Boeing CEO admits it's retaliated against whistleblowers | Hacker News Reader

Boeing CEO admits it's retaliated against whistleblowers

futurism.com

59 pointsintunderflow13 comments

So, according to the actual statement, the perpetrators were employees who were subsequently disciplined or fired. There’s no indication that the practice was company policy, encouraged, or even tolerated by the management. The headline is clickbait.

> There’s no indication that the practice was company policy, encouraged, or even tolerated by the management. The headline is clickbait.

The CEO just needs to do nothing for this to happen. I have attended many "anti-bulling" trainings. They are mostly there for legal reasons, so the company can say that they "do not encourage or tolerate bullying". But then they promote bullies and punish victims systematically.

CEOs are the most smarter capable people until you look for responsibilities. Then they know nothing and have no impact on anything.

I obviously have no insight into whether or not the company engaged in whistleblower retaliation or intimidation practices. But that is a different argument from whether or not the headline accurately interpreted the statement.

Why would a company ever make that policy? It’s as dumb as making it a policy to not hire women.

You always want to create separation, so that only the “bad apples” are blamed.

Is there any indication in the quoted statement that the retaliations were initiated or supported by the company management? If not, the headline remains inaccurate.

That's what the court is working through. The headline is accurate because the CEO admits retaliations occurred.

It is inaccurate to say “Boeing has retaliated” if some employees among over a hundred thousand did so.

Given that size, I’m sure there are plenty of illegal or unethical acts you could attribute to the company on account of individual employee behavior.

The headline is click bait and the quote is out of context, but that's par for internet news sites in 2024. You just repeat whatever other sites are saying and social media rewards you with traffic.

The actual exchange, 33 minutes in:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?536400-1/boeing-ceo-testifies-...

The question was how many people were fired for retaliation, not whether retaliation had occurred. Obviously if you're firing people for retaliation that means retaliation has occurred, but twisting that into "CEO admits to retaliation" is just garbage reporting.

[dupe]

More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40723545

Surely this is a very serious crime and people need to go to jail.

but sadly, crickets.

From the point of view of the company, it is indeed a very serious crime - "it" being admitting publicly that the company had retaliated.

Generally they are careful not to admit anything that can be used against them, or which can cause the stock's shares to slide. There must have been such serious and well documented retaliations, that he felt he could not deny it.

I know I a being cynical, but looking at the fast and loose the way they have played with people's lives invites such an attitude.

What do you mean crickets? It just happened. Stop being so cynical.

The admission occurred in the context of a congressional hearing, which means things are already happening.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com