Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Illustration: Benjamin Currie/GMG THE FUTURE OF LABORWhat’s next for work and workers Every morning, the Portland chapter of the Black Panther Party had a routine. Just before 6 a.m., a driver would pick up former U.S. Navy cook “Big Jeff” along with a heavy haul of food, and they would head over to the…
Quitting immediately is a privilege, what do we do when we can’t? Recent events at The Markup have given us a rare public flogging of a management decision. Executive management is America’s highest paid working classification but consequences for when they do a bad job seem increasingly unlikely. This has led to a rise in…
The popularity of Fortnite has been transformative for Epic Games. But the game’s explosive growth led to months of intense crunch for Epic employees and contractors, some of whom say they felt extreme pressure to work grueling hours to maintain Fortnite’s success and profitability, resulting in a toxic, stressful environment at the company. In a…
Uber, Lyft, Postmates, and Deliveroo. These words are now part of our everyday lexicon. The gig economy has changed the world. I find it hard to remember when I didn’t see hundreds of delivery scooters zipping around the city near our office. Nor do I easily recall when it was unusual to see somebody happily…
American companies continue to build surveillance tools that are used to violate human rights. Workers who refuse to comply deserve protections. Mr. Poulson is a former research scientist at Google. ImageA protester outside Google’s London headquarters in January urging the company to scrap the Dragonfly project, a censored search engine for China.CreditCreditBen Stansall/Agence France-Presse —…
Two employee activists at Google say they have been retaliated against for helping to organize a walkout among thousands of Google employees in November, and are planning a “town hall” meeting on Friday for others to discuss alleged instances of retaliation. In a message posted to many internal Google mailing lists Monday, Meredith Whittaker, who…
Instagram memers have had enough. They generate the engagement that helps keep Instagram growing—but, they argue, the multibillion-dollar platform doesn’t pay them for their work, or give them any control. So they’re fighting back. And before you write off IG Meme Union Local 69-420 as a joke, the organizers of the collective would like you…
“I tried to register for the 2016 election, but it was beyond the deadline by the time I tried to do it,” a man named Tim, age 27, explained to New York magazine last fall. “I hate mailing stuff; it gives me anxiety.” Tim was outlining the reasons why he, like 11 other millennials interviewed…
The authenticity of the following anonymous op-ed has been verified by Medium’s editorial staff. I am an Uber employee and I support the drivers’ strikes. The strikes called on Monday by Rideshare Drivers United (RDU) in Southern California and Gig Workers Rising in San Francisco are a sign of the deep frustration many ride-share drivers…
Tuesday afternoon, a contingent of Kickstarter employees went public with their intention to unionize under the name Kickstarter United. According to an email provided to Gizmodo, however, senior staffers at the crowdfunding company are already attempting to push back against the plan to make Kickstarter the first major tech firm to have a union. “The…