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The Machine Fired Me

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Re: The Machine Fired Me

#181

Post by gaius »

romwell wrote: post #44

I have a story in a similar vein, although a much less scary one. In that instance, The Machine Cleaned Out My Desk. I had a cubicle at the company HQ, but was for some period of time working from home in another state. I still kept quite a few things in the cubicle (notebooks, mugs, etc), which I used when I was in the area. When I finally came back, I noticed, after a month or two, that my office number has not bee…

The next day I came back to see a pristine desk. With all my stuff gone.

Something like this happened to me too at a previous employer, some things I recovered but many were just gone, the cleaning staff apparently help themselves to stuff that “former” employees leave behind, so my fancy headphones for example were just gone. Fucks given by HR/facilities? Zero. One of many similar incidents for me and my cow-orkers. And this was a desk move literally from one row to another!

It wasn’t even an algorithm per se, most of the “machine” at this place was people in India following checklists manually. You could speak to them (tho' they made this very difficult to do) and tell them to stop and they would say “yes” and do it anyway.

I had a friend at another company who was mistakenly terminated, a week later his manager called him at home to find out if he was OK, the conversation apparently went,

Are you sick? What happened?

You fired me you bastard!

No I didn't! Please come back!

Too late now, I have another job.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#182

Post by Gibbon1 »

krapp wrote: post #56
newest_user_ wrote: post #5

I read it and still don't really understand why there was no one administrating the system. Who could have stopped the system (with the appropriate emails to cover their ass). I also do not understand why a check couldn't be cut. Submit to accounts payable with an email approval?

The system didn't need to be stopped. The employee's contract wasn't renewed, which is indistinguishable from a decision terminate him, so the system executed the termination as scheduled. The system did exactly what it was intended to do, it was the humans who screwed up. Humans who presumably understood the way the system was designed, and didn't care enough to do some due diligence. >I also do not understand why a…

I worked as a contractor for a couple of months at a company with 100k+ employees. And then got hired.

Once a year human resources would decide my 'contract' was up and order IT to terminate my network access and payroll to stop paying me. Had another lady got hired from contract around the same time. The day she started working they terminated her email account and it took them six weeks to restore it.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#184

Post by fixermark »

Peeling back the layers a bit, it seems a major misfire in this whole story is that the employee in question was a short-term contractor... But a shot-term contractor who was apparently quite valuable to his team.

Smart companies'll make people in that position permanent employees. The machine is so automated partially to make sure legal compliance of two companies sharing one employee is executed upon correctly (because past lawsuits have made it clear that if you get too chummy with your contractors, you're on the hook for treating them like they're full-time).

Don't want to get screwed by your own automation? Make fewer people working in your building interchangeable third-party subcontracts.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#185

Post by fixermark »

rectang wrote: post #81
jacobsenscott wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like he's contracting at a huge company. His contracting company isn't going to make waves over this. I would guess the contracting company is making $300+ an hour off this guy, paying him $50 an hour, and they have 200+ other contractors in the building.

So, wage theft. Now we're not just talking about a lost opportunity to reward a loyal worker. If you're right, somebody ought to be going to jail.

But nobody will. This is a common story in contractor arrangements---the big, unwritten benefit of the process is that all incentives are aligned to sweep small mistakes (1) under the rug. Contracting client doesn't want to jeopardize a good contract, contractee doesn't want to jeopardize their contract, and employee doesn't want to get fired and black-balled. Who cares if it's a little illegal? :(

(1) "Small" in relation to the whole contract deal; what's one employee's salary in a million-dollar agreement between two corporations?

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#186

Post by doc_gunthrop »

bonyt wrote: post #161

This is literally an episode of Better Off Ted.[1] In it, the titular Ted is inadvertenly deleted from the company system when trying to correct a misspelling of his last name. Eventually, he is forced to interview for his own job as the system had already put out an ad for his replacement. I think the most striking part of it, and of the true story from the post, is the human factor - the idea that the humans involv…

Reminds me of Frank Herbert's ominous (fictional) prophecy:

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#187

Post by predakanga »

michaelmrose wrote: post #170
predakanga wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the seller fulfilled their part of the sale (I.e. posting the item). No postal system is without risk; that’s why they offer package insurance, registered post, etc.

This is an insufficient explanation. When I pay you money I expect to get something in return. I have zero insight into who dropped the ball nor do I care. Your obligation wasn't to drop something at the mail it was to provide the customer with product whether this involves a rocket ship, fedex, or literal magic. Every real merchant who deals with the public at scale accepts this and refunds in such cases. Presumably…

For me, it depends on the context. In a B2B transaction, my basic assumption is that the vendor will ensure that the goods are delivered, and will make things right if they fail.

In my personal life on the other hand, I'm regularly prompted at checkout to decide between registered post with insurance, or regular post without. If I opted out of insurance, I wouldn't blame the seller for the package not arriving or any damage (presuming of course that it was packaged appropriately), and I'd fully expect Paypal to resolve in their favour after verifying that the package was actually sent.

It's true that this would ruin the customer relationship which is why some businesses may offer to make things right anyway, but I personally wouldn't expect it.

That said, the consumer protection laws in my country (Australia) are fairly strong so I may well be entitled to redress; this is just my personal attitude.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#188

Post by gaius »

fixermark wrote: post #184

Peeling back the layers a bit, it seems a major misfire in this whole story is that the employee in question was a short-term contractor... But a shot-term contractor who was apparently quite valuable to his team. Smart companies'll make people in that position permanent employees. The machine is so automated partially to make sure legal compliance of two companies sharing one employee is executed upon correctly (bec…

a major misfire in this whole story is that the employee in question was a short-term contractor.

A 3-year contract is a long-term contractor... Many permanent employees don't stick around that long.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#189

Post by fixermark »

gaius wrote: post #188
fixermark wrote: post #184

Peeling back the layers a bit, it seems a major misfire in this whole story is that the employee in question was a short-term contractor... But a shot-term contractor who was apparently quite valuable to his team. Smart companies'll make people in that position permanent employees. The machine is so automated partially to make sure legal compliance of two companies sharing one employee is executed upon correctly (bec…

a major misfire in this whole story is that the employee in question was a short-term contractor. A 3-year contract is a long-term contractor... Many permanent employees don't stick around that long.

Sorry; I didn't mean anything formal by the "short-term" adjective phrase there. I meant "In contrast to a full-time employee, whom one assumes is making a career out of THAT company."

Three years is a long time in contractor-land, but it's a drop in the bucket for career company employee.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#190

Post by biggc »

bb88 wrote: post #4
biggc wrote: post #3

3 year contract where you need to come in to the office alongside full time employees every day? How is that not considered full-time?

Because a contract is not employment. A contractor has less protections than an employee. It's both good and bad, but typically a contractor gets a higher rate than an employee since health insurance, etc is not provided.

To clarify, I find it incredulous that a 3 year contract requiring full-time, on-site, business hour presence wouldn't legally require a company to treat that person as a full-time employee with benefits.
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