Guns & Ammo Editor Resigns Over Controversial Article

Guns & Ammo editor Jim Bequette is stepping down after publishing an editorial, "All Constitutional Rights Need Regulation, Even 2nd Amendment." As a firearms magazine, Guns & Ammo doesn't typically include articles about regulation. 

Bequette's apology was posted to the website:

"As editor of Guns & Ammo, I owe each and every reader a personal apology.

"No excuses, no backtracking.

"Dick Metcalf's 'Backstop' column in the December issue has aroused unprecedented controversy. Readers are hopping mad about it, and some are questioning Guns & Ammo's commitment to the Second Amendment. I understand why."

Continue reading the apology.

 

Discussion Starters:

• Read the entire apology. What persuasion principles does Bequette use in the piece?
• Assess Bequette's decisions: why would he run the piece and later apologize for it?

McDonald's Employee Help Line Is Recorded

You many remember Nancy Salgado, who recently confronted McDonald's USA President about her wages. She claims to be working at the restaurant chain for 10 years and is making $8.25 an hour.

The organization "Low Pay Is Not OK" posted a recording of her call to McDonald's employee help line. I received an email about the incident: 

 

Video captions of the phone interaction focus on public assistance for McDonald's workers: 

Discussion Starters: 

• How do you assess the organization's argument that the public is supplementing workers' wages? In what ways do you find this argument convincing, and how does it fall short?
• Imagine that you're the person who received Salgado's call on the help line. How would you react to the posted video? Should she have done anything differently on the call?
• The recording is clearly edited. What do you think may have happened during the deleted portions? Does that affect your reaction? 

Former Hostess of Heart Attack Grill Tells All

I guess we should expect unorthodox practices at a restaurant called Heart Attack Grill, but still, an ex-hostess's comments on Reddit are surprising. In an opening post, the former employee welcomes questions:

"I am an ex-Hostess of the controversial Heart Attack Grill. If you aren't familiar it's the restaurant located in Downtown Vegas who is known for their 9000 calorie Quadruple Bypass Burger, Butterfat Milkshakes, and the infamous "if you weigh 350 pounds you eat for free" gimmick. It is a hospital themed restaurant where all customers have to wear hospital gowns, and if you don't finish your food we spanked you with a paddle. Ask me anything!"

One jarring admission on the website (if it's true) is that the employee's manager had her video record a person who passed out in the restaurant:

"At one point, the man passed out. I heard him knock onto the hard ground. We had to call an ambulance. A manager made me take out my cell phone to record a video of the whole thing, so they could send it to the media. It was on a Friday afternoon, and he hoped it would make the news so they could have a busy weekend. The food may or may not have been responsible for what happened to that man."

With a name like Heart Attack Grill, you don't shy away from controversy. Rather, the restaurant founder and owner Jon Basso promotes the food, admitting in a Bloomberg interview, "I am probably the only restaurateur in the entire world who is unapologetically telling you that my food is bad for you, that it will kill you, and that you should stay away from it."

The Heart Attack Grill website describes the business: selling high-calorie food (including an 8,000-calorie Quadruple Bypass Burger), having customers dress in hospital gowns, spanking customers who don't finish their meal, and offering free meals to customers weighing over 350 pounds. 

Discussion Starters:

• What's your view of the restaurant's "unapologetic" strategy? 
• How do you assess the ex-hostess's Reddit posts? After reading several of them, do you think she helped or hurt the brand? 
  

Starbucks' Petition to End the Government Shutdown

If you've been to Starbucks lately, you may have seen a petition to end the government shutdown. The company is promoting the petition through several channels.

In a brief video on Instagram, CEO Howard Schultz asks customers to "Join us in our stores to sign a petition to ask our government to come together, solve our problems, and open up our government."

With the hashtag #ComeTogether, Starbucks is inspiring its 4.7 million followers to sign, and full-page print ads in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Washington Post are promoting the campaign. 

If that's not enough, Starbucks is asking people to text a code to encourage the government to get back to work.

Discussion Starters:

• This is not the first political issue that Starbucks has gotten behind. What other recent examples can you find?
• What are the risks and rewards for Starbucks' involvement in this campaign? Why would the company-and Schultz particularly-want to deal with this controversy?
• Overall, do you think it's a good idea? Why or why not?

Employee Confronts McDonald's President at Dinner

The president of McDonald's USA Jeff Stratton was caught off guard during a dinner in Chicago. Ten-year-employee Nancy Salgado interrupted the event at the Union League Club of Chicago when Stratton was speaking. The confrontation was captured on video and is described by TheRealNews.com.

On the video, Salgado says, "I'm a single mother of two. It's really hard for me to feed my two kids and struggle day to day. Do you think this is fair that I have to be making $8.25 when I've been working at McDonald's for 10 years?"

Stratton responded, "I've been there 40 years." Then, Salgado was told she would be arrested. She and six other protestors were given trespassing tickets. 

Discussion Starters:

• What's your view of the situation? What would lead Salgado to confront the president in this way? On the other hand, what other avenues does she have?
• How do you assess Stratton's response? What could he have said or done differently?

Twitter CEO Responds to Criticism About Lack of Women Execs

As Twitter's IPO approaches, the company is being criticized for having an all-white board and only one woman on its executive team (an attorney who was hired five weeks ago). Also, although Twitter has females in VP business roles, none are in technical roles.

Twitter management has acknowledged the problem. Back in March, chief technology officer Adam Messinger told The New York Times: "Half our customers, more or less, are women, and we want to have empathy for our customers, and part of that is having a wide variety of opinions in-house. It's also something a lot of people here think is the right thing to do." He also said, "There is definitely a supply-side problem." A New York Times writer has since suggested 25 women from a variety of industries who would "bring value beyond a checked box."

In response to the criticism, CEO Dick Costolo attacked Vivek Wadhwa, who was quoted in the NY Times article: 

In a blog post for the Wall Street Journal, "Silicon Valley Has a Code Name for Sexism & Racism," Wadhwa asked for an apology-and flung an insult of his own:

"Yes, Costolo's comments were inappropriate and he owes me a formal apology. But I don't for a moment think that he is overtly sexist or that he deliberately discriminates. I think that he is reflecting a common behavior in Silicon Valley, where power brokers proudly tout their 'pattern recognition' capabilities. They believe they know a successful entrepreneur, engineer, or business executive when they see one. Sadly, the pattern is always a Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreessen, Jeff Bezos-or themselves. Nerdy white males."

And the missives continue:

 

Discussion Starters:

• Some people have expressed disappointment in what they consider Costolo's defensiveness. What's your view? What could have been a better response?
• How, if at all, do you think this controversy will affect Twitter's pending IPO? Should the issue of female management be a consideration as the comany goes public?

Riders Stuck on Roller Coaster for More Than Two Hours

Twelve thrill-seekers got more than they wanted when a roller coaster at Universal Orlando malfunctioned and left them in the air for more than two hours. The twelve-story Rip Ride Rockit reaches speeds of 65 mph and, according to the webpage, "features six near-miss moments and first-ever thrills including a record-breaking loop."

Naturally, the fiasco was recorded on a cell phone.

Tom Schroder, a spokesperson for the park, called the problem a "technical glitch" and said, "We are going to work to understand what happened tonight before we reopen the ride again."

It took a while, but rescue teams moved the stuck car to a horizontal position that allowed people to walk along a platform towards elevators to ground.

With more than 99,000 followers, Universal Orlando's Twitter page appropriately addressed the situation:

Discussion Starters:

• Assess the communications we have from Universal Orlando so far. What's your view of the spokesperson's statement and the tweets?
• What would you suggest the company tweet when the ride reopens? Write a few tweets that would be appropriate to the situation.

HP Asks Remote Employees to Work at the Office

Following in Yahoo's footsteps, HP is next major company to ask employees who work from home to come into the office. Part of CEO Meg Whitman's turnaround plan for the company, employees are being asked to make a case for working remotely.

In a Q&A document, the company explains the rationale for the change, which is similar to Yahoo's, focusing on collaboration and innovation:

My Workplace, My HP Community. What is the goal of the effort?

As part of the company's overall turnaround strategy, there is an effort underway to bring employees who currently work from home to work from the office. This effort is part of the company's cultural shift and will help create a more connected workforce and drive greater collaboration and innovation. In some major sites thereto large amount of underutilized workspace and we want to make the best use of our space. HP will maintain flexible work arrangement options, but with greater clarity and consistency about how to use them.

Why now?

During this critical turnaround period, HP needs all hands on deck. We recognize that in the past, we may have asked certain employees to work from home for various reasons. We now need to build a stronger culture of engagement and collaboration and the more employees we get into the office the better company we will be. Belief in the power of our people is a core principle of the HP Way Now. Employees are at the center of what we do, we achieve competitive advantages through our people. HP has amazing employees who are driving great change. We believe the more employees we have working together, the better for HP and our customers.

How does this support the company strategy end culture?

We want to make HP a great place to work and build a stronger HP Way Now culture of engagement and collaboration. Employees who are more connected tend to be more collaborative, productive, and knowledgeable They will also have a greater sense of the company goals and experience a greater sense of pride in HP. We believe that having employees work from the office will unite and inspire them to achieve higher levels of operational excellence and innovation.

Which employees are affected?

The overall effort is designed to increase collaboration among all employees, including employees who regularly work from home despite having an assigned desk at a site, telework employees who are near HP sites, and those who regularly work in an office now. Employees with part-time or job share arrangements are expected to work from the office. Where legally permissible, contingent workers also are expected to work from the office.

 An HP spokesperson gave this statement to AllThingsD:

"Over the past several years, HP has been focused on developing workplaces that attract employees to the office and encourage effective and collaborative work. Our investments in real estate and IT infrastructure have made it possible to now accommodate more employees in the office and also support new styles of working which we believe will further HP's business strategies and objectives. Flexibility continues to be a core operating principle at HP."

Discussion Starters:

• Compare Yahoo's email to employees to HP's Q&A. What similarities and differences do you notice, and what could account for them?
• Which message is more effective and why?
• List all of the possible questions and concerns that employees would have about the change. If you were part of HP management, how would you address them?

Another Daniel Loeb Letter

Followers of business news may remember hedge fund manager Dan Loeb's letter to the Yahoo board of directors calling for the termination of Yahoo's now former CEO Scott Thompson. Thompson had falsified some information on his resume.

Now Loeb is after Sotheby's chairman and CEO Bill Ruprecht. This latest letter is more personal, according to a Reuters opinion writer, than his letter about Yahoo-or another letter about Sony's strategy. In this case, Reuters writer Felix Salman speculates that Loeb will not be successful in "outsting" Ruprecht, but he may get a stock price boost he's looking for.

Here are headings of the full letter: 

• Pressing Issues at Sotheby's
• Management's Lack of Alignment with Shareholders
• Limitations in Formulating and Executing Strategic Initiatives
• A Prescription for Repairing Sotheby's

Discussion Starters:

• Compare Loeb's three letters: to Yahoo, Sony, and Sotheby's. What differences do you notice, and what could account for them?
• In what ways do you agree or disagree with the Reuters writer's view?

Bertolli Capitalizes on Barilla's Anti-Gay Comments

Competitor Bertolli is taking full advantage of the CEO of Barilla pasta's anti-gay comments.

After saying that he'll never make ads featuring gay people, CEO Guido Barilla is facing a new foe: Bertolli. Promising "Love and pasta for all!" the company posted this image to its Facebook timeline:

Given its history, Bertolli seems to be a supporter from way back. AdWeek discovered this commercial from a "couple of years" ago:

Discussion Starters:

• What are the potential risks of Bertolli's advertising strategy?
• If you were Guido Barilla, what, if anything, would you do in response?

Should Jamie Dimon Resign? CNBC Says No.

CNBC is accused of being less than objective in assessing whether JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon should resign. In a pointed blog post, Reuters reporter Felix Salmon refers to CNBC producers and hosts as Dimon's "biggest cheerleaders" and criticizes them of not considering the whole story. Titled, "The JP Morgan apologists of CNBC," the post includes a clip from CNBC showing hosts asking leading questions. 

Readers may recall that JP Morgan Chase lost a risky trading hedge that could amount to to $20 billion in fines.

 Salmon highlights this excerpt from the video as an example of CNBC's tone:

Maria Bartiromo: Alex, to you first. Legal problems aside, JP Morgan remains one of the best, if not the best performing major bank in the world today. You believe the leader of that bank should step down?

Alex Pareene: I think that any time you're looking at the greatest fine in the history of Wall Street regulation, it's really worth asking should this guy stay in his job. In any other industry - I can't think of another industry. If you managed a restaurant, and it got the biggest health department fine in the history of restaurants, no one would say "Yeah, but the restaurant's making a lot of money. There's only a little bit of poison in the food."

The arguments on both sides use several reasoning types we discuss in class: criteria, analogy, dissocation, and others.

Discussion Starters:

• How do you assess the interview? Is CNBC biased in its view?
• How are principles of persuasion used in the arguments? What examples do you see of reasoning types, fallacies, and evidence?

AIG: Bonus Criticism "Just as Bad" as Lynchings

AIG's CEO has apologized for comparing criticism of employee bonuses to lynching.

In a Wall Street Journal article, Chief Executive Bob Benmosche was quoted as saying that anger about bonuses "was intended to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitch forks and their hangman nooses, and all that -- sort of like what we did in the Deep South <decades ago>. And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong."

The criticism of bonuses began around 2009 during the financial meltdown when, in the midst of bailouts from the government, financial sector employees were collecting large bonuses. The banks' defense was that these employees were contractually due the bonuses, that the bonuses were essential to retain talent, and that only a few employees were responsible for bad decisions that caused the collapse. (I'm paraphrasing here.)

Reuters explains the lynchings in this way: "Thousands of people, mainly African-Americans and primarily in the South, were beaten, hanged and killed in the 19th and 20th centuries by racist mobs."

Do you see the analogy?

In a statement, Benmoshce later said, "It was a poor choice of words. I never meant to offend anyone by it."

Image source.

Discussion Starters:

• Several news sources (Al Jazeera, Reuters, and others) called Benmoshe's statement an "apology." Is it? What does a apology typically include?
• Read an article in Rolling Stone discussing the comment and other perceived failings of Wall Street. Analyze the author's arguments. How does he use logical arguments, emotional appeals, and credibility to make his points? Which are strongest and which are weakest?

Microsoft Pulls iPhone Parody Ads

Called "distasteful," "terrible," "harsh," "bizarre," and "cringe-worthy," Microsoft videos poking fun at the iPhone have been removed. Here is one of seven produced, as Apple introduces iPhones 5c and 5s.

Critics said the ads are not funny, and some thought that the executive's resemblance to Steve Jobs was in poor taste.

Microsoft issued this statement about the decision: "The video was intended to be a light-hearted poke at our friends from Cupertino. But it was off the mark, and we've decided to pull it down."

Discussion Starters:

• Do you find the video funny? Why do you think it got a negative reaction?
• Assess Microsoft's decision and statement. Did the company do the right thing by removing the videos? What's effective about the statement?

Starbucks Asks Customers Not to Bring Weapons to the Store

In an open letter, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz asks customers not to bring firearms to the stores.

Dear Fellow Americans,

Few topics in America generate a more polarized and emotional debate than guns. In recent months, Starbucks stores and our partners (employees) who work in our stores have been thrust unwillingly into the middle of this debate. That's why I am writing today with a respectful request that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas.

From the beginning, our vision at Starbucks has been to create a "third place" between home and work where people can come together to enjoy the peace and pleasure of coffee and community. Our values have always centered on building community rather than dividing people, and our stores exist to give every customer a safe and comfortable respite from the concerns of daily life.

We appreciate that there is a highly sensitive balance of rights and responsibilities surrounding America's gun laws, and we recognize the deep passion for and against the "open carry" laws adopted by many states. (In the United States, "open carry" is the term used for openly carrying a firearm in public.) For years we have listened carefully to input from our customers, partners, community leaders and voices on both sides of this complicated, highly charged issue.

Our company's longstanding approach to "open carry" has been to follow local laws: we permit it in states where allowed and we prohibit it in states where these laws don't exist. We have chosen this approach because we believe our store partners should not be put in the uncomfortable position of requiring customers to disarm or leave our stores. We believe that gun policy should be addressed by government and law enforcement-not by Starbucks and our store partners.

Recently, however, we've seen the "open carry" debate become increasingly uncivil and, in some cases, even threatening. Pro-gun activists have used our stores as a political stage for media events misleadingly called "Starbucks Appreciation Days" that disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of "open carry." To be clear: we do not want these events in our stores. Some anti-gun activists have also played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction, including soliciting and confronting our customers and partners.

For these reasons, today we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas-even in states where "open carry" is permitted-unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel.

I would like to clarify two points. First, this is a request and not an outright ban. Why? Because we want to give responsible gun owners the chance to respect our request-and also because enforcing a ban would potentially require our partners to confront armed customers, and that is not a role I am comfortable asking Starbucks partners to take on. Second, we know we cannot satisfy everyone. For those who oppose "open carry," we believe the legislative and policy-making process is the proper arena for this debate, not our stores. For those who champion "open carry," please respect that Starbucks stores are places where everyone should feel relaxed and comfortable. The presence of a weapon in our stores is unsettling and upsetting for many of our customers.

I am proud of our country and our heritage of civil discourse and debate. It is in this spirit that we make today's request. Whatever your view, I encourage you to be responsible and respectful of each other as citizens and neighbors.

Sincerely,

Howard Schultz

The letter also appeared as a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal.

Although Schultz doesn't reference the shootings at the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard two days prior, the timing may be significant. On the other hand, Schultz says that holding "Starbucks Appreciation Days" was the impetus for the decision. He says that the event had been misconstrued, leading people to believe that the company supports "open carry" laws.

As of this writing, Starbucks' Facebook post that referenced the letter received almost 33,000 likes but also received its share of negative comments, such as this from a police officer:

This writer failed to notice the exception in Schultz's letter: "unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel."

Discussion Starters:

• What do you think are Schultz's goals in writing this letter? What are his short- and long-term objectives?
• What are the dangers of his approach? Consider public opinion, the impact on customers, employees' perspectives, and so on.

Chipotle's "The Scarecrow" App

Chipotle has a clever new ad in the form of a game. With "The Scarecrow" app, users help the Scarecrow win against Crow Foods, an invented food monopoly that produces factory food. On the website, users are invited to "Join Chipotle and the Scarecrow on a journey to bring real food back to thepeople. Play the game, watch the animated short film, and find out how to take action."

A companion video features Fiona Apple singing a cover of "Pure Imagination" from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." 

Chipotle Marketing Manager Mark Crumpacker told The Village Voice that the company wants to educate people about processed foods and how antibiotics are used in meat production:

"That's the most pressing issue to us right now. There are multiple consequences. There are obvious public-health issues, because you risk creating new antibiotic-resistant diseases. There are environmental issues that come with animals living in confinement. And there are issues with eating the food."

This isn't Chipotle's first time mixing music and advertising. The video Back to the Start featured Willie Nelson singing a cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist. With that animated short, Chiptole targeted pork production.

Discussion Starters:

• Who is Chipotle's target audience for the app? Is the app effective for the audience?
• Read the recent story about Panera apologizing to farmers. What, if any, implications do you see for Chipotle?

9/11 Marketing Failures

Companies are still learning the lesson: don't use tragic events to sell your products. AT&T and a golf course made this mistake on September 11.

AT&T tweeted an image of someone taking a photo of the World Trade Center. Calling the ad "cheesy," "tacky," and other choice words, tweeters caused the company to issue an apology.

Tumbledown Trails golf course offered a promotion on 9/11:

 

After quite a bit of backlash, management apologized-with increasing vigor in successive posts:

We would first like to apologize to everyone that we have upset or feels we have disrespected in anyway. By no means did we mean to do this.
Here is what we will do this Wednesday 9-11;
we will still let all that have tee times booked play for the previous rates we posted.
Then for all other golf that day we would like to donate the $ difference between our normal rate and the previous price for the day to the 9/11 Memorial.
We hope that everyone will now see this as a positive as we really meant it to be. Again we do sincerely apologize for offending anyone & hope that you do accept our sincere apology.
 Thank you
-------------
We are a family owned business & proudly support all local charities and have always gave 20% off everyday to all Police, Fire, Emergency, Military, etc. Please accept our apology.
-------------
Please stay tuned to see if we will be open on Weds 9/11.
We are now worried about what people will do/say to our staff & do not want anything to happen or get out of control.
Sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused anyone.

David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY, offered this advice: "Unless you're bringing something of value, the easy thing is just to keep your mouth shut." In his view, a simple "We remember" or similar tweet, such as Shutterfly's, is probably most appropriate.

 

Discussion Starters:

• Assess the apologies from AT&T and Tumbledown Trails. What works well and what doesn't?
• Do you agree with David Berkowitz's advice, or should companies just avoid the observance entirely?

Chobani Apologizes for Moldy Yogurt

Chobani's CEO and Founder Hamdi Ulukaya is personally apologizing for selling moldy yogurt produced in its Idaho facility.

In a letter on the Chobani website, Ulukaya opens with, "I'm sorry we let you down.

"From the workers in our factories to our sales teams on the road, there is nothing we take greater pride in than making a perfect cup of yogurt."

Chobani also communicated updates through a press release and its Facebook page. The company's communication has been generally web received, as shown in these two Facebook posts:

However, several customers said it had been "weeks" since they reported the bad product on Chobani's Facebook page, but the company responded only recently.

Also, I doubt I'm the only one who finds the CEO's large, sad-looking photo a bit odd.

Discussion Starters:

• Compare Chobani's communications: press release, letter, and Facebook post. How did the company adapt the message to different audiences and media?
• What works well about the CEO's letter, and what could be improved?

Organizations and Fast-Food Companies Respond to Workers' Strike

On Thursday, fast-food workers went on strike demanding higher wages. In response, affected organizations and companies have issued statements.

A statement on the National Restaurant Association website emphasized fast-food restaurants as a training ground (Scott DeFife is the association's executive vice president of policy and government affairs):

"One of every three Americans gets his or her first job in the restaurant industry," he said. "People learn a strong work ethic and invaluable skills that help them for a lifetime. They learn about personal responsibility, teamwork, discipline and accountability.

"Restaurants are the cornerstones of our communities," DeFife said. "The jobs they provide often are the first step toward the restaurant industry's employees achieving great business success."

McDonald's response followed a similar line of reasoning: "Our history is full of examples of individuals who worked their first job with McDonald's and went on to successful careers both within and outside of McDonald's." The Chicago Tribune and other new agencies report that Wendy's, Burger King, and Yum Brands didn't respond to requests for comments.

According to WSBTV, McDonald's also said in a statement that raising entry-level wages would mean higher overall costs, which could result in higher prices on menus. In turn, "That would potentially have a negative impact on employment and business growth in our restaurants, as well as value for our customers."

According to USA Today, a representative from the National Retail Federation said, "Today's publicity stunt is just further proof that the labor movement is not only facing depleted membership rolls, they have abdicated their role in an honest and rational discussion about the American workforce."

The Employment Policies Institute, a conservative group, ran a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, showing a robot making pancakes. The group warns that workers' demands for higher wages will cause "fewer entry-level jobs and more automated alternatives."

Discussion Starters:

• Conduct your own research about fast-food workers' wages. What sources do you find most credible?
• What are your own conclusions about the situation? Should fast-food companies pay higher wages?

Microsoft Apologizes for Outlook Outage

An email outage that left some users without email for several hours warranted an apology-and Microsoft issued an effective one. A version on its website unfortunately lacks paragraph breaks, but this easier-to-read statement appeared elsewhere: 

We want to apologize to our customers who were affected by the outage on Outlook.com this week. We have restored access to all accounts and have made changes so that the service will be more resilient in the future. We realize that we have a responsibility to the customers who use our services to communicate and share with the people they care most about, and we apologize for letting those customers down this week.

Our first priority is to the health of the services, and we will learn from this incident and work to improve the experience of all our customers. As part of that, we would also like to provide more detail about what happened.

This incident was a result of a failure in a caching service that interfaces with devices using Exchange ActiveSync, including most smart phones. The failure caused these devices to receive an error and continuously try to connect to our service. This resulted in a flood of traffic that our services did not handle properly, with the effect that some customers were unable to access their Outlook.com email and unable to share their SkyDrive files via email.

In order to stabilize the overall email service, we temporarily blocked access via Exchange ActiveSync. This allowed us to restore access to Outlook.com via the web and restore the sharing features of SkyDrive. These parts of the service were fully stabilized within a few hours of the initial incident. A significant backlog of Exchange ActiveSync requests accumulated as we worked to stabilize access. To avoid another flood of traffic, we needed to restore access to Exchange ActiveSync slowly, which meant that some customers remained impacted for a longer period of time.

We have learned from this incident, and have made two key changes to harden our systems against future failure – one that involved increasing network bandwidth in the affected part of the system, and one that involved changing the way error handling is done for devices using Exchange ActiveSync. We will continue to monitor the system and make additional changes as needed to keep the service healthy.

We are now fully through the backlog and have restored service so all customers should have normal access from all of their devices. We want to apologize to everyone who was affected by the outage, and we appreciate the patience you have shown us as we worked through the issues.

Dick Craddock, group program manager for Outlook also posted this message on Facebook and sent an email to users:

On behalf of the entire Outlook.com team, I would like to extend my personal apology for any inconvenience you may have experienced last week with access to Outlook.com.

We realize how critical your email is for staying in touch with your personal network and for being productive with the things you need to get done. And we are truly sorry for any issues you had in accessing Outlook.com. We want you to know that Outlook.com has earned a leading reputation as a reliable and trustworthy email experience and to that end, we deeply investigate any issue to ensure that we fully understand the root cause and can prevent a similar occurrence in the future. And we pledge to you that we are dedicated to providing the reliable and trustworthy mail experience that you expect.

Many of you have asked and we would also like to provide a more detailed explanation of what happened last week that caused some of you to be temporarily unable to access your email. This incident was caused by a failure for some of our servers in the functionality that syncs information on some mobile devices using Exchange ActiveSync. The failure caused these devices to receive an error and continuously retry connecting with our service. This resulted in a flood of traffic that some of our servers did not handle properly, with the effect that many customers on those servers were unable to access their Outlook.com email.

In order to stabilize the impacted servers, we temporarily blocked access over Exchange ActiveSync for all of those servers and then worked to restore this gradually. Because of the significant backlog of traffic that had accumulated and in order to avoid another flood of traffic, we restored access slowly, meaning some of our mobile customers remained impacted for a longer period of time.

We have learned from this incident, and have made two key changes to harden our systems against future failure – the most important is in updating the way we handle Exchange ActiveSync traffic to avoid a flood of requests hitting our servers and to ensure more reliable connections and the second involves increasing network bandwidth in the affected part of the system to ensure we have a greater capacity for these requests.

It is our goal to provide exceptional service to every person using Outlook.com, and I hope you will give us an opportunity to restore your confidence in Outlook.com. Your support and dedication to our email service is very important to us. And so once again, on behalf of the entire Outlook.com team, I want to apologize for any inconvenience you experience and want to thank you for any patience you have shown us as we worked through the issues.

We look forward to your continued Outlook.com usage and hope to have the privilege of being your primary personal email service in the future.
space
Sincerely,

Dick Craddock
Group Program Manager, Outlook.com

Discussion Starters:

• Compare the two messages. What are the similarities and differences? How do you account for each?
• What examples of logical arguments, emotional appeal, and credibility do you find in these examples?
• How do you assess the parts of the statements that explain what happened? Do you find them easy to understand for someone who isn't technical? Could the explanations be improved in some way?
• Do you find the apology sincere? What works well-or doesn't?

Fast-Food Workers Strike over Pay

The fast-food industry has been under fire for paying low wages. The website "Fast Food Forward," asks people to sign a petition:

"We can't survive on $7.25!

"In America, people who work hard should be able to afford basic necessities like groceries, rent, childcare and transportation.

"While fast food corporations reap the benefits of record profits, workers are barely getting by-many are forced to be on public assistance despite having a job.

"Raising pay for fast food workers will benefit workers and strengthen the overall economy."

In July, McDonald's mistakenly publishing Practical Money Skills, a budgeting journal for employees. It was a nice idea, but the tool has made obvious that employees have a tough time living on McDonald's wages alone. A Mother Jones article  criticized the advice:

"The most practical tip: In order to obtain a living wage working at McDonald's 35 hours per week (monthly income: $1,105), get a second job. Least practical facet: as MSNBC's Maria Perez notes, it "leaves out necessary expenditures like food, child care, clothes and gas." 

Another Mother Jones writer asks that we "give McDonald's a break." The row for "Income (2nd job)" assumes a dual-income family with two working adults.

A New York Times opinion from The Executive Board explains how the minimum wage has lagged behind inflation: 

"As measured by the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour, low-paid work in America is lower paid today than at any time in modern memory. If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation or average wages over the past nearly 50 years, it would be about $10 an hour; if it had kept pace with the growth in average labor productivity, it would be about $17 an hour."

Fast-food employees are paid $9, on average. 

The New York Times piece also critcizes executive pay:

"At some point, as strikes continue, well-paid executives in low-wage industries will have to confront the fact that low worker pay is at odds with their companies' upbeat corporate images and their self-images as top executives. (The chief executives of McDonald's and Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, are among the nation's highest-paid corporate leaders.)"

An International Business Times infographic summarizes some of the data well:

A Bloomberg Businessweek article reported that wage increases will hurt already low fast-food margins. Profit margins are particularly slim for franchised restaurants, which set their own pay rates. The article compares company-owned Burger Kings, which can garner margins of over 10%, to a franchised store, which may operate at only 2%. For franchisees, the cost of higher wages may not easily be offset by raising menu prices. However, the writer concedes, 

"Much of the public debate, however, is focused on raising wages to considerably less than the much-hyped $15 an hour. Wicks-Lim and 99 other economists signed a petition in July to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.50. They say the increase in costs for restaurants would equal about 2.7 percent of sales. Wicks-Lim adds that companies could then make up the difference through price increases (say, a nickel more for a burger), reduced employee turnover, productivity gains, and slower raises for the highest-paid employees."

Infographic source.

Discussion Starters:

• Find research to support both sides of the issue. What credible sources do you find? What are the major arguments on each side? 
• What examples of fallacies do you find in the arguments? 
• What's your view? Should fast-food restaurants pay more? How much?