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posted by martyb on Thursday November 05 2015, @12:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the debugging? dept.

In a kind of counter intuitive argument in this article in The Wall Street Journal , Uber drivers may now have to battle with the fact that no human is actually telling them what to do. Most of the tasks are now being automated. The study by Researchers at the Data and Society research institute at New York University point out that Uber uses software to exert similar control over workers that a human manager would.

The world looks more and more like the Manna short story, where every aspect of our employee life is used to classify our performance. Another interesting discussion point: Is the middle manager role disappearing?


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  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday November 05 2015, @06:28PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Thursday November 05 2015, @06:28PM (#258991)

    "hiding behind the computer" I think this is far more accurate than anything else. I call phone support to pay my bill, "oh sorry I can't accept payment right now, our computer system is down." Then write my details down you lazy pile of shit. It isn't my responsibility to keep calling you back every couple of hours to see if your computer works.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 05 2015, @10:47PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 05 2015, @10:47PM (#259147) Journal

    Then write my details down you lazy pile of shit.

    Where I work, we are not allowed to write down credit card numbers ever. Guests who are physically present at the point of sales can, when the computer systems go down, have imprints made of their credit cards, but these imprints are promptly destroyed once they're entered into the computer at a later date. I believe this is SOP these days with customer financial information.

    The laziness would be more in not bothering to call you back when the computer systems come back up.

    • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday November 06 2015, @03:07AM

      by Thexalon (636) on Friday November 06 2015, @03:07AM (#259249)

      Where I work, we are not allowed to write down credit card numbers ever.

      And for good reason. At one of the companies I worked for, we noticed that a bunch of customers started reporting fraudulent charges. We did some digging, and noticed that they had all done their purchases talking to a particular customer service rep. The customer service manager went over to the guy's desk and saw a bunch of 16-digit numbers written down on a sheet of paper ... that matched up with the customers' credit cards.

      The customer service rep in question left the building in handcuffs, but still, damage had been done to both customer and company.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday November 06 2015, @02:01PM

      by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday November 06 2015, @02:01PM (#259423)

      Actually the frustration I was venting at yesterday was one power company in particular that has computer systems so poorly set up that you have to call them on the phone and give them a authorization number if you make a payment by phone or online. The 3rd party payer accepted the payment, but after spending an hour on hold I just got a guy that told me there was nothing he could do. He also did not at least even pretend he cared that their hold music was static about half the time. I couldn't just "call back later, eventually we have no idea when it will be fixed", as they were threatening to turn off my power.

      Yeah yeah, customer service is a shitty job. But at least pretend you care. I blame the management for being blindsided by this. Backup plans. A computer system being down is something you can predict.

      --
      "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
      • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday November 06 2015, @02:02PM

        by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday November 06 2015, @02:02PM (#259426)

        Anyhow, it is the benefit of being a government sponsored monopoly. You get to shit on your customers, and they cant even take their money elsewhere. We can't vote them out either and they pay for the politicians to play nice for them.

        --
        "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh