 September 26, 2014 - 4:21am | I've been reading a Traveller module where a corporate exec refused to pay the PCs based on a vague non performance clause which I thought was interesting. It got me wondering what are some other corporate diry tricks: 1. espionage is obvious 2. sabotage of competitors is obvious 3. using vague non performance clause to fire and not pay was mentioned. 4. using strict interpretation of vague company rules or policies to fire anyone considered a problem 5. My Dad quit a good computer programming job joined the Air Force and went to fight in Viet Nam when his company fired a man months from retirement and gave the job to the president's son. Others? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 26, 2014 - 7:20am | Man was two years from retiring in the Army and ETS'ed rather than retire and have his Ex get half his retirement! ...CEO quits rather than face a hostile take over by his Ex...oh by the way, Ms. CEO did not hire you so the work you did for the company was not sactioned and you will not be payed...(if it was a wetwork, espionage, etc; the company that hired the PCs may not only NOT get paid but, be reported to Star Law!) |
September 26, 2014 - 11:42am | Man was two years from retiring in the Army and ETS'ed rather than retire and have his Ex get half his retirement!
I like the Mrs. CEO take over and PCs out on the limb with the limb being sawn off behind them by being reported to star law. ...CEO quits rather than face a hostile take over by his Ex...oh by the way, Ms. CEO did not hire you so the work you did for the company was not sactioned and you will not be payed...(if it was a wetwork, espionage, etc; the company that hired the PCs may not only NOT get paid but, be reported to Star Law!) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 26, 2014 - 12:39pm | Corporate ethics are always interesting for plot points but how to use them is important. Using an obscure contract point out of nowhere may seem heavy handed. Perhaps if the PCs knew of it beforehand and choose to ignore it or had it reinterpretid in a new way could work better. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
September 27, 2014 - 2:00am | Corporate ethics are always interesting for plot points but how to use them is important. Using an obscure contract point out of nowhere may seem heavy handed. Perhaps if the PCs knew of it beforehand and choose to ignore it or had it reinterpretid in a new way could work better.
I agree with that and part of my review of the Murder on Arcturus module was that the whole set up was worth playing out. Play out hiring the PCs to find the ore carrier and discover the plot by disgruntled employees. Go ahead and present the Players with a standard contract to sign and so on , then the vague clause is already there and they saw it at the beginning. The only heavy handed thing a reff would need to do then is have an NPC play hard ball "If you want the job and 50,000 apiece you have to sign" and then ensure the ring leader escapes. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 27, 2014 - 9:44am | Yes, I worked for a major US company overseas and they hired people from many countries but paid them different: American - $2,583/month Bosnian- $2,000/month Kenyan- $900/month UK, South African, German- $2,583/month I asked if this was not prejudice? It's $2 to the UK pound! Should they not get paid twice as much, for example?... "You are comparing exchange rates. No. We base it on home economy." Ok, if I pay $5 for a Cheeseburger meal at McDonald's and a Brit pays 5 pounds at McDonald's in London, that means he pays twice as much as me so...should he make $5,166 ~ if you use the home economy excuse?... After speaking to several HR Supervisors and Managers, the Regional Manager contacted my Manager. She told me to drop it or the company would fire me. Point - trying thinking of something that is wrong and flip it to justify it with legal jargon and loopholes - Corporate Dirty Trick! Some of you may feel this is ok but, I didn't. It flies in the face of everything I was taught in school from Susan B. Anthony to Martin Lurther King. You do a job and get paid EQUALLY! Not based on race, sex, age, religion, sexaully orientation, country of origin, etc. |
September 28, 2014 - 10:58am | Sprite ran commercials, not sure when, this year or last year, stating that they were taking the high fructose corn syrup out of their product. Since I'm a food label nazi I welcomed this new and told the kids they could now have Sprite. However this week the youngest pointed out that the ingredients on her bottle of Sprite listed high fructose cornsyrup. So the company quietly went back to the old formula. I consider that a betrayal and they will be getting a letter from me this week.
The will act like they care for their customers in their marketing but the truth is they are always driven my money. And I suppose government attempts to regulate the economy because part of the whole cornsyrup issue is government tarriffs on imported sugar which artificially keeps the price higher than it needs to be. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 28, 2014 - 1:34pm | Actually, it wasn't Sprite, but Sierra Mist that went to sugar instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup. They label it "Natural" now. It tastes best if you add a little water to it to thin out the syrup. It's very carbonated, so it holds up. With water added, it tastes a lot like 7-Up. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 October 4, 2014 - 4:42am | I asked if this was not prejudice? It's $2 to the UK pound! Should they not get paid twice as much, for example?... "You are comparing exchange rates. No. We base it on home economy." Ok, if I pay $5 for a Cheeseburger meal at McDonald's and a Brit pays 5 pounds at McDonald's in London, that means he pays twice as much as me so...should he make $5,166 ~ if you use the home economy excuse?... The exchange rate does not tell you anything about how much a Happy Meal costs in London or elsewhere in the UK. You would have to sample prices at various places to determine that. But highly unlikely that it would cost 5 pounds. Closer to 2.5 pounds. It all depends on the local economy. Even in the US the cost of living varies greatly. The price of a happy meal in the rural midwest is very different than in NYC or Hawaii. Foreign exchange and purchasing price parity is a very complicated subject and far more complicated than just looking at exchange rates. This is why I'm glad SF uses the universal CR. Bringing this back to SF...how about some workers find out their paid less because they are from New Pale and start a campaign to sabotage a company. |
October 4, 2014 - 8:02am | Or - how about employees get paid less because they are not Human? Female employees make less - well they have to be covered by medical insurance in the event of pregnancy. Their insurance coverage is greater than a male. Also, the company picks up the bill for the insurance coverage so, if you take into account both wages and benefits - both male and female employees make the same. |
 October 19, 2014 - 2:02am | The way I run corporations varies based on the species involved. Vrusk tend to be very fair-minded, and base their employees' pay on performance, experience, and all the sort of stuff you'd expect. PCs consider themselves lucky to get a Vrusk contract, or to have regular employment with a Vrusk company. Dralasites are fun, and usually mean well, but they're not always shrewd businessmen. They have trouble being ruthless enough (Malthar excepted). Humans are humans. They screw people over. Yazirians have a strong competitive streak. They are more or less honorable as individuals, but in a corporate setting they are not too different than humans. Humma are ruthless. Period. Ifshnit are very insular and rarely hire anyone from outside their own clan. Ifshnit businesses are run like any type of family business. "Cousin Joe needs a job? Bring him over, we'll find him something to do." But if you're not an Ifshnit, you're basically a customer. In my campaign, Osakar are financially clueless. They are creative, innovative, eccentric and spiritual, but make poor bankers or corporate CEOs. However, they can sometimes be OK at running personal businesses, such as one who is an independent clothing designer or an artist who sells her own work. The worst ones at corporate dirty tricks are the S'sessu. It's like their main defining trait. They don't understand the basic concept of ethics, so they don't use it. Firing someone right before retirement? No problem! Lying to get you to agree to a deal? Standard practice! Finding (or creating) a loophole so they don't have to pay you once the job is done? Just good business sense! |
October 19, 2014 - 2:10am | Regarding the real-life examples you've mentioned, I have one more that has bothered me for years: Kix. We used to eat Kix all the time as a kid. It was simple, dry cereal, like Cheerios. At some point, the folks back at corporate HQ realized that people were buying it for that reason. So they put that slogan on the box we see today: "Kid-tested, mother-approved". THEN, almost immediately after putting that slogan on the box, they changed the basic recipe and made it a sugary cereal, no different than any other sugary cereals. It is now shiny and sticky to the touch, even when dry, like Honey Nut Cheerios. THIS "mom" does not approve. |
