Excited about new income stream!

[gimmethesimplelife]

I think I'm surprised by your decision to be part of this type of "mystery shopper", because you've always seemed to be against government/organizations prying into personal lives. You've tried hard to keep yourself somewhat private and even seemed a bit uncomfortable in the process of applying for health care and giving so much information about yourself. It just seems that secret recording of someone is just not your style. I realize that it's legal in your state...I'm just confused that it doesn't make you a little uncomfortable.

Honestly? I'm not especially comfortable with it. There are shops I have found to be very verbally intrusive to the point where I flaked a couple of times (means didn't go through with a shop) towards the last minute, which is inexcusable in this business. One was a mortgage shop and one was an apartment shop - the latter really seemed as if I was trying to trip someone up after I looked at the questions/interactions that were expected of me and i just couldn't go through with it. I did look over the questions on this shop here with the video and to me they seemed reasonable and non excessive, and this shop does not obvious seem to be about thinning the herd/denying raises/promotions. But the video aspect of it I'm not entirely down with no.....BUT on the other hand, it does seem an extension of everyday life, does it not? One of my basic bits of life advice for one and all here has been to always have a cellphone with video capability yada yada yada, I won't repeat why again - and this is advice that I do religiously follow to protect myself. This type of video capability is not pleasant or kind or nice - it is all about protecting myself from the realities of American police. I am having a bit of a challenge seeing how this video shop is all that much different but I guess one could argue that the equipment is hidden and it is, so that much is different. Rob

[gimmethesimplelife]

Rob, I'm not judging you but I'm very surprised to read that you're willing to be a party to this type of operation. Yes, this is a free country and it is legal. But, when you try to justify if by connecting it to running to Mexico for health care, you lose me completely. Something is right or wrong on its own...it doesn't have to be justified by comparing it to a greater wrong.

This job seems to go against your basic values in life.

The bit about bringing Mexico and the need to cross the border for healthcare into the mix? I'll explain. To me personally it is completely unforgivable that I should have had to cross the border into Mexico as my life was not worth health care in the US. I have nothing but moral outrage in regards to this - to me this is instant lifetime disengagement at any deep level from America - that's what this has earned in my case. So the point here is that to me this is extremely serious - but it seems to be perfectly acceptable to various posters here.

Moving along, to tie this into video mystery shopping - there seems to be a slight bit of controversy, questioning of ethics, even questioning of legality, and a sense that some here find this underhanded and creepy - to quote an earlier post. To me, while I am not stating that other folks takes are not valid, this topic is much, much, much less serious than not being worth health care in your home country. It is once again that lack of sense of proportion I so often run into in the United States - I can see why people might question video mystery shopping and not be comfortable with the concept but HELLO.....seriously? This is a more important issue than being forced to cross a border for health care so that the wealthy can stay that way?

What I am getting at is sense of proportion here. Rob

[dmc]

I guess some question why you continually think others should pay for your healthcare. If it was so important to you, why didn't you take care of it yourself. You have had what, 35 years or so to get a job that would earn enough to either include healthcare, or buy on your own. You continually blame America, when are you going to take responsibility for your own care?

I find it interesting how you justify things. Does your whole life revolve around your terror of the police and health care?

[JaneV2.0]

Yes electronic-enhanced mystery shopping is kind of creepy, but it's certainly inevitable--unless corporations protest--because the technology is there. I'm not sure there's a big moral issue here, because the notion of any kind of privacy in today's world is laughable.

Rob, you should know by now that anything you say can and will be used against you in the SLN court of public opinion/self-righteousness, so unless you enjoy being the forum pinata, you should limit your discussions to the weather and maybe your garden. Just a suggestion. Thank me. (Whatever happened to Packy, anyway? I did so want to regale him with tales of my eatcation...)

[ApatheticNoMore]

I'm not sure I see the extreme moral issue either, especially as having moral issues with doing a job is seldom accepted. We have spy planes and cameras that see through clothes in this world we live in. There's places I've heard employees have complained about being watched by store cameras all the time while working the store check out etc. (I don't know to what extent this is true, I feel bad for them if it is!). I guess I can liken it to extremely creepy things, having a camera in the sidewalk looking up women's dresses, that would be creepy, right? Oh yea. And I would refuse the porno scanners if I was flying internationally (I'd let them feel me up and take apart my shoes or something). I guess catching random people at the doctors office on film is a bit creepy (the front desk or other staff shrug). I suppose businesses mystery shopping their own employees is creepy in a way only it's established practice.

I think jobs can often be morally thorny if you analyze them to death (nah present job is usually just stupid and boring really). What if your job is looking at those scanners for the TSA? What if you go work for a plastic bag manufacturer or those plastic things around soda cans, and you know plastic bags and those are floating on the ocean in massive islands of junk? What if your job is to outsource jobs to Chinese slave labor? What if etc.. Hmm well, have your own compass, is all I can say, I do, as best I can. To have any standards at all is counter cultural in a way, as outwardly the world only respects those with the most wealth, and if you haven't optimized that well that's your own fault the world says. Now there may be a thousand reasons one hasn't optimized wealth, not all due to one being ever so morally superior, some due to simply having other priorities in life, some due to luck, some due to lack of knowledge, some due to one's very real personality flaws, but occasionally it is because one has refused to take a job that seems too shady. But the world doesn't outwardly see that or easily forgive that if one doesn't have the doe ray me. (the world asks: uh why are you still unemployed again? etc.) Yea well, shrug.

[gimmethesimplelife]

Yes electronic-enhanced mystery shopping is kind of creepy, but it's certainly inevitable--unless corporations protest--because the technology is there. I'm not sure there's a big moral issue here, because the notion of any kind of privacy in today's world is laughable.

Rob, you should know by now that anything you say can and will be used against you in the SLN court of public opinion/self-righteousness, so unless you enjoy being the forum pinata, you should limit your discussions to the weather and maybe your garden. Just a suggestion. Thank me. (Whatever happened to Packy, anyway? I did so want to regale him with tales of my eatcation...)

You have a point, Jane....it does seem sometimes that anything I say can and will be used against me. Interesting thing is that i don't find that anywhere near as offensive as I once would have. I think years of waiting tables and being constantly vulnerable to the general public has really thickened my skin and I don't know that that's a bad thing overall. But i really don't need to be the forum pinata - who gets anything out of that, really? Rob

[gimmethesimplelife]

I'm not sure I see the extreme moral issue either, especially as having moral issues with doing a job is seldom accepted. We have spy planes and cameras that see through clothes in this world we live in. There's places I've heard employees have complained about being watched by store cameras all the time while working the store check out etc. (I don't know to what extent this is true, I feel bad for them if it is!). I guess I can liken it to extremely creepy things, having a camera in the sidewalk looking up women's dresses, that would be creepy, right? Oh yea. And I would refuse the porno scanners if I was flying internationally (I'd let them feel me up and take apart my shoes or something). I guess catching random people at the doctors office on film is a bit creepy (the front desk or other staff shrug). I suppose businesses mystery shopping their own employees is creepy in a way only it's established practice.

I think jobs can often be morally thorny if you analyze them to death (nah present job is usually just stupid and boring really). What if your job is looking at those scanners for the TSA? What if you go work for a plastic bag manufacturer or those plastic things around soda cans, and you know plastic bags and those are floating on the ocean in massive islands of junk? What if your job is to outsource jobs to Chinese slave labor? What if etc.. Hmm well, have your own compass, is all I can say, I do, as best I can. To have any standards at all is counter cultural in a way, as outwardly the world only respects those with the most wealth, and if you haven't optimized that well that's your own fault the world says. Now there may be a thousand reasons one hasn't optimized wealth, not all due to one being ever so morally superior, some due to simply having other priorities in life, some due to luck, some due to lack of knowledge, some due to one's very real personality flaws, but occasionally it is because one has refused to take a job that seems too shady. But the world doesn't outwardly see that or easily forgive that if one doesn't have the doe ray me. (the world asks: uh why are you still unemployed again? etc.) Yea well, shrug.

I couldn't agree with your second paragraph about the realities of the world more.....I'd say you hit the nail right on the head. Rob

[flowerseverywhere]

You have a point, Jane....it does seem sometimes that anything I say can and will be used against me. Interesting thing is that i don't find that anywhere near as offensive as I once would have. I think years of waiting tables and being constantly vulnerable to the general public has really thickened my skin and I don't know that that's a bad thing overall. But i really don't need to be the forum pinata - who gets anything out of that, really? Rob

easy solution is to not mention over and over your hate and distrust for the U.S. And Police regardless of the subject. As my grandkids say, easy peasy lemon squeasy.

[bae]

Rob,

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...rom-the-stasi/

[Tradd]

The employees at this dental office also sign consent at some point in their hiring process to the effect that they understand that filmed mystery shopping on some kind of regular basis will be taking place, so it's not as if they don't know such is going to happen at some point. Personally, as an employee I would not consent - in the sense that I would not work in such a place - that's me making a choice and voting no way with my feet.

I have no words.