This is a very obviously AI written article, I don't get why these newspapers think that this is the future. Just look at this, but this style is all over the entire article: "Graphics cards are typically the most expensive components in a computer. So, when you get your hands on one for free, it's like the universe finally throwing a bone at you, rewarding you for years of kindness and suffering. Then, if that GPU suddenly gets enveloped in a legal feud, you start to second-guess your alliances, shattering loyalties in a moment"

to be fair, he quit because he (rightly!) disagreed with the company's petty-minded insistence that the prize belonged to them, not because he valued a graphics card over his internship.

Raffles are meant to increase engagement and participation, and getting conference participants to interact with prize sponsors and remain until the closing remarks. If employers started to demand that any prizes won be considered property of the company instead of the person who won, participants would likely start paying less attention and probably skip raffle activities altogether.

It’s like the days when I traveled for work, and some bright spark in finance said the bonus points belonged to the company. We had a few go-arounds about it. It got ugly in the company, and I refused to fly. Then about a dozen other employees refused to fly. I still went to customer locations, but I drove. What could be a one day trip to Chicago became 3 days out, one day there, 3 days back. Mileage, food and hotels were easily 4 times the cost of the flights. They backed down.

> The firm gradually grew more contentious, demanding that the RTX 5060 be handed in because the event it was acquired at was part of a business trip, entirely paid for by the company. The employee would never have won the GPU had the firm not enabled him to attend the venue. Our winner refused, arguing that it belonged to him because he had won it on his own by pure luck.

Hmm...I feel like the company's reasoning here is almost acceptable. Almost, because I know as a (paid) employee, all of the code I write, any inventions or IP I come up with are the company's property, so it almost makes sense that the company might also want to assert its right to claim that any physical things given or gifted in the course of work-related trips that employees take on company time.

but the article mentions the winner was an intern, not an employee, and I know many interns i've worked with never actually signed an employment agreement, because they dont actually get paid. They sign NDAs but not full on employment agreements, so how can any company treat them like an employee? if I wasn't getting paid, I'd 100% hold my ground like the intern did and take it.

This is an extremely salient point:

...some mockingly asking whether the firm would've maintained the same tenacity and reimbursed the Intern had he been fined 50,000 RMB at the event instead

No point in doing a giveaway at these events if the company is taking them.

Who are the amorphous blob of Chinese netizens who control the cultural dialogue in the world?

Company should plainly be banned from the event thereon.

Dear Penthouse...

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