> Opinions are my own.

Why does this need to be stated? Who else's would they be?

edit: he puts this on so many comments lol c'mon this is absurd.

Just add it to your profile once, no one assumes individuals speak for their employers here that would be stupid. The need to add disclaimer would be for the uncommon case that you were speaking for them. It's an anonymous message board we're all just taking here it's not that serious.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

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ehnto 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Some on this forum will be working for companies with conflicts of interest on the topic, and if an employees words were construed to be the opinions of the company that could be bad for that person.

	▲	sillysaurusx an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I was once almost fired for saying a little too much in an HN comment about pentesting. Being dragged into an office and given a dressing-down for posting was quite traumatic. The central issue (or so they claimed) was that people might misconstrue my comment as representing the company I was at. So yeah, I don’t understand why people are making fun of this. It’s serious. On the other hand, they were so uptight that I’m not sure “opinions are my own” would have prevented it. But it would have been at least some defense.

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jedberg 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Who's else would they be?

Their employer? They may work at related company, and are required to say this.

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abosley 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The tech companies train their employees to say this in their social media guidance and training.

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xboxnolifes 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Its to cover their ass in the event someone makes a stink and quotes them as if its a company opinion.

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operatingthetan 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

At this point that phase is an attempt at status signaling.

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sghiassy 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Opinions are my own

But I think you’re right

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muyuu 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

it's hilarious though

it's like people are LARPing a Fortune company CEO when they're giving their hot takes on social media

reminds me of Trump ending his wild takes on social media with "thank you for your attention to this matter" - so out of place, it makes it really funny

*typo

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PretzelPirate an hour ago | parent [-]

> it's like people are LARPing a Fortune company CEO when they're giving their hot takes on social media

At least in large tech companies, they have mandatory social media training where they explicitly tell employees to use phrases like "my views are my own" to keep it clear whether they're speaking on behalf of their employer or not.

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operatingthetan an hour ago | parent | next [-]

If their name is on the post or their company is listed in their profile. The person above has neither as far as I can tell.

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PKop an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why would they be speaking on behalf of their employer? That is what would need a disclaimer not the common case. Besides, he can put it one time in his profile, not over and over again in every comment like he does. There is no expectation that some random employee is a spokesperson for Google on tech message board comment threads. It's just a way to brag.

	▲	csa 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> Why would they be speaking on behalf of their employers? Disclaimers aren’t there for folks who are thinking and acting rationally. They are there for people who are thinking irrationally and/or manipulatively. There are (relatively speaking) a lot of these people. They can chew up a lot of time and resources over what amounts to nothing. Disclaimers like this can give a legal department the upper hand in cases like this A few simple examples: - There is a person I know who didn’t renew the contract of one of their reports. Pretty straightforward thing. The person whose contract was not renewed has been contesting this legally for over 10 years. The outcome is guaranteed to go against the person complaining, but they have time and money, so they tax the legal team of their former employer. - There is a mid-sized organization that had a small legal team that had its plate full with regular business stuff. Despite settlements having NDAs, word got out that fairly light claims of sexual harassment and/or EEO complaints would yield relatively easy five-figure payments. Those complaints exploded, and some of the complaints were comical. For example, one manager represented a stance for the department to the C-suite that was 180 degrees opposite of what the group of three managers had agreed to prior. Lots of political capital and lots of time had to be used to clean up that mess. That person’s manager was accused of sex discrimination and age discrimination simply for asking the person why they did that (in a professional way, I might add). That person got a settlement, moved to a different department, and was effectively protected from administrative actions due to it being considered retaliation.

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muyuu an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

i've worked in two different large tech companies

when i give my hot takes pseudonymously on social media these phrases would be nothing but a LARP

i don't put my real name here nor do i put my professional commitments in my profile, and neither does this guy

	▲	PKop an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Exactly. There is no scenario where we should expect some random anon to be speaking for Google. When that is the case a disclaimer is warranted, not the common case of speaking for oneself. He can write it once in his profile if he's so worried about it, not every other comment like he does. It's just inflated self importance