Klonor
28-05-2007, 05:26
WARNING! SPOILERS FOR THE MAX BARRY NOVEL COMPANY TO FOLLOW!
Computer fraud: Planting evidence on an employees computer to indicate he has acted in a manner he has not is computer fraud, plain and simple. That includes "discovering" that your employee has used your computer to view animal pornography.
Slander/libel: Informing businesses of damaging and fraudulent information relating to a former employee of yours is slander/libel. That includes "revealing" to other companies that your former employee has viewed animal pornography on your computers during company time.
Blackmail/Extortion: Threatening somebody with harmful action unless they conform to your wishes is blackmail/extortion, especially if the threatened action is the aforementioned fraud and slander. That includes threatening the above actions (and the one below) unless your employee decides to work for you in a different capacity.
Wrongful termination (Possibly): Firing an employee for a reason forbidden by US or international law is illegal, and grounds for a lawsuit or police action. This one I'm not completely sure applies to this situation, since I'm well aware that companies actually have rather broad discretion on what they can fire people for (Pretty much anything except, appropriately enough, for being in a union), but I'm pretty sure that simply discovering the source of revenue for a company does not qualify as legal termination.
This is just a short list of crimes which Eve Jantiss commits, or threatens to commit, while riding with fresh-faced Stephen Jones one bright and sunny morning after he discovers the truth behind Zephyr Holdings, Project Alpha, and the mysterious Omega Management System. She reveals, as he tries not to crash her oh-so-beautiful sports car and vainly tries to avoid looking at her bustline, that he essentially has the choice of taking options 1, 2, and 4, or he can take a lot of money. The entire conversation is pretty much option 3 at its most convoluted. However, all the while, she (And others involved in Project Alpha, which is designed to produce an effecive system of managing the employees of a company) proudly proclaim "We're not doing anything illegal."
As much as I love Company, I'm re-reading it again right now and I still laugh and cry at all the right points, the fact is that the company, apart from being amoral (Which isn't a crime in and of itself), commits quite a bit of clear felonies and misdemeanors throughout the book, despite its claim of complete legality, and that's something I don't quite get. Now I'm well aware that real-life business isn't exactly "righteously minded" (Is that an actual term?), but there's a difference between fiddling with company financial records to pocket the extra funds when you buy cheap components, which hopefully nobody will ever discover if you do it right, and telling people what you're doing. See, Eve doesn't just give him the vague "or else" threat and leave him to stew on just what, exactly, she might be doing, she tells him exactly what crimes they will be commiting to keep him quiet, and that means he knows about it. Unless they're planning on having him killed, too, (Which kinda makes everything else pretty pointless) he can easily go the police, FBI, or (For real results) the tabloid newspapers and say "They did this, and this, and this. Arrest them!" Maybe it's just me, maybe I missed somehwere in the book where it's revealed that employment contracts at Zephyr give the company the right to reveal whatever information they wish about their employees (Whether it be true or false), but that part just does not add up for me. For people so adamant about their legal correctness, I see enough law violations to keep a high-priced lawyer busy for years on end.
Computer fraud: Planting evidence on an employees computer to indicate he has acted in a manner he has not is computer fraud, plain and simple. That includes "discovering" that your employee has used your computer to view animal pornography.
Slander/libel: Informing businesses of damaging and fraudulent information relating to a former employee of yours is slander/libel. That includes "revealing" to other companies that your former employee has viewed animal pornography on your computers during company time.
Blackmail/Extortion: Threatening somebody with harmful action unless they conform to your wishes is blackmail/extortion, especially if the threatened action is the aforementioned fraud and slander. That includes threatening the above actions (and the one below) unless your employee decides to work for you in a different capacity.
Wrongful termination (Possibly): Firing an employee for a reason forbidden by US or international law is illegal, and grounds for a lawsuit or police action. This one I'm not completely sure applies to this situation, since I'm well aware that companies actually have rather broad discretion on what they can fire people for (Pretty much anything except, appropriately enough, for being in a union), but I'm pretty sure that simply discovering the source of revenue for a company does not qualify as legal termination.
This is just a short list of crimes which Eve Jantiss commits, or threatens to commit, while riding with fresh-faced Stephen Jones one bright and sunny morning after he discovers the truth behind Zephyr Holdings, Project Alpha, and the mysterious Omega Management System. She reveals, as he tries not to crash her oh-so-beautiful sports car and vainly tries to avoid looking at her bustline, that he essentially has the choice of taking options 1, 2, and 4, or he can take a lot of money. The entire conversation is pretty much option 3 at its most convoluted. However, all the while, she (And others involved in Project Alpha, which is designed to produce an effecive system of managing the employees of a company) proudly proclaim "We're not doing anything illegal."
As much as I love Company, I'm re-reading it again right now and I still laugh and cry at all the right points, the fact is that the company, apart from being amoral (Which isn't a crime in and of itself), commits quite a bit of clear felonies and misdemeanors throughout the book, despite its claim of complete legality, and that's something I don't quite get. Now I'm well aware that real-life business isn't exactly "righteously minded" (Is that an actual term?), but there's a difference between fiddling with company financial records to pocket the extra funds when you buy cheap components, which hopefully nobody will ever discover if you do it right, and telling people what you're doing. See, Eve doesn't just give him the vague "or else" threat and leave him to stew on just what, exactly, she might be doing, she tells him exactly what crimes they will be commiting to keep him quiet, and that means he knows about it. Unless they're planning on having him killed, too, (Which kinda makes everything else pretty pointless) he can easily go the police, FBI, or (For real results) the tabloid newspapers and say "They did this, and this, and this. Arrest them!" Maybe it's just me, maybe I missed somehwere in the book where it's revealed that employment contracts at Zephyr give the company the right to reveal whatever information they wish about their employees (Whether it be true or false), but that part just does not add up for me. For people so adamant about their legal correctness, I see enough law violations to keep a high-priced lawyer busy for years on end.