4 ms·

I got some "ad" vibes, but nothing specific comes to mind. Maybe more like "this is a fluff piece." Better worth the time to publish if someone is paying you.

whimsicalism 2y ago
techcrunch is a good source because they exchange writing fluff pieces for access, if you read them with that in mind you can get good info there are a few outlets like this, like theinformation
KennyBlanken 2y ago
It's absolutely a fluff piece. Think about it. The title brags about how awesome the business is for the riders. Did they speak to a single rider? Nope. That's because every single rider would rather that instead of being given 25 cent foot warmers, a few-cents cup of coffee, a couple cents of electricity, and a place to piss: be paid a livable wage, be paid for their time (there are a number of circumstances where the app delivery companies will leave the delivery person with nothing, even though they did work), get paid time off, worker's comp if they're injured while working, protection from discrimination, wage law protections, and all the other myriad of things that these companies can't afford because their business model doesn't work if you pay people working for you a fair, livable wage. It seems like every other SV company works this way. Amazon is of course the shining example, where they've outsourced almost all of their warehouse labor to third party companies, and those companies purposefully try to burn out / annoy the employees so they don't stick around long enough to claim the benefits Amazon brags about on their hiring pages. The drivers? Employed by "DSPs", most of which are very short-lived. Again, on purpose/by design. Can't get sued for workers comp if you're employing people through a third party company that (oops!) dissolved 6 months ago. Google Books gave the Books employees very visibly different IDs and they were third-class citizens on campus, not even allowed to leave the area around the Books warehouse, if I remember right? Google won't even pay their shuttle drivers enough; there was an article a while back where the reporter interviewed a shuttle driver who was having to live in a camper van in the Google parking lot because she couldn't afford any housing anywhere near a reasonable drive from the Google office. I knew a massage therapist who worked at a Google office and she snorted when I asked her if she got all the fancy benefits management, engineering, and marketing get. FFS the article brags about how "prudent" they are for their labor cost-cutting; overseas outsourcing a lot of their labor, for example. I bet damn near every non-management position is part-time so they get out of paying any benefits. This stuff is being done to deflect criticism when labor rights activists go to city hall or Albany. Grubhub et al hire lobbyist who throws some cash at legislators to get meetings with them, strolls in, shows them a nice presentation with all these pictures of smiling riders, and the legislator thinks "gosh golly they're treating these people so nicely." Ditto for public committee hearings. The delivery riders and drivers don't have the ability to trek up to Albany and even if they did, there's no way in hell a legislator would make time to meet them.
- igor47 2y ago
  While I sympathize with your broader point about gig worker wages, I'm a little confused about joco's role in the situation. They're providing a service to the workers. They're not paying them -- the workers are paying joco. What do you suggest their role in the system should be?
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
  Yeah it’s gig market BS 10 years after everyone has discovered the pitfalls. Probably the most interesting thing about this story is that there are two people named Jonathan Cohen that had a similar enough business idea to start together as founders. Neat
JBlue42 2y ago
Sponsored content. Have come across my company doing the same. There are no to few rules about labeling as such.
infecto 2y ago
I thought practically every article in TechCrunch was for pay in some form. That’s why I was wondering.

whimsicalism 2y ago

techcrunch is a good source because they exchange writing fluff pieces for access, if you read them with that in mind you can get good info there are a few outlets like this, like theinformation

KennyBlanken 2y ago

It's absolutely a fluff piece. Think about it. The title brags about how awesome the business is for the riders. Did they speak to a single rider? Nope. That's because every single rider would rather that instead of being given 25 cent foot warmers, a few-cents cup of coffee, a couple cents of electricity, and a place to piss: be paid a livable wage, be paid for their time (there are a number of circumstances where the app delivery companies will leave the delivery person with nothing, even though they did work), get paid time off, worker's comp if they're injured while working, protection from discrimination, wage law protections, and all the other myriad of things that these companies can't afford because their business model doesn't work if you pay people working for you a fair, livable wage. It seems like every other SV company works this way. Amazon is of course the shining example, where they've outsourced almost all of their warehouse labor to third party companies, and those companies purposefully try to burn out / annoy the employees so they don't stick around long enough to claim the benefits Amazon brags about on their hiring pages. The drivers? Employed by "DSPs", most of which are very short-lived. Again, on purpose/by design. Can't get sued for workers comp if you're employing people through a third party company that (oops!) dissolved 6 months ago. Google Books gave the Books employees very visibly different IDs and they were third-class citizens on campus, not even allowed to leave the area around the Books warehouse, if I remember right? Google won't even pay their shuttle drivers enough; there was an article a while back where the reporter interviewed a shuttle driver who was having to live in a camper van in the Google parking lot because she couldn't afford any housing anywhere near a reasonable drive from the Google office. I knew a massage therapist who worked at a Google office and she snorted when I asked her if she got all the fancy benefits management, engineering, and marketing get. FFS the article brags about how "prudent" they are for their labor cost-cutting; overseas outsourcing a lot of their labor, for example. I bet damn near every non-management position is part-time so they get out of paying any benefits. This stuff is being done to deflect criticism when labor rights activists go to city hall or Albany. Grubhub et al hire lobbyist who throws some cash at legislators to get meetings with them, strolls in, shows them a nice presentation with all these pictures of smiling riders, and the legislator thinks "gosh golly they're treating these people so nicely." Ditto for public committee hearings. The delivery riders and drivers don't have the ability to trek up to Albany and even if they did, there's no way in hell a legislator would make time to meet them.

igor47 2y ago
While I sympathize with your broader point about gig worker wages, I'm a little confused about joco's role in the situation. They're providing a service to the workers. They're not paying them -- the workers are paying joco. What do you suggest their role in the system should be?
SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
Yeah it’s gig market BS 10 years after everyone has discovered the pitfalls. Probably the most interesting thing about this story is that there are two people named Jonathan Cohen that had a similar enough business idea to start together as founders. Neat

JBlue42 2y ago

Sponsored content. Have come across my company doing the same. There are no to few rules about labeling as such.

infecto 2y ago

I thought practically every article in TechCrunch was for pay in some form. That’s why I was wondering.