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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

#141

Post by kbutler »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #131
kbutler wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Show me the machine guns. It may be difficult to leave - mostly because of what you give up, and the disruption in your life - but nobody is going to shoot you if you try. Socialist regimes larger than a kibbutz have always been established and maintained by force. Our current economic system is not perfect, but the results over decades are infinitely better than other systems - particularly socialism. https://fee.or…

The thing is: you guys are talking about two different things but using the same word. One is talking about Scandinavia and one is talking about The Khmer Rouge.

Well, Bernie was also endorsing Castro's Cuba, the USSR, and the Sandinistas' Nicaragua. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhpVAkBDg5o (He visited each of these countries in the mid-to late 80s, when the atrocities were already well-known).

Not quite the Nordic model.

He praises socialist governments, ignoring their murders and killings of people trying to escape, and when their economies inevitably tank, he shifts to different examples (1980s Bernie "Castro...totally transformed society" visited for the third time in 1989. The "special period" crisis began in 1991 with widespread famine. 2016 "The Cuban economy is a disaster" 2020 "Let's talk about...Denmark!").

The new strategy of endorsing non-socialist economies (Scandinavian countries with capitalist free market economies and strong social safety nets) is probably a better long-term model. Danish Prime Minister: "I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy." https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/denmark-tells-...

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

#143

Post by [deleted] »

wiradikusuma wrote: post #30

At work, my staff (20ish developers) usually clock in/out sharp bcoz of attendance, but they take 2+ hours lunch break and ~1hr for prayer breaks (2x within work hour), which I don't mind. But what frustrates me is their work is slow and low quality (not everyone), and I do thought about "short term" tracking like this. Thoughts? (I just joined, so I "inherited" this)

[deleted]

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

#144

Post by 11thEarlOfMar »

What problem are they trying to solve really?

Seems to me that their management skills, training, hiring is the issue. If there is a perception among managers that workers are slacking or over-working, they should be able to solve the issue without invasive tracking. Moreover, if they are genuinely interested in improving productivity and reducing work-related stress, they'd communicate all of that in advance and resolve employee concerns before installing it.

Sounds like management does not have an open, healthy dialog with employees in general.

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

#145

Post by lainga »

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #144

What problem are they trying to solve really ? Seems to me that their management skills, training, hiring is the issue. If there is a perception among managers that workers are slacking or over-working, they should be able to solve the issue without invasive tracking. Moreover, if they are genuinely interested in improving productivity and reducing work-related stress, they'd communicate all of that in advance and re…

Whatever physical or social friction stands in the way between me, an upper-mid-level manager, getting mad because (?? someone cut me off in traffic? indigestion?) and being able to express it by summoning a giant fist and crushing one of my neo-slaves to death with a comical "splat" noise. They're not genuinely interested in anything that doesn't relate to their own prestige or comfort or ability to discharge discomfort.

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

#146

Post by lonelappde »

jschwartzi wrote: post #92
sidlls wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the cost difference? Did the shrink reduction exceed the $3/hr raise in value but not by enough? Or was the raise not offset at all by the reduction?

I bet the bigger problem was that the raise went into operating costs, whereas investment in surveillance goes into capital costs. The corporation doesn't get to list any money it pays out to employees on its balance sheet, but that Orwellian surveillance system is capital and counts as an asset the corporation can leverage for a higher valuation. It's all part of how Capitalism reduces humans to a drain on the syste…

Capital depreciates. It's an expense.

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

#147

Post by yetihehe »

sandoooo wrote: post #138
pietrovismara wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's my point. Businesses care only about profit, even when its clearly detrimental to everyone else. There's no consideration for happiness or quality of life and no ethic if you only chase profit. For how much we've been pushed to believe this is perfecly normal, to me it's insane.

You know what would quickly increase happiness and quality of life for a whole bunch of people? If you would just donate your entire life savings to charity tomorrow. Your not doing that is clearly detrimental to all those people you would have helped. Please consider happiness, quality of life, ethics, etc, and stop chasing profit.

Yeah, the ceo of charity would be really happy.

Why doesn any argument about "a LITTLE less profit" must be countered with reducting to absurd? I really would like to know why did you make such argument.

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

#148

Post by ranagol »

izacus wrote: post #88
banannaise wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or does this simply show a cultural problem among upper-management types, where they exclusively use the stick over the carrot because it makes them feel powerful, important, and morally superior?

It's it just the management types? Plenty of users here in HN defend abusive practices like these just to save some money.

Agree on this...

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

#149

Post by ranagol »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #124
redwall_hp wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Company pays minimum wage. Employees give minimum effort. Company: shockedpikachu.jpg

Paying more only motivates higher level people. Lower level only respond to the stick. That’s how a lot of people seem to think.

bullshit; Agree on that "lower-level" do not always respond linear to better wage, however that's not the only thing of motivation. What about trainings? Holidays? And not the stick...

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

#150

Post by pietrovismara »

sandoooo wrote: post #138
pietrovismara wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's my point. Businesses care only about profit, even when its clearly detrimental to everyone else. There's no consideration for happiness or quality of life and no ethic if you only chase profit. For how much we've been pushed to believe this is perfecly normal, to me it's insane.

You know what would quickly increase happiness and quality of life for a whole bunch of people? If you would just donate your entire life savings to charity tomorrow. Your not doing that is clearly detrimental to all those people you would have helped. Please consider happiness, quality of life, ethics, etc, and stop chasing profit.

Oh please, do a favour to yourself and use your intelligence before engaging in discussion. I as an individual have barely what I need to survive. My choice is not between huge profit and slightly less profit, but between paying the rent or ending on the streets. Businesses on the other hand have proven again and again that they will do anything to increase the profit even when already largely profitable.
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