Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
AddThis Button Begin SEATTLE (CBS Seattle) – Online retailer Amazon.com is facing some tough questions after a newspaper report suggested a corporate culture in which management shows a lack of empathy for workers but also a drive to push employees past their breaking points. New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and David Streitfled interviewed over 100 past…
Back in July we wrote “Slamming The Door Shut On The “Plunging Labor Force Participation Rate” Debate Once And For All“, in which we showed, definitively we thought, that contrary to the pervasive and erroneous propaganda, the collapse in the labor force has little to do with the alleged millions of retiring baby boomers (quite…
While the Fed is digesting what the X-13 Arima seasonally adjusted payrolls number means for the future of US interest rates, the devastation of the US labor force continues. In what was an “modestly” unpleasant July payrolls report, yet somewhat better than June’s flagrant disappointment, the fact is that the number of Americans not in…
Because Amazon is mostly men, the men’s bathrooms were usually crowded. I worked there for four years, in the midst of Amazon’s greatest expansion of headcount. Even though the company had just moved to its new office in the South Lake Union area of Seattle, there was barely enough space for everyone. There certainly weren’t…
Photo Amazon employees entering the company’s offices in Seattle. It recently became the most valuable retailer in the country. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times SEATTLE — On Monday mornings, fresh recruits line up for an orientation intended to catapult them into Amazon’s singular way of working. They are told to forget the “poor habits”…
Two more Uber drivers were arrested yesterday, just hours after Hong Kong’s police chief warned of a further crackdown on the car-hailing service, following the arrests of five drivers and three company staff on Tuesday. As the battle for control of the city’s roads plays out, it emerged the police joined a meeting during which…
My boss brought up the infamous Cheerios tweet on my first day. Almost a year had passed, but it was still a cautionary tale: At 8:06 pm on a casual Wednesday night, a seemingly innocuous tweet was sent out and quickly caused a firestorm. Within 24 hours, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called for…
Upworthy bet millions of venture capital dollars that progressive values are the ultimate viral content. But after being forsaken by Facebook and facing layoffs, we’re told the site’s left-wing leadership has successfully fought off a staff unionization drive. Over the weekend, I received the following anonymous message, alleging that Upworthy recently laid off six staffers…
Photo A party in Brooklyn in December celebrating the 20th anniversary of Vice. Credit Dina Litovsky for The New York Times Some staff members at Vice Media have voted to unionize, according to two people familiar with the matter, joining other digital media outlets that have recently moved to organize. The writers will join Writers…
Back in the fat years – two or three decades ago, when the “mainstream” media were booming – I was able to earn a living as a freelance writer. My income was meager and I had to hustle to get it, turning out about four articles – essays, reported pieces, reviews – a month at…