it's more that he had no fucking clue what he was doing could be bad for his employers. What a fucking moron.
 
wonderfield said:
I was just trying to get him to say which non-disclosure he violated, since he seemed to be of the belief that he violated one. Perhaps "to what NDA are you referring?" would've been the better way to get that across.
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You don't have to "get me to say which NDA he violated". In post #9 you might note that I said he PROBABLY violated NDA. I'm being as speculative as you are. Was he under NDA? Who the hell knows. It's a safe bet he is considering Microsoft's secrecy behind the next Xbox.
 
"Try living in Janesville, WI or Blacksburg, VA"

"Why on earth would I live there?"

Because that's about all you're going to be able to afford, asshole.
 
krneki said:
I don't understand this world. He was sarcastic in a funny way.

Who is the drama queen that gets offended by this? Of course the only reason for always on is to combat piracy at the expense of legal users, everyone with an IQ above 10 gets it, yet people gets offended when someone speaks about it in an open view.
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Probably because people are passionate about their hobbies and when companies take a flippant stance towards legitimate concerns, they get upset? It's not hard to see why people oppose this. It's been pretty clear from the recent launches of SimCity and other games that people really hate always-on connections and for good reason.
 
krneki said:
He wasn't speaking for Microsoft, he had a personal opinion. Sure you might not like it, but why on earth would you blame Microsoft for it? for crying out loud, just because I work for some company I can't have a personal opinion on the net (right or wrong)?
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He's the Creative Director for Microsoft, making comments on video game consoles, on a twitter account which advertises he is the creative director of Microsoft.. It's not like you writing your dining experience on Twitter, where no one gives a shit what you think.
 
Good riddance I'll say, he sure was being an asswipe and a total douche with those bullshit comments he posted on Twitter. Maybe next time he should watch his smart ass comments before saying something that will upset the public.
 
Rizen said:
He's the Creative Director for Microsoft, making comments on video game consoles, on a twitter account which advertises he is the creative director of Microsoft.. It's not like you writing your dining experience on Twitter, where no one gives a shit what you think.
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^ Doesn't get any more crystal clear than this right here.
 
Sharing personal opinion concerning an unannounced product sure is a dumb thing to do.

What MS is doing with this always online crap has nothing to do with piracy and everything to do with having complete control over the product the customers have paid for. This is publisher's wet dream.
 
The only bad thing about this is that I can see the execs telling the board the only reason there was a backlash against 'unwanted feature X' is that its discussion with the public was mishandled by 'employee Y'. They have a scapegoat for when people react negatively to whatever aspect microsoft feels needs to continued to be concealed.
 
It's stupid to make public comments about your company's unreleased products unless you and your comments are authorized.

It's stupid to make public comments that are likely going to piss off your customers.

Maybe he was trying to be sarcastic and funny, but a public twitter account isn't the place to be sarcastic and funny when talking about the products of the company for which you are a manager.

I'm not sure he needed to lose his job over this. It would depend on if this were an isolated act of stupidity, or if he seemed prone to random stupidity. Everyone does stupid things from time to time.
 
Steve said:
In many states, you can be fired for airing your personal opinion in public. Police officers / firemen / public officials can be fired for much less.
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Not in Texas, their unions protect them even in wrongful shooting cases. And heck, look at the stuff Joe Biden says ALL THE TIME with no repurcussions whatsoever.
 
Bwahahahaha!!!!

What are we learning about social media folks? One fuck up and BAM! you lose your job.

That is why you see IT people using these things less than the average shmuck.

That is why, when I feel then overwhelming need to say something stupid I do it here at [H]. :)
 
Steve said:
In many states, you can be fired for airing your personal opinion in public. Police officers / firemen / public officials can be fired for much less.
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The problem--Orth's real problem--was forgetting in the moment that his private comments to his friend weren't actually private when he made them. By all accounts, as soon as he and his friend realized they were thinking out loud they immediately switched over to private mode--which is where they *thought* they were in the first place.

How many times have you told a friend--"Hey, eat this, jerkoff," or something similar, with a big smile on your face...? Suppose somehow your private, joking comment to an individual you know was overheard by someone who didn't see your humor, didn't catch your joke, and thought you were an "arrogant asshole" for what you said?

Orth's mistake was in posting on twitter to begin with--private mode be damned. It's too easy to simply forget for a moment where you are and what can happen with your comments. Those were the kinds of comments far better suited to email exchanges--that are automatically private. This was really a fairly dumb mistake for Orth to make--but if you ask me this whole generation's "social" complex is as dumb as it gets...;) IE, using facebook and/or twitter and "following" people like brainwashed/dead sheep should be the real firing offense!...;) What a monumental waste of time.

At the same time, though, if Microsoft was planning an "always on" disaster and decided to drop it as a result of the intense ill will generated by the out-of-context "always on" Orth comments--Microsoft should promote the guy as he will have protected the next xBox from the rotten judgment that Microsoft has been determined to have lately on a variety of subjects.
 
WaltC said:
The problem--Orth's real problem--was forgetting in the moment that his private comments to his friend weren't actually private when he made them. By all accounts, as soon as he and his friend realized they were thinking out loud they immediately switched over to private mode--which is where they *thought* they were in the first place.
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He should have used the cone of silence:

cone_of_silence12.jpg
 
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