This Business and Moment...

[NickK]

I can understand if it's a corporate ambassador position from the early days of social media with a team managing the LinkedIn profile. Now that tends to be done in a completely separate way - through corporate accounts with no modern need for social media access.

a lot of services you use may also use social media as a login.. which is why this is a red flag.

Only other option is high security roles but then they will simply find you anyway and dig into the history etc. They're more likely to learn more from interviewing you than reading your social media.

 

[NickK]

Should have fun tomorrow - programme planning with executives.

Had the interview.. still waiting for news for the next interview. I think we got on well, although the interview went longer than expected.

 

[OspreyO]

That's what I thought, but I checked, she's shared the email from the hiring manager, it clearly states they want access to it! Her profiles are locked down other than LinkedIn....

The justification from what I gather is to get a feel for the person's behaviours outside work - but to me that's none of their business... if you're going to a conference, you're "at work" so why do you need to know if that person likes to post funny cat videos?

I've told her to reject the job as personally that feels like an invasion of privacy.

Feels like? Seriously it's a horrendous invasion.

It makes no sense. In fact it's crazy. Avoid crazy people.

 

[OspreyO]

Sounds a bit like a tradesman my dad insists on using because he's feels the work is done to a good standard at a reasonable price. He is incredibly disorganised, a few examples:

• His cashflow must be all over the place. Sometimes he won't collect payment for work until months after it was completed (yes, a builder that you have to pin down in order to give them money!). This is the weirdest one, who does work but then doesn't get paid for it? I don't think he's smart enough to be trying to minimise tax via manipulating the dates or whatever, it's just bizarre.
• He does a lot of work in the local area so sometimes stores things at my dad's property, he doesn't mind much but it's kind of taking the mick if stuff is kept in his shed for months
• He gives dates of when he will come round and doesn't show up. Then a rescheduled date, doesn't show up.
• Sometimes he'll agree to some work but not actually get round to it until a year or two later.
• Conversely he'll turn up on my dad's doorstep and ask for something at short notice, whether that be payment he wants to collect same day (my dad isn't the type to keep hundreds or thousands in cash under the mattress), wanting to borrow my dad's ladder for a job round the corner, etc

I'm not sure why my dad perseveres with him another than them having a friendly relationship, I'm sure there must be more than one decent builder in the town he could get a recommendation for.

Lot of tradespeople are utter disasters. He needs to cut that guy loose. It will end in tears.

 

[Freefaller]

Should have fun tomorrow - programme planning with executives.

Had the interview.. still waiting for news for the next interview. I think we got on well, although the interview went longer than expected.

How did it go?

 

[radderfire]

That's what I thought, but I checked, she's shared the email from the hiring manager, it clearly states they want access to it! Her profiles are locked down other than LinkedIn....

"Wanting access to" could still just mean they want the urls.

If they are seriously requesting logins, then I would definitely be saying sorry no. There's no good reason to have those, and it would be against usage terms as well as against common sense.

 

[NickK]

How did it go?

i’ve been invited to a second interview. VM lands just as we’re about to start the exec meeting.

Exec planning meeting had been prepped to the point there was nothing left to squeak, unanswered or could cause a diversion.. result is the execs happy (and said so on the call), seems to have their operating company business case unblocked by their FD and going to the board tomorrow.

Being in the office i got to observe and quiz a fee seniors.. had a chat with the group cto too but i just get the feeling we’re being kept around because the operating company can’t get their act together in time.. feels like the team will walk just at the point they’re needed - all due to the dire “use and abuse” culture.

 

[dowie]

Random question. A friend of mine is looking to join a more media-related role, but they have asked before employment to give them access to all of her social media logins... now I'm not a social media person other than this forum and linkedin but even then I wouldn't want someone to access my LinkedIn. I can help but feel that that would break the TOS from LinkedIn or the various social media companies? Why would a company ask for that?

Yes, it would break the TOS of the sites and give access to private messages.

"Hey I've got multiple private photos and messages from my wife/gf/partner in the messages on X and Y apps how do you propose to prevent those from being seen?"

Is a genuine question for plenty of people these days if faced with such a request so I do wonder WTF HR would say in response.

There could be anything in there tbh... medical stuff, messages re: disability and reasonable accommodations, protected characteristics re: sexuality, gender. They should be minimising the extraneous information they gather from employees not adding to a potential lawsuit (extra bonus if it's discrimination for some protected characteristic as that then becomes uncapped).

 

[NickK]

Yes, it would break the TOS of the sites and give access to private messages.

"Hey I've got multiple private photos and messages from my wife/gf/partner in the messages on X and Y apps how do you propose to prevent those from being seen?"

Is a genuine question for plenty of people these days if faced with such a request so I do wonder WTF HR would say in response.

There could be anything in there tbh... medical stuff, messages re: disability and reasonable accommodations, protected characteristics re: sexuality, gender. They should be minimising the extraneous information they gather from employees not adding to a potential lawsuit (extra bonus if it's discrimination for some protected characteristic as that then becomes uncapped).

You only need to say that providing personal social media access would provide access to medical conversations with your partner. It is an invasion of privacy and is likely to be against the law (you could ask citizens advise bureaux). There is no control within the organisation who and where people have control to your accounts. If they are hacked then that has ramifications for your personal cyber security and could/would result in legal action from employees against the company.

In the end if the company can only think it can manage risk by essentially controlling its employees then there is a problem with the company or its culture.

* personal opinion vs corporate opinion = clause in contract for termination or disciplinary.
* potential leak of data from a device = the company should prohibit the use of personal devices for company use and supply the required devices. If it's a secure environment you'd not have a personal device present in the building nor windows..

 

[Martynt74]

Hmmmm, had an email from the external payroll providers offering an analysis of my contract and offer to register under the "Beckham Law". Named after David Beckham and created in an attempt to lure high salaried individuals to Spain where they would otherwise be taxed higher than they might be in other countries. It also isolates earnings outside of Spain to be potentially taxed even lower (hence named after Beckham as he argued he shouldn't pay Spanish tax on worldwide image rights)

Effectively it locks taxation at 24% for 5 years. Spain isn't like the Uk where it goes 20>40>45, it's faily progressive. At the moment i'm on 22.8% as a base salary, and applying an estimated pay rise of 5% takes me to 23.6% (which will be confirmed next month although i'd like it to be slightly more as i got a performance bonus at Christmas to thank me for a few big projects i'd done in 2023 and also a very good performance review)

Once you then add the standard annual bonus payment of 5-10% then i'd estimate this year to be around 24.5%. That makes it a no brainer and can only get better in future years

 

[dowie]

You only need to say that providing personal social media access would provide access to medical conversations with your partner. It is an invasion of privacy and is likely to be against the law (you could ask citizens advise bureaux).

For sure but I think with something like that they're already pretty slack and it maybe needs pointing out to them with some legal questions too etc.. I suspect it's something a daft HR type has come up with without consulting legal and the moment they get a load of queries they need to run past an in-house or external lawyer then said lawyer will throw a fit, inform management and the policy gets scrapped.

 

[NickK]

Just had my EOY perf review. All good but forward picture seemed to be talked down, with smaller team and the role seems talked as if it’s pointing downward. Talking to the boss I think he’s getting my point - hired to step into a role that has disappeared, magically having answers ahead of time (experience driven), thinks about the money and wider picture, lead team of 70.. no **** Sherlock.

I think it confirms the gut feeling - basically they have someone they don’t know what todo with and with the reorg is basically twiddling their thumbs bored. I need a new role where I’m painted a vague picture and then up to me to solve the problem in whatever way I deem is good.

 

[panthro]

Fun and games at work. The top 4 execs are all leaving. Investor confidence in the CEO dipped, and the other execs were either retiring or have been headhunted and decided to leave around a similar time independently, but it got announced at once so everyone went into panic mode.

 

[Zenduri]

Fairly peeved at the moment.

Applied for a secondment at work for a Data Protection Officer role which would be primarily working with the ICO. Only a 9 month secondment but would be some good experience on my CV plus it’s a £9K Year bump so about an extra £750 per month before tax etc. Just over 50 people applied apparently, 26 made the first sift and from the 2nd sift, 5 inclusive of myself were interviewed for it. The interview went well, i was the penultimate person to be interviewed on the 15th Feb and they had a post interview meeting/calibration later that day once they were all done (I was snooping in their calendars). The following Friday 23rd I dropped the hiring manager a message to ask if there was any update.

I received the following back:

" I was due to send out a message today - Unfortunately we have had to postpone the recruitment for 4 weeks. I appreciate this is disappointing, but we will be in touch. Thanks"

So, it seems I’m stuck another 4 weeks now waiting to find out if I’ve been successful or not. I assume they are waiting for the new financial year? If so, why advertise it so far ahead if you know you can’t do anything until 1st April. I'm also a bit annoyed that that can’t just say either "Yes you have it in principal but we can’t officially offer it until X date or the funding is secured" or "No you haven’t got it". I dont get why they have to make me wait 4 more weeks to find out, it just seems a bit crap.

 

[Throrik]

Well my place confirmed they're getting rid of VMware after the comical quotes came in, apparently we're safe, but for how long who knows - until we can get off it I guess. Time do smash a few AWS certs out of the park and remind myself of the public cloud world.

 

[Zenduri]

Fairly peeved at the moment.

Applied for a secondment at work for a Data Protection Officer role which would be primarily working with the ICO. Only a 9 month secondment but would be some good experience on my CV plus it’s a £9K Year bump so about an extra £750 per month before tax etc. Just over 50 people applied apparently, 26 made the first sift and from the 2nd sift, 5 inclusive of myself were interviewed for it. The interview went well, i was the penultimate person to be interviewed on the 15th Feb and they had a post interview meeting/calibration later that day once they were all done (I was snooping in their calendars). The following Friday 23rd I dropped the hiring manager a message to ask if there was any update.

I received the following back:

" I was due to send out a message today - Unfortunately we have had to postpone the recruitment for 4 weeks. I appreciate this is disappointing, but we will be in touch. Thanks"

So, it seems I’m stuck another 4 weeks now waiting to find out if I’ve been successful or not. I assume they are waiting for the new financial year? If so, why advertise it so far ahead if you know you can’t do anything until 1st April. I'm also a bit annoyed that that can’t just say either "Yes you have it in principal but we can’t officially offer it until X date or the funding is secured" or "No you haven’t got it". I dont get why they have to make me wait 4 more weeks to find out, it just seems a bit crap.

Well after criticizing and critiquing myself for all last week I dropped the hiring manager a message asking for some feedback from the interview even if they cant/wont tell me the outcome for another 4 weeks. To my surprise she said to pop a meeting in her calendar that day and we had a 30-minute catchup.

I was fairly happy to hear though that I "surpassed what they were expecting in the interview" and “interviewed extremely strong" to the point they were happy they interviewed me. The only feedback she could give me was on the first sift, I needed to be a bit more specific with some of my answers to the questions they posed, other than that, there was no constructive or negative feedback they could give from my interview. She was choosing her words carefully though to not hint if I had secured it or not, but she did say out of the 5 they interviewed, 2 people interviewed extremely well and I was one of them.

The optimist in me wants to say its 50/50 chance of me getting it but I’m still stuck waiting to find out until the end of March. The pessimist in me thinks I've not got it though as we were also talking about my development path at work and she offered to mentor me out of the blue which, while it is good and surprised me, it makes me think I haven’t got the job and she’s offering the mentorship as a consolation.

 

[mattx4]

The pessimist in me thinks I've not got it though as we were also talking about my development path at work and she offered to mentor me out of the blue which, while it is good and surprised me, it makes me think I haven’t got the job and she’s offering the mentorship as a consolation.

I've been in a similar situation where I applied internally and came a close second to a role I wanted. After I ended up having a career path chat with the department head and they created a new role for me that was better than the internal role I originally wanted. If a company wants to keep you they will find something to make it work so don't be too disappointed if you didn't get it but make sure you have a clear idea on what it is your looking for

 

[Zenduri]

I've been in a similar situation where I applied internally and came a close second to a role I wanted. After I ended up having a career path chat with the department head and they created a new role for me that was better than the internal role I originally wanted. If a company wants to keep you they will find something to make it work so don't be too disappointed if you didn't get it but make sure you have a clear idea on what it is your looking for

The problem is knowing the business I'm fairly sure they wouldnt create an extra role. If I were to be optimistic about a 2nd role it could be that they want both of us who interviewed extremely well and they're waiting for a new budget in the new financial year, which is also only 4 weeks away.

 

[ChrisD.]

Well my place confirmed they're getting rid of VMware after the comical quotes came in, apparently we're safe, but for how long who knows - until we can get off it I guess. Time do smash a few AWS certs out of the park and remind myself of the public cloud world.

It’s crazy what’s happening with MSPs/GSIs etc. It makes me think there’s been an oversight and changes may come.

 

[blairw]

It’s crazy what’s happening with MSPs/GSIs etc. It makes me think there’s been an oversight and changes may come.

They have a clear strategy about only caring about the largest of enterprise customers who want wall to wall VMware products. Almost feels like a pump and dump, big short term gain but no long term strategy