About 6 years ago

10/19/2017 - Midnight Reads – Welcoming Our New Robot Overlords

Welcoming Our New Robot Overlords

– The New Yorker 

A decade ago, industrial robots assisted workers in their tasks. Now workers –those who remain — assist the robots in theirs. As technology is making work faster, more efficient, and more environmentally sound, products are being created with far fewer workers.

 

Lawmaker Proposes Floating Benefits for Gig Economy Workers

– Next City

Seeing the rise of the independent contractor workforce or “gig economy” jobs in her state, Washington legislator Monica Stonier introduced a bill this week that would require companies using gig economy workers to contribute to a portable benefits fund that would cover part of the costs of health insurance, paid time off, retirement and workers’ compensation insurance. In an op-ed for Fortune, Stonier wrote, “As an independent contractor, a worker should be afforded autonomy and flexibility. But American workplace protection laws barely acknowledge that independent contractors exist.”

 

Kimbal Musk Wants to Feed America, Silicon Valley-Style

– The New York Times  

Kimbal Musk, 45, got rich working in tech alongside his older brother, Elon. Now he wants to do for food what his brother has done for electric cars and space travel. Like a politician on the stump, Mr. Musk travels extensively to pound home the message that Americans — especially millennials — are demanding real food and rejecting what he calls industrial food.

 

White Men Rule the Business World. They Still Feel Left Out at Work.

– The Washington Post 

More than a third of Americans in a new national survey said they think the heightened focus on diversity at work has overlooked white men, according to the consultancy firm Ernst & Young. Thirty-two percent of male respondents, meanwhile, reported feeling “personally excluded” in the office.