NEW: Thousands of Amazon workers in 12 countries are protesting on Black Friday, from garment manufacturers and call center employees to warehouse workers all over. Biggest coordinated international labor action thus far https://t.co/1TOB2cxT6l

— Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) November 26, 2020

Everyone in the pandemic university needs to read about Microsoft's surveillance mechanisms. It's easy to imagine university manager's being taken in by this 'productivity score' which is a ridiculous set of proxy measures, even leaving aside the politics https://t.co/8YiyqqPWll

— Post-Pandemic University (@PostPandemicUni) November 26, 2020

Microsoft productivity score feature criticised as workplace surveillance https://t.co/Ikemf4JtvN also cc @DrBenLaker for his recent paper

— Thomas Roulet (@thomroulet) November 26, 2020

On Black Friday, thousands of Amazon workers around the world will stage a series of coordinated protests.https://t.co/2mD9NLLHJO

— VICE (@VICE) November 26, 2020

This Black Friday, the campaign to #MakeAmazonPay will kick off rolling strikes and solidarity actions against Amazon in 12 countries around the world, from Bangladesh to Berlin.

Join them: https://t.co/MaCufOhfrDhttps://t.co/nZQmiR5oLd

— Progressive International (@ProgIntl) November 26, 2020

?✊ “On Friday, protest actions will take place across Amazon's supply chain in Brazil, Mexico, the US, the UK, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Poland, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, & Australia.”#MakeAmazonPay https://t.co/HNBvNZIO45

— Tech Won't Save Us (@techwontsaveus) November 26, 2020

NEW: Thousands of Amazon workers in 12 countries will protest on Black Friday in one coordinated effort called #MakeAmazonPay, including warehouse workers in Germany, call center workers in the Philippines, and garment manufacturers in Bangladesh. https://t.co/CsBDKx2y7b

— Lauren Kaori Gurley (@LaurenKGurley) November 26, 2020

#MakeAmazonPay

Join the movement and donate to a workers' strike fund at https://t.co/OBN02SokXU https://t.co/YRoC5fFFmk

— James Schneider (@schneiderhome) November 26, 2020

a corroded and corrosive intellectual commons makes it easy to forget there are absolutes but "don't break a fucking picket line" is absolutely an absolute https://t.co/6brgwPWUWN

— Daniel P. Shannon (@phyllisstein) November 26, 2020

This is it. Rolling strikes and actions in 12 countries around the world.

This Black Friday, let's #MakeAmazonPay.https://t.co/7DN4L8tVsk

— David Adler (@davidrkadler) November 26, 2020

Tomorrow is #BlackFriday2020 & time to #MakeAmazonPay Amazon warehouse workers and activists around the world will hold protests, strikes & actions demanding that Amazon respect workers' rights to participate in union activity https://t.co/qjpYQW2SYU #GarmentWorkersNeedUnions

— IndustriALL (@IndustriALL_GU) November 26, 2020

dystopian nightmare alarm is flashing. https://t.co/VusZ5V2cJr

— Chris Vickery (@VickerySec) November 26, 2020

The continuation of a certain economic logic: every click, every bit of behavioral data, is potentially revealing, so why not use it, in this case to maximize worker productivity. https://t.co/XQA02rxN3m pic.twitter.com/1jSeeTGxyg

— Jacob Silverman (@SilvermanJacob) November 25, 2020

I wrote about Productivity Score, a new feature Microsoft has incorporated into its 365 product that managers can use to gauge worker productivity based on their usage of Microsoft apps. Absolutely no downside. None. https://t.co/XQA02rxN3m (with thanks to @WolfieChristl)

— Jacob Silverman (@SilvermanJacob) November 25, 2020

"Productivity" monitoring tools are now built into Microsoft 365 -- here's an excellent @doctorow post on all the grim problems with this type of data collection: https://t.co/c8Bh90NqKY

Make sure to click through to @WolfieChristl's thread, quoted there: https://t.co/rQ6XELYgUN

— Clive Thompson (@pomeranian99) November 25, 2020

I believe this entire crusade against Microsoft 365's Workplace Analytics is because of the name "Productivity Score".

Imagine if it was named "Tools Experience Index" instead. No one will care.https://t.co/GLfcci8yu0

— Jonathan Wong (@armchairdude) November 27, 2020

Now, every remote worker is in line to get the treatment previously reserved for misclassified employees and college kids. Microsoft has rolled out on-by-default workplace surveillance for Office 365.https://t.co/pQ8K1YU9hB

7/

— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) November 25, 2020

I wonder how easy it would be to game this https://t.co/g43n6szwR9

— Laura Marsh (@lmlauramarsh) November 25, 2020

The New Normal which involves work-from-home predictably fosters surveillance in the name of productivity metrics. https://t.co/6C9R341XgA

— Manuel L. Quezon III (@mlq3) November 26, 2020

Good thing no one in education ever adopts corporate surveillance tools like this ? https://t.co/NcLgPaDspi

— Audrey Watters (@audreywatters) November 25, 2020

This denial from Microsoft about their 365 productivity score sounds like “yeah it’s a way to monitor and exert more power over workers—we just don’t use the ‘S’ word around here.” ??‍♂️ https://t.co/vrm3nua5ww pic.twitter.com/SVoRAbKIst

— the only good Ring is a burning Ring (@hypervisible) November 26, 2020

WTF
Good job, MS, and managers everywhere who think that surveillance is the way to get results. https://t.co/urv4Bqk4pq

— Camille Fournier (@skamille) November 25, 2020

Hey Canadian Employers, listen up!
It is illegal in Canada to monitor worker activities using surveillance technologies. You are only allowed to do surveillance for safety reasons, like a camera to dissuade armed robberies.
So, yes, there’s a downside — big time lawsuits! https://t.co/OIJk7AhI3s

— Laurie Prange (she/her) (@PrangeMartin) November 26, 2020

Thread.
One employee is in lots of meetings, uses all the tools, but says nothing useful. An extrovert, it’s fun!
Another sends few messages, but they are well thought-out and valuable. Social interaction is difficult, this is hard work.
Which employee does this system reward? https://t.co/o9wMmYdXsR

— Quentin Hardy (@qhardy) November 26, 2020

Esoteric metrics based on analyzing extensive data about employee activities has been mostly the domain of fringe software vendors. Now it's built into MS 365.

A new feature to calculate 'productivity scores' turns Microsoft 365 into an full-fledged workplace surveillance tool: pic.twitter.com/FC3N6KkIR3

— Wolfie Christl (@WolfieChristl) November 24, 2020

I'm partly curious how my Office 365 habits compare to my neurotypical coworkers, and partly horrified, because I know that as an autistic with ADHD, my habits and methods don't match those of my coworkers and I would throw off any attempt at metrics. https://t.co/dZtUlIEpyx

— Eve Eschenbacher ? (@MidnightRem) November 26, 2020

"Let me be clear: Microsoft 365 & Teams productivity score is not a work monitor tool. Yes, it quantifies productivity. But not in a monitoring way. I mean, if it does, it's only for 28 days a month. And then, when the month is over, who knows if you'll even have a job anymore…" https://t.co/2rDdJLNvgM

— Casilli (@AntonioCasilli) November 26, 2020

Holy fuck. The word dystopian is not nearly strong enough to describe the fresh hellhole Microsoft just opened up. Just as the reputation of a new and better company was being built, they detonate it with the most invasive work-place surveillance scheme yet to hit mainstream. https://t.co/qYjBbTCGuP

— DHH (@dhh) November 24, 2020

Så kom turen til ⁦@Microsoft_dk⁩ “by default, reports also let managers drill down into data on individual employees, to find those who participate less in group chat conversations, send fewer emails, or fail to collaborate in shared documents” https://t.co/MKCwWmnyQo

— anders kjærulff (@kjaerulv) November 27, 2020

Some more articles:https://t.co/Tn1Amsf9D1https://t.co/1fYBJaWIRKhttps://t.co/9BsJBXnHFehttps://t.co/tvPYpJ6bvv

Btw. I cannot take any responsibility for skyrocketing productivity scores on 'communication' and 'meetings' for Microsoft's PR dept.

— Wolfie Christl (@WolfieChristl) November 27, 2020

Thinking of #Whisperfest discussion of metrics this morning and reading this with horror https://t.co/X9UTeIvzlj hope HEIs don't adopt - SO glad I'm self-employed!

— Helen Kara (@DrHelenKara) November 26, 2020

You nosey boy @BillGates :https://t.co/tEBgLApXPU

— Gary McKinnon (@DoubleOhNever) November 27, 2020

Microsoft 365 as all-seeing employee surveillance system:https://t.co/nZogEdENMK #Microsoft365 #privacy #Azure #infosec #CyberSecurity #GDPR #office365

— Jason Fossen (@JasonFossen) November 27, 2020

According to The Register, MS stated "There is no PII data in there" #wtf

Productivity Score clearly processes personal data as defined in the GDPR, and it can even show personal data in reports, including names (=PII, which is a distracting term anyway)https://t.co/MhiT9NGQIe

— Wolfie Christl (@WolfieChristl) November 26, 2020

"The goal of it is to use telemetry captured by the Windows behemoth to track the productivity of an organisation through metrics such as a corporate obsession with interminable meetings or just how collaborative employees are being."https://t.co/PbRITbC2Tl

— Tom?\(^-^)/ (@TomLawrenceTech) November 26, 2020