Chinese Smartphone Maker Huawei Demotes Employees Responsible for Tweeting From iPhone

[Trusteft]

It makes sense what they did.
It's not that the employees used their personal iphones for personal business. They used their major competitor's product, for a company's announcement and advertised them at the same time. By accident most likely, but it makes sense to have some form of punishment for this error in judgment. I don't think they overreacted at all.

Having said that, I wouldn't use a Huawei phone no matter what. I don't trust any Chinese company for phones. Who knows what is inside their phones.

 

[Jimmy James]

“We’ve punished our staff for using the same phone as you”.

 

[pianophile]

You might want to check your facts

"Despite leaving Apple as a day-to-day employee in 1985, Wozniak chose to never remove himself from the official employee list, and continues to represent the company at events or in interviews.[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wozniak#cite_note-wozemployee-16'][16] Today he receives a stipend from Apple for this role, estimated to be $120,000 per year."[/URL]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wozniak

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

He is still an Apple employee.

And he purchases and uses pretty much every single Apple product; probably not a good comparison to a someone whose sole job is social media for a tech company being unwilling to use their products (which presumably they’d get for free), & instead use the $ that company pays them to purchase & use Apple products instead.

 

[Shiro_Simba]

And he purchases and uses pretty much every single Apple product; probably not a good comparison to a someone whose sole job is social media for a tech company being unwilling to use their products (which presumably they’d get for free), & instead use the $ that company pays them to purchase & use Apple products instead.

The point is that woz uses non Apple products, and shares his opinions on these.

Woz is breaking the rules - he is employee number one though , and no one has the balls to tell him otherwise

The other example In this thread - an Apple employee was fired showing woz an iPad prototype, just shows that when employees mess up , there are consequences, no matter the company

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

The point is that woz uses non Apple products, and shares his opinions on these.

Woz is breaking the rules - he is employee number one though , and no one has the balls to tell him otherwise

The other example In this thread - an Apple employee was fired showing woz an iPad prototype, just shows that when employees mess up , there are consequences, no matter the company

I don’t believe that for one second!
And I’m honestly astonished if you do...

You believe there is a clause in Steve’s employment contract stating that he is not allowed to use non Apple products??

 

[Shiro_Simba]

I don’t believe that for one second!
And I’m honestly astonished if you do...

You believe there is a clause in Steve’s employment contract stating that he is not allowed to use non Apple products??

No - not at all . I think he can do as he likes . Sorry, if it came across the other way .

Though , others in Apple , have no such freedom

 

[kazmac]

i certainly understand why they did that. Apple fired that engineer whose daughter showed off something she shouldn’t have on social media (slightly different, but an employee penalty all the same).

As for Huawei, I like that they are trying to come up with new hardware ideas, and the price points are much more reasonable. I have never seen or used their products though so...

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

No - not at all . I think he can do as he likes . Sorry, if it came across the other way .

Though , others in Apple , have no such freedom

Well, I imagine that if an official Apple PR announcement came out with a footer “posted using TapATalk, for Android”, that would be a faux pas... but I’ve never heard that Apple employees from corporate, to retail, to engineers are “forced” to use Apple products, or face dire consequences.

 

[Shiro_Simba]

Well, I imagine that if an official Apple PR announcement came out with a footer “posted using TapATalk, for Android”, that would be a faux pas... but I’ve never heard that Apple employees from corporate, to retail, to engineers are “forced” to use Apple products, or face dire consequences.

That is a good question. Though I suspect Apple employees can use whatever they want for personal use

Personally I think this brand BS should be removed , I hate it every time I see messages , sent from x or y. Companies can pay is for the advertising

This employee was not very smart, on an official tweet

 

[twistedpixel8]

I’d like to own and drive a Lamborghini. Instead I bought a Volkswagen Golf.

A Golf is more reliable. You made the correct choice.

 

[chucker23n1]

I can see it as being part of authentication or validation (essentially internally), not sure why that's something that needs to be displayed with the tweet itself.

Right, it isn't. The default Twitter client hasn't shown it for years.

Some third-party ones like Tweetbot still do, though, and the metadata still contains it.

 

[TrentS]

Wow! If Apple doesn't capitalize on this story for an idea for one of its next TV ads, then they are missing out big time! Imagine, some Huawei employee secretly pulls out his taboo iPhone and sends a quick text to one of his co-workers. He gets caught, and they dock his pay and demote him. Then the TV ad moves ahead 1 year later. Same employee, pulls out his cell phone and sends another text to a co-worker. Someone behind him, taps him on the shoulder and says, "Hey! We're glad to have you aboard Apple here! Congrats on your new promotion!" Then he puts his iPhone back in his pocket, with a big grin on his face.

 

[C DM]

Right, it isn't. The default Twitter client hasn't shown it for years.

Some third-party ones like Tweetbot still do, though, and the metadata still contains it.

So where does "via Twitter for iPhone" come from? And why does Twitter include that information as part of what gets displayed with the tweet, or if it's a third party client that displays it, then why does Twitter provide that information to third parties so the it could be displayed with the tweets?

 

[chucker23n1]

So where does "via Twitter for iPhone" come from?

Given that it's a screenshot from Marques Brownlee, I'm guessing it comes from an Android Twitter client. I don't have an Android device here to compare what tweets look like in popular apps. Talon seems to look a little bit like this.

And why does Twitter include that information as part of what gets displayed with the tweet, or if it's a third party client that displays it, then why does Twitter provide that information to third parties so the it could be displayed with the tweets?

Why not? I'm not sure what you're getting at here. The reason the data is collected at all is, like I said, more of a technical detail. I see nothing wrong (other than it not being very useful to most users) with showing it in the UI. I find it rather interesting to see what apps other people use.

 

[baryon]

Surely punishing your own employees for such a small oversight will be good for your company. It's like punching yourself in the face after making a mistake.

Don't think many people realize that Twitter automatically tells everyone about what brand phone you have – which is quite a serious privacy violation if you think about it. Might as well list all the open tabs in their browser while they're at it.

 

[jm001]

A stern warning would have been exactly the right response to this, certainly not a pay cut. I'd be appalled if a company I worked for did this to anyone over a mistake, even a much graver one.

Pay cut due to bad publicity, but then the reaction in itself was bad publicity. Should've kept it in-house.

 

[Michael Goff]

Right, it isn't. The default Twitter client hasn't shown it for years.

Some third-party ones like Tweetbot still do, though, and the metadata still contains it.
[doublepost=1546633054][/doublepost]

There is no such thing as an agreeable, useful or even remotely scientific definition of race, so Chinese might as well be its own race. Springfield, Illinois might as well be.
[doublepost=1546633155][/doublepost]

Over 99% of the population in Portland, Oregon are Portlanders, and yet…

The iOS one had it last time I checked, which was a few days ago. And the website also shows it.

 

[mi7chy]

It happens even to CEOs like Tim Cook tweeting about Mac manufacturing powered by Windows.

https://mobile.twitter.com/tim_cook/status/474935247335743489

 

[C DM]

Given that it's a screenshot from Marques Brownlee, I'm guessing it comes from an Android Twitter client. I don't have an Android device here to compare what tweets look like in popular apps. Talon seems to look a little bit like this.



Why not? I'm not sure what you're getting at here. The reason the data is collected at all is, like I said, more of a technical detail. I see nothing wrong (other than it not being very useful to most users) with showing it in the UI. I find it rather interesting to see what apps other people use.

What is used to post something is pretty much irrelevant as far as somehow being attached to an actual post. Posts on forums would generally not mention posted from Safari or Chrome, etc. I get the information being available for tracking, statistical, validation, etc. purposes, I don't get the concept of it being somehow relevant or needed in some fashion as far as appearing essentially as part of the actual content.

 

[Michael Goff]

It happens even to CEOs like Tim Cook tweeting about Mac manufacturing powered by Windows.

https://mobile.twitter.com/tim_cook/status/474935247335743489

I would guess the machines that make the computers need software not on macOS. Hardly a one to one comparison.

 

[~Shard~]

This is always a tricky situation. On the one hand, an employee should support their company's products and be a brand ambassador no matter what, it's an optics thing. However, employees should be technically allowed to spend their personal money as they see fit, whether it's on their company's products or not. Then there's the question back to the company that, if their products were truly the best thing going, why wouldn't all their employees use them? Unfortunately it's not as straight forward as that.

All that said, I do not find this surprising, especially coming from a Chinese company, and knowing the culture that exists in Hauwei specifically, having worked with them on many projects.

 

[rafark]

It's funny to me that they said the initial tweet hurt their brand. To me punishing them for this just hurts their brand even more as it makes them look petty.

Are you kidding me? This mistakes are unacceptable to me. If I was in charge I would have the employe fired and sued if I could.

Apple fired one of its engineers because her daughter showed a video of the new iPhone inside their campus, after the iPhone was officially revealed so no real damaged was made. The video was cute and showed the humane side of Apple. Yet the engineer was fired. At least these guys get to keep their jobs.
[doublepost=1546667638][/doublepost]

Because that was a leak of company secrets - i.e. gross misconduct.

In the UK (and most of the world) this would be completely illegal.

It wasn't a leak. The phone was already announced and showcased to the public. And it wasn't even the employee, it was his daughter.

 

[Quu]

Are you kidding me? This mistakes are unacceptable to me. If I was in charge I would have the employe fired and sued if I could.

Apple fired one of its engineers because her daughter showed a video of the new iPhone inside their campus, after the iPhone was officially revealed so no real damaged was made. The video was cute and showed the humane side of Apple. Yet the engineer was fired. At least these guys get to keep their jobs.

Showing off a prototype to anyone including their own family when it hasn't come out yet is a huge difference to just tweeting on an iPhone about another product. The two aren't even in the same ball park.

One is revealing a future product worth billions of dollars to Apple and makes up most of their yearly revenue and the other is just tweeting on a device not made by your employer. It's crazy to me that you would even compare the two.

 

[KPandian1]

Are you kidding me? This mistakes are unacceptable to me. If I was in charge I would have the employe fired and sued if I could.

Apple fired one of its engineers because her daughter showed a video of the new iPhone inside their campus, after the iPhone was officially revealed so no real damaged was made. The video was cute and showed the humane side of Apple. Yet the engineer was fired. At least these guys get to keep their jobs.

You are "just kidding" right?

What protocol was breached when X used an iPhone when he/she was an employee of a different company that make the same product - a smartphone?