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My wife, newly hired, was asked to un-blur her camera during a routine meeting to confirm her I9 information. This seems like a violation to me? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by shalafi@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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She had interviewed and met both remotely and in person, this guy was merely an HR drone confirming her documentation. I was a little bent when she told me he had asked her to remove her blur filter "to have a look at her working environment, make sure it's not cluttered" (something along those lines). No one else at this company requested such. Was he way out of line?

I should note, this is my PC in our living room and not where she will be working from. And this guy wants a look around our home?! Told my wife to bring this up once she's settled in, ask HR if this is policy. She started today!

She thinks it's a racism thing. I'm not so sure, but I don't have any other explanation.

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[–] tacticalsugar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 141 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (14 children)

It sure sounds like racism and poorphobia to me. HR trying to make sure her surroundings don't look like what a "typical poor person" would have (clutter, children, signs of disability, "drugs", etc.) It's not super common, but it's common enough that I hear about it every so often.

I can't offer any kind of legal advice, but it sounds like this job will be potentially problematic and HR will definitely be one to watch out for.

ETA: There's a lot of paranoia in the US right now about "laptop farms". Remote jobs are paranoid about people getting remote work to send money back to North Korea. It's completely ridiculous, and it's causing issues for a lot of people, mostly marginalized people. I think it's useful context to know why this kind of thing is happening more lately.

[–] clif@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

There was a big headline recently about a tech company accidentally hiring a North Korean "hacker" (I'm just going off the headline) so that might be fresh in memory with regards to your laptop farm reference.

[–] tacticalsugar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 months ago

Exactly what I was referencing! I've known a few people who were recently fired from remote jobs under very strange circumstances. I can't prove anything of course, but I distinctly got the feeling that they were fired because the intersection of their marginalizations made them look like "evil North Korean spies" to management.

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