AS HEARD ON - The Jim Polito Show - WTAG 580 AM: Facebook Content Moderators Win Suit for PTSD, AI not there yet, Facebook and Telecommuting Employees

Welcome!

Good morning, everybody. I was on with Jim Polito and we cover how companies are handling telecommuting and the suit that was just won by contract moderators of Facebook for PTSD.

For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: In this case. Yeah. There was a lawsuit against them. Well, a labor dispute. Anyway, that just ended and they agreed to pay $52 million to these moderator contractors who developed mental health issues. Hi everybody. Craig Peterson here down South with my laptop. This was me this morning. With mr Jim Polito and he was at home in his kitchen. Man has coronavirus changed everything. So here we go with Jim.

[00:00:37] He is our friend, our great guy, great, great guy, always taking very, very good care of us. And, he joins us. Now I'm talking about our talk guru Craig. Peterson. Good morning, sir.

[00:00:56] Hey, good morning, Mr. Jim.

[00:00:59]

[00:00:59] Hey, I figured out

[00:01:03] Jim Polito: the problem with the notes you sent me last week. I figured out probably, you know what it is. For some reason, iHeart must've changed something. Even though you provide content to iHeart, their email said, I think we need to put him into the junk mailbox for Jim. I never think to. I never think to check that mailbox.  I know you've told me a million times about the importance of checking that mailbox because important things can sometimes end up there because these filters are not perfect.

[00:01:40] So I guess there's a good lesson here for everybody. I have two copies of last week's notes, and, because I said, Craig, I didn't get the note. Oh, send it again, Craig, I still don't still have them. Then I got smart and I, I got smart and I looked and there they were. Dumb Jim, but there you go. That's why you're here, buddy.

[00:02:06] Craig Peterson: Yeah. The email filters, unfortunately, are a necessity nowadays. The bad guys, it just seems like every time you turn around, they're out there trying to ruin our lives. Man, it is just crazy. You have to keep up on this stuff, and that means you're looking at new software all the time. You're looking at what are the bad guys doing?

[00:02:33] It just, it's a full-time job, you know?

[00:02:36] Jim Polito: Yeah, it is. And that's why we have people like you keep an eye on things for us. and which leads me to something, I mean, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but speaking of keeping eyes on things, so Facebook has people who watch content. You know, it used to be done more automated and then until I think enough people complained, but they watch the content and you know, take down stuff that's inappropriate.

[00:03:09] Well, unfortunately, these folks probably have to see some pretty disgusting things, some pretty graphic things. And these moderators got a whole bunch of money. After what did they sue for having PTSD for seeing all of this content.

[00:03:28] Craig Peterson: Yeah. Isn't that sad a to think about that. There's a $52 million payment now that Facebook is making to these moderators.

[00:03:39] Now what's really interesting to me is that they're not making this payment to the moderators who actually are on their payroll. Facebook has been outsourcing the moderation of groups to outside contractors. So in this case, yeah, there was a lawsuit against them. Well, a labor dispute anyways, but just ended and they agreed to pay $52 million to these moderator contractors who developed mental health.

[00:04:15] Issues on the job. You know, you think of PTSD for our warriors that are out there, and this is crazy to think about, but so many people are posting such horrific stuff. Here's how it works. Then, the computers will look at things and say, well, this look might be a problem if it's an obvious problem, but the computers will automatically just reject it, and your Facebook posts just appear, or the advertisement disappears.

[00:04:46] But in this case, what happens is that the computer's not quite sure. So it runs by a person, which is obvious.  In this case, a little bit of a problem in some of these moderators have actually committed suicide. That's how bad it's got.

[00:05:03] Jim Polito: Yeah. I mean, listen, I was a crime reporter, a street reporter, quite a while.

[00:05:10] I saw an awful lot of things. and, I'm not saying things didn't affect me, but you do develop somewhat of a tolerance to, but, but nobody. Yeah, I would imagine the onslaught of what these folks were seeing was constant because their job was to look at content, and I'm sure there was a lot of graphic content that they had to look at all day long and, I'm saying, you know, I don't look at this as like people do with the woman who got burned by the coffee or say it's a frivolous lawsuit. I say these folks probably saw some pretty nasty stuff all day long.

[00:05:51] Craig Peterson: Yeah, well, and when people are complaining, it's, as you had mentioned, complaining that Facebook's moderation is on jobs to unfair and in many cases it is, you know, they have been blocked or conserve of content, et cetera, but have been a call for more of the human moderators. I think this is kind of a call to all of us to kick it a little easier. Some of these poor people that are you, they're working. Their job is to moderate. Yeah.

[00:06:22] Jim Polito: Yeah. It's, it's tough. well, I want to stay on Facebook, not, not Facebook itself, but Facebook as an employer, because you probably heard me say 61% of people polled by the pioneer Institute, in Massachusetts said, okay. I would like to, after this is over, still have the option to permanently work at least one day from home, and I'm sure there are people want a lot more now.

[00:06:55] Facebook, I made an announcement about having more people work remotely, but hold on, hold on. They're going to get a pay cut. I would think if I worked remotely, you might want to give me a little bump there because you're not going to have to pay for me, plumbing, electricity, a seat, space, whatever.

[00:07:18] You're not going to have to do that. I'm picking up all of those costs of having the lights on, running my computer, having an internet connection. All of that.

[00:07:27] Craig Peterson: Right. Well, what's happening here with Facebook is interesting there. There are two big shifts now in their corporate policy. Facebook is, by the way, going to let people about 50% of its workforce right now continue working at home through the end of the year.

[00:07:43] But what you're talking about is real. They will be giving pay cuts to people, and here's why. Facebook is saying now, for the first time ever. Hey, You don't have to live out here in looney town, California. What you can do is if your family lives in Worcester, you can move back to Worcester and continue to work there.

[00:08:06] However. The average salary here in Loony town is, let's just say a hundred thousand a year. Let's say it's 50,000 a year, so we're going to give you and let you live in Worcester, and for the first time ever, they're also going to be hiring people. From pretty much anywhere in the country. So that is going to be good for us because we're not going to have all of these people in the liberal echo chamber, moderating or doing design.

[00:08:39] They're going to have what they are. Gonna call hubs in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, where they're going to do heavy recruiting. They're not necessarily going to have an office, but instead of having everybody in the Loony bin in California working for Facebook, now they're going to have some, hopefully, more reasonable people located throughout the country.

[00:09:00] Jim Polito: Yeah. See, that's the thing. Now, the federal government pays people that way. I learned this from an old friend. Who worked for the FBI. He was happy that he was stationed in Connecticut, B, because where he was in Connecticut was still considered part of New York City, so he got paid New York city pay as opposed to say, living on Cape Cod, you know, where the pay would be different or in New Hampshire where the pay would be different and interesting that Facebook is going to do that. Now here's the question. Let, let me bring politics into this is, you know, that's what I do for a living. So if I'm one of these Looney tunes who works for Facebook and I move. To a red state. I'm now bringing my blue attitude to a red state. I don't care if they're all in San Francisco.

[00:10:06] Silicon Valley have at it. You know, you guys want to do your crazy stuff, do it. But. I've got a friend in Texas who tells me, you know, they're ruining this state. Cause all the people from California who don't want to pay taxes are moving here. And you know, destroying our state that, so it's not only an economic phenomenon, it could be a political phenomenon.

[00:10:32] Craig Peterson: Yeah. I'm both directions here, Jim, because there certainly would be a problem with polluting the voting pools that these other States, having the people from Seattle and California moving out to Omaha, Nebraska, or wherever it is they move to, right. That's going to be a problem. But just like the federal government, I really think the federal government should move all of these agencies out of the Washington DC area, out to different parts of the country.

[00:11:07] Because what it does now is it exposes them. To real people in real life and real conditions. So although, you know, there aren't anywhere near as many people working for Facebook as there are other federal governments, it would certainly cause some pollution. But in reality, I think would be a little bit better off because there will be just regular people.

[00:11:31] Look at us right here, that the whole one 28 corridor, in fact, going all the way up into Southern New Hampshire was one of the major tech hubs in the, in the world. Frankly, now it's still a tech hub, but fewer computers and more medical space.

[00:11:49] Jim Polito: Yeah

[00:11:49] Craig Peterson: It's a good thing to have these remote from New York City or San Francisco or Seattle.

[00:11:56]Jim Polito: I'd like to think that that's true, that, that, you know, they do get a taste of reality and will, will make their decisions differently. I mean, I used to love, a couple of guys, I can't think of their first names. Trout and Reese, they wrote books about marketing and their whole concept was what they called bottom-up marketing.

[00:12:20] Like, you've got to go down to the end. Of your, of your chain of employees, where the, where the customer first meets the employee. And at that point to figure out what to do. Boardroom decisions are not good decisions. And, that's kind of the same approach, which is getting these people out there and they, they think differently.

[00:12:46] Well, listen, I gotta tell you, I think differently. Thanks to, you. Craig Peterson, and I wish I just had thought a little quicker. Take a look at my spam folder and said, Oh, there it is, and I'll listen. I'm gonna. I want you to know I'm going to call the head of IT for iHeart media. Right after the show today, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna read them the riot act about Craig Peterson.

[00:13:16] Craig Peterson: I appreciate that. And right now my text number is down.

[00:13:24] Jim Polito: Oh, okay.

[00:13:25] Craig Peterson: Yeah. If people want to get on some of the free webinars that I'm doing, I have come up with a, we're writing things, we've got a special report. Just visit quick peterson.com and right there on every page to sign up. So that you can find out about these things. You know, I, even though I ended up in your email filter, I am sending emails all the time.

[00:13:55] I do try and get good information out to people just like Al Reese and Jack Trout has done for years.

[00:14:02] Jim Polito: Oh, you've got the names.

[00:14:10] I read every one of their books. Yeah. I read 'em I was taking graduate classes at B U a long time ago, and that's where I got introduced to them. And, I read, I'm going to say at least three, three of their books, because I, I was working in the business at the time, but bottom-up marketing that concept makes a lot of sense.

[00:14:34] So, the same. And we'll see if it has an impact on Facebook. Craig, thank you so much. I really appreciate the time and we will catch up with you, sir next week.

[00:14:45] Craig Peterson: All right, thanks. Take care guys.

[00:14:47] Jim Polito: You too, Craig Peterson. Everybody was all right. When we return. Oh yeah, and Craig Peterson.com he spells it like Peterson, but you know he's Canadian.

[00:14:58] That's how they pronounce it. peterson.com you're a final word when we return, you're listening to the Jim Polito show your safe space.

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