Attention Office Resisters: The Boss Is Counting Badge Swipes (www.wsj.com)
from bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works to technology@lemmy.world on 25 Sep 2023 08:31
https://sh.itjust.works/post/5857500

#technology

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bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works on 25 Sep 2023 08:31 next collapse

archive.ph/GohFv

luthis@lemmy.nz on 25 Sep 2023 08:35 next collapse

Sounds like it’s time for some malicious compliance.

gibbedygook@sh.itjust.works on 25 Sep 2023 08:54 next collapse

next up: office workers swipe in to the office for an hour a day

eran_morad@lemmy.world on 25 Sep 2023 09:56 next collapse

I swipe in 10am, leave 2pm. Twice a week. Commute time 1 hour each way, so 2 of my 6 hours are totally wasted.

ours@lemmy.film on 25 Sep 2023 10:03 collapse

Or one person swipes for his buddies.

From the logs, these guys are really in sync.

painfulasterisk@lemmy.world on 25 Sep 2023 12:00 next collapse

In school, when you sign the sign-in sheet with your handwriting, then with your other hand in order to cover for your buddy.

mosiacmango@lemm.ee on 25 Sep 2023 14:31 collapse

Keyme kiosks will not only copy keys, but can copy rfid badges. Tap your badge, pay your $20, and they will give you a cloned badge that 100% works with badge scanners.

Just some interesting information for anyone reading.

Paradox@lemdro.id on 25 Sep 2023 20:32 collapse

You can clone badges with a flipper and store a whole rolodex of badges on said flipper as well

Case@unilem.org on 27 Sep 2023 06:25 collapse

That has become the primary use for my flipper, lol.

dandi8@kbin.social on 25 Sep 2023 09:07 next collapse

Absolutely ridiculous and serves nothing but to make the CEOs feel better.

KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 25 Sep 2023 09:30 next collapse

The fact that they have to resort to checking logs to determine who is coming into the office should be enough proof of how pointless working from the office is.

If you literally can’t tell without a literal in/out log, you can’t claim performance or communication as reasons for requiring it. You’re literally saying “we can only tell if we check the logs.”

Dirk@lemmy.ml on 25 Sep 2023 09:40 next collapse

It’s not about performance, it’s about control.

foggy@lemmy.world on 25 Sep 2023 09:47 collapse

It’s not about control, it’s about billions of dollars having been invested in commercial real estate.

sunbytes@lemmy.world on 25 Sep 2023 10:17 next collapse

For some. For others, it’s the other.

For some, both.

Kichae@kbin.social on 25 Sep 2023 11:11 next collapse

People keep claiming this this, and yet it does little to explain hmthr large number of smaller companies that have no real estate holdings.

Also, it totally overlooks what the actual purpose of money is to the wealthy, namely control. It's not money for money's sake, nor is it control for money's sake, but rather money for control's sake.

Meanwhile, WFH is a big shift in worker autonomy. Many employers have treated employees working from home with extreme suspicion, going so far as to accuse us of theft just because they can't directly watch us sit at a desk. They installed computer input trackers on remote hardware, they got belligerent over the idea that people maybe - just maybe - they were doing laundry or soemthing on company time, and they're nettled over the idea that people were sitting on their couches.

This isn't the behaviour of people concerned about their stock portfolios, or of landlords upset that their renters may not renew their lease in 5 years. These are not rational actors making rational decisions about long term consequences. These are people who have lost their fucking minds over having given up just the slightest, insignificant amount of control over their employees lives and, importantly, having handed it over to those employees.

They'll happily take a productivity hit, a revenue decline, or even a massive loss in institutional knowledge if it means clawing back these miniscule gains in worker power.

And if we're lucky, it'll cost them significantly more control over workers in the long run.

Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com on 25 Sep 2023 11:57 collapse

I’m with you on this one, 100%.

Why else would some low level manager be so stupidly paranoid about whatever you do, if you get your work done?

Control and fear of losing it.

Spaghetti_Hitchens@kbin.social on 25 Sep 2023 12:37 collapse

Software engineering manager here. My team went full remote and it is amazing. We get more done than we did in office.

I love cycling laundry or running the dishwasher in the middle of the day. It doesn't affect the amount of work I or my team gets done.

I really only have two rules. 1) Attend and participate in your meetings. 2) We deliver what we committed to at the beginning of sprint.

Otherwise I don't care when the work gets done. I am pretty sure one of my devs writes his code between 9 PM and midnight.

Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com on 25 Sep 2023 17:51 next collapse

So … are you hiring 😁

Jk, I have a nice job where people actually (like you) trust people. I mean I’d put in an extra mile just because of that.

And mixing work with home chores, naps, whatever is so good, both for me and for my productivity.

Sygheil@lemmy.world on 27 Sep 2023 12:56 collapse

Man, i never thought i would be a multi-tasker. Yes being remotely deployed is beneficial. Less petrol costs, less wear and tear, i can do laundry and cook and feed my cats (yes have 3) and play games while working and still i dont have to rush through traffic jams.

One good thing is i noticed money is kinda saved and yes I’ll definitely buy something from that.

p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 25 Sep 2023 13:53 next collapse

But, they would save billions of dollars by selling it back. This is textbook sunken cost fallacy.

Talaraine@kbin.social on 25 Sep 2023 14:57 next collapse

Except nobody wants to buy it.... that's the problem. Many of them have long term leases that they can't break without significant penalties.

Honytawk@lemmy.zip on 25 Sep 2023 15:53 collapse

Turn them into houses and fix the housing market problem along with it.

rwtwm@kbin.social on 25 Sep 2023 22:44 collapse

I'm with you, but it's harder for more modern buildings.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/11/upshot/office-conversions.html

The link is behind a paywall, but its a good piece.

foggy@lemmy.world on 25 Sep 2023 15:26 collapse

I’ve been saying CEOs should be making real estate donations to the cities theyve pillaged, for the expressed purpose of affordable housing/low income housing. Huge tax write-off. Turn this negative into a positive real easy.

It’s almost like these are the kind of decisions CEOs get paid 1000x more than I do to make.

cabron_offsets@lemmy.world on 26 Sep 2023 12:14 collapse

Sunk cost fallacy.

Esqplorer@lemmy.zip on 25 Sep 2023 13:28 collapse

Depends who “they” are. Middle managers can tell who comes in and who is performing, but most of them don’t care or want to work remotely too. Executives who can approve a program like this are the ones pushing return to office.

kitonthenet@kbin.social on 25 Sep 2023 09:58 next collapse

Ok

MonkderZweite@feddit.ch on 25 Sep 2023 10:45 next collapse

sources of data such as IP address information transmitted via Wi-Fi, ceiling-mounted heat sensors and weight-triggered sensors attached to chairs that can track workplace occupancy levels, executives and technology providers say.

Sorry americans, but your executives are getting paranoid.

snooggums@kbin.social on 25 Sep 2023 11:48 next collapse

Always have been.

Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com on 25 Sep 2023 11:54 collapse

What a lovely place, I wonder if they’re hiring?

“VALMOND! Your butt to non-butt is only at 87%!! You’re also colder than your colleagues!”

atri@lemmy.world on 25 Sep 2023 14:50 collapse

Getting your raise denied because the bald person next to you has a higher head temp average

Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com on 25 Sep 2023 17:48 collapse

Yeah so infuriating, he also only swipes twice when going to the toilet. Lackey.

knobbysideup@lemm.ee on 25 Sep 2023 11:33 next collapse

Hack the reader. Install a device that clocks you in and out automatically or remotely. There have been a few defcon talks on how insecure these systems are.

scops@reddthat.com on 25 Sep 2023 13:28 collapse

Every company I’ve ever worked for has had a clause in the Employee Handbook saying any attempt to circumvent a company system is a fire-able offense. Doesn’t matter if the company-wide firewall uses admin/admin as the user credentials. You get caught tinkering with it, you are out the door with cause.

Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works on 25 Sep 2023 15:34 collapse

Meanwhile in at-will states

tjhart85@kbin.social on 25 Sep 2023 22:30 collapse

Even in at will states (which, let's be honest here, plenty of cities have more people than the population of the only non-at-will state - Montana, so it's not really even worth the distinction) there is a pretty huge difference between being fired for having red shoelaces and being fired for physically adding a device to circumvent building security or removing a security implementation from your work PC.

Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works on 26 Sep 2023 00:09 collapse

True

Jaysyn@kbin.social on 25 Sep 2023 12:03 next collapse

Just plan on quitting. They don't want you & other companies that aren't tied to commercial real estate do. I'm so happy my employer is in the latter category.

Pohl@lemmy.world on 25 Sep 2023 12:59 next collapse

Do what you want, but please stop posting jobs as remote unless you actually want to hire remote. I am applying for the posted remote job. I am open that I intend to work remote. Why the fuck am I getting an HR person on a phone screen telling me they really want people in the office??

Stop posting remote. You don’t want me and I don’t want you. We don’t need to talk!

OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca on 25 Sep 2023 16:08 next collapse

They know they won’t get good applicants if they don’t.

Paradox@lemdro.id on 25 Sep 2023 20:30 collapse

When I was going through a job hunt last year, I encountered a few of these. I either reported them on the job listing sites, typically as misleading, or told my recruiter.

I doubt anything came of it, but its what we still need to do when they pull this shit.

p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 25 Sep 2023 13:51 next collapse

Don’t resist. Leave. Tell employers that are hostile to remote workers that you can find work elsewhere.

mosiacmango@lemm.ee on 25 Sep 2023 14:27 collapse

Resist while you leave. Best of both worlds.

shutz@lemmy.ca on 25 Sep 2023 22:36 collapse

Resistance is futile. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

const_void@lemmy.ml on 25 Sep 2023 14:33 next collapse

So show up once in a while and badge in 30 times or so. “I’ve been coming in all month, your badge reader must be broken if it’s saying it was all on the same day”. If they want to play games then let’s play some fucking games.

kinther@lemmy.world on 25 Sep 2023 14:49 next collapse

www.vergesense.com is one such company that we use at my work as well as badge data and logs for laptops connecting to corporate wifi. All of these data points can be extrapolated to determine if someone has been in office or not.

There’s a running joke of “well I got my one swipe in today, I’m going home” which seems to be common for every office I visit.

atrielienz@lemmy.world on 01 Oct 2023 21:14 collapse

Let the paying for badge swipes begin. If I pay someone to swipe my badge in and out everyday the metrics will be skewed.