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Comment by go_ruby | Hacker News Reader

If it was actually only a single curse word and not maliciously directed at any individual, apologize and start recording the meetings, you probably have your phone out anyway, download the Hi Q app, just let it run. That person probably has something to hide about their work habits. You don't have to trot out the recordings at the first sign of back stabbing, let them pile up and if they make a serious play to get you canned you can start to share them at an advantageous moment. I learned this the hard way. I started keeping my phone in my breast pocket if there was not a table to set it on, people who make those sort of HR reports always have something to hide or protect usually their own incompetence. You may never need them but it literally can't hurt.

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I believe that is illegal in certain countries and states. For example California has two party consent for recording conversations.

The way they are doing it seems illegal... However at my work we host all our meetings through zoom and record them all.

That also sounds illegal.

Can you maybe substantiate this a little? I don't understand why a company recording the meetings of their employees, on company time and regarding company business, would be illegal.

(An individual doing so, on the other hand, might be problematic.)

This would definitely be illegal in Germany where I work as CTO. Even having employees sign some letter of acceptance of such would still be illegal as a court would assume an employee was in an uneven power position and therefore not able to refuse even if they wanted to.

It's always so refreshing to hear about Germany's labor laws. America's pretty much a third-world country when it comes to employee rights.

> America's pretty much a third-world country when it comes to employee rights.

Nope, that's not true at all. Not to play the game of semantic-nazi, but that's legitimately offensive when you look at a "third-world" country's employee rights compared to the US.

I'll take you for a tour in Phnom Penh, Cambodia if you're interested in seeing what a "third-world" country's working conditions are really like.

There is a difference between working conditions, and labour rights. America has first-world working conditions, and third-world (or worse) labour rights.

Maybe if they were secretly recording but its common knowledge they are all recorded so people can refer back to them if necessary.

In California it would not be illegal so long as all parties were warned they were being recorded, but what he describes is illegal unless they are in a one party consent state.

> (a) A person who, intentionally and without the consent of all parties to a confidential communication, uses an electronic amplifying or recording device to eavesdrop upon or record the confidential communication, whether the communication is carried on among the parties in the presence of one another or by means of a telegraph, telephone, or other device, except a radio, shall be punished...

(b) For the purposes of this section, “person” means an individual, business association, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, or other legal entity, and an individual acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of any government or subdivision thereof, whether federal, state, or local, but excludes an individual known by all parties to a confidential communication to be overhearing or recording the communication.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...

That sounds illegal.

Depends where for most places it's not Illegal it's just inadmissible in court.

There are US states that have traditionally been home to call centers, and the laws in those states usually allow for only consent of one party to record, including yourself.

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