When Your Boss Is An Algorithm (ft.com)

Slashdot reader Presto Vivace shares an article on FT.com about "workers without a workplace, striking against a company that does not employ them...managed not by people but by an algorithm that communicates with them via their smartphones." And what they are rebelling against is an app update... They might be free to choose when to work but not how to work or, crucially, how much they are paid... Some gig-economy workers and unions are bringing this question to court. They argue that these companies' algorithms exert so much control over workers that they are really employees in the eyes of the law and thus owed hourly minimum wages, sick pay, holiday pay and the like.
The article offers a detailed look at historical precedents for today's strict "service level assessments," noting that for the companies, "algorithmic management solves a problem: how to instruct, track and evaluate a crowd of casual workers you do not employ, so they deliver a responsive, seamless, standardized service." But for workers in the gig economy -- 800,000 in the U.S. alone -- the question becomes whether reporting to an algorithm in an app is liberating -- or exploitative?

Comments

Re:I think it's fair

[SoftwareArtist]

The terms "contractor" and "employee" have legal definitions. The question is which one applies here. Uber says, "We're a software company, not a taxi company. The only thing we do is make a phone app to help independent drivers find business." If that were true, every driver would be setting their own prices, and they'd all be competing with each other on price. Because that's part of the legal definition of a contractor, and the maker of a phone app has no business telling independent drivers how much they have to charge the people they transport.

So either Uber is lying and the drivers are actually employees, or else they're coordinating a massive price fixing scheme. There are lawsuits in progress alleging both of these things.

My old boss

[Anonymous Coward]

- Didn't come out to our site to meet me in person for the first 2 years I worked in the position.
- Rarely responded to emails or calls when I asked for his input on a certain situation.
- Didn't check my KPIs.
- Didn't do my performance reviews (local HR had to do them and they didn't even know what my duties were).
- Got angry when I talked with the local HR manager about getting a raise after my first year for doing awesome on my KPIs and having sterling feedback from coworkers on-site. (I didn't get that raise, my boss 'vetoed' it).
- Had me work 6 days a week with 10 hours a day in the office (it was a manufacturing plant that worked nearly 24/6 and sometimes 24/7).
- Got angry when I requested PTO usage that was part of my employment contract (10 paid days per year).
- Denied my PTO usage repeatedly.
- Claimed that if I was going to 'be allowed' to use my PTO, I would need to be 'on-call and ready to arrive at the office within 30 minutes'.
- Sabotaged my chances with other positions in the company (not even promotions, but lateral moves to get me out of that shit job).
- Got angry when I gave 4 (yes four) weeks notice that I was resigning.
- Never hired a replacement.
- Got angry at me on my last day at the company because he didn't hire a replacement for me to train.

So yeah, sign me up for an AI boss.