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    Apple’s Image Scanning Tool is, Well, Complicated

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 3 minutes

    At first blush, the idea of scanning images synced up to iCloud for child sexual abuse materials against the hash list of known CSAM images seems like a good idea. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse myself, I want tech companies to takes some initiative to deal with this issue. They also want to scan images on kids’ phones using AI to see if kids are getting into any trouble with sending or receiving sexual material. Again, that sounds like a good thing. But, as the EFF points out, this all requires a backdoor, and backdoors, once created, almost never remain used for just one purpose.

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    Linked: 10 million American workers are considering freelancing amid the ‘Great Resignation’

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    You know, I think there is one thing that prevents this from being an even higher number. Health insurance.

    If you’re young, looking for flexibility, and not really finding it, working freelance might look like a pretty attractive option. But, your health insurance costs might be pretty manageable, especially if you’re in relatively good health. Those of us who are older, or have some health issues that cause the price of getting a health insurance policy on our own to be rather high, might have a more difficult time making this decision.

    I have had conversations privately, so some people already know this, but while I’m not necessarily for, or against, Universal Health Care, (I think it’s a really complicated issue that we refuse to talk honestly about, from both sides) if the US ever gets to that point, I will be planning my exit from Corporate America the next day.

  • Does Remote Work Make It Obvious Who is Getting Work Done?

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Regarding technology flattening the organization, I would agree with Ed. Where I’m going to disagree is in assuming every workplace has figured that out and taken advantage of it. 

    Bad managers are still bad managers, even if they are remote. If the management style at your company is to measure work by, what Ed calls, the “appearance of work”, you’ve probably struggled with remote work. Or, you’ve got everyone in meetings, or at least available online all day, every day. On the other hand, if you’ve switched to remote work and also switched the way you measure your directs, you’ve probably been very successful and might even be willing to accept remote work permanently. It’s all about understanding that what we do with teams when they work in-person doesn’t work with remote teams and adjusting. 

    Remote work isn’t compatible with management that measures workers by the hours they spend at their desks or how many people like you. Those measurements kind of go out the window. So it would be best if you had new, better measurements. I’d argue that you need the measurement you should have always been using, but I digress. 

  • An Example of the Complex Pressures Facing Law Firms

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    So, if you are a firm with Morgan Stanley as a client, maybe the easy thing is to just say “hey, our huge client wants us back in the office and wants to have in-person meetings, so you’ve got to come back”.

    But it’s never really that simple, is it? What do you do if your staff and lawyers really don’t want to be in the office full-time? What if some of the same people who first attracted Morgan Stanley to your firm are willing to leave to work at a firm that is more flexible?

    Now that you are only recruiting among the legal folks who want to be in the office five days a week, is your talent up to snuff to keep Morgan Stanley as a client?

  • Oh Look Someone On Wall Street Doesn’t Understand How People Learn

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Let me fix it for you, what JPMorgan is really doing, is weeding out anyone who might actually want to work differently than the way Wall Street has always worked.

    It’s almost like they have no interest in actual diversity, employee mental health, or work-life balance. Of course, we know they don’t. Wealth Management isn’t about the people who work for you, it’s about how much money they bring in, period.