Sponsored content market, where companies pay influencers to share products and messaging online, is expected to hit $15 billion next year
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Ideas, insights and takeaways from the disrupted world of work
Labour economics
Sectors such as retail, foodservice and hospitality, culture and recreation have been crushed by the pandemic — many restaurants and hotels have lost a full year of business — and some of these workers have moved on. But where does a bartender, server or gig worker go? Some are going back to school for skills training. Indeed Canada reports stronger than average job postings in nursing, software development and construction. And there’s one booming industry that you won’t find postings on a traditional job board: The creator economy — that is, the legion of influencers who share their personal content on social media platforms — is predicted to be some 50-million strong worldwide, according to The Economist. The sponsored content market where companies pay prominent influencers to share their products and messaging through posts, live online events, videos and more, is expected to hit $15 billion next year. Add advertising and other revenue-generating features designed to attract and keep popular creators — like subscription services, paywalls and tipping capabilities, and the most popular influencers can make a mint. No wonder all kids want to be YouTubers these days.
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Inbound/outbound
Now we know where Jeff Bezos is headed after he leaves his chief executive role at Amazon.com Inc. Last week we told you he was stepping down on July 5, the anniversary of the incorporation of the company he started in his garage in 1994. On July 20, he will head into space with his brother, Mark, when his company Blue Origin launches its first passenger-carrying mission. Bezos, 57, made the announcement on Instagram: “Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space.”
When streaming giant Netflix announced back in February they would open a new Canadian outpost in Toronto this year, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO and chief content officer, talked about hiring a dedicated content exec to work directly with the creative community. And yet, Netflix posted their first Canadian position this week and the focus is… taxes. Considering that foreign firms selling digital services to Canadians have to start collecting and remitting federal sales tax starting July 1, it’s no surprise that creative took a backseat to the taxman. The new hire will “anchor the tax function in Canada” and report to the director of tax for Americas at Netflix’s headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif.
Apple Inc. is holding its annual product update conference for developers virtually this week, but there is one thing we won’t be seeing amid the refreshed Macs, iPads, Apple Watch and Apple TVs. Apple’s self-driving car has hit another bump in the road with the division losing several key leaders. At least three members of the division’s exec team have departed this year: Dave Scott, who was leading the project’s robotics, Jamie Waydo, who led autonomous car safety and regulation, and Benjamic Lyon, who helped create Apple’s car team. Apple’s self-driving car division has had a number of resets: First they were building a full car with the aim of competing with Tesla, then they refocused on the underlying autonomous car system, now they’re back to building a car again. We likely won’t see a self-driving Apple car until later in the decade — or maybe even later.
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Accountability
In other big-name departures, Google removed its head of diversity strategy and research after an anti-Semitic blog post penned by Kamau Bobb was uncovered by the Washington Free Beacon. Bobb wrote the post entitled “If I Were a Jew” in 2007. The post, which has since been deleted, includes statements like, “If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself.” Bobb, who had been in the top diversity job at Google since 2018, will be reassigned to a STEM research role, but prominent Jewish groups are calling for his dismissal.
The CEO of a company called Snowflake said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that the U.S. cloud software maker needs to prioritize merit over diversity goals when hiring and promoting employees. While Frank Slootman said the company is “highly sympathetic” to diversity, he doesn’t want to compromise the company’s high-growth mission. He said other CEOs feel the same way, but are reluctant to say so publicly. Slootman has now apologized on a company blog but his remarks come at a time when employees, customers and shareholders are pushing companies to be more inclusive, and there is growing research that organizations with more diverse leadership are more likely to outperform those less diverse. Snowflake had one of the largest IPOs in 2020. The stock has declined 15 per cent this year.
Much of the diversity and inclusion work in many organizations has been led by ERGs. What are ERGs you ask? They are employee resource groups, the tireless volunteers that put in the time, energy and insight to foster support and change at organizations. Imagine how fast things might change if they were paid? LinkedIn, Twitter and Justworks are doing just that, Axios reports.
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Culture
Following last summer’s protests, a number of companies have been wrestling with how to manage internal employee debates about social justice issues. Shopify boss Tobi Lütke told managers the e-commerce company “cannot solve every societal problem,” must focus on core business objectives and avoid “endless Slack trolling, victimhood thinking, us-vs-them divisiveness, and zero-sum thinking.” Google, Facebook, Basecamp and Coinbase also moved to restrict divisive internal discussions. In a recent poll of subscribers by The Logic, the vast majority said they disagree with that directive. This respondent said it best: “Pretending that business is separate from the society it operates in is naive at best.”
The treatment of workers at Amazon hasn’t really been a secret. The online e-comm behemoth has been accused of treating employees like robots, electronically keeping tabs on their productivity through output meters, sending automated messages when productivity drops to low-tech scanner devices each employee carries, and digitally tracking workers through the warehouse. If an employee’s output is sub-par, they can be written up and fired. Brendan Smith, a PhD student at the University of Toronto, says this kind of culture transforms workers into “automatic subjects,” and forces them to pit their wellness against their performance. Smith’s research, encapsulated in a paper called “Thanks, Amazon, for Ruining My Life: Worker Breakdown and Disruption of Care at Amazon,” was presented last week to the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences.
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Meanwhile, Instacart, the grocery shopping and delivery service, wants to build actual robots to replace its army of gig shoppers. Paying people to shop is expensive when you factor in things like delivery fees, price markups and tipping, so the cost-cutting plan involves building automated fulfillment centres around the U.S., where robots would fetch items like cereal and cans of soup, while humans would still gather produce and deli products. This plan requires the involvement of grocery chains; so far none have signed up.
Health matters
One in five pregnancies end in loss yet many employees experiencing this fall through the cracks when it comes to formal paid leave options at work. Pregnancy loss is rarely specified in company leave policies, so employees wind up taking vacation time, unpaid leave or sick leave to recover from the physical and emotional trauma. Better workplace policies that recognize the loss as legitimate bereavement would go a long way to destigmatize and validate the employee’s pain.
A project out of Trinity University in Dublin warns that as air travel begins to ramp up, pilots and other aviation workers may not feel ready to return to the happy skies. “The data says a certain number of pilots were struggling pre-COVID but they wouldn’t disclose a mental health issue to their employer because of the stigma and fear of losing their licence and perhaps losing their salary,” says Paul Cullen, a researcher with the group. Anxiety issues have been exacerbated in the pandemic. So, the takeaway for airlines should be crystal clear: Make sure your pilots and crew feel supported for the safety of everyone, before wheels up.
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Watercooler
Amazon strikes again, but in a more human-friendly way. The company will no longer test for marijuana in its pre-employment drug screening (which is a whole other kettle of fish). There is one caveat: Positions that are subject to regulation by the U.S. Department of Transportation will still require the test, as well as impairment tests on the job for drugs and alcohol after any incident.
Montreal plots ‘charm offensive’ to lure employees fond of remote work back downtown
Companies should weigh in on social, political issues publicly, The Logic subscribers say
The kids are not alright: As summer jobs season opens, many businesses are still closed
Snowflake CEO says diversity goal is secondary to merit in hiring choices
A thumbs up to Amazon’s attempts to rehab its image… and for also inventing a new word: returnship. The mega-employer has pledged to bring 1,000 women back to the workforce in an expansion of their “returnship” program, which recruits and provides job training to candidates who have been out of the workforce for a year or more, Fortune reports.
If you are following the NHL playoffs or MLB games, you’ve noticed the United States is back. Now even the White House will be returning to work IRL. White House staffers received a memo instructing them to return to campus starting July 6, reports Forbes. All Canada can do is watch right now, but our returnship is coming too.
Financial Post
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This Week in Work: The creator economy, 'returnships' and where Jeff Bezos is headed next - Financial Post
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