Is There Any Safe Place to Complain About Work Online? | Hacker News Reader

Is There Any Safe Place to Complain About Work Online?

wsj.com

20 pointsthm17 comments

Really strange how so many people have no common sense about how public available online-communication is. I've seen people complaining in broad public on social networks, and claiming it's safe, because they only have so few followers, so their boss will never see it... Big surprise when they were still warned or even fired over their rants when somehow it still found their way to their boss.

And this article seems to be about company-owned channels, which is even worse, because everyone should understand how not safe those spaces are for rants about the company of co-workers/bosses.

FTA:

>Arizona-based startup AskRadar.ai sells Maxwell, which leverages ChatGPT and its own software to take the emotional temperature of a workforce in Slack channels—if we’re generally happy or hate our jobs. Maxwell anonymizes the data and only analyzes public channels, Chief Executive Nils Bunde says.

This is a terrible idea but unsurprising. Expect neurodivergent and other people who don’t meet the AI’s definition of sufficiently performative of happiness to be punished.

If you want to read what this is leads to, see: “We have been harmonized : life in China's surveillance state“ [0]

[0] https://search.worldcat.org/title/1148138970

Yes, and this will lead to "sufficiently productive". And when that happens, employees will have a new game to play with their employers.

Counterpoint: if you hate your job, talk shit about it on Slack, get fired, get severance. (the alternative being quitting and not getting any severance)

You guys get severence?

There’s Blind. It tends to be toxic but I’ve also seen actually helpful advice for my company’s board. This article is really just saying don’t talk shit on Slack which seems like basic common sense.

I’d add that if you’re going to talk shit online, don’t use a device with your company’s MDM on it.

I didn't read the article (can't afford to pay WSJ) but I'm curious. Isn't any place safe so long as you've anonymized yourself?

Back in the day, Yahoo Finance provided anonymous message boards for each publicly traded company. Someone with an anonymous handle was posting all kinds of (accurate) shit about my company. He wasn't using his real name in the forum, but his complaints were specific enough that the company could narrow it down to his department, and it didn't take long for them to fire him.

If I really feel the need to vent to coworkers, I message them on whatsapp, not on company owned slack.

Why is it necessary to complain about work online at all? I don't understand...

This article is about Slack and the like, which has replaced much of the communication that people do at work. So, it is necessary to complain about work “online” if one wants to complain at all.

Let me rephrase my comment.

Why do people find it necessary to complain about work in a public setting? Complaining about work is a thing to do with your friends, certainly not publicly and absolutely not in work fora (Slack or otherwise).

People might find it necessary to complain about work when their work is physically unsafe, or they are being harassed or exploited, or they are not being fairly compensated for their work, or they are being discriminated against, or many other reasons. Complaining about work is so necessary that in the US, it’s a form of protected speech.

those friends aren't at work with you, so you have to explain the whole situation to them, and then, because they weren't there, they can't provide additional facts. you don't expect a listening device hidden in the shared company break room if it were a physical room, you just don't talk about the boss as if he's not there when he's actually there. similar expectations should apply to a digital space called a private channel when they're not there.

No.

article is paywalled

https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/slack-teams-google-ch...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com