[eykanal]

I'm missing why this is news to anyone. Almost any large company will have language like this in their ethics guidelines. Take this random company, for example [1]:

> Never give the impression you are speaking on behalf of Biogen Idec in any personal communication, including blogs, social networking sites, chat rooms or bulletin boards.

Others are similar [2][3][4] (search for "behalf of" in the pdfs). This google search will show you dozens of similar documents [5]

This is completely normal. What Orth did was something that no employee should ever do, and particularly not someone in his fairly high position.

[1]: http://www.biogenidec.com/Files/Filer/USA/pdfs/Request-Web-C...

[2]: http://www.demasterblenders1753.com/Global/Attachments_Gover...

[3]: http://www.babcock.com/about/ethics/pdf/codeofconduct.pdf

[4]: http://www.k2m.com/en_us/conduct

[5]: https://www.google.com/search?q=Unless+authorized%2C+do+not+...

[blindhippo]

It's not news to anyone except the writer on a site looking for link bait (and it worked).

Didn't @dooce make this situation highly public? Twitter is no different then a blog...

Orth was a moron and spoke for his employer - clearly he wasn't sanctioned to do so. There is no controversy, no outrage to be had.

[markdown]

> It's not news to anyone except the writer on a site looking for link bait (and it worked).

Sounds like most of what currently passes for news on CNN and FOX.

[UnoriginalGuy]

It would be hugely ironic if those ethics guidelines were private/confidential and you got into trouble for posting them on a public forum.

[eykanal]

Ha! I thought about it, and hoped that the fact that it's publicly available on the internet and indexed by Google would clear me of the problem; I'm not posting it, I'm just linking to it. Still, who knows...

EDIT: You made me paranoid enough to edit it out and replace it with one of the dozens of other identical examples on the internet. You have my thanks.

[lostlogin]

I know my employment agree is to be kept private according to the document.

[illuminate]

I'd say more "consistent" than "ironic".

[bcoates]

It's kind of surprising given how much Microsoft seems to otherwise encourage their employees to post work stuff on the Internet.

[alyx]

The HR trainings all employees are mandated to complete each year will strongly contradict this,

> Microsoft seems to otherwise encourage their employees to post work stuff on the Internet

[illuminate]

How is taunting customers "work stuff"? They're encouraged to be evangelists, not jerks.

[bskap]

Not when it comes to rumors about unannounced products.