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Comment by InvisibleCities | Hacker News Reader

>“Untitled Goose Game is a safe, socially acceptable way to relieve stress,” the Washington Post declared shortly after the game’s release. “It’s the new punching a wall. It’s the new crying at your desk.”

Likening crying at your desk to a delightful video game is exactly the kind of analogy that I would expect from one of Jeff Bezos' employees.

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"You know how we all punch walls and scream and cry at our desk and drink heavily to relieve stress? ...wait... you don't all do that too?"

> is exactly the kind of analogy that I would expect from one of Jeff Bezos' employees

There are so many valid criticisms of Bezos, the companies he owns, etc. This is so unnecessary. The quoted line says nothing about Bezos.

"leave Brittany alone!"

I think they're trying to loosely relate the implied socially unacceptable ways of relieving stress with this persons employment at a Bezos company, companies which have been in the news because of bad working conditions for employees.

Just one example: https://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/11/27/undercover-reporter...

Given that, it is not too much of a stretch to associate Jeff's example and style of leadership with this person's statement - in a mostly tongue-in-cheek manner, mind you.

This is shoehorning of politics where it doesn't fit. I know that's popular on Reddit but it rarely leads to interesting conversations, just low quality generalizations/flamewars all based on a weak analogy.

This article is about a video games, the story doesn't mention Amazon or even her workplace specifically, the quote was a lighthearted joke (jokes use exaggeration to be funny, ie. "punching a wall" at an office), etc.

I agree in the sense that I wouldn't have made the association myself either - I also think that the quote was almost definitely just humour. I'm just explaining what I thought the connection they'd made was.

A startup I worked at used to have a crying room. So not just Jeff Bezos.

There's nothing wrong with crying or in general showing or having emotions, "negative" or otherwise.

Some people just have that reaction to difficulty and frustration or whatever else, it doesn't have to mean that an environment is terrible or immoral if people cry about it sometimes.

But maybe if it happens often enough that you need a "crying room", something is wrong.

Sometimes it’s going to be unavoidable. I used to work in help desk and at least once a week an employee would either cry, or take their phone out of the queue and storm out of the office, something to that effect. I remember two occasions where an employee punched a hole in the wall. I took a day off work because one of the callers threatened to come to the office with his gun if I couldn’t solve his problem.

Sometimes there are jobs that have to be done but that make it really hard to control your emotions. And some people have a really hard time controlling their emotions anyway. It’s better to have a safe place to let that out.

I'm sorry you had to go through that, but unless you work at a suicide hotline or one of the departments that tracks down child-porn creators or something along those lines, people breaking down at least once a week should not be "unavoidable." I know help desk is always going to be stressful, but employees need to be empowered to speak sternly to, and hang up on, abusive customers. If they're not, that's a management failure, not just an unavoidable reality.

Yep.

Worked with a developer who had to leave the office temporarily one day to go outside and cry in his car.

Was in a team where he could have spoken to any of us and we all would have listened and helped, but I guess sometimes, some people, just need to be alone and cry.

Whatever helps them. I'm not going to judge.

I tell you it was fairly destabilizing working in a small office in a highrise in a city center. 90 minutes at best from home on two trains, open office plan in a small office space, it was like being in a cage, being so far from a space which was "mine". The only escapes were spending a long time commuting, walking around outside on busy city streets, or sitting in a bathroom stall.

I think the psychology has something to do with growing up on a few hundred acres.

Boy could I have used a crying room. Not to actually cry but just to escape for a while now and then.

I moved from the country to a city. Its been four years I still feel like this!

Out in the country I was five minutes walk from lochs and l forests. I used to be able to leave the house and walk for twenty plus miles and maybe see a handful of people. Just me, the outside and hours of alone time.

You dont realise how much you miss that! Now in a city with no car and its so hard to get away from everything. Jusy to get away and clear my head.

Yeah, I live alone but sitting inside my house unable to get out and away from life can feel so trapping.

One day ill get back.

This sounds something like a wellbeing room, which is pretty common. Or is there literally a door marked 'crying room'? If latter, I am worried.

> Likening crying at your desk to a delightful video game is exactly the kind of analogy that I would expect from one of Jeff Bezos' employees.

I would expect them to identify more with "crying as you pack boxes as fast as you possibly can for 12 hours."

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