HP bans T-shirts at work | Hacker News Reader

HP bans T-shirts at work

theregister.co.uk

43 pointsgw581512 comments

This is a reblog of a Register article, in which they appear to have done some actual journalism:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/24/hp_dress_code/

Nice story in the comments: http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2015/07/24/hp_dress_...

> Years ago I was invited to visit HP by the head of a department there. I was interested in possibly selling a company to them, so on the appointed day I hopped up the coast for a look. The man had forgotten, and was out of town - I was shown round by an embarrassed group of his managers, said a polite thank-you, and left.

> I had parked facing outwards, as I usually do so I can see what's there when I leave. When I got back to my car there was a little sign on the windscreen saying "At HP we park facing inwards."

> That day, I learned everything I needed to know about HP, and soon after sold my company to one of their competitors (who fell about laughing when I told them this story.) The HP department in question was in due course closed, HP itself has lurched from one managerial disaster to the next, and here's one more buffoon with an MBA, putting one more nail into the coffin.

I understand that when IBM visited Digital Research the head guy was out flying his airplane. This left them with no operating system for the IBM-PC, so Bill Gates licensed QDOS from a friend then licensed "Quick and Dirty Operating System" to IBM as MS-DOS.

Eventually Microsoft exceedd its QDOS license so its dveloper sued, settling for $50 million.

I've read that the Kildall-went-flying story is apocryphal.

Thanks—url changed from http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-dress-code-for-programmers..., which points to this.

Oh, HP... what your shareholders (and many others) expect from you is "memristor", and what they get is no memristor, but a silly dress code for employees. So sad.

This reads like an instruction pamphlet on how to lose your best and brightest. We need you to dress in arbitrary fashion X to prove we're "professional". In other words, some uptight dickhead executive from large customer Y complained about engineers in t-shirts. Here's a hint: the guys that are willing to suffer through wearing a tie everyday aren't the guys you want creating your product.

Then again, maybe those guys are already gone.

This smells more like an old managerial trick. Make the place uncomfortable enough that anybody who will leave, leaves on their own. If people take the bait it makes the press release less sensational when the layoff numbers are announced. It also solves the issue with severance packages and unemployment benefits. Last but not least, there are less decisions that need to be made by management.

All this suggests to me is that HP(s) will be announcing rounds of layoffs in the not too distant future. The "reason" for the dress code is for the media, investors, and employees to swallow. "No troubles here! Just some complaining customers visiting the office."

Oh Register.. it must be a slow news day. Smart casual rule was already in all contracts AFAIK. It's not a huge change, "slapping", or "banning".

Arbitrary fucking with employees who have mobility doesn't end well for the organization.

Maybe the cluetrain manifesto needs another chapter.

Standard issue asininity.

HP is still around?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com