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Comment by gdw2 | Hacker News Reader

Where I work, we have our picture on BOTH sides. If you carry your badge on a lanyard, half the time the back is showing and the front is hidden.

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At Microsoft almost noone wears their badges on lanyards, most employees carry them in their wallets.

There are lanyards and attachments that sorta work this issue out, but in the end it comes down to training employees to keep their badges facing out. This somewhat works for Boeing.

Microsoft can't get people to wear their badges visible at all, and you think it's feasible to get people to turn their badges around manually? :)

I don't see what you lose by printing both sides.

Sometimes badges have stuff on the back like card codes, punch centering marks and magstripes that make printing on the back a bad idea.

In Boeing case, its because you are not allowed in many places without a badge somewhere above the waist that is visible. Higher security employers elicit higher security practices from their employees.

Most security cards I've been issued with are laminar - there's a thinner printed front part glued to a thicker RFID back part. So making the card double-sided just means printing two fronts and sticking them on both sides.

Microsoft badges are/appear to be smart cards, not laminar. Easy enough to print on both sides though.

Microsoft employees get a discount at the apple store for showing their badges. Not so much at the MSFT stores...

Edit: note - this is the retail MSFT stores, not the on campus stores in Redmond or Silicon Valley.

Aside from being cheeky, why do Microsoft employees get a discount at the Apple Store?

Microsoft has a program known as Microsoft Prime. The extent of what it covers, I am not 100% sure of. One company in the program is Apple -- that said, companies, rules, and amounts change.

Given I can go to the Stanford Mall and get a discount, then walk a hundred+ yards and not get a discount on a comparable Surface is a bit uneven.

Microsoft employee's get a discount of about 7% iirc by showing their Microsoft Prime card, which is just a 'Passport' card. Many credit unions and other business provide 'Passport' discounts as well.

That sounds about correct. Apple, specifically, is pretty tight on discounts it grants (including educational). Still silly that there is no similar discount at MSFT company retail stores.

I'm not even sure if the prime card is needed. I got a discount on a laptop at an Apple store by just showing them my badge (I don't qualify for Prime because I'm not a Microsoft USA employee).

IBMers get a discount at the Apple Store (online) via a rewards gateway.

Any company that uses something like rewardgateway.com will get discounts at a similar set of places.

Maybe on campus. Out in the field sites, the security folks will have your arm for lunch if you don't have your badge clearly visible at all times.

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