Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Clocking In A daily look at the #workplace of the #future…MIT @TechReview

…On how emerging technology is shaping the future of work, from the MIT Technology Review. If you have a premonition, send Tech Review your ideas. Today read how billions of dollars are being stolen from US workers, excerpted from 5.22.18 issue of Clocking In.

❝Digital punch clocks are stealing time

Southern #labor, #voting, #workplace & #education news @MikeElk @PaydayReport

…testing a new feature on newsletters. I subscribe to a number of email newsletters, which have become popular again. There are too many to share or even read all of them. Instead, plan post different newsletters related to precarious life and times, revisiting the most popular ones.

3 Pro-ICE Sheriffs Defeated in N.C. - GOP Moves to Cut Teachers' Raise - Tennessean Follows Payday's Lead on Nashville Construction Safety Crisis

Homemade signs displayed at Charlotte's "Day Without Immigrants" march and protest in Feb. 2017 (WFAE)).

3 Pro-ICE Sheriffs Defeated in N.C. - GOP Moves to Cut Teachers' Raise - Tennessean Follows Payday's Lead on Nashville Construction Safety Crisis

by Mike Elk with help from Max Zahn & Professor Karina Moreno

Greetings from 'da Burgh, where Payday Senior Labor Reporter Mike Elk is getting ready to ship out to North Carolina for his 4th D-Day of the Teacher's Spring.

What is #precarity and who are the precarious?

Where to start? Inventorying and organizing existing resources. Defining, identifying and describing. I could use a few more hands.

adapted version of Hindu warrior goddess Durga as multi-tasking precarious worker

This updated Durga represents the ultimate precarious worker. She is not just multitasking but doing it while riding a tiger and shooting arrows at a malevolent demon -- just another day at the Precarity Office.

speaking of names and other changes

Yesterday I renamed both this blog and its companion Facebook page Precarious life and times. Not to worry though -- visitor won't end up in strange places like some did with the domain shift. This change does not affect either url. The Facebook iteration has already been moving away from primarily adjunct issues toward a broader focus on the workplace, economic and social changes accompanying the spread of precarity. Until very recently, this one hasn't been moving at all.

Seiltänzer (Tightrope Walker) Paul Klee (cropped)

What will change? Content. Adjuncts, casuals and other insecure academic labor will still have a prominent place. There more widgets, posts and collections on related topics, and a "What we can do" category coping and resisting.

What is precarity and who's precarious? The category includes more than academic precariat. Is insecure employment the primary or even sole marker of precarious populations? Is it the only benchmark? The connection with the economy and economic inequality is obvious. Disposable and marginalized groups are particularly vulnerable. Their initial precariousness, whatever the cause -- disability, age, race, gender, social and legal status, etc., inevitably pushes them further down in the workforce and decreases mobility options, often drastically.

Could all precarious people together already be the majority? That would bring us full naming circle to the ❝new precarious majority❞...