Employers are mining the data their workers generate • Hacker News Board

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#41

Post by batmaniam » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:16 PM UTC

seneca wrote: post #5

The idea that McKesson does this, along with their completely tone deaf idea of adding open offices to increase retention, points to a bigger issue: a complete lack of understanding of people. These people running these companies are utterly detached from the reality that their work force lives day to day, such that they think implementing one of the most universally hated office schemes and mass surveillance are way…

Management isn't dumb. They understand the worker-employer balance at play. They're not going to come out directly and say they're doing this because they want ass-in-seats, they always have an official cover story. In this case, it's to "increase office retention".

There is no tone-deafness going on; they know exactly what it means and what they want, and how to sell it down the chain. Think of it this way, every time management tells you that there's no raise because of budget reasons, are you really going to take that at face value?

Business is business, and we are workers. If we want serious change, it's no use complaining about this... they'll do whatever anyways. We should engaging in politics, out on the streets kind of stuff.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#42

Post by thablackbull » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:16 PM UTC

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #13

ziddoap wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I really am having trouble understanding. How disconnected from reality do you need to be to think surveillance and converting to an open office is going to somehow increase retention of employees?

You get a bunch of "yes men" together and group think takes over and you end up with this. Rationality goes out the window. It has to because you have to say, "yes".

In my experience working, my theory is the over emphasis of goal setting. Everyone has to be doing something, even if it is counterproductive. No one ever says, maybe take some time to sit back to take some time to think about the best way to approach something, it's always just do do do.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#43

Post by ben509 » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:21 PM UTC

goatinaboat wrote: post #25

seneca wrote: post #5

The idea that McKesson does this, along with their completely tone deaf idea of adding open offices to increase retention, points to a bigger issue: a complete lack of understanding of people. These people running these companies are utterly detached from the reality that their work force lives day to day, such that they think implementing one of the most universally hated office schemes and mass surveillance are way…

> a complete lack of understanding of people People? Human resources . You know, things you use up and discard, like any resource.

It used to be just "personnel," not sure when the change happened but I'd spitball around the '50s in the US. The name change was more significant than simply a fancy new title, the idea went back to WWI and the labor movement.

Oddly enough, though it sounds more pejorative than "personnel" to me, "human resources" was thought to be positive as a resource is valuable.

And, in fairness, while your manager typically makes the call to fire you, HR are the ones who swing the axe, so no name changes can make them warm and cuddly.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#44

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:23 PM UTC

tempsy wrote: post #24

there’s something uniquely soul crushing about working in a corporate environment. After 6 years of it I think I’ve really had enough. I don’t think we as humans were programmed to live this way.

[deleted]

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#45

Post by Nullabillity » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:24 PM UTC

Duladian wrote: post #37

_o-O-o_ wrote: post #6

I know this is a cheap potshot, but who has a keyboard setup like that? https://images.wsj.net/im-90409?width=1260&size=0.6666666666... And the caption: Diana Hubbard, working from her home office in Texas, says she does not communicate about her private life on work devices at all. PHOTO: JONATHAN ZIZZO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

In my experience I've yet to encounter a USB switch that will forward the LCD display data properly to the G15 keyboard. Although, I was using cheap USB and KVMs switches. Another good question is who uses an overpriced "gamer" keyboard for work?

"Gamer" equipment tends to be far more reasonably priced than most good office-oriented equivalents. They also seem to be the only laptop segment that hasn't completely fallen to anorexia.

My old company ended up standardizing on Fnatic keyboards because they were the cheapest way to get silent Cherry switches with a reasonable layout.

I also used a gaming MSI laptop, because it was cheaper to buy and upgrade that than to buy a reasonable business Dell. ThinkPads weren't much better eiter (but also not an option anyway, thanks to Superfish and co).

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#46

Post by chipperyman573 » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:27 PM UTC

dudul wrote: post #19

oh_hello wrote: post #7

Is anyone familiar with what data Slack makes available to management? Can they see a nice breakdown of when I was online?

I don't have an answer, but it always surprised me what people would say either in Direct Messages or in private channel. This is a corporate slack, I'm pretty sure management can access all conversations, even in DM or private channels.

You can't directly access DMs, but if you pay slack enough to export data for data compliance (I think it's the most expensive tier but it may be a lower one, but definitely not the free one), DMs are exported in that file, so you can indirectly get access to DMs that way.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#47

Post by saltminer » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:28 PM UTC

phlowbieuq wrote: post #3

McKesson has not yet determined what changes it will make as a result of the findings, but has considered adopting a more open office plan to encourage more discussion between employees. LOL, way to be super creepy AND learn exactly the wrong lesson from this.

Imagine telling your investors how much money you spent to decrease morale and increase turnover cargo-culting SV companies. This article reads like something out of a Dilbert strip.

I can't imagine why they're having problems with "higher turnover".

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#48

Post by chipperyman573 » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:29 PM UTC

QuickToBan wrote: post #12

[flagged]

Why do you feel you have a right to read this article? WSJ has paid someone to write it and for the infrastructure to deliver it to you (and technically, for the bandwidth as well - however negligible, there is a real financial cost associated with delivering the content to your computer that does add up). Either pay up or leave, but don't complain that you don't get it for free.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#49

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:32 PM UTC

batmaniam wrote: post #41

seneca wrote: post #5

The idea that McKesson does this, along with their completely tone deaf idea of adding open offices to increase retention, points to a bigger issue: a complete lack of understanding of people. These people running these companies are utterly detached from the reality that their work force lives day to day, such that they think implementing one of the most universally hated office schemes and mass surveillance are way…

Management isn't dumb. They understand the worker-employer balance at play. They're not going to come out directly and say they're doing this because they want ass-in-seats, they always have an official cover story. In this case, it's to "increase office retention". There is no tone-deafness going on; they know exactly what it means and what they want, and how to sell it down the chain. Think of it this way, every ti…

[deleted]

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#50

Post by maximente » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:36 PM UTC

tempsy wrote: post #24

there’s something uniquely soul crushing about working in a corporate environment. After 6 years of it I think I’ve really had enough. I don’t think we as humans were programmed to live this way.

some corporate setups let you get away with 10-20% effort, while collecting a "tech salary". that includes being detached from all shared suffering, political game playing, etc. depending on where you're at in life, this can absolutely be worth it.

sure, you won't get to senior VP but you can use that other 80% for ... self improvement.