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Employers are mining the data their workers generate

wsj.com

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Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#81

Post by Retric »

b_tterc_p wrote: post #75

I don’t think this is especially bad though am perhaps biased. If anyone is curious about their own data, Office365 exposes a nice API to get email and calendar data, as well as one called “People” that calculates an edge strength to others based on the various things. You usually have permission to pull your own data without corporate involvement. Perhaps to rephrase the question. I hear a lot of privacy concerns ab…

Personally I don’t care about this data. I am simply concerned it’s going to be interpreted incorrectly. Doing this kind of data analysis with just metadata is hard, and it’s really easy to make major mistakes.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#82

Post by dang »

QuickToBan wrote: post #64
chipperyman573 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

Attacking a fellow user like that will get you banned here, regardless of how provocative their comment was or feels.

Also, complaints about paywalls are off topic, so please don't post them: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989. Yes, the paywalls suck, but these complaint threads are all the same. Readers don't come here for repetition, but to avoid it.

https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#83

Post by grimjack00 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #52
MegaButts wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there was nothing stopping a company from opening every memo that came through the mail room I hope I'm misunderstanding this, because I read it as saying they can open your mail...which I thought was a felony taken very seriously.

As well as bugging your phone. I don't think companies were ever allowed to do that.

But it's not _your_ mail/phone.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#84

Post by TheOperator »

ben509 wrote: post #57
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…

> Such that they think implementing one of the most universally hated office schemes I'not sure open offices are so unpopular in practice. I suspect a handful of people with misophonia are passionately against them. A sizable minority think they makes work more fun, and the remainder are indifferent. As someone who loathes them myself, I read all kinds of articles about how awful they are. But that's how news works:…

Open offices have the benefit mostly of cutting costs as less floorspace is needed but they're on average a less productive and more stressful environment for the employee. The 90s cube farm was already pretty short on privacy and the open office is even more extreme.

From what I've seen people who work in open offices try to find ways to work somewhere quieter when possible.

If open offices are worth it entirely depends on if saving on rent or having more productive employees is more worth it. Generally I see a trend towards open office + shared semiprivate spaces. Like meeting rooms or phone booth like cubicles with doors.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#85

Post by nine_k »

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…

Also, in a situation where interests are not very aligned, there is a benefit for the stronger side to seem "dumb" and "clueless" to the other side. It both eases the tension a bit (being the smarter guy is flattering), and allows to use the veil of "acting stupid" to conceal calculated adversarial actions.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#86

Post by cameronbrown »

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.

Can't tell if "people operations" used at many tech companies is better or worse.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#87

Post by Glyptodon »

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?

My office has a large number of what I'd call "gaming borderline" keyboards mostly because people are looking for whatever has decent switches for not high prices. Also why Logitech makes the K840 I think, not that I'm recommending it.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#88

Post by salawat »

jedberg wrote: post #14

People keep forgetting that equipment and subscriptions are your employers property and data, not yours. They have the right to access anything they pay for without telling you. It's important to remain aware of this any time you do anything for work. Back before we had computers, there was nothing stopping a company from opening every memo that came through the mail room and recording every phone conversation and op…

I remember bringing this up to a colleague at a conference trying to make a developer tool that collected and tracked metrics around what you were typing/commiting etc with the goal of helping the developer visually track their learning.

It wasn't a terrible idea if just developers used it personally, but the moment an employer starts using it, it would end up heading toward major creepsville to the point I'd refuse to work for an employer who mandated it.

It is scary at times; we try to do so many things with data without actually thinking about the consequences of doing so until someone starts doing stuff we're uncomfortable with with it.

I'm careful pointing out this type of thing to people, as I'm really not trying to rain on anyone's parade... But there's a reason Frankenstein's Monster is such an evocative figure. The endeavors we pursue may be our Magnum Opus, but the consequences of just throwing the results out there is worth substantial contemplation before just tossing it out there. You can never take it back.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#89

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

ianlevesque wrote: post #53
ziddoap wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

User ID, Username, Email, Account Creation, Account Type, Days Active, Messages Posted, Daily/Weekly Active Members, Daily/Weekly Members who Posted, % Public Messages, % Private Channel Messages, % Direct Messages. On a per channel basis you can see members who posted, members who viewed, changes in members who posted, reactions added, members who reacted, # messages posted, total membership count. Those are what I'…

The full enterprise version lets you export the entire message history.

Sole exception, private messages.

Re: Employers are mining the data their workers generate

#90

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

_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

I've seen people have multiple keyboards for creative suites (editing).
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