WEBVTT - Tech News: Whistleblower Outs Uber's Bad Behavior 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.360 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.360 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:19.560 And how in the tech are you. It's time for 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:24.520 the tech news for Tuesday, July twelve, two thousand twenty two. 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:29.080 And let's start by talking about Uber. Now, long time 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:34.320 listeners have likely heard me talk about Uber's history, which 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:38.840 has included unethical and at least in some cases, potentially 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:43.920 illegal activities. And there's really been no secret that Uber 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:48.000 engaged in lots of questionable practices in its history and 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.519 an effort to become the dominant ride hailing company and 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:56.720 to quote unquote disrupt the hired car industry, taking aim 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:00.400 at taxis and town cars and such. And sure, Uber 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.920 kind of was marketed as a ride sharing service, but 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:09.520 in reality it's a ride hailing service. It's taking the 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:14.160 same place as you know, businesses like taxi companies. There 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:18.480 were tons of stories about Uber as well as rival 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:22.679 company Lift, engaging in Shenanigan's against each other in an 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.800 effort to undermined or or sabotage the other company, including 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:32.839 stories about employees allegedly arranging for rides on the competitor 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:37.160 service and then canceling those requests later on in an 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:41.399 effort to tie up drivers and frustrate them and to 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.880 clog up the scheduling systems of the rival company. It 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.720 all got really ugly. And now we're seeing more about 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:52.360 how ugly it actually got, thanks to a whistleblower who 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:56.520 handed over more than a hundred twenty thousand internal Uber 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:02.000 files that were created between twenty seventeen to various media 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:05.120 outlets like The Guardian. The Guardian, by the way, has 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.720 actually named the whistle blower as a former Uber lobbyists 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:13.360 who worked in Europe named Mark McGann. McGann said that 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:18.680 Uber's modus OPERANDAI was to quote essentially break the law, 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:23.080 show how amazing Uber's service was, and then change the 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:27.079 law end quote, and that McGann's work was largely to 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.800 smooth things over after Uber had gone and disrupted all 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.920 over the ding dang place, which sounds like a real 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:38.200 fun gig, right, Like the bully comes in, pushes people around, 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.119 then you come around and say, hey, it's not that bad, 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.519 it's okay. We're gonna we're gonna get through. This guy's 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:48.200 the internal documents paint a pretty gross picture. One was 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.040 something that actually reminds me of an older story, and 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.640 this was that Uber had a kill switch to prevent 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.800 law enforcement from accessing company data. In other words, if 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:03.840 the police come knocking, you utilize the kill switch to 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.239 get rid of any incriminating evidence. Now, for one, thing, 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:09.959 that makes me think of the good old days when 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.520 companies like Enron were accused of ordering employees to go 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:18.600 on a document shredding spree, Golli the late nineties man. 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:23.200 For another, this story actually reminds me of Uber itself, 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:28.360 which you know, developed tools specifically to allow drivers in 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:32.799 the Portland, Oregon region avoid law enforcement because that was 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.040 a region where Uber was not given permission to operate. 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.080 In fact, it was expressly told it would not be 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.200 allowed to operate there. So Uber said, you know what, 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:43.880 We're just gonna go ahead and operate there. We'll just 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:48.120 give our drivers the ability to detect police so that 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.520 they can appear to not be operating there whenever the 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.320 police are around, you know, everything on the up and up. 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:00.080 Other documents indicated more bad news about Travis Kalanik, the 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.920 former CEO of Uber, who either resigned on his own 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.640 accord or was strongly encouraged by the board of directors 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.480 to do so in the wake of multiple scandals about 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:15.680 Uber's corporate culture that all broke out in So in 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.880 this case, the documents suggests that kala Nik was aware 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:24.919 of and subsequently dismissed concerns about driver's safety, including instances 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.640 in which drivers were the victims of violence. Moreover, the 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.800 document show a pattern of strong arm tactics as well 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:36.000 as a rather unflattering betrayal of various government officials who 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:41.240 collaborated with Uber under ethically questionable circumstances. So, in other words, 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:46.000 these documents start to imply or at least tiptoe up 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.320 to a line that would mark illegal activities like bribery 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.279 and coercion, though it may very well be that to 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:54.960 the letter of the law, Uber was able to avoid 0:04:55.040 --> 0:05:00.200 that distinction, not to mention, it also indicates processes on 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:02.560 what to do if police were to rate a company 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.320 office you know that kill switch thing that that is 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:09.400 just straight out illegal, and other questionable activities as well, 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:13.640 such as paying academics enormous sums like up to a 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:18.279 hundred thousand dollars in some cases. Two create reports that 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.880 helps steer press coverage to paint Uber in a positive light. 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:28.520 So essentially, Uber was paying for positive academic studies, and 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.719 that says a lot both about Uber and the academics 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:37.840 who accepted such payments and massaged facts to fit Uber's narrative. 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.799 You might tell that I'm more than a little upset 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:47.159 about that. So side note, any academic who does this 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.520 is acting terribly. In my mind, it's the kind of 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:55.560 crap that brings doubt into any sort of report. Now, 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:59.880 you should always look at reports with some skepticism, right, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.279 You should ask questions like who funded the study? Who 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.360 funded the research? That's always going to be important because 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:09.920 if it turns out that the reports were paid for 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.839 by whatever entities were being reported upon, then it's kind 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.320 of hard to make an argument that the work is unbiased, right, Like, 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.840 if the checks are coming from the subject of the report, 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.800 then how critical will the report be? Not in some 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.719 cases it may still be unbiased, but it does raise 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.839 those sort of questions, And in this case, Uber was 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:37.840 expressly paying for biased reports that are being presented as unbiased, 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.400 which is pretty gross. Uber, for its part, has said 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.800 that McGann's documents are about the Uber of the past, 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:49.600 you know, pre twenty eighteen Uber, and that the company 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.279 has since made great strides to clean up its act. 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.440 And there is no doubt that much of Uber's more 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.919 recent history has been about damage control and addressing system 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.920 problems in corporate culture. But the company has also continued 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.120 to resist calls to designate drivers as employees. I mean, 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:12.720 it's impossible to deny the fact that Uber has acted, 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:17.160 in extreme cases to try and head off any attempts 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:21.880 to classify Uber drivers as employees. Uber also somewhat snarkily 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.600 pointed out the McGann had demanded a bonus payout upon 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.160 leaving Uber and seemed reticent to come forward until the 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:35.000 check cleared, which you know, shots fired. And maybe that's 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.360 the case. Maybe McGann was like, I want to make 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:39.880 sure I get paid before I start blowing the whistle. 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.920 And that can raise questions about McGann's own motivations, but 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:48.320 it doesn't change the content of those internal documents, right, Like, 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.480 we can say McGann's actions might be somewhat questionable, but 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:57.800 that doesn't change that there are really concerning things within 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:03.640 these documents. If Uber has fundamentally put that stuff behind it, 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:08.320 that's great. Um, it's the fact that this has come 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:13.679 to light and Uber has not really reckoned with that 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.120 that I think has raised concerns in a lot of 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.920 people's minds. Let's stick with some more car news now. 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.800 Have you ever sat in your car and thought, gosh, 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:29.080 if only car companies could sell options on a subscription model, 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.040 sort of like how I subscribed to streaming media or 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:36.840 two Xbox game pass, wouldn't that be something No? Well, 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.080 BMW clearly has thought about this, because the company is 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:44.320 now offering up a subscription service in some markets for 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:50.880 the luxury of drumroll please, heated seats. So to be clear, 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:55.960 these vehicles have all the technology that's needed to heat 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.080 the seats that's there in the car right off the 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:04.319 manufacturing law. However, to enable that ability, the driver will 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:08.640 have to subscribe to a service, paying approximately eighteen dollars 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.720 a month to have it activated. Now, the driver could 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:13.800 also choose to subscribe for a whole year for a 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.200 hundred eighty bucks per year or three years, which would 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.480 cost three thirty dollars, or to go unloaded access for 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.679 four fift bucks. Now, this is not the first time 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.040 BMW has done this sort of thing. By the way, 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:28.480 though it's the first I've actually heard of it. There 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:32.240 are some other high end features in some BMW models, 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:36.080 like adaptive cruise control, that in some markets are also 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.480 subscription based. Now we don't hear about this much in 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.440 the United States because BMW hasn't really rolled out most 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.600 of those features as subscriptions over here. But seeing car 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:51.280 manufacturers embrace micro transactions should have folks a little bit concerned, 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.800 simply because we could see similar strategies deployed in all 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.440 sorts of different products. It's a proven revenue generating model, 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.560 and if something works that comes to making money, you 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:05.520 can bet that that strategy will proliferate across different businesses. 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.120 Now let's get back to BMW. So with some features, 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.040 there is an ongoing cost to BMW. There are back 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.680 end operations necessary to make certain kinds of options work, 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.240 and in those cases, a subscription model could be a 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.439 very valid argument. It could be justifiable. You're thinking, well, yeah, 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.080 I have to pay per month to have access to 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.560 this ability in my car, but then BMW has to 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:34.400 maintain that service in the back end, so that makes sense. 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:37.400 But for something like heated seats, where the entire system 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.040 is already in the car from the get go. That's 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.599 a harder sell. In that case, what you're doing is 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:47.120 paying a fee to BMW to remove a restriction that's 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:51.600 on the vehicle, rather than to provide a new ongoing service. Anyway, 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:53.960 in the old days, you would just pay extra upfront 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.200 to buy a car model that has additional options, you know, 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.640 like heated seats. BMW appears to want to change that. 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.160 Maybe in the future all models will have all the options. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:09.120 You'll just have to pay an ongoing fee to access them. 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.440 Fun times. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:22.559 be right back after these messages. We're back with more 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.960 car news. So over in the EU, the General Vehicle 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.560 Safety Regulation has taken effect, and part of that regulation 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:35.600 includes a requirement that's starting in July of four, all 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:40.040 vehicles sold in the EU must include Intelligent Speed Assistance 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.840 or I s A. And you might be thinking, what 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.280 the heck is I s A. Technically, it's an it's A. 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:51.040 It's a group of anti speeding technologies, and the specific 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.760 technologies vary from implementation to implementation, because what's really important 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.280 is the intended goal of this technology. You know, there 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.160 are a lot of different ways of making it happen. 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.080 The important thing is that it happens. So the goal 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.280 is to use technology to first detect what the road 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.000 speed limits are on whatever road the vehicle is on 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.320 at the time, and then adjust operations within the vehicle 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:17.400 so that the car is not exceeding those road speed limits. Now, 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.200 apparently this can go so far as to cut power 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.959 to the engine in the event of someone speeding, which 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:25.040 sounds to me like that would be a bit of 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.960 a risky move, but less drastically, it's meant to signal 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.600 the driver should they be going a bit too fast. 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:34.200 I've been in a car that had a feature like that. 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:36.840 It was a car that was imported from Japan, and 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.160 it would chime at us whenever we would hit the accelerator, 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:43.840 which was sometimes necessary to do things like past another vehicle, 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.760 and it was incredibly irritating, but you know, effective, it 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:51.720 convinced us not to drive too fast because we didn't 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.480 want to hear that chime over and over again. And 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:58.000 the goal here is to cut back on traffic accidents 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.760 and injuries and fatalities, and we see that in results. 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.640 If we see that those numbers are much lower, it 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.080 would be very hard to argue against this kind of 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:11.400 technology because more people being alive really wins out against 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:16.080 just wanting to avoid a frustrating driving experience. Earlier this year, 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.280 I covered the company Peloton. Actually might have been the 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:21.439 end of last year, but that's the company that makes 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:26.120 exercise equipment, including the famous bikes and the infamous treadmills, 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.319 and really makes its money by having a subscription based 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:33.079 service to train on those. You have training sessions that 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.679 you can take using this equipment. The brand got very 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.640 popular early on in the pandemic, and the company ramped 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:44.240 up production, and then demand slacked off rapidly and the 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.640 company found itself overstocked with products. It was stuffed with 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:51.320 inventory and in a lot of trouble, and there were 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:52.880 a lot of other problems as well, But I don't 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.600 want to rehash my old Peloton episode. Instead, the news 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.880 today is that Peloton will no longer be manufacturing it's 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.680 own equipment. Instead, it will be partnering with a company 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:09.280 in Taiwan and outsourcing its production. The current CEO, Barry McCarthy, 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.360 is trying to turn the company around, and that's gonna 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.000 mean cutting way back on expenses. So that explains the 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:20.640 decision to outsource manufacturing. Peloton has received a lot of abuse, 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.960 some of it I think is justifiable, but I never 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.880 really want to see a company fail, you know, unless 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:29.600 that company is just pure evil. My hope is that 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.480 Peloton will course correct and will find a business model 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.640 that is sustainable and be able to reset from there. 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.520 And though I don't own any Peloton products, I don't 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:42.840 have any stake in the company, I just kind of 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.040 hope that the executive team can fix things. I mean, 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.120 I don't think I know anyone personally who actually owns 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.800 a Peloton bike or treadmill, but I do know that 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.160 the enthusiasts who have them are very passionate about the 0:14:56.160 --> 0:15:01.320 the brand and the training sessions. So I think anything 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:04.920 that gets people to exercise is you know, that's kind 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.640 of a good thing. I sure, as heck, could use 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.760 more exercise in my life. But yeah, that's why I 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.640 kind of hope that they succeed. Nothing other than that. 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.520 The left leaning media watchdog Media Matters has reported that 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:22.040 Facebook and Instagram, both of which are owned by Meta, 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:25.720 played host to a great deal of anti lgbt Q 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:30.040 misinformation and hate speech over the course of June, which 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:34.160 of course was Pride Month. The organization accuses Meta of 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.600 trying to cash in on Pride by claiming to support 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.680 the l g B t Q community while simultaneously failing 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.760 to stop the spread of hate speech and misinformation targeting 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.560 that same community. Media Matters says that right wing media 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:53.400 outlets spread lies about Pride events, including allegations that people 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.760 within the events were specifically attempting to groom children. There's 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.360 that narrative that we see over and over and in 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:06.600 certain extremist literature and media outlets. The organization said, META 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:10.240 has failed to enforce its own policy regarding misinformation and 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:13.880 hate speech while simultaneously trying to position itself as being 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.920 kind of a champion of the community. And that's not 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.560 a good look. The organization pointed out this past Pride 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:24.640 Month had several events that were targeted by extremist groups, 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.000 and Media Matters argues that the lack of enforcement of 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.560 policies on platforms like Facebook and Instagram can contribute to 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:35.960 those kinds of real world outcomes. And you know, we've 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:39.960 talked in the past about how these platforms can reinforce 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:46.280 beliefs and can promote radicalization and also can serve as 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:52.480 a platform for people to plan specific UH activities like 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:57.680 like violence or protests at different events, and considering the 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.880 extent that we've seen some of that via Lens as 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.840 well as kind of a general move in this country, 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:08.120 that being the United States to really push back against 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:12.119 the l g B t Q community. It's it's a 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.840 dangerous thing. It's a dangerous thing for a very vulnerable population. 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.159 In other Meta news, a couple of different media outlets 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:21.919 have reported moves within the company indicating that Meta may 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:26.560 be headed towards holding mass layoffs. First, The Information reported 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.520 that managers received note to identify people on their teams 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.720 who quote unquote need support and that poor performers should 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:37.320 be moved to exit just kind of a lame euphemism 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:41.040 for being terminated or fired anyway. The Washington Post subsequently 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.200 reported that this directive was the first step in managers 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.320 creating performance improvement plans, which could then be used as 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.159 sort of a guide for layoffs. And this is not 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.120 that big of a surprise. Mark Zuckerberg himself has told 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.480 employees that the company will be more aggressive in setting 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.960 employee goals and expectations, and that this might commence some 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:01.760 folks to leave meta, which is all aces in Mark 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:04.400 Zuckerberg's book. And I've said this before, but a lot 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:06.600 of company leaders seem to feel that it's better to 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:10.320 make a workplace less hospitable and thus push employees to 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:14.320 quit rather than to hold layoffs, particularly in cases where 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.000 the company might be on the hook to cover a 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.879 severance package. It's way easier to move on if the 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.160 employee has decided to leave the company on their own, 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.600 which is again gross. Okay, that's it for the news 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.840 for today. That's Tuesday, July twelve, two twenty two. If 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.679 you have suggestions, please let me know. Easiest way to 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:35.680 do that is on Twitter. The handle for the show 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.919 is tech Stuff hs W and I'll talk to you 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:49.360 again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.399 For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:55.760 Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:56.720 your favorite shows.