Corporate Overreach in the US

Slavery? Because you can’t do Facebook on the company network?

You”re softer than Charmin.

It's not about FB R1. We can't even access most of our clients' sites that help us understand their business structures, etc. This kind of research helps with KYC requirements and understanding who they do business with. But to answer your question, we can't access FB or Instagram or even Amazon. It's a bit insidious.

-15/10.

Fascism is like that, OP.

OP—Your employer wants to optimize its investment for the princely sum it pays you in salary and benefits, by (1) ensuring that, during your work day, you'll spend all your time laboring to enhance its bottom line, and (2) reducing the risk that, in your leisure time, you won’t do anything to bring it into disrepute by personally engaging in criminal or embarrassing behavior. Among other considerations.

Doubtless, Legal mandated these policies. Or your employer's ins carriers. Possibly the regulating agencies. Can you get a promotion to, like, … no, sorry, not enough bitchery in my current supply to complete a snarky comment.

But you have my sympathies. Sounds tedious.

The worst part is the paranoia it creates over seemingly innocuous things. At this point I turn off WiFi on my phone at work and only use my computer and communication channels for professional use and superficial banter with teammates. I was already reported to mgmt by a stealth MAGA troglodyte who was ear hustling a personal conversation during lunch about current events. The workplace culture is too Big Brotherish now with all the monitoring going on so you have to be careful.

This is just the beginning, OP.

Glad I'm retired.

Holy shit

Yes. Plus, you need two of you to get by. One to work, and a clone to play the workplace version of Survivor. It’s depleting.

[quote]I was already reported to mgmt by a stealth MAGA troglodyte who was ear hustling a personal conversation during lunch about current events.

This made my mind flash instantly to 'The Lives Of Others', a great film. Interesting that one of Trump's many favoured insults is 'Communist' - yet OP's chilling experience put me in mind of East Germany under the Stasi.

From WIRED:

[quote]Free expression is also out of favor inside Meta, where an employee says the environment feels like the ’90s: “When you went to work, you didn’t bring your politics to the office, and you may not like the boss—but you do the job so you get paid,” they tell me. “Good luck finding a company that isn’t like that now.”

I think R5 has it right but OP's employer does sound a wee bit extreme (it's none of their business what my political affiliation might be).

However, banks are heavily regulated so yes, they have recurring training about things like conflicts of interest, compliance rules and regulations, money laundering, OFAC, etc. That's less 'corporate overreach' and more of a legal/compliance thing.

I also understand the substantial restrictions on accessing external websites and/or external email accounts. One phishing email could let a scammer into the bank's systems, so it's smart for them to restrict all outside mail. (Though they should be whitelisting a client's webpage if accessing that page is part of servicing that company.)

Some other good film recommendations on the reality of the rise of authoritarianism

Another

Thanks, R13 / R14. It's so hard to find good things to watch these days. Both of these movies look excellent.

Stealth foreign film Oscar thread

It’s OK r16 - soon you will be able to just look out your window instead of watching movies about authoritarian regimes in other countries.

[quote]We have to attest and disclose to any outside activities we have, political parties we belong to

This feels illegal. I know party registration is public and searchable, but if feels like a violation to be compelled to provide that information to an employer. Also, "any outside activities" is similarly invasive and inappropriate. If some volunteers with an environmental group, or belongs to an LGBT organization, they have to "attest and disclose" that to an employer?

What if you volunteer to be an escort at Planned Parenthood? Or you belong to a leftist group like the DSA? Why would they need to know that and how on earth is demanding such information as a condition of employment wven legal?

It seems like any halfway decent lawyer would tear this apart in front of a judge.

I've been using two separate laptops for ages. One is my work-provided laptop, the other is my personal laptop. I don't attempt to access anything on my work laptop beyond the various work servers, intronet, file databases or any of the other work-provided software I need to do my job. If I need to research something work-related, or read over a client site, or even research travel options for a boss, I'll look that up on my personal laptop (which is faster anyway). I check emails, social media, Datalounge, etc. on my phone or use my personal laptop. I keep a low tracking profile on my work laptop and wager I have the most boring search history imaginable to IT if they run a check on it.

Do you use the work WiFi for your personal laptop or the signs form your phone hotspot?

R20 I now WFH, but I have a hotspot that I use for my personal laptop and would use if I took my personal laptop to work. The hotspot is fantastic for vacation traveling so I don't have to use hotel WiFi.

Nothing crazy like that but I will say that I use my iPad and a cellular data plan for ANYTHING personal at work. I don’t want so much as a sniff of a problem. I’ve been doing that for a good five years now. That is a great workaround.

OP here. Yes I have 2 phones and 2 laptops one for work and one personal and never mix the two. I truly get protecting the bank form viruses and malware etc. What get's me lately is the constant and almost daily communications to all 6500 employees about ethics, conflict of interest, use of paper clips and laundering the toilet paper. If you can't trust your employees after deep background checks, performance evaluations, monthly/ quarterly check ins and constant oversight, you might as well padlock the doors. BTW I am in a senior enough position where I see our "Leadership" violate everything they preach. The HR cunts and Compliance nerds are having a field day controlling the rank and file and justifying their pathetic existence.