WebSitesOfNote

Of Dogfood and Soda Police: "I encountered an interesting news article today. It seems that one Ford plant has decided to force employees to drive a Ford or be barred from the plant's parking lot rather than being allowed to park in the facility's parking lot. In the software industry, the phrase 'eating your own dogfood' means that you actually use the products you develop. In general, this is a good thing; it leads to higher levels of quality and a deeper understanding of the user experience. But I think Ford is taking it much, much too far. We're not talking about using Ford products at work for the sake of understanding the user experience; we're now talking about Ford penalizing employees for what they purchase with their personal money, on personal time. That's nuts. I am reminded of a story I was recently told by an acquaintance about the HR department at his work. The HR staffers would actually search the refrigerator and employee's lunches to make sure nobody had brought in any Mountain Dew from home. Why? Because the company had struck a deal with a Mountain Dew vendor to provide vending service to their office building at reduced cost on the condition that anyone who consumed Mountain Dew in the building would ONLY consume Mountain Dew that came from the actual Mountain Dew machines. So, the Soda Police from HR would check cubicles and lunch bags and refrigerato"