Unions and employers in France have come to an agreement that employees will no longer check their work-related email outside of work hours. The deal—which is legally binding—upholds the spirit of the 35-hour work week that France implemented in 1999.
Long term unemployment is a twofold curse. Not only does it rob a person of their livelihood; it also makes them less likely to be hired again. That should not be the case. Here's a good reminder of why.
"Service isn't considered lesser than other professions because it's less honorable, or even requires fewer skills... These jobs are seen as lesser because we made them this way." Former barista Molly Osberg on the unstated Brooklyn class war.
Walmart today gave financial analysts a "weaker than expected" forecast for the coming year, saying that macroeconomic pressures would keep its profits low in the coming year. Another thing working against Walmart: its own employees despise it. Here's one example.
Johnny Weir—figure skater and fashion plate—opts for a conservative ruffled shirt and silver hardware for a Monday Today appearance. Not pictured: Bob Costas, wearing conjunctivitis in a ravishing pink.
Since announcing his run for governor, Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford has been fighting rumors he's gay and sexually inappropriate with his male staffers. Those rumors worsened today after his key accuser revealed his identity and filed a detail-rich civil rights suit in federal court.
The 2014 Winter Olympics are about to be overtaken by Johnny Weir, the ex-Olympic figure skater now working for NBC during this year's Games. Absorb his above look, because it's more fun than anything that has happened in Sochi so far.
Almost four million Americans officially suffer from long-term unemployment. Unable to secure any meaningful legislation to help them, President Obama is reduced to begging corporations to pledge not to discriminate against them. What is long term unemployment like?
Operation Smile is an international charity group that helps children with cleft palates around the world. It's a worthy cause. So it's too bad the group's job interview process is rather outrageous.
The 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" has prompted a bout of national soul-searching about how much progress we've really made. If we're actually interested in helping the poor, we should look even farther back in history, and resurrect the WPA.
For almost a year now, a national labor movement has been pushing for higher wages for America's fast food workers. Last week in Chicago, a longtime McDonald's worker interrupted a speech by McDonald's USA president Jeff Stratton, asking "Do you think it's fair that I have to be living on a poverty wage?"
During the tenure of billionaire mayor Mike Bloomberg, the number of homeless people in New York City's shelter system has increased to more than 50,000, an all-time high. An astoundingly high percentage of those people have jobs.
Labor Day is a complete rip-off. Labor isn't celebrated at all—instead, a single day's break from labor is celebrated. You might think this is a stupid thing to care about, because Labor Day is really just about getting drunk in your yard, again. But that's actually evidence of this very successful con job pulled on…
Today, a right wing think tank ran a full page Wall Street Journal ad implying that a rise in the minimum wage would cause fast food workers to be replaced by robots. The prospect of robo-dystopia did not deter the hundreds of chanting protesters who bent the corner of Broadway and Nassau at 11:15 this morning.
Yesterday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post. This seems like as good a time as any to roll out a few more true stories from the Amazon warehouse workers who make the whole machine go. Jeff Bezos wouldn't be here without them.
Amazon is the future of retailing in America. Earlier this week, we asked the unseen Amazon employees who fill your orders to send us their stories. Here are five of their tales of life at Amazon.
In 2006, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance requiring large retailers to pay workers a "living wage" of $10 an hour, plus benefits. The mayor vetoed the bill. In a few months, Wal-Mart will open a new store in Chicago, with starting pay of $8.75 per hour. Who won? We offer you a new round of true stories…
In the past week we've run quite a few true stories from Wal-Mart workers— stories that have scared the hell out of Wal-Mart itself, with good reason. We haven't requested more stories, but our mailbox is still overflowing. Here are more tales of life in retail purgatory.
Last week, we brought you some true stories from Wal-Mart workers— stories that alarmed Wal-Mart so much that they (unsuccessfully) begged their employees to send us positive stories to balance them out. Since then, we've received many more, both good and bad. Here are some.
