Local resident lost job because iPhone alarm didn't work on New Year's Day?

[ron_newman]

In the Huffington Post, Lindsay Garvey says that she lost her job "as a server at a popular new restaurant in Somerville, MA" because her iPhone alarm failed to go off as scheduled on New Year's Day.

I don't think I know her, nor do I know what restaurant she worked at, but maybe some of you do. Edit: it's Foundry on Elm, according to a new story on the Somerville Journal website

Edit: there's a real software bug in the iPhone alarms that didn't show up until 1/1/11; here's an article about it and here's another

Comments

[tober.livejournal.com]

"Popular new restaurant" could readily be Journeyman or Pizzeria Posto ... however it doesn't seem that likely that someone would be asleep at the time when servers are expected to report at Journeyman (which only serves dinner) and Posto was closed on January 1 (but served brunch on January 2)...

[ron_newman]

Could also be Foundry or Flatbread.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of dumbfounded that "I didn't get up and get to my own job," has become "somebody else's fault."

Somebody with "two Bachelors' of Arts and experience in a variety of professions" ought to ostensibly count as a grown adult, and if they can't get themselves out of bed at the appointed hour, how is that anybody's fault but their own?

The entitlement! It burns!

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Yeeee-ah, something tells me there's a bit more to the story than that.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Yeah...when my clock radio alarm went off but the reception was bad enough that it was just static, and I didn't hear it, I didn't write to the manufacturer and bitch them out.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Right. You might have been frustrated at the equipment failure, but trying to find somebody else to blame wasn't really reasonable.

That said, I'm not trying to diminish the frustration we all can feel when confronted with lousy (or even great but sometimes faulty) equipment. Nor am I trying to claim that losing a job is not devastating to personal finances.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

It's undeniably snark-worthy.

I'm sure the young lady is a nice person and all, but a sense of personal responsibility goes a long way.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

I don't want to be mean about it, but if she's half as haughty and pretentious in real life as she comes off in that article I would look for an excuse to fire her as well.

[coeceo.livejournal.com]

I'd be pissed off too. But usually one time of tardiness doesn't merit termination. Especially if you returned with the article about the iPhone glitch.

[misterthorn.livejournal.com]

this.

[teko.livejournal.com]

(a) One incident of tardiness doesn't get you fired if you're a "wonderful" employee. She's not telling the whole story.

(b) She conveniently doesn't explain the so-called "glitch". Sorry hon, but letting your phone battery run out isn't a "glitch". Neither is setting your alarm to PM instead of AM. Neither of these is the fault of Steve Jobs or AT&T. And iPhones don't have a "known alarm glitch" that you feel Mr Jobs should have warned you about.

[ron_newman]

She didn't let her battery run out or set it to the wrong time. There is indeed a known alarm glitch that started only on 1/1/11. I'll add this link to the original post.

[cnoocy]

Would you be more vocal about it if the manufacturer of the alarm had dismissed the problem as trivial, and it had cost you your job?

[teko.livejournal.com]

My mistake, then. But if there's a known glitch, then she's clearly capitalizing on it; nobody gets fired for one incident of tardiness if they're a "wonderful" employee.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I agree with your first point and pretty much all the comments above, but in fact, this is a very well-known glitch (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/technology/03iphone.html?_r=1) that's been written about all over the place, but I'll leave it to you to search more sources if you want them. I'm not sure why you think should have had to "explain" it.

[teko.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's been established that I'm ignorant about the "well known glitch". I apologize.

[diego001.livejournal.com]

Should I spoil it? I already know which restaurant it was.

[laryu.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, her LinkedIn profile indicates the Red House in Harvard Square:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsaygarvey

[teko.livejournal.com]

And, before I was told of this New Years' alarm glitch, I felt she should have had to explain it because she makes absolutely no mention about what actually went wrong with her phone; the article assumes that the reader's already aware of this phone glitch. iPhones/Droids don't normally just 'glitch'. But people very often blame them for human error. Since she omits any explanation, it makes human error a big possibility.

[diego001.livejournal.com]

And you just spoiled it!

[ron_newman]

but that's not new nor in Somerville, so probably not where she was last working.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

or worse, the manufacturer says after the fact "we've been aware of the problem for months"? and apparently didn't feel it necessary to tell people the device wasn't strictly speaking reliable? yeaaaah.

for important getting up stuff, i set TWO alarms devices. you know, because i've had power failures, and my radio alarm sometimes forgets (the battery backup is a joke, should just plug it into a UPS ;> but then the OTHER UPS alert me. oh, the ALERTING!)

so, i guess it sucks to have a scheduled thing fail, and the device was to blame, and maybe Apple will be seeing some lawsuits over this.

on the other hand, i guess it shows just how dependent some gadgets can become.

#

[diego001.livejournal.com]

There is another Red House in Union Sq according yo Google. Maybe that one's new?

[diego001.livejournal.com]

*to. DYAC.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

FWIW, the "related news on Huffington Post" at the bottom of the article includes links to:

iPhone Alarm Not Working: Users Oversleep In New Year Due To iPhone Bug (UPDATE) (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/02/iphone-alarm-not-working-_n_803339.html)

iPhone Alarms Not Working Come New Year's Day 2011 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/01/iphone-alarms-not-working_n_803187.html)