Issue #20: This German startup is the most popular and most criticized employer right now
Delivery service 'Gorillas' gives you a hint of the future of work
Headlines you shouldn’t miss
ABC NEWS Smart robots do all the work at Nissan's 'intelligent' plant: Welding and mounting used to be typical tasks performed by workers in car manufacturing plants. Now, robots can perform these tasks as Nissan’s production plant close to Tokyo proves. It operates almost entirely without humans. The people who work at the plant focus on analyzing the data collected by the robots and maintaining the machinery.
TECHCRUNCH The future of China’s work culture: China’s supreme court ruled that a common work practice called “996” is illegal. The numbers stand for: working from 9 in the morning to 9 in the evening, 6 days a week. This work dynamic was popularized by tech companies but spread to other sectors. The young generation gradually refrains from overworking, but the pressure to succeed and work hard remains dominant in China’s work culture.
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW Imagining the Hybrid College Campus: Education will likely remain hybrid to a degree. Universities should embrace the shift and act now to update “governance processes, structures, and performance measurements” to provide a quality learning experience.
SIFTED Europe wants to champion human rights. So why doesn’t it police biased AI in recruiting? Nakeema Stefflbauer, a German tech expert, demands more sensitivity and regulation in the European Union to combat discriminatory practices in recruiting. Research shows that AI-driven hiring software is often trained with predominantly caucasian CVs and subsequently rates people of color worse.
AXIOS Tech feels labor market crunch: In September, the demand for software developers had jumped up 73% in the U.S. labor market compared to February. However, the tight labor market and restrictions for foreigners are making recruiting for tech talents difficult. The Covid era has intensified the need for tech experts.
Schrödinger’s startup: Gorillas is the most popular and most criticized startup of the week
While you're reading these lines, you might be enjoying your Sunday with some relaxing activities. For instance, making that special lasagna recipe you had looked up or wanting to prepare an autumny pumpkin soup. That’s definitely my kind of Sunday!
But as you’ve started cooking, you notice that you’ve forgotten a crucial ingredient. You could go to the supermarket, but there’s already food simmering in a pot. And if you’re living in Germany, you can’t even go to the supermarket as everything’s closed on Sundays. You’ve heard of this new startup called Gorillas, which promised to deliver products like groceries within 10 minutes. You give it a try, and to your surprise, a delivery man hands you a bag in a few minutes so you can proceed with cooking.
In recent months, Gorillas became highly popular in Germany’s largest cities because the concept caters to people’s laziness. Why go outside to the supermarket when you can have your products delivered by a friendly rider on a bike?
But the startup isn’t just popular among urban consumers but as well among job-seekers. According to a new LinkedIn study, Gorillas is currently the most popular employer on the German market.
However, this enthusiasm doesn’t apply ’o every type of worker. For months, Gorillas’ riders have complained about poor labor protection and that workers get fired for minor mistakes.
This week, the conflict between riders in Berlin and the management escalated. Riders reported that many bikes that Gorillas provides for quick delivery are already broken and unsafe to use in the capital’s jammed traffic. Additionally, riders claimed that they would not receive their salaries on time. As a consequence, many riders went on strike this week — and got fired as the Twitter account of the startup’s worker’s collective reported:
The management claims that the strikes were illegal and therefore fired its riders. According to the startup’s decision-makers, the workers didn’t have any legal grounds to strike in the first place. Nevertheless, there has been a public outcry against the decisions made by Gorillas’ management.
What is most interesting about the case is the polarization of work: There have always been companies that have exploited cheap labor by scaling up quickly and promising speed. But in this case, Gorillas is both a great and a horrific employer at the same time — it just depends on which department you work.
I do believe that the LinkedIn survey is accurate — for highly educated workers like developers. Gorillas is a new, growing startup that has the potential to become permanently successful. Its operations require good software developers who assure seamless logistics organization. As LinkedIn mainly addresses highly educated workers, the popularity doesn’t reflect on the riders’ experiences.
Gorillas reminds me of Amazon. It is known that the retail juggernaut offers excellent working conditions for its developers but seems to fail to provide proper labor protection for its warehouse workers and drivers. This is the world MIT professor David Autor has been predicting for years: The world of polarization between the working and the professional class that is fuelled by digital services. With tech-savvy startups disrupting the market, they are naturally willing to attract and retain talent in the IT sector, while the workers “on the ground” hardly receive any respect. While Gorillas is only a young startup, it already behaves like the big players paving the way for a more polarized labor market.
Study of the week: Great Britain’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy releases report on the effects of AI on the economy
The British Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) hired the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to conduct a thorough analysis of the potential effects of artificial intelligence on the economy and the labor market. On Friday, the BEIS published the results.
The analysts believe that AI could boost Great Britain’s GDP by 10% by 2030. However, 7% of the currently existing jobs could face severe threats to be automated in the next five years. The share of jobs threatened by AI climbs to 18% when extending the timeframe to ten years and even 30% for the next 20 years.
While the researchers believe that AI will create tech-related jobs in spheres like data science and robotics, they predict that most of the new jobs emerging in the future will be in non-automatable sectors like health care, education and science. The most significant net losses are likely to occur in manufacturing, followed by transport and logistics.
The study authors stress that it is difficult to predict what will happen in the future as mainly historical and current data can be used for the analysis. Not yet existing innovations and trends could shift the predictions.
Quote of the week: The skill gap might not be the biggest issue in the labor market
MIT Researcher Ben Armstrong argues that the policy focus on closing skill gaps might not be very helpful. In an interview with Forbes, the scholar explains that small and medium-sized companies in particular struggle with the transition towards more competitive and modern products:
This skills gap has been a focus of the policy conversation, but I don’t think it’s as big of a problem as many policymakers make it out to be. It would actually be a good problem to have. We want to have companies that are really driving technology forward and forcing us to adjust our training system to be more technologically advanced. Instead, the problem is that a lot of small and medium manufacturers are offering comparatively low-wage, low-tech jobs that are oftentimes low-skilled. So companies are adapting a lot of their operations to a lower-technology, lower-wage, lower-skill equilibrium.
Recommendation of the week: The Gig Economy Project Newsletter
Are you interested in the specific nature of the gig economy and how it challenges workers’ rights, the business world and scientific perspectives? I highly enjoy reading the content by The Gig Economy Project. They have a comprehensive newsletter full of insights about that niche. Take a look: The Gig Economy Project’s Weekly Newsletter - Brave New Europe.
Today the first digital nomad village opens in Croatia
Digital nomads who want to escape jammed cities and concrete jungles can escape to Croatia. Today (October 10th), the Digital Nomad Valley in Zadar officially opens. Workers can rent apartments starting from 130€ per week with a minimum stay of two weeks. The Valley provides office spots and everything remote workers need. Regular community events shall prevent boredom.
Mario Mrksa, CEO of grabAhome, is the man behind the idea. He explains that he wants to attract entrepreneurs to Croatia, a country heavily dependent on the summer season for tourism. In comparison to many European capitals, the Valley is a cheaper option with the Mediterranean seaside close. Would you give it a shot?