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It seems that whenever a company reaches a critical mass and delivers an essential product or service, it becomes acceptable to criticise it and treat it like an ogre.

For this reason, it would be pretty easy to dismiss the complaints of an individual as simply "more of the same" and of little consequence.

But what if that person is an employee and writes an open letter to Telecom's head-honcho(ess?), Theresa Gattung?

This appears to be exactly what Telecom Technical Officer Ray Harley seems to have done.

An open letter bearing his name was posted to the nz.general newsgroup on Friday and it makes very interesting reading -- especially if you're not a fan of the big telco.

According to the letter, things aren't too crash-hot in the morale department within some sectors of Telecom.

Although Theresa and crew are doing "quite nicely" in terms of their salary packages, there are more than a few people employed by Telecom who are decidedly unhappy that they've not had a pay-rise in three years.

Readers Say (updated irregularly) Nothing Yet Have Your Say

Is this just another example of cost-cutting on Telecom's part?

Ray makes the point that some of the company's employees are effectively being discriminated against on the basis of their union status and asks whether Ms Gattung herself would be so chuffed if she were discriminated against on the basis of (say) her gender?

It will be interesting to see what (if any) public response comes from within Telecom. I suspect we'll hear nothing unless the mainstream media pick up on this and it features on the six o'clock TV news.

If that happens, you can be sure that Telecom's spinmeisters will have to earn their lunch that day.

Of course Ray's ranting may not be truly representative of those fellow workmates in the same situation -- but it strikes me that he's taking a hell of a risk by publishing this letter so the level of frustration, in his case at least, must be high.

Stay tuned...

Microsoft Hacked? (again)
I received an email from a regular reader over the weekend which pointed me to what could be a covert hack on the Microsoft.com site, or perhaps just an indication that they really do have a sense of humour.

Check out what clippy is saying.

Will MS Pull The Xbox From NZ?
In a very interesting story from The Age in Australia, it seems that Microsoft is threatening to withdraw the Xbox from sale.

Why?

Well it seems that a recent court case has effectively determined that it's not illegal to sell mod chips there. For the benefit of anyone who isn't aware -- mod chips allow you to circumvent some of the copy-protection systems built into most game consoles.

Now, given that mod chips are freely sold here in NZ (just check out the Trade & Exchange computer section), will Microsoft be making similar threatening noises here I wonder?

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