sci.research.careers

On Sat, 11 Aug 2007, phil scott wrote:

> On Aug 11, 4:02 am, Straydog wrote:
>> On Sat, 11 Aug 2007, Beladi Nasralla wrote:
>>
>>> Here is the philosophical question: how can I get back at my former
>>> employer who I perceived abused me ?
>>
>> 1. Technically, what you got was a "backstab" and not abuse.
>> 2. I have a basically identical question for my situation where the same
>> thing happened to me 1-2 decades ago. So, if anyone has an answer, I would
>> like to hear, also.
>> 3. "Payback" for enemies can be legal or illegal. If illegal, then the
>> police will be after you. To be legal, it usually means you have a lot of
>> money and lawyers. Or, you come out with a competing product that ruins
>> them. You can read books such as "The Robber Barrons" by Johnston for more
>> ideas.
>> 4. You can also pray to fate, try witchcraft (for spells), and voodoo
>> (which may or may not work, or at least make you happy),
>> 5. IIRC, hate is not illegal but there are hate crimes so, if you don't
>> want trouble, don't do hate crimes.
>>
>>> I used to work for a biotech company who were not able to come to the
>>> market with the product for over 10 years. They did the R&D on the
>>> investor's money which they raised through the stock exchange. In the
>>> past few years, I saw their stock price collapsed to 1/100 of what it
>>> used to be. Since then, the company has laid off the R&D manager as a
>>> part of cost-cutting measure and replaced the CEO with the one who had
>>> the new vision. Those two guys were instrumental in firing me in the
>>> difficult time for me, essentially kicking me out into the cold empty
>>> street. From searching the Internet,
>>
>> Such as this did not happen to me, but at one biotech startup where I did
>> some consulting (and made a few thousand dollars in fees), the president
>> (who had a BS degree and a lot of money) fired the vice president (who
>> had an MD) and there was litigation for about a year.
>>
>> I learnt that the CEO became a
>>
>>> CEO of poor biotech start-up (and stayed unemployed for at least 3-4
>>> months), and the R&D manager became a senior engineer (not manager) at
>>> another biotech company (after spending at least 3-4 months
>>> unemployed). Knowing those companies, I believe they got very modest
>>> salaries. They certainly got a share of pain and got humbled, but I
>>> wish they got more.
>>
>> There is a saying "Nice guys finish last" and we have the "Straydog's
>> fifth law of real life" which says something about the Conservation of
>> Assholes and Jerks in the Universe, This 'Law' is being currently
>> technically developed and needs more research because it is complicated
>> and needs a lot of tensor calculus to understand. When I have finished
>> this law, I will share it with everyone.
>>
>>> Recently, the stock price rose by ten-fold on the news that the
>>> company finally found the new big buyers for its flagship product
>>> (which is still a prototype). The management probably popped the
>>> champaigne many times on hearing good news.
>>
>> You have the option of cursing. Cursing is also legal. It is an option
>> which is the symetrical opposite of what the Germans call "schadenfreude"
>> (you have to look that up). Cursing involves four letter words, or their
>> derivatives. I can help you with some if you want. For additional
>> emphasis, you can string many cuss words together in the same sentence.
>>
>>> However, few days ago, the Dow Jones index in the US fell by something
>>> like 6%. Following the news, the Australian stockmarket fell by around
>>> 3%, too, and lays in doldrums for several days already. As it was not
>>> difficult to predict, the price of the speculative stock of this
>>> company fell even greater (something like 10%).
>>
>> You can cheer this (schadenfreude, again).
>>
>>> I was thinking with glee about all this nervous breakdowns which the
>>> directors and investors experienced on the news. And I think more is
>>> to come. I can still feel the pain which that company's management
>>> actions inflicted on me (and I stayed unemployed for quite a while). I
>>> still cannot get over revenge-wishing after this many years.
>>
>> I know many people with such feelings. We have another saying that goes
>> something like "Tell me when these guys are walking down a dark alley" if
>> you get my drift.
>>
>> This is
>>
>>> sad. Russel M. had suggested that the best revenge would be to live
>>> well. Well, this means I was not living well. I did not live poorly
>>> (not at all), but I did not live well either. After being in this
>>> hateful condition for over 8 years, the issue becomes philosophical.
>>
>> This is all very legal. You are safe.
>>
>>> It looks to me with more certainty now that the company will collapse
>>> with the coming bear run in the stock market. But is this a good thing
>>> to wish that !!!?
>>
>> Think about all of the wars that have happened in the last thousands of
>> years of recorded history and ask yourself for how many of these wars did
>> victims families and survivors of attacks have bad feelings and bad
>> memories about those who attacked them. These days I read the WSJ all the
>> time, and read about actions by corporations and other organizations that
>> involve making someone else unhappy or taking their money or causing a lot
>> of greif for someone.
>>
>> Your feelings--I assure you--are normal.
>>
>> I go by an old idea that it is OK if you have fair deals in life. If you
>> get a good deal in life, then you can thank the person who gave you a
>> good deal and -- to be nice-- give them a good deal in the future as a
>> jesture of friendship or alliance. If you get a deal where you get cheated
>> or robbed, then call the police or organize payback (based on an old
>> idea: eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth).
>>
>> If you look at how Microsoft destroyed Netscape, and how AOL bought the
>> rights to Netscape and then, afterwrds, litigated against Microsoft and
>> got a big settlement, then it is eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth.
>>
>> There is another old idea about turning the other cheek. And, yet another
>> old idea: fool me once-shame on you; fool me twice-shame on me.
>>
>> These are all interesting ideas. There is often great honor between swords
>> and dragons.
>
>
>
> Some folks have purchased a share of the stock then shown up at
> shareholder meetings with a small stack of floppies in the event fraud
> was an issue etc...some only let a little of the information leak, as
> the management squirms about what else the person might know.

I love it, I love it....

> Sometimes a person will call management before the stock holder
> meeting, say part of whats on his mind along with faint mention of
> data only a person with the inside dope would have... then see what
> the response is, if its heavy criminal activity going on paranoia
> would ensue... those generally then make all kinds of other mistakes

This reminds me of two WSJ articles some time ago:

1. The title was "What to do if you are indicted" and went into a good
half dozen strong recommendations and I think they asked a lawyer to help
them.

2. Then there was a lovely story about how the FDA subpoenaed one of the
big pharma companies for lots of file cabinets. And, what happened? Well,
after months, the FDA pieced together a case against the company for
destruction of documents. What they (FDA) found was that what was in the
file cabinets was only a part of the total number of documents. What it
looked like is all the incriminating evidence was NOT handed over to the
FDA and how the FDA found out was by noticing that what they did receive
included memos, etc, that made reference to other memos that were,
interestingly, missing. So, confronted with this information, the
executives all caved-in and confessed. I can imagine how they felt as the
feds placed on the table, all these memos, cross-referenced to each other,
and when the feds said "OK, how about producing those missing documents
that are refered to in these documents, and, while you're at it, explain
to us why all of those documents are missing?"

IIRC, they ended up nolo contendre and paying a fine.

> .. in some cases though those doing the leaks should have worn a
> bullet proof vest, others have been invited out the door of aircraft
> over the ocean etc..with hundreds of millions or billions at stake the
> motive is surely there, not to mention other losses that could
> occur.

Well, we could talk about some of those famous guys who got into
mysterious airplane crashes....couldn't we?

Also, they DID get Noriega, didn't they? So, don't cross the USA or you're
in deep doo-doo. And, I actually knew an ex-CIA guy who told me he was on
the death list of the govt of France; don't know if he was pulling my leg
or not. However, we've got some 30,000 more guys in Afghan looking for old
binny laddy, don't we?

> To preclude that eventuality Ive read that some would put a package to
> together to be released broadly to the press etc in the event they get
> a hang nail or whatever, bullet hole problems that sort of thing...
> that avoids getting taken out in many cases apparently, allows one to
> relax.

"If you don't hear from me tommorrow, mail this stack of envelopes!"
addressed to newspaper editors all over the USA. Of course, in the good
spy movies, the badguys have followed all of your friends and they
confiscate all of the envelopes (cf. that movie with Will Smith and the
NSA is after him, wipe out all his credit cards by hacking into all the
cc companies, bug everything he's wearing, etc. )

> Relaxation is very important at those sorts of stressful times in ones
> life... otherwise being upset is a total waste of time, counter
> productive...you are best advised to keep up with current advances,
> make some of your own and move on, next time with a better contract.

Ever dream about those south sea islands?