office workers

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  • Lawsuits over employees' unpaid computer boot-times stacking up next to unread paperwork

    Frivolous lawsuits aren't anything new, but this is an eye-opener straight from annals of "office humor." It turns out that in the past year "several" companies, including UnitedHealthGroup, Cigna, and AT&T have had employee-filed lawsuits brought against them for unpaid time. That "unpaid time" is the minutes each day employees spend booting up and shutting down their computers (also their time-clocks), which they claim adds up to an astounding 15-30 per day. Astounding, that is, if you've never worked in a corporate office with a terrible IT department. If you have, you'll probably agree that this figure may, in some cases be on the mark, if not a little conservative. The employees claim they should be paid to work while the boot-ups and shut-downs are happening, since during that time they're doing tasks like paperwork or "arranging their calendar," while the companies counters that they're probably smoking, getting coffee, or talking to people. We're not really going to judge the veracity of these suits en masse -- we'll take them on a case-by-case basis, but there does seem to be something suspicious about this many people claiming to still use paper calendars.[Via Wired]

  • Hitachi's worker tracking tags

    If you're an employee of a large company, you probably worry that your higher-ups are watching your every move, keeping track of how long you take for lunch, and going through your personal emails. Well, Hitachi has taken it to the totally 1984-esque next level with an electronic "name tag" which employees wear around their neck, used to track their personal movements, as well as proximity to, and interaction with co-workers. The tags also include radiation sensors (?), sound sensors and a radio communication device -- just in case you felt you weren't being watched enough. The collected data shows strengths and weaknesses amongst groups of workers in an organization, forming a topographical map which Big Brother will use to decide who gets made into Soylent Green.

    Joshua Topolsky
    06.26.2007