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Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#101

Post by nabnob »

riazrizvi wrote: post #46
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #8

So, they basically treated people like low-level employees at a call center in the US? This sort of thing isn't actually new. Those cameras in retail stores are, first and foremost, used to track employee theft - including theft of company time spent talking to other employees. Are you a call center employee that has to go poop often that day or are 3 minutes late from break? Expect a call from HR for the bathroom br…

It does happen in the US, and in banks, and not just low-level employees. Palantir sells the service. It has been used by JP Morgan for a few years: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel In LOTR the Palantir is used by Sauron to corrupt and subdue Saruman by displaying visions of terror. Coincidentally a Palantir employee in collaboration with Cambridge Analytica were instrumental in the Republ…

Wow. How do Palantir engineers sleep at night? Later in the article, it describes how LAPD uses Palantir software - tracking almost everyone in poor neighborhoods at all times. All of this use is completely without warrants, and the police know to avoid mentioning Palantir in court documents so that its use won't be challanged.

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#102

Post by BubRoss »

aphextim wrote: post #85
Loughla wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Those cameras in retail stores are, first and foremost, used to track employee theft In my history, before finding my terminal career, I worked retail management. I worked for a chain that is no longer open, so I'm fairly certain I can say whatever I want about it now. I was fast-tracked for upper-level corporate management (I think it was the combination of not-giving-a-fuck based on depression and low-grade sociop…

I worked at a company during college who at the end of the year would give every employee a "Shrink" check depending how well/poor their store performed over the course of the year. If you came in mid year they just pro rated the amount you would have gotten if you stayed the whole year. I remember this helped employees keep an eye on each other as you were essentially stealing from everyone else's shrink check.

.

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#103

Post by BubRoss »

Loughla wrote: post #19
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #8

So, they basically treated people like low-level employees at a call center in the US? This sort of thing isn't actually new. Those cameras in retail stores are, first and foremost, used to track employee theft - including theft of company time spent talking to other employees. Are you a call center employee that has to go poop often that day or are 3 minutes late from break? Expect a call from HR for the bathroom br…

>Those cameras in retail stores are, first and foremost, used to track employee theft In my history, before finding my terminal career, I worked retail management. I worked for a chain that is no longer open, so I'm fairly certain I can say whatever I want about it now. I was fast-tracked for upper-level corporate management (I think it was the combination of not-giving-a-fuck based on depression and low-grade sociop…

This makes me wonder what the numbers are for Costco, who pays their employees very well.

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#104

Post by lowercased »

wolco wrote: post #94
xamuel wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if instead of an extra $3/hr, the differential pay were an extra $10,000/hr? Obviously then the cost difference would matter. So, there must be a cutoff somewhere. Is the cutoff more than $3 or less than $3? We don't have enough information to know, nor do we have enough information to know whether upper management were just being comic book villains or whether their decision was based on crunching the numbers.

Might be the type of cost. Outsourced = expense Salary increase = fixed cost can only write-off %. It's probably the other managers who don't have the issue not wanting to increase their wages. Or explaining why the worst employees were paid more etc.

> explaining why the worst employees were paid more

except they were likely only viewed as 'worst employees' because of the theft. stopping theft - internal and external - would normally be chalked up to 'best employees', who would be quite deserving of raises (in a hypothetical world).

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#107

Post by derefr »

nabnob wrote: post #101
riazrizvi wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does happen in the US, and in banks, and not just low-level employees. Palantir sells the service. It has been used by JP Morgan for a few years: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel In LOTR the Palantir is used by Sauron to corrupt and subdue Saruman by displaying visions of terror. Coincidentally a Palantir employee in collaboration with Cambridge Analytica were instrumental in the Republ…

Wow. How do Palantir engineers sleep at night? Later in the article, it describes how LAPD uses Palantir software - tracking almost everyone in poor neighborhoods at all times. All of this use is completely without warrants, and the police know to avoid mentioning Palantir in court documents so that its use won't be challanged.

> All of this use is completely without warrants

Do you need a warrant to stake out a public place and write down everything you see? I get the impression that that's the analogous non-automated workload. (Except for the scale; to get equivalent results, you'd have to have thousands of people watching.)

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#108

Post by refurb »

BubRoss wrote: post #102
aphextim wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at a company during college who at the end of the year would give every employee a "Shrink" check depending how well/poor their store performed over the course of the year. If you came in mid year they just pro rated the amount you would have gotten if you stayed the whole year. I remember this helped employees keep an eye on each other as you were essentially stealing from everyone else's shrink check.

.

Why would it be illegal?

They aren't docking the employees pay for shrinkage (which is illegal), they are paying out a bonus based on company performance (the performance being level of shrinkage).

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#109

Post by refurb »

BubRoss wrote: post #103
Loughla wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Those cameras in retail stores are, first and foremost, used to track employee theft In my history, before finding my terminal career, I worked retail management. I worked for a chain that is no longer open, so I'm fairly certain I can say whatever I want about it now. I was fast-tracked for upper-level corporate management (I think it was the combination of not-giving-a-fuck based on depression and low-grade sociop…

This makes me wonder what the numbers are for Costco, who pays their employees very well.

Kind of hard to sneak out a 20 lb rack of ribs or 50 lb bag of rice.

Re: Barclays scraps 'Big Brother' staff tracking system within one week

#110

Post by EpicEng »

derefr wrote: post #107
nabnob wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. How do Palantir engineers sleep at night? Later in the article, it describes how LAPD uses Palantir software - tracking almost everyone in poor neighborhoods at all times. All of this use is completely without warrants, and the police know to avoid mentioning Palantir in court documents so that its use won't be challanged.

> All of this use is completely without warrants Do you need a warrant to stake out a public place and write down everything you see? I get the impression that that's the analogous non-automated workload. (Except for the scale; to get equivalent results, you'd have to have thousands of people watching.)

>Except for the scale; to get equivalent results, you'd have to have thousands of people watching.

Which is the only thing that matters. Sure, warrants aren't necessary, but the concept of mass, automated surveillance is so new that we simply haven't figured out what to do about it yet.

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