Month: May 2023

Last year, AI has become a great menace towards many jobs and professions. And some companies have started firing employees and replacing them with AI. Every week, Artificial Intelligence is becoming better and more types of AI (art, writing, music, voice acting, video, coding, user interface design etc.) are starting to exist. If we don't stop this, many people (maybe even you and me) are going to lose their jobs and to struggle economically. Many of you might believe that it's too late, that this change can't be stopped. But I believe we can stop it. If an enourmous amount of people refuse to buy, own and pay for products and services created with Artificial Inteligence, it's likely that we will save hundreds of millions or even billions of jobs in the short and long term. There are few things that send a better message and economical threat to a…

Nearly every post is bombarded with the same comment: “start looking for different employment.” As if the problem isn't the entire society's attitude towards work culture but rather just one or two “bad apple” employers. What's the real solution, how do you make a liveable life for yourself? Unions seem great, but starting my own union in an entirely un-unionized industry with no leverage or popular support doesn't seem like a realistic option for me. I quit my job this week to focus on freelance writing (which I was already doing as a second job, it'll just be my only job now) and that feels like a step in a positive direction, but I still have so much dread hanging over me that I'll always be at the mercy of whatever clients I can scrounge up. Maybe some of that is just anxiety from living a life being chewed up…

I just got papers in the mail from my state’s department of economic security; apparently my ex-employer is appealing their decision to pay me unemployment. That place was a mess to work at and they were failing when I was fired. The company owed $40 million to the FCC, put hiring freezes into effect, cut operating hours from 24hrs to 12hrs, reduced our management from 6-7 people to 2, closed our physical location & switched to work from home, etc. I was fired in August. In January there was a mass firing of 150+ people over Zoom. I believe my entire department was outsourced to India. I’m just so angry at the audacity of this company to try to get back the measly $6k I got from unemployment. I have to go to a hearing and everything for this.

Let me start by saying I do not work remotely and am currently trying to become a better programmer to help me eventually reach that “work life balance ” that remotely work promises. Now I understand this is “antiwork”, but from the posts I'm reading,looks like companies have decided to embrace the end of remote work. My question is, is this just a tactic to avoid getting rid of employees through layoffs and forcing them out by forcing a decision that massively affects thier day to day and isn't in thier favor. TLDR: Are companies stopping remote work provisions to avoid layoffs and instead force resignations by effectively making workers life harder.

This isn’t about me, but my best friend who has been a gymnastics coach for a few years at several gyms with similar policies. She gets paid hourly during weekdays, but gets paid for “sessions” during regional competitions and meets which are always on weekends, both Saturday and Sunday. These competitions are often out of state and last literally all fucking day- she has to be there as early at 7:30am and can’t leave until 9 or 10pm. She’s only getting paid when she’s actively coaching her students during their sessions/competitions. It seems like she only gets paid for at most 6 hours, even though she’s stuck at these gyms for 12-14 hours. She has to stay at a hotel for the out of state events (hotels are paid for at least), but she usually has to share a room with 3 coworkers. And then she has to wake up…