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Some Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Asking To Switch Departments Over Ethical Concerns (businessinsider.com)
Some dissatisfied Facebook engineers are reportedly attempting to switch divisions to work on Instagram or WhatsApp, rather than continue work on the platform responsible for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to a recent report from the New York Times. An anonymous reader writes: Many believe Facebook should have done more to handle the data responsibly, and the events that followed increased scrutiny against Facebook, reportedly taking a toll on employees working on the platform. Since the news came out, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg have spoken to the media on a few occasions, but it was days before the company commented on the scandal, which it now estimates around 87 million total users affected. Then, a leaked memo from Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth written in 2016 revealed a "growth at all costs" mentality that put Facebook in a position to be held responsible for the situation it's found itself in. As it became evident that Facebook's core product might be to blame, engineers working on it reportedly found it increasingly difficult to stand by what it built.
Why make sure everyone knows? Oh yeah, virtue signalling FTW
Is this really a move because of ethical reasons. I can't imagine that anyone working at Facebook is surprised by this.
And they were cool with it when it was the Obama campaign scraping the data.
And it didn't even help Trump. It wasn't even used by the campaign.
How Slashdot and others keep referring to this as the "Cambridge Analytics scandal" as if Facebook's business model is only wrong when one side takes advantage of it.
You speak truth! https://www.nationalreview.com...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Right.. A lot of talented people don't want be in an organization that is going thru upheaval either. talented people want to work with a team that is performing, not storming.
I have lived thru corporate re-orgs before and even knowing my job was fairly secure the entire time its not a fun place to be.
1) You have coworkers that are not secure in their jobs; they are stressed and usually volatile and temperamental as a result. They will be quick to try and blame other possibly you for anything that might even be seen as negative.
2) Usually policy and procedure is in flux, the rules are constantly changing so you spend half your day trying to find who can even tell you how something is supposed to get done today, because its probably different than yesterday and its probably not because its better but because some middle manager feels he needs to be seen as doing something. You will have to find him specifically too, because non of your coworkers can tell you what the right way is as they do not themselves know.
3) You won't be getting anything you ask for no matter how useful it would be in your job. Want a $20 license for some software and permission from IT to install it - aint going to happen until the dust settles
4) Nobody will listen to you, you are part of that department which is in flux, even though you know you are not going anyone nobody else does. They won't "waste" their time on you in the mean time.
5) Much of your effort will go into the waste basket when the projects its supporting get abandon, radically rearchitected etc. So you can't take pride in any work you are doing.
Nope good people that have options would rather take an entirely new (to them) job in a place that is stable even if they are not at risk themselves. Living thru reorgs sucks.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html