charging

In 2013, WhatsApp cost almost one euro. And nothing prevents Meta from charging for the app again in 2026

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There was a time when WhatsApp was paid. This was more than ten years ago, before Goal was done with the application and ended up completely changing its structure over time. The latest beta of the app leaks something that seemed inevitable after the arrival of the announcements: a paid subscription to avoid them. He leak. WhatsApp has two versions, the stable and the beta. It is common for the code of the next beta versions to be leaked, giving us a preview of the functions that will end up reaching the final app. And the latest leak points in a very specific direction. Since you recently removed your WhatsApp account from your Accounts Center, the price of your subscription for no ads in Status & Channels has decreased. Review your subscription to accept the new price of %1$s/month; or choose to use Status & Channels free of charge with ads. Additionally, Android Authority has managed to force the code so that the app displays a message in its interface about the possibility of canceling the subscription. WHATSAPP Tricks and tips to HIDE YOURSELF TO THE MAXIMUM and maintain your PRIVACY A plausible hypothesis. So far, practically all the WhatsApp code leaks have ended up materializing: either as functions tested in the beta version, or as features that have ended up reaching the final version. One of them has been the introduction of advertising in the app, which for now is limited to statuses, promotional channels and channel subscriptions. In the case of states, the operation is very similar to what Meta applies on Instagram, interspersing ads every certain number of publications. So… what if I don’t want ads? What do you give me in exchange?. If Meta wants to implement a subscription system with any modicum of success, it will have to offer more than just removing ads in return. The subscription opens the door to new WhatsApp functions, and a business model similar to that of Telegram with its premium version. One in which the app can continue to be used without any inconvenience in the free version, but which opens the door to benefits and a better experience if we check out. Because. If the question is why Meta may intend to charge you for WhatsApp, the answer is very easy: it needs money. In 2014, Facebook paid nearly $1 billion for WhatsApp. Almost 10 years later, He had barely recovered 10% of what he paid for it.. The company continues to need ways to make the investment profitable, and betting on a subscription model is a necessary plan. Image | Xataka Mobile In Xataka | WhatsApp Web: What it is, how it is used and comparison with the mobile app

There is a startup that turns the ashes of your dead into stones. And he is charging more than 2,000 euros for it

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Cremation is an increasingly common practice after a death and it is not uncommon for many families to keep the ashes or spread in special places. There is a company that has had an idea to turn the remains of our loved ones into a new object: stones. Parting Stone. It is the name of a startup founded in San Francisco that is dedicated to solidifying the ashes of dead people and shaping them into soft, rounded stones. Justin Crowe, the founder, told in a interview with the Wall Street Journal that people usually keep ashes in any closet because it is not something we feel comfortable with, but when transformed into these stones they become a kind of amulet without that negative connotation. “Some families travel with the stones, share them with friends and loved ones, children paint on them; some people keep them in their pockets and even sleep with them under their pillow,” he says. First tableware. that the idea was born after his grandfather’s funeral, a traditional ceremony that made him feel uncomfortable at such a vulnerable moment. After the experience, Crowe began to think about how he could create something new for the grieving process and first came up with an idea: mixing ashes with ceramic glazes. He created tableware with this technique and began to receive orders, the problem was that to make it he only used a small amount of the ashes and he wanted to create something using more. Solidification. The process to turn ashes into stones is quite simple: refine them to a fine powder, mix them with water, shape the stones and cook. Normally about 40-80 stones come out of the ashes of an adult person and they warn that the color depends on each person. The service costs $2,495 for people and $1,195 for cats and dogs, so that’s nothing. The business of ashes. Cremation is a practice increasing around the world. According to Crossing World Group data, This year in Spain, cremation has surpassed burial for the first time, so these types of initiatives are increasingly common. In Spain there is a company called Omneo that turns ashes into a block of wax with an NFC tag. There are also companies that convert ashes in diamondsin trees and even in coral reefs. The most striking proposal of all is that of the Barcelona company Giem Sportswhich proposed the management of spaces within football stadiums to store the ashes of fans. Betis inaugurated a space of this type and they charged 3,000 euros to keep the ashes for a period of 99 years. Image | Pexels In Xataka | More than 300 people have been cryogenized hoping to be resurrected in the future, but no one has proven that this serves any purpose.

There are restaurants charging their customers 15 euros when they do not appear in a reservation. And it is a trend that is going more

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“There are people who accept it and people who don’t. Let them make an effort so that we can make it to the end of the month,” comments Danitza Gabriela, Executive Chef of the Manifiesto 13 restaurant, with a laugh, in a video on the channel ‘The Xef in Kitchen‘. It refers to the charging of a fee if someone does not attend a reservation at your restaurant, But although it may seem drastic, it is not a problem that should be laughed at. It is a whole phenomenon baptized as ‘no show‘, and there are already restaurants that are taking measures. For example, charge 15 euros if you don’t show up. He no-show. Also known as ‘ghost reserve’, it is one of the nightmares of the restoration. The name is quite revealing: it is a reservation for a table that, without warning, does not show up at the agreed time. There the restaurant fills its gap, but there are times when it is not possible, leaving holes of hundreds of euros depending on the case. There are situations in which it is inevitable not to show up, even others of greater cause in which the last thing we think about is calling to say that we will not be able to go, but unfortunately it is becoming common in certain cities. Spread booking. Another Anglicism that is easy to understand. In large cities, there are diners who adopt the strategy of making reservations in several restaurants at the same time. This may seem like nonsense, but it makes “sense”: they secure all the options they like and then decide on the fly which one they prefer, not canceling, or not canceling early enough, on the discarded options. Freak. How often this occurs depends on the city. TheFork platform carried out a study on phantom reservations and, according to their analysis, between January and July of this year, there was not a single month in which no-shows accounted for more than 3.4% of the total. Then, it depends on the regions and, as we say, the city. Others studies They point out that, in large cities in the United Kingdom, Australia or New Zealand, the absence rate is around 15%. In the United States and Canada, 20%. 15 euros. According to that same study by The Fork, of the total number of diners who do not attend the reservation, only 38% do so due to last-minute unforeseen events that have prevented them from calling the restaurant. 7% say that they do not notify because they are embarrassed to call and 55% say that they get lost or forget that they had made the reservation. That is precisely what is leading restaurants to take action. We mentioned the words of Danitza, from the Manifiesto 13 restaurant, at the beginning of the article, and the amount they charge for not appearing is 15 euros. He explains it at minute 8:10 of this video: “Every day we call to reconfirm the reservation. We are applying a cancellation policy, only on weekends, because those are the days when we have the most occupancy. It is 15 euros, just so that people have that bit of respect.” Danitza continues by pointing out that “it’s very hard when you’re starting out. If you don’t have a lot of fuss and the table doesn’t come to you, you’ve already prepared… and it’s complicated. There are people who accept it and people who don’t.” At Gordon Ramsay’s, if you don’t cancel at least 48 hours in advance, it’s 150 pounds. Impact. Manifesto 13 is not the only restaurant that applies this. A couple of years ago, Amelia, a restaurant in San Sebastián with two Michelin stars, charged 510 euros for a service not provided to three diners who did not show up. It was a case that came to court after a complaint from one of the customers, and the result was the ruling in favor of the restaurant. Studies indicate that losses due to no-shows can suppose between 5% and 20%, depending on the type of business, and this is what has motivated locals to move tab. For example, with card number like warranty and deposits, as are done in other forms of entertainment and consumption. It has even come to pose the expulsion from the reservation system of clients who accumulate several. Images | Hitesh Dewasi In Xataka | The restaurant with the longest waiting list in the world is not a Michelin star: it is in Bristol and costs €40

For many people, making an appointment with the SEPE is hell. So there are already “managers” charging 99 euros to sneak you in

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Where you see something as unremarkable as an appointment with the SEPE, there are those who see something quite different: easy money. A juicy business that is cooked between networks, chats and platforms on-line of advertisements and that skirts the law to reach clients desperate to deal with the State. Its dynamics are very simple: managers appointments take advantage of the weaknesses of public administrations and their reservation systems to monopolize (free) appointments and then sell them. What do you urgently need to be attended to at the SEPE to process the unemployment benefit but there is no way to reserve an appointment on the official website? Do you need a procedure in Immigration? No problem. Pay and have an appointment tomorrow. five seconds. That’s how long it takes to find advertisements of people who offer to find and book appointments to carry out procedures at the SEPE. All (of course) in exchange for a payment that can range from 10 to 30 or even 100 euros. Your business it’s not entirely newjust as it is not the situation which they take advantage of: a cocktail of factors in which the staff cuts in the administration, failures in computer systems and the mischief of people willing to get rich by flouting the law and marketing a public service: prior appointments for citizens who need to make urgent arrangements, such as requesting unemployment benefits or presenting documents at the Immigration Office. “There were no appointments”. A few days ago elDiario.es published an article which gives an idea of ​​to what extent this has become chronic. illegal marketing of SEPE appointments, at least in part of Spain. The newspaper recounts the case of a 35-year-old woman, Sofía, who after losing her job did the most logical thing: go on the Public Employment Service website to request unemployment benefits. No luck. He did not find available appointments to go to the agency’s offices. Neither in Lleida (its province) nor in nearby areas. He tried it the next day with identical results. And on the other, and again on the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh day. Always without success. In total, he spent ten days in front of the computer, pressing the F5 key every so often in the hope of finding a free space. “It’s an abuse”. “I would have been willing to drive hours if necessary. But there was nothing at all,” confesses desperately Sofía, who saw how the deadline was consumed 15 business days that was available to request unemployment without losing benefit time. In the end she managed to get treated, but not thanks to a stroke of luck. She got the appointment through a friend’s contact, a stranger who, in exchange for 45 euros, scheduled an appointment for her in 48 hours. Maybe 45 euros seems like a lot of money for a free public service, but she herself recognizes There are those who charge up to 99 euros. “It’s an abuse.” How is it possible? For several factors. To start with the tensions in the administration. a few months ago The Country denounced the difficulties that citizens in Spain are having in getting appointments in the offices of the old INEM, especially those distributed along the Mediterranean coast, the islands and Madrid and Barcelona, ​​a phenomenon that is explained by the thinning of the workforce, the workload and failures of those they have already warned the unions. “Between 2022 and 2024 we have had 1,412 retirements. In 2025 we have lost 725 people,” laments in elDiario.es Manuel Galdeano, from the CSIF. From UGT they recognize that a service that should be provided by 12,000 personnel must be content with 7,300, which in their opinion translates into a work overload for the SEPE staff, but also a decrease in service to citizens. Taking advantage of the system. The other key that explains the ease with which people like the one who helped Sofía get appointments when the SEPE seems collapsed must be sought in the bowels of the system. Those who market with shifts They have their “tricks”such as bots and resources that allow them to automate searches and collect dozens of appointments daily. Then they just have to advertise their services on networks and chats and wait for vulnerable citizens to knock on their door. When that happens and they ‘hunt’ a desperate user, the managers appointments only have to cancel one of the many reservations they have made and request that space again, in seconds, with the personal data (name and surname, ID, postal code…) that the client has previously provided them. In exchange they charge 10, 20, 30, 40 or more euros via Bizum. In some cases almost 100 are required. Easy, simple… Ethical? Communication is online and clients are recruited through call centers, WhatsApp groups, social networks and advertising websites. In some case the managers dating sites advertise as companies and, assures elDiariothere are those who even try to appear more authoritative by using images of professional organizations without any permission. Their business relies mainly on the anxiety of users who need to contact the administration. Also in ignorance. The SEPE website allows, for example, to carry out a pre-application unemployment benefit that prevents users from losing days of unemployment even if it takes more than two weeks to get an in-person appointment. Is it something new? No. And perhaps that is the most curious thing. A quick search in the newspaper archive arrives to verify that the marketing with prior appointments with the administration It is not a new practice. In fact in 2020 the SEPE has already denounced before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Barcelona the resale of appointments to resolve procedures in its offices, a practice that USO had warned about shortly before. Nor is it something that exclusively affects Employment. The same illicit business affects immigration services, a practice reported by officials and that has even led to police operations with dozens of arrested. In the case of the SEPE, … Read more

How to use Ruta-E, the government app to find cheap gas stations and charging points in your city or your route

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We are going to tell you how to use Route-Ethe new application of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service, creators of My Citizen Folder among many other apps. It is an application that seeks to help you find the cheapest gas stations and electric charging points. It is a simple but versatile application. You can choose between gasoline or electric chargers, and then you have the options of exploring on the map or trace a route and see all the gas stations or charging points along with the price of fuel, so you know which one allows you to save a little money on your trips. Look at the price of gasoline with Ruta-E The first thing you have to do is download the Ruta-E application, available on Google Play for Android and in the App Store of iPhones. Once inside you will have a map, and at the top right you will have a filter in which you can choose fuel type for which you want to find a gas station or charging station. When you choose the type of fuel, you will see information about all the pumps in your city. But you can navigate the map to explore the entire country in case you want to look at those of some place you are going to visit. In the gasoline pump preview you will see the price of the fuel you have chosen. The app also has an option to trace the route of a trip what you want to do, with origin and destination point. When you do, you will see all the gas stations you have along the route along with the prices of the type of fuel you have chosen, and also the charging points. When you press at a gas stationyou will be able to see their hours and prices, and thus compare the cheapest ones or those that are open. And if you click on a charging point you will not see the price, but you will see the types of plugs available. In Xataka Basics | Gasoline price on Google Maps: how to see nearby gas stations and their prices on Android or iOS

For this company it has meant charging 15,000 euros of a debt

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If you are one of those people who see Unreported Post Office In your entrance tray without immutation, perhaps you should take into account that this habit can reach cost you a disgust economic depending on your professional responsibilities. The Provincial Court of Valencia has sentenced a bankruptcy administrator to pay compensation of 15,000 euros for not responding to emails that for a year sent him a creditive company. A notified debt. As you can read in the sentence Dictated by the Provincial Court of Valencia, a construction company entered into a process of suspension of payments in 2020, so a process of creditors protected by a bankruptcy administrator who is in charge of quantify debts of said company and establish the payment of debts in a timely manner. One of the creditor companies notified the Existence of a debt pending sending two bills due to 2019 and 2020 to the bankruptcy administrator for an amount of 14,202.88 euros. However, and after several emails asking for information about the state of the collection, the bankruptcy administrator gave no response. Demand to the administrator. After several unsuccessful attempts to communicate with the administrator, sending invoices with the sufficient legal deadline. The administrator finally closed the bankruptcy process leaving the crediting company out of the credit plan. Before which, he filed a lawsuit against the administrator. In his allegations, the bankruptcy administrator declared that he had not submitted it on time and that he should have claimed it with more insistence when he saw that his debt did not appear in the reports of payments to creditors. Justice makes it clear: look at your email tray. The magistrates of the Provincial Court of Valencia leave no doubt, and consider that the company notified the debt both by mail and formally. The sentence ensures that it was the responsibility of the bankruptcy administrator to respond to the demands that reach them through a valid communication channel How is email. Therefore, it forces the bankruptcy administrator to pay the debt, although the process has already been closed. José Martínez Carrera, General Director of the Managing Office, who had represented the credit company, declared declared to Digital economy“Finally, this judgment includes the day -to -day problems of creditors, where bankruptcy administrators do not respond to any consultation for the payment of credits against the mass.” The lawyer regrets that it is common for administrators to “give the quiet response”, forgetting that in this process they are legal representatives of the company they manage. From the pandemia nobody takes the phone. The case of neglect in the communications of this bankruptcy administrator is nothing more than one Of the many examples of the drift of some public bodies and private companies that have eliminated or limited significantly the communication options (by telephone or by email), as He denounced Antena 3 news. They maintain the service, but are limited to not attending the calls. “Nothing, they hang up. They don’t put music you, or anything. They don’t take it directly,” a user lamented. Public services such as SEPE or information for immigration or social security care They stopped attending the phone after the pandemic in the absence of dedicated personnel. Now, that neglect of communications also seems to be extended to email. Valencia’s justice is not willing to allow “ghosting” to also extend to email. In Xataka | The best advice to reduce email stress, according to a linguist expert: respond to emails Image | Unspash (Stephen Phillips – Hostreviews.co.uk)

It is very likely that charging bar is more false than a wooden euro

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You get home after a long work day, you throw yourself into the couch, you turn on your console, you release the game you are already vitiating. Well, no, because before your avatar, the map and your mount appear before you There is a load bar that must be completed. It’s normal, you’ll think. You have to load the textures, the game or whatever, go to know, but that bar advances, so something will be doing. There is little left. A little less. Oh, how slow, will now be with something heavy, surely. Well, most likely no. Most likely, this load bar will be false and its only goal is to play with your brain. Charging… Load screens, with their bar, an illustration and perhaps a text with advice or some of LoreThey were necessary. They served to entertain the player while the machine was looking for, read and loaded the game information on a console whose power was not, from afar, the one that the current devices have. It was a normal solution, because the other was a black screen or showing a half -load level that would leave a bad impression. Load screen of ‘The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim’ | Image: The Elder Scrolls Wiki However, technology has evolved and, currently, the few bars of progress that we can find in video games have more customs and psychology than useful. That does not mean that there are no load screens, because there are even if they are very well camouflaged, but the speed of the components has allowed us to use alternative methods to avoid them. It is false. If we are in the tail of an attraction in Port Aventura, we calculate how much a trip lasts and we look forward, more or less We can estimate how much is left to ride. In a process that is happening on a computer without us seeing anything, that is much more complex not to say impossible. Load screens and progress bars are the only way that the software has to indicate that something is happening, that everything is going well, but they are false. Progress bars are the only way to tell us to indicate that it is doing something, even if we don’t see it Because? Because players They don’t trust fluid progress bars. A progress bar that moves slowly gives a feeling of bad optimization, but a bar that moves too fast or an instant load could lead to think that something has gone wrong or that is not well done. Mike Bithell, developer and creator of ‘Thomas was Alone’, He already pulled the blanket in 2023 When he confirmed that the cargo bar is fictitious and that, really, it is the pulls that the bar gives that indicate that something is happening. Load screen of ‘Guild Wars 2’. Below right can the progress bar that, in this case, is circular | Image: Xataka Basically, the bottom of everything is that we expect to wait, if that makes sense. Rami Ismail, video game developer and well -known industry disseminator, confirmed In X that he had “worked on projects where we simulate load bars, we extended load times or made the load bars move artificially at unequal speeds.” Raúl Munárriz, executive director of the Now extinct Tequila Workshe also said that “I have never worked in a game that did not have a false load bar. The reais cause anxiety.” Is your whole life a lie? Yes and no. Making a progress bar is something complex because there are many processes that come into play during a load, as many as factors can make it more or less fast. We could make a progress bar based on how many files they have moved from x a y, but it would not be fluid because the files, surely, have different sizes. Nor would it work to do it based on the transferred data, since moving few heavy files is faster than moving many small files. And neither depends on how much it remains so that all the steps of the process are completed because it is enough for Chrome to open so that the state of the PC is altered and the times change. There is no perfect solution. The load screens are still there. Although they are not seen as such, many current video games continue to have load screens. More dynamics, more concealed, but visible. Normally, when a game artificially slows you it is a sign that, in the background, it is carrying what is coming later. A known example is that of the elevators of ‘Mass Effect‘, but we can also think about travel through the hyperspace of’Star Wars: Jedi Survivor‘, any medium of teleport, the time we run through Yggdrasil in’God of War‘, when we receive a call in’Gears of War‘That forces us to walk very slowly or in a kinematics that jumps at the right time to separate one level from another. The techniques for video games not to disappear with a load screen are wide and varied. It is very likely that the game is carrying elements in the background while we do something else without realizing it. Or to load and download the textures in real time depending on the distance and our position. Image | Xataka, VECTEZY In Xataka | The milling of a programmer made a fateful mistake of this classic video game into a congratulation message

A trough ready to free us from the scorching heat, but charging its price on storms

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The worst of this warm episode has not yet arrived but there are those who already have their view at its end. It is not for less, as it is customary this summer, the only thing that is helping to reduce the thermometers is the arrival of storms. And again meteorologists foresee them. Change the trend. On Friday part of the peninsula will see A new transition Meteorological: The heat episode we now live will give way to storms. These stormy episodes will affect the north third and could be strong, leaving winds of intensity and hail. Dorsal and trough. Again, the alternation between scorching heat and intense storms is given by the succession of dorsal and trough, air masses in height under the influence of high and low pressures respectively. According to explains the geographer Samuel Biener in Meteoredthe change in the situation will come from the hand of an Atlantic trough driven in turn by the undulations of the stream in jet. Two seas to red live. There is another important element in the risk that these storms suppose in summer, Remember too Biener himself. It is in the seas, and more specifically in the temperature of its surface waters. Both the Western Mediterranean and the Eastern Cantabrian They are suffering their own “heat waves”. The waters of the surface in these regions have been accumulating several degrees above what would correspond to this time of year. This increases the risk of convective storms. Heat and moisture are transmitted to the air on the surface and then this air interacts with possible cold and dry air masses such as those dragged by the rush that approaches, generating important storms that discharge the humidity and energy accumulated in the environment. Uncertainty, for now. There is still uncertainty about the evolution of this new episode of storms but The forecasts From the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet), on Friday both cloudy skies are expected and “locally with a storm” rainfall. These will circulate from the west and will end up affecting most of the north third, being especially intense in the Eastern Cantabrian and Western Pyrenees. The situation is expected to refer towards the afternoon of Saturday, although the forecasts indicate the possibility that during the day there will be “strong and accompanied by storm” rainfall between the Eastern Cantabrian and the Northeast of Catalonia. For now the agency has not issued any warning related to these storms, but it is still early to rule out a worsening of the situation. In Xataka | The heat of the last weeks has been so extreme that we have already exceeded tropical nights: the equatorial nights are here Image | ECMWF

has been charging without working seven months

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Imagine being hired by an important company in which you are going to collect a good salary but, when it is time to incorporate and assign your tasks, nobody does. They pay you for Do nothing Throughout your day. Would you give up such a job? Although the argument of a sitcom may seem, that is exactly what happened to a Reddit user who He told his experience in a job in which I had “working” seven months without doing anything. In spite of everything, the employee was satisfied with his work: “I will not get a second job while I do this. I am a vague auction and I do not even want to do this job, nor talk about a second.” Schrödinger’s employee: he is, but he doesn’t work The user resident on the east coast of the USA, counted in his publication that he was hired in one of the world’s largest real estate companies for an administrative position with a salary that almost reached the six figures. However, a week before joining the office, the person who hired him was fired. In fact, on his first day, someone from another department had to show him what his table was. “I’ve been sitting in an office behind the office that occupied the woman who hired me, completely alone.” This unexpected situation left the new worker without a direct superior to supervise him, and Without clearly defined tasks From the first day. Faced with such an unusual situation, the employee tried to contact other managers and department leaders warning them that he has no assigned tasks. However, their requests have not obtained an answer, and continues to perform minimum tasks that it has assumed on its own. Its only official activity is to develop spreadsheets on the list of the equipment, something that does not use more than 15 minutes a week. Then, send the files to the department head and attach a hidden copy to the office coordinator, only to save appearances. An exemplary employee Despite the total absence of tasks and supervision, the employee has chosen to religiously fulfill his working hours. He explains that, to leave registration of his assistance, he goes to the office three days per week to validate his credential and meets the agreed schedule. Even so, the employee confesses that some days leave early. We assume that it will do it without leaving pending tasks. Your company applies a Hybrid Day Modelso the other two remaining days does “his work” from home. The employee says that during the seven months he has been in the company, he has always received his salary promptly, despite not having real responsibilities. “They pay me every month, although I barely have a job. No one seems to realize that I exist,” he says in his publication. According to other users, when you need one day free, send a request by an application and someone approves it without major problems. But “I have not talked to anyone in months,” he confirms. Some users tell you the possibility of searching A second job remotely with which to entertain During “your work day” and, incidentally, get an extra income without having to spend more time. However, the employee has refused full assuming that his goal is to maintain the minimum effort. He really found work of his. Although the case of this employee may seem isolated and unusual, in reality work audits discover similar cases quite often, even in Spain We have had some cases. Meta, for example, hired engineers during the pandemic to prevent their competition from signing but, like later confessed, He really had no assigned tasks and They charged for doing nothing. In Xataka | Boreout: When you get bored at work you can ruin your professional career as much as being burned by stress Image | Pexels (Startup Stock Photos, Andrea Piacquadio)

Google Deepmind has made possible the dream of some employees: charging without working

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Large technology companies are immersed in a Armament career for AI. As in any war, The soldiers They are a strategic element for each of the parties. That is why Google Deepmindhe has chosen to pay some employees the full year’s salary without having to go to work. His only purpose: no The competition fiche. Google pays for not working. Although large technological have adopted policies in which the performance of your employeesGoogle has made the decision to pay some of them for doing nothing. Something that remembers the Tactics used by goal During the pandemic, in which some employees denounced that they had no assigned functions and that they were only hired to avoid the competition. According to The published by Business InsiderDeepmind, Google’s artificial intelligence division, has signed non -competence agreements in the United Kingdom that prevent certain strategic employees from working for rival companies or starting own projects for a year. During this time, professionals receive their full salary, but they are not obliged to work or can search for employment in other companies. A lost year. This type of non -competition clauses seeks to prevent the knowledge and acquired skills By employees of a certain company, they benefit their competitors once their employment relationship is over. However, far from being an advantage for workers, this period can become an obstacle to their professional development that does not occur in any other business sector. Although receiving a salary without working might seem ideal, many affected employees consider that these agreements are harmful to their careers. The damage to employees is evident in a constant development sector such as artificial intelligence, where technologies evolve at a frantic pace and, being out of the market for a year, implies losing key opportunities for Learn and grow professionally. Talent here and now. A former employee of Google has declared Business Insider than startups that are developing models They are not willing to wait between six months and one year to hire talent, so employees with non -competition clauses are trapped in labor limbo that, in reality, remains relevance in the sector. Nando de Freitas, Vice President of Microsoft AI, confirmed in a publication In your X account which receives weekly consultations of desperate employees for escaping these non -competence agreements. “Do not sign these contracts. No American corporation should have so much power, especially in Europe. It is an abuse of power that does not justify any end,” wrote the Microsoft manager. Freitas has urged workers not to sign this type of contract and has pointed out senior Deepmind executives as responsible for this situation. Made the law, made the trap. In the United States, the Federal Commerce Commission (FTC) prohibited most agreements of non -competence due to its harmful effects on workers. However, this regulation does not apply in the United Kingdom, where Deepmind has its main headquarters. California labor regulations He relaxed his position in 2024 With respect to the non -competence clauses and accepted those agreements signed by foreign companies. This administrative subterfuge allows Google Deepmind, based in London, implementing these clauses without legal restrictions. So you can include these clauses in the contracts of your Silicon Valley employees. In Xataka | If you are angry with your company, congratulations. Anger makes you more productive In Xataka | The Z generation sharpens the talent retention problem in companies: they do not marry anyone Image | Unspash (Tommao Wang)

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