Rural lifestyle retailer Tractor Supply has ended its diversity, equity and inclusion initiative in response to pressure from its customer base. Though the company will no longer sponsor certain events, it is nonetheless committed to "ensuring a respectful environment," according to a news release.
A global network of employees who outsource all or part of their work to "shadow stand-ins" -- without telling their employers -- feel no remorse about what they are doing, even when it includes providing login credentials to company systems. "Companies themselves are taking advantage of you, by hiring you to do work which they reap more value from you than they give to you. That is the basis of capitalism. I'm not an anti-capitalist necessarily, but I don't fault anyone -- myself included -- for looking to turn those tables on the companies themselves," says Brandon Nowak, a developer in southern California.
WeightWatchers has expanded its healthy eating services to weight-loss medication management with its clinic and wellness app to enable employers to provide a fully covered benefit. The benefit includes nutrition workshops, diabetes management and prescriptions for GLP-1 medications.
Some employers are offering workers "summer hours," which can be four-day weeks, half days on Fridays and even four-day weekends around holidays. Though only a good fit for some industries, employers who have implemented it say it's a popular perk that helps with hiring and retention.
Alleviate employees' anxiety over productivity by building a workplace culture of recognition and feedback, offering flexible work schedules and supporting work-life balance, surveys and workforce consultants suggest. "We need to recognize that well-being is a right, not a perk," says consultant Jennifer Moss.
Today’s Recruitment & Retention story is truly a jaw dropper. Word of caution: If you are a person of integrity, you should expect to feel disgusted and nauseated with the main players in this story.
There is a growing network of people, globally, who are outsourcing all or part of their work to other folks. These folks, known as “shadow stand-ins,” work across a range of workplaces -- though technology and IT are the most common -- performing various tasks, from editing and formatting drafts for publication to filling tickets for IT helpdesks.
This article highlights a few people employing this method. The one that got me was Kevin, the American Java developer living in the Philippines who works for employers in construction and finance and outsources nearly all his work to three virtual assistants. The employers and virtual assistants do not know about each other. The employers also believe that Kevin is based in the United States.
Kevin’s conscience is unbothered by his deception. In fact, he has found a way to justify it.
"It's low-cost labor or low cost of living, mostly. I'm making three American incomes, but I'm paying Filipino rates to live,” he explained. "For-profit corporations are government-sanctioned psychopaths, existing only to predatorily and parasitically earn profit. Corporations are owed no moral obligation whatsoever, any more than a hen owes a fox moral consideration. The only rational response is to extract as much as possible."
Wow. I’m floored. Flabbergasted. Disgusted. Is this really where we are in the modern workforce? People openly cheating their employers and using thin moral arguments to defend their actions?
I can’t be the only one who feels this way. What did you think? Let me know! And if you enjoy this brief, tell others so they can benefit also.
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