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The Machine Fired Me

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Re: The Machine Fired Me

#321

Post by gaius »

rinchik wrote: post #27
realo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is interesting. On the one hand, you have been promoted to a new role, so you have reached a compatible level of expertise. You can put that role on your resume and sell yourself. On the other hand, you never, ever actually performed in that role, with the new responsibilities. How can you list that on your resume ! I am not sure what is the right answer here... but as your new employer I would take your last pr…

I'm not particularly familiar with the system at Google, but at any somewhat decent tech company in order to get a promotion you have to already perform as you would in your "future" role for some time, with higher-level expectations and responsibilities. For example, is someone with level I is up for level II promo, she/he has to match level II criteria long before actual promotion is due.

Curious, do Google regularly give free stuff to their customers (advertisers) hoping that in a few months those customers will upgrade to a higher service?

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#322

Post by wjnc »

hueving wrote: post #246
wjnc wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It's a theme I run across in many US-worker situations we read about on HN. There is such a lack of basic rights, but also basic norms when relating to workers. Ethical behaviour, from my perspective, would be to compensate the employee, regardsless of his legal rights. In a more worker-central system, the worker should have easy recourse to an official judgement for his money. In the Netherlands there is ev…

None of what you says really applies in this case. According to the article the thing that triggered this was the failure to renew his contract. If it had renewal intervals, that means he wasn't legally entitled to 3 years. This is likely why he wasn't paid for the interim either. The best the company could do would likely be to bump up the future rate or offer a "signing bonus". Being a contractor is not at all like…

The part of being ethical in business outside the legalise still holds?

I would agree with your point of professional contracting: contract for the worst and write out scenarios in contracts.

In this case though the employer acted in a way that signalled renewal and the contractor delivered in good faith. Back to contract law and ethics: are services delivered possibly without contract but in good faith without value and compensation?

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#323

Post by Melchizedek »

ethicsengineer wrote: post #47

Engineers need to read The Trial by Franz Kafka. I don't think people fear soulless beurocracy without any possible resolution enough.

Also read the Unabomber Manifesto (Industrial Society and its Future). Technology enslaves us.

But it can also liberate us, and we should seek to maximize the liberating force of technology and try to disrupt the enslaving tendency.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#324

Post by garmaine »

icebraining wrote: post #287
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.

If he's working for a contracting company, why would he lose wages? Wouldn't he still have a contract with that company? I work for a contracting company (in the EU), and if the client lets me go, I still get paid until a new project can be found.

That’s not how it works everywhere.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#325

Post by garmaine »

kbart wrote: post #308
macca321 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not if he is a Contractor.

Even in such case contract usually has a clause about premature termination and related compensation.

Did you read the article? There was no premature termination here. He was “fired” exactly because his contract expired.

It’s a shit situation and the company should have made him whole, but on ethical not legal grounds.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#326

Post by gota »

pkaye wrote: post #176

When a previous company was acquired, everyone got a new job offer generally better since the company wanted everyone to stick around. Well except for one guy. A junior engineer in one of our teams. He was a really good engineer too so we were shocked. It turned out he had the same first and last name as another person at our company so they thought it was a duplicate entry and omitted it. Eventually a offer was prep…

Was this is the US? There are benefits to having a national, public, unique ID # for each person and this is one of them; it reduces the number of 'they had the same name' mistakes to nearly zero

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#327

Post by c12 »

lmm wrote: post #272
c12 wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We were only following orders" suddenly feels even more scary when they come from a computer and not a human.

It shouldn't. Blindly following orders from humans has much the same results.

When the orders come from a human then there is someone who is ultimatly responsible, someone to put through the courts, someone to throw in jail.

When the orders come from a computer. Will any of that happen, will there be someone responsible?

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#328

Post by garmaine »

maaark wrote: post #273
toomanybeersies wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misread the article. The author assumed that the recruiter accidentally thought that he had been fired after reading the list of fired employees, as there were other employees with the same name. In reality, he had been fired as his contract had not been renewed. He wasn't actively fired, but rather his contract expired because someone failed to renew it. A big part of the problem here seems to be rather…

I think you misread the article. The author's contract hadn't even ACTUALLY expired. The end date was wrong on the system. That doesn't actually affect his contract.

The article says that his former boss, who left the company, neglected to file the paperwork on extending his contract. There was intent to extend, and everyone thought that’s what happened, except for the fact that it didn’t actually happen.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#329

Post by mschuster91 »

ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #313
jexah wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're really blaming the wrong people. Blame the doctor for screwing it up, your wife for not checking the prescription, or the government for creating/enforcing the relevant laws that would have put not only the chemist but their entire franchise underground for "doing the right thing". Laws are laws, broskie, don't expect everybody to break them for you. If the migraine was really bad (bad enough to cause tangible…

So in effect he's right to suggest the pharmacist should just be replaced by a robot because you would have them follow the rules no matter what with all humanity stripped out. If there was more than one pharmacist available it wouldn't have killed him/her to go and take a look at the wife in the car.

> If there was more than one pharmacist available it wouldn't have killed him/her to go and take a look at the wife in the car.

Depending on the jurisdiction, pharmacists aren't allowed to prescribe stuff or treat people on the spot. That's business of a (licensed) doctor.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#330

Post by detaro »

gota wrote: post #326
pkaye wrote: post #176

When a previous company was acquired, everyone got a new job offer generally better since the company wanted everyone to stick around. Well except for one guy. A junior engineer in one of our teams. He was a really good engineer too so we were shocked. It turned out he had the same first and last name as another person at our company so they thought it was a duplicate entry and omitted it. Eventually a offer was prep…

Was this is the US? There are benefits to having a national, public, unique ID # for each person and this is one of them; it reduces the number of 'they had the same name' mistakes to nearly zero

Doesn't a US employer have their employees social security number, which would fulfill exactly this role if people cared to look at it?
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