Harassment Interviews Conducted By AI?
BY Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP (JD Supra)
(Editor’s Note: This is a delightful piece and I highly recommend it as a refreshing detour from more serious news. Enjoy. – Mike Tully)
No. Heck, no.
Bloomberg BNA’s Daily Labor Report had a story this week about the development of artificial intelligence to conduct interviews of employees who claim to have been victims of workplace harassment.
Could this idea be any worse? Probably. Throwing all harassment complaints in the trash and summarily firing the complainants is a worse idea.
But there isn’t much worse than having a harassment interview conducted by AI. Of course, it may be necessary for an employee to make an initial complaint through a hotline and a recorded message. But in our primitive age, the initial complaint is followed by an interview conducted in real time by a human being. Preferably someone in Human Resources, who actually knows what they’re doing.
Humans have a number of advantages over AI. Eye contact. Empathy. Ability to follow up wherever the conversation may lead. Ability to assess credibility.
Based on my not-so-hot experience with phone menus and chat bots, here is the way I would expect an AI harassment interview to go:
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A fifth of employees are victims of bullying on messaging apps
Open Accss Government (UK)
British workplaces are being negatively impacted by bullying on messaging apps between colleagues, according to research published today by leading jobs board, totaljobs.
According to a survey of 3,047 workers across the country commissioned by totaljobs, a fifth (20%) of employees have been victims of bullying via messaging apps. Worryingly, the figures suggest the likes of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Slack are the source of workplace bullying and intimidation.
A particularly concerning finding is that bullying is as likely to relate to personal circumstances (45% of those bullied) as it is to professional performance (44%), with more than a tenth experiencing bad behaviour that targets their sexual preference (15%) or gender (12%).
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Pope’s foundation backs international effort to fight cyberbullying
By Elise Harris Crux
ROME – “Words hurt more than beatings. Do they not hurt you? Are you so insensitive? What happened to me should never happen to anyone … I hope that now you are all more sensitive with your words.”
These are the words of Italian teen Carolina Picchio, who at the age of 14 took her own life by jumping out of her third-floor bedroom window, having become the victim of a vicious cycle of online bullying.
After eating a pizza with friends in November 2012, Picchio passed out in a bathroom after drinking too much. Instead of calling for help or trying to revive her, Picchio’s companions made a video in which they played with her body, imitating increasingly explicit sexual acts.
What began with a few messages about the video in a group chat turned into 2,600 likes when the video was posted on Facebook by her ex-boyfriend, drawing insulting messages and even threats from people she knew, and people she had never met.
The mocking and humiliation became too much, and Picchio killed herself the night of Jan. 4, 2013.
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