Thursday, February 25, 2016

Link roundup

1. "The Deactivation of the American Worker"
A worker laid off by losing her access to #sadmarketing will be replaced by someone who not only occupies her actual desk but has access to every document she’s uploaded, every meeting she attended and even the pithy asides about that very meeting; all the gifs and in-jokes and Hamilton sdlfkjsd, sure, but also the contacts relevant to the job, the advantage of being able to instantly catch-up because the information has been elegantly archived and arranged for future workers. Employees whose self-worth depends on their unique knowledge of the organization no longer have that benefit. Instead of a disorganized series of private inboxes, there is now a valuable public record. The job is a body of work; the person doing it is more interchangeable than ever.
2. "In Westlake Village, where the median home price is $930,400...there have been 11 head baseball coaches" since 1985.
"I remember saying, 'This is going to be great, I'm a former athlete, I'm going to be cheering for the kids,'" she said. "I didn't realize most of my time was going to be [spent] dealing with upset parents and coaches. 'Why is my child not playing? Why is he not on varsity? Why is the coach doing that?' It was putting out fires."
3. "Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain and a bellwether of sorts for popular tastes, is dispensing with the traditional curved [croissant] as of Friday and instead will sell only straight ones."
It is easier to spread jam on the straight variety.