4 ms·

This is amazing. Technology being used to directly empower otherwise-very-powerless individuals, without adding regulation or inefficiency. 10 years ago, this

• tacon 11y ago
  This kind of idea crossed my mind a few years ago, but I thought smart phones and data plans were still out of the price range of day laborers. I was thinking along the lines of SMSing the license plate of any car driving up and getting back a rating via SMS. I also wondered about the blow back from "aiding illegals" in more conservative locales. Someone should write the companion app to prevent wage theft from time clock workers. My understanding is that that problem dwarfs the theft from day laborers. The app would log GPS coordinates as a shadow time clock, and a back end that can ingest a time sheet and validate that the recorded times are correct.
  • learc83 11y ago
    When I worked retail back in college, after the store closed a manager would have to unlock the door to let you out of the store. Letting employees out was never a high priority, so you often had to wait a while. Multiply that times 10-20 employees a night at ~1,000 stores and you've got a good chunk of change.
    • moonshinefe 11y ago
      That sounds pretty illegal.
      • pc86 11y ago
        It's one of those things that sounds ridiculous when phrased one way but totally legitimate when phrased another for the same objective facts. Ridiculous but true: "I'm locked in at work after I clock out and need to wait to be let out the front door." Legitimate but true: "The front doors are locked after closing and the manager is finishing a task before unlocking it for me to go home." Presumably there are still fire exits in the building so it's not necessarily a safety issue (or would be more of a safety issue if the front door was left unlocked while the employees clean up).
        • gknoy 11y ago
          The problem stems not from being locked in the building, but in not being paid (usually overtime) for that time where your actions are dictated by your employer. The employees likely wouldn't mind staying 3 hours after work while the manager does Whatever if they were getting paid overtime.
      • dragonwriter 11y ago
        Assuming that there are appropriate emergency exits, and that you aren't delayed after you are clocked out, it's probably not. Fail the first assumption, it's a safety violation, fail the second and, at least in many jurisdictions, and it's a wage violation.
      • a3n 11y ago
        It must be pretty common, it was normal when I was working nights in daytime retail.
    • stegosaurus 11y ago
      We had a similar thing with security checks, or 'last person in the store', or whatever. Basically, people are deciding that they are willing to work for sub-minimum wage, and so they accept it. Ultimately I just left. I think the way to fix this is to give employees negotiating power. We shouldn't be in a situation where an employer only treats employees well because of fear of reprisal.
  • api_or_ipa 11y ago
    This is an easy weekend project with Twillio and anyone with basic knowledge of how to build an API. It's incredible what we can do with so little work.
• DanielBMarkham 11y ago
  Plenty of room to grow in this market also. This same app could facilitate getting paid. Or timekeeping for the folks hiring the day laborers. When we think about SV perhaps going through a downturn, we must remember that there are still hundreds or thousands of opportunities to write apps to help the extremely poor and vulnerable. This is great territory for app-writers who have teams of 1,2, or 3 -- but it'd make no sense at all to pursue if you were an established startup with a ton of overhead.
  • pc86 11y ago
    Do you have any other ideas about apps to help the poor/vulnerable that a single developer could write?
    • DanielBMarkham 11y ago
      The problem here is that the problem is exactly the same as any startup -- ideas don't mean a lot. By that I mean that most any idea I could come up has probably been tried before. The trick will be finding a developer who is deeply immersed in the culture of folks they're tying to help and can speak to them. Anonymously identifying officials that asked you for a bribe. That'd be a great app. Finding the nearest potable water. Job search for unskilled workers. Craigslist for illiterate people (add in geo-location instead of cities)
      • DanielBMarkham 11y ago
        Most especially in this market -- remember to develop for eyeballs, not money. That is, if you get enough eyeballs? You will be extremely rich.