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You have no realistic opportunity to work some where else - either a restriction in your contract or due to the hours that you work I think this part would nee
by lacker 6y ago
You have no realistic opportunity to work some where else - either a restriction in your contract or due to the hours that you work
I think this part would need to be more specific. A while ago I worked as a low level employee at the Gap in Boston, and the rules were that nobody could work more than 29 hours per week so that nobody was categorized as full time, but you also had to be available whenever you were scheduled. However, many people had two jobs, despite this restriction. They would be asking other employees to swap shifts every week and sometimes failing but usually making it work. Nowadays, with Uber, it's a lot easier to fill in an extra 15 hours a week that you'd like to work. So who could really claim to have "no realistic opportunity to work somewhere else" if any odd hours could be filled as an Uber driver or similar gig worker?
It's important to recognize that the different ways of scheduling part time work are really different. 20 hours a week that is mandated with three days notice by your employer really sucks. 20 hours a week that you choose with the Uber app is far better.
- a_wild_dandan 6y agoYeah, how do we get more specific here? I had a few ideas, but they all seemed similarly nebulous or else might create suspicious discontinuities. [1] I wonder if categorizing contractors v. employees is like recognizing porn. "I know it when I see it" says Justice Stewart. 1. https://danluu.com/discontinuities/ https://danluu.com/discontinuities/
- lacker 6y agoI just think it's a bad idea to treat contractors and employees differently. It's crazy to have someone happily doing X hours of work, wishing they could do X+10 hours of work per week, and their boss also wishes they could do X+10 hours of work per week, but then the position would have to be paid more and they don't have the money. It's just cruel to take someone working a minimum wage job, which sucks enough already, and then make them get TWO minimum wage jobs, two bosses, two schedules to work around, all because they can get a contractor job but not a full time job. So if we say, if you employ someone at a normal 40 hour a week job, you have to provide them with benefit X. Then if you pay a contractor 20 hours a week you should have to provide them with something that's half the cost of benefit X. It just sucks to incentivize companies to hire two thousand 20-hour-a-week positions instead of one thousand 40-hour-a-week positions.
- ksec 6y agoI think this comment helps me understand why Gig economy was ever a thing in US in the first place.