Work - The pros and the cons... - The Bear and Badger

LivDiv

Congrats Matt

g.man

Matt_82 wrote:

Got the job at the college. Start training in a couple of weeks. So that's a massive weight off the shoulders. Especially at times like these.

Might even treat myself to a PS5 in the new year.

That’s awesome!

EvilRedEye

Yay!

Armitage_Shankburn

Matt_82 wrote:

Got the job at the college. Start training in a couple of weeks. So that's a massive weight off the shoulders. Especially at times like these. Might even treat myself to a PS5 in the new year.

WELL DONE BUD

Tempy

Gratz Matt, really happy to hear it!

I did not get the job I went for. Ho hum.

g.man

Sorry to hear that.

Unlikely

Fuck this thread.

Matt_82

Thanks guys. It really is a weight off the shoulders. And I'm completely done with customers which is crazy to think about. No more upselling targets.

Sorry to hear you didn't get your thing, Temp. It can get to you. I actually wasnt out of work for too long but getting turned away by Tesco and various driver jobs was a right kick in the teeth, I have to say.

Keep plugging away. I nearly didn't even apply for this because they were looking for trade experience and I had none.

poprock

poprock wrote:

Microsoft have slowly and quietly developed employee tracking tech (time spent, documents opened, email contacts, etc) that is embedded in the entire Office 365 suite. And it’s all turned on by default. This is probably illegal in the EU, and needs looking into. Long-ish Twitter thread about it here: https://twitter.com/WolfieChristl/status/1331221942850949121

More NOPE surveillance technology from Microsoft. They’ve filed patents for scanning/camera/software tech that ‘reads’ meetings – real or virtual – for body language, attention, etc and assigns them productivity scores.

https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-patent-scores-meetings-using-body-language-191550305.html

acemuzzy

None of this gets assigned to individuals in a way that management can see, I'm reliably informed. So it's more for high level shizzle than "Bob isn't concentrating enough". Apparently.

Armitage_Shankburn

Bob's looking at a picture of a bizarrely ugly 90s babe

Syph79

acemuzzy wrote:

None of this gets assigned to individuals in a way that management can see, I'm reliably informed. So it's more for high level shizzle than "Bob isn't concentrating enough". Apparently.

Leading to the question, why do it at all? Who benefits?

GooberTheHat

The previous stuff mentioned that raised concerns benifits me.

I imagine this might give a presenter some insight along the lines of "only 50% of your attendees contributed to the meeting. Consider inviting oy those that are really necessary".

That would benifit me because I would get asked to fewer bone meetings.

EvilRedEye

You'll probably already be invited to fewer bone meetings now the series x is out though.

Syph79

You can work out all of that without technology. Are people engaged and contributing? Excellent, you managed a good meeting.

Yossarian

Meetings are one thing, if you’re bringing in wider changes to a workplace and want to keep an eye on how they’re affecting productivity, then this could well be useful for quantifying the impact those changes are having.

poprock

My problem isn’t with the idea of improving productivity. My problem is with the idea that it can be solved by tech that auto-assigns ‘scores’ to inherently messy human behaviour – whether that’s at the level of tracking software usage or the level of analysing body language in a meeting.

But maybe that’s because I’m in the creative industries, where none of this is even remotely relevant.

Yossarian

It’s an additional data point, it shouldn’t override things like having face to face conversations with people or offering anonymous surveys or whatever, but it’s an extra tool and one which could prove helpful in certain situations, more in how things change over time than anything else.

poprock

It’s going to be misused by lazy managers who just pass the score up the chain and don’t give it any of that context.

Yossarian

Probably, but the issue there is lazy managers rather than the tool itself.

RedDave2

poprock wrote:

My problem isn’t with the idea of improving productivity. My problem is with the idea that it can be solved by tech that auto-assigns ‘scores’ to inherently messy human behaviour – whether that’s at the level of tracking software usage or the level of analysing body language in a meeting. But maybe that’s because I’m in the creative industries, where none of this is even remotely relevant.

Yossarian wrote:

It’s an additional data point, it shouldn’t override things like having face to face conversations with people or offering anonymous surveys or whatever, but it’s an extra tool and one which could prove helpful in certain situations, more in how things change over time than anything else.

I'd agree with both the above. Any manager who is dumb enough to only look at stats when it comes to their team is going to fail. Case in point, one of my waiters who wasn't the best upseller or work horse has moved on to greener pastures and myself and the boss both commented how his overall attitude and demeanour was so good for overall workplace atmosphere (he was the guy you would always assign a new staff member - cheerful, positive and generally a good hand) I dont think he would be top half on any of the normal metrics (customer satisfaction is a tricky one) but he was always one of the first names on the rota.

I'm sure there are some jobs where it is all about productivity (Amazon picker maybe) but as said, shouldn't be the only tool used to decide who is good and who isn't. It has a very US approach though. They love their stats and league tables.

Wookienopants

Working from home issues, nothing quite like having to stop work to deal with an explosive poo because one of your son's got so distracted playing a game he forgot he needed to go to the toilet

poprock

Future pro gamer material, right there.

mistercrayon

Our work tries to do this kind of two dimensional metric where they look at what you do and then how you do it.

It’s a tricky balance because things like attitude and enthusiasm are prone to bias and unconsciously discriminating but I do think there should be value for the guy that makes everyone feel good rather than the twat numbers merchant.

Cos

Wookienopants wrote:

Working from home issues, nothing quite like having to stop work to deal with an explosive poo because one of your son's got so distracted playing a game he forgot he needed to go to the toilet

Take's after his dad I'll bet. You must have let a wet one through at some FNF?

RedDave2

Wookienopants wrote:

Working from home issues, nothing quite like having to stop work to deal with an explosive poo because one of your son's got so distracted playing a game he forgot he needed to go to the toilet

Wookie now confirmed as Cartmans mom.

beano

Working from home issues, can't work from home but should be

Edit: very conscious my go bed alarm has just gone off

poprock

Speaking with a lawyer friend yesterday (took the dogs for a walk, good way to catch up outdoors) he was saying that his firm has been unusually profitable this year, so they’ve paid back their furlough money and Covid assistance grants in full. That’ll be a considerable amount of money given they’re one of Scotland’s biggest law firms.

Ethical lawyers. Whatever next?

Armitage_Shankburn

Doctors with neat handwriting?

tigersgogrrr

Teachers who can do?

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