First thoughts after reading this: 1. Is this legal in all jurisdictions an employee could conceivably be based in? 2. When will Equifax monetize this as a service to other companies (because you know they will).
It's already a service. "The Work Number" is their employment verification service available to anyone https://theworknumber.com
Equifax used records it collects from companies to fire employees with 2nd jobs
201–210 of 408 posts
Re: Equifax used records it collects from companies to fire employees with 2nd jobs
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the UK there's a set of criteria (IR35) that attempt to codify the distinction. The hiring business has to make the assessment. One of criteria is right to subcontract and freedom to work with multiple clients. If they get it wrong, they're liable for taxes, not the Contractor. HMRC, the UK tax body is responsible for this, and therefore it is an utter mess in practice and has had chilling effects on the UK IT con…
I think it's a great idea, there's far too many businesses that exploit employees by labelling them contractors. Of course, idea and execution are two very different things. In NZ, it's often found in courier companies and telecommunications, where you're an owner-operator! Except you have to do what the company you work for says, when they say, and you have to provide all your own equipment, and of course, pay for y…
So you see contractor job ads prominently listing "outside of IR35" as a benefit.
When this was implemented I know people who actually quit because they were told they would be within IR35 from then on, and they found new contracts outside of IR35.
In IT/tech people go the contracting route for the money so unsurprisingly they follow the money...
Re: Equifax used records it collects from companies to fire employees with 2nd jobs
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Specified, delegated and approved by distracted executives? Criminally negligent executives, in my personal opinion.
I don’t see how any of this was the executives fault. They have no idea of computer security and hired people who they thought were competent to handle it.
Re: Equifax used records it collects from companies to fire employees with 2nd jobs
#204> Executives, especially in the tech industry, have said they're worried that some remote employees are distracted. “Distracted” like the time that Equifax leaked hundreds of millions of pieces of personal data. Maybe instead of blaming the workforce they should worry about making the company a place that people want to work exclusively. Equifax does not matter at all as an organization.
They are big enough it's totally normal that not everyone knows what everyone else is doing.
Not sure what the leak is telling you, it's not telling me too much
Re: Equifax used records it collects from companies to fire employees with 2nd jobs
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. In an alternate universe, the Chief Information Security Officer of Equifax is giving interviews about the dangers of work from home for cyber security roles, informed by her masters in music composition and 0.0 years of IC experience as deep expertise. I'm still astounded no one ended up in jail over that. Software Engineering really does need some professionalization.
>Software Engineering really does need some professionalization. Consequences is what it needs. We can no longer allow it to be profitable to be so brazenly irresponsible. External selection pressure to kill off the maladaptive traits.
Re: Equifax used records it collects from companies to fire employees with 2nd jobs
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you believe the article, the employees were fired because they weren't doing the "scope of their duties".
The article calls out, multiple times, that the reason people were fired (all 24 of them, with another couple hundred contractors being flagged) were because they were moonlighting. It says nothing about their performance, except in the vaguest of terms ("weren't logged into the VPN enough" for instance), and the fact they were initially flagged to be investigated (presumably because of performance, but again, no det…
Re: Equifax used records it collects from companies to fire employees with 2nd jobs
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
The guards are still usually W-2 employees; but they’re employees of the firm that’s been contracted. Referring to them as “contractors” is more a colloquialism, but it marks someone that works for an outside firm versus someone that’s in-house and on the company team, even if they work in the same office day in and day out.
Yeah, there's a big disparity between UK and US terminology here. I'm the UK, a "contractor" is typically in business on their own account, applying for jobs directly to the end client. In the US, it seems like a "contractor" frequently works for an outsourcing company. In the UK we'd typically call these people "temps" or "consultancy staff" depending on the source.
Re: Equifax used records it collects from companies to fire employees with 2nd jobs
#208Re: Equifax used records it collects from companies to fire employees with 2nd jobs
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article says that they don’t know if any contractors were terminated; they only know about employees. They could terminate them if they could show that the contractors were faking the hours.
To what extent can you demand hours from a contractor?
Re: Equifax used records it collects from companies to fire employees with 2nd jobs
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
Specified, delegated and approved by distracted executives? Criminally negligent executives, in my personal opinion.
I don’t see how any of this was the executives fault. They have no idea of computer security and hired people who they thought were competent to handle it.