100s of people let go in Apple cork

Ubbquittious

Apparently yesterday about 400 were told to pack their bags with possibly more to go soon. These were all employed by contractors working for Apple for improving Siri by manually reviewing voice recordings

but can't find any mention of it in the news. Anyone have more scoop?

questionmark?

Considering the huge very recent investment in the Apple site expansion I would consider this very unusual. Not heard a peep about it.

greenfield21

Have to show they are taking action after that whistle blower went to the guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/26/apple-contractors-regularly-hear-confidential-details-on-siri-recordings

dhaughton99

Improving Siri? They deserved to be sacked.

Phoebas

dhaughton99 wrote: »

Improving Siri? They deserved to be sacked.

Why?
What were they doing wrong?

biko

They did what they were hired to do.
Apple is the perp here, these people are just employees.
I wonder how many of them use Siri themselves...

Nicetrustedcup

From my understanding I used to live with a guy who done the siri work.

He did not work for apple but for a sub contractor who was is based out in Cork Airport.

They all get 12 months contract and then let go.

Globe tech is there name or something?.

dhaughton99

Phoebas wrote: »

Why?
What were they doing wrong?

Its a joke. Have you ever tried to use Siri?

pwurple

Yes, got a few CVs today with the same story. Contract terminated in apple, so the company let them go.

Outkast_IRE

Last time they did this, a bomb threat was rung in a few days later to the site . They had to evacuate for a while and do a search

Tails142

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43kv4q/microsoft-human-contractors-listened-to-xbox-owners-homes-kinect-cortana

Story broke recently about Microsoft doing this type of thing, could be Apple are trying to avoid the same negative press.

EnzoScifo

Globetech regularly do this.

Was the same with Apple Maps project back in 2017. Won't be news because they weren't Apple employees.

nb74

Heard it on the news on Red FM yesterday morning - project finished early so they were let go as there was no work for them.

Oafley Jones

nb74 wrote: »

Heard it on the news on Red FM yesterday morning - project finished early so they were let go as there was no work for them.

Isn't this a fairly regular occurrence. Contractors are forever fluctuating in number up there.

beer enigma

Seems a bit more knee jerk than normal

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/contractors-told-they-had-two-weeks-to-leave-ireland-945919.html

Harika

A general advice for the kids here, don't work for Globetech or one of the other shady outsourcer. You can get better jobs directly at Apple or Voxpro or other multinationals in Cork.

ashes2014

400 people let go?

I know these people were a sub contractor working for Apple but it should still be newsworthy.

I didn't hear a peep about it.

Hoboo

greenfield21 wrote: »

Have to show they are taking action after that whistle blower went to the guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/26/apple-contractors-regularly-hear-confidential-details-on-siri-recordings

That's exactly it. Did the world a favour, but for every action.......

Spocker

"Data analysts who worked with Globetech, a Cork-based firm, were told this week that their work with Apple has been terminated."

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/08/23/apple-siri-contractors-quality-control/

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

nb74 wrote: »

Heard it on the news on Red FM yesterday morning - project finished early so they were let go as there was no work for them.

Yes and just coincidentally this "project finished early" immediately after they'd concluded an internal review during which all "data analysts" (Siri response graders) were suspended with pay after a story broke in the guardian about what exactly those analysts were doing.

Not there was anything wrong with what they were doing, Globetech have nothing to hide. That's why those data analysts had an NDA in their contracts forbidding them not only to talk about the content of their work, but the nature of it, and the fact it was at all related to Apple.

Globetech refused requests from journalists to be clear on how many people are affected, too.

Raconteuse

There are so many of those providers doing work for Apple. They'll probably find work in the other ones. They are constantly hiring.

zilog_jones

Apple had an office in the IDA business park on the Model Farm Road that suddenly became empty a few weeks ago - I wonder if this is related?

Franz Von Peppercorn II

Is Apple playing this as GlobeTech doing it without authorisation?

I personally have no problem with my voice data being used to make the system better provided it’s just the voice commands I issue.

Harika

The article states they get a lot of ambiguous triggers they then have to sort. So it's not only your voice commands but everything the system thinks that is a command.

TheChizler

I'm just a little incredulous that people didn't expect this kind of thing to be going on! Gotta improve the quality of the system somehow, nothing better than real user data to check with.

EnzoScifo

zilog_jones wrote: »

Apple had an office in the IDA business park on the Model Farm Road that suddenly became empty a few weeks ago - I wonder if this is related?

Yeah, that was one of the Globetech offices.

Blitzkrieger

If you check out the job boards Apple are now hiring directly for these positions. Stellar job security if you get one.....