The problem is often it does work. The successful companies can figure out why it worked and build on it. The unsuccessful ones will be the ones who push harder and can't figure out what's wrong and why it works for "those other guys".

Seriously people talk about management 101, but the key people fail to realise is that management 102 is exactly the opposite. Based on my business degree I can conclude that the perfect workplace gives staff complete autonomy while being micromanaged, put them in cubes in the middle of their own private offices, treat them like a resource while empathising with them, and make the entire business follow a strict linear method while breaking down everything into small sections and working on them in parallel. Oh and the ideal company will have 15 levels of management, no I mean 2 levels of management, no I mean 15 levels of management, no I mean... I really don't know what I mean. Apparently it's all good and all bad at the same time.

And the result is still the same legal grey area and clusterfuck that it's always been. You can borrow most of a song and get away just fine because you're being "transformative" but if you borrow a single riff from an obscure symphonic version of a rock song you give up 100% of all income from your song to someone who had nothing to do with it.

Given how companies act towards employees, calling that sarcasm was entirely unfounded.

So despite your assertions that the company was on the rise investors didn't want to loan the company the money and receive instalments in return to save the business? But you expect employees to do the same, and then blame socialism on a company's inability to pay its legally owing debt?

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Yeah not taking a phone at all is free too. Oh wait are we racing to the bottom or are we still talking about why you can't sync Google calendar to your device?

Unless you get all your data from internet meme's then pretty much every rugged smartphone on the market, and most smartphones with a simple ruggedised case can out-tank a Nokia.

Horseshit. I travel all over the world and have never had any Android device start chewing up my data allowance. Maybe you should fix your phone.

You don't really understand much of anything do you...

But let's follow your strange scenario that for some reason you don't have any service for an extended period of time, how do you get things onto the calendar? You should have coverage at some point to add new things to your calendar, if you don't ... well things get added to your local calendar and hence you get the notifications anyway.

Maybe you should look up the concept of "syncing" at some point. It'll blow your mind.

For a while I really missed Bennett Haselton's insightful and regular commentary. But I think we have finally found his reincarnation.

The prodigal son returns. Bask in his greatness and bow before him just as all slashdot editors have.

But then how would StartsWithABang put food on the table? His blog clearly can't survive with every single post being reblogged on slashdot. We should be clicking on medium links for his greater good.

User error. Also the mobile notifications link in with existing apps so you not only get the same info, but also related information like navigation and map links, traffic predictions etc.

As for not wanting to take a smartphone overseas because of experience... what were you doing with it, deflecting bullets in Iran? Your smartphone isn't magically more frail overseas, and if you're that worried/clumsy then just buy a rugged phone. There are many smartphones on the market more durable than your 3310.

Smartphone based notifications are not web based. The idea is that your device runs a calendar app and syncs with Google Calendar. You then get notifications regardless if you are online or outside a coverage area, hence more reliable than notifications which only work via sms.

Typically the bankruptcy processes in many countries involve dissolving the company and paying out as many debtors as they can. The order typically goes: Legal obligations, contractual obligations, and investors. I.e. the Employees' severances get paid out first, the banks second, and the shareholders last.

If the company didn't have the money to cover their most critical debtors who's payments are protected under law, then they were already ruined long before anyone took anyone else to court.

I have a question for you: The idea of instalments assumes the company has a growth prospect and the ability to survive. Companies with those prospects can get loans to get them through those tough moments.

The fact that they didn't do this, or weren't able to do this, or weren't able to find some other investor to get them through this phase is more telling than any court decision. As an ex-employee there's no way in hell I'd be accepting "instalments" from a company that looks like it's about to go under.