The New York Times, 2024, 10:59… The percentage of workers who belong to a union plunged to its lowest level on record in 2022. In this video, Jeff Seal, a video journalist and comedian, argues for the wider use of an industry mechanism known as a minimum standards council to strengthen the labor movement and empower workers.
Vice Asia, 2021, 16:41… "996" is a common term used by employees at China’s tech companies to describe their working life- starting work at 9am and leaving at 9pm, working six days a week. VICE World News looks at China’s hyper-competitive work culture and the costs to their personal and social lives.
Vox, 2021, 9:41… Zoning laws are the local rules and regulations that decide what types of homes can be built where. These rules can sometimes have good intentions. But they also have a dark history in the United States as a tool to keep certain races, religions, and nationalities out of white neighborhoods. And while zoning laws in the US are no longer explicitly racist, their effect remains basically the same: to keep affordable housing, and the people who need it, away from the wealthiest Americans.
Vox, 2020, 6:33… In most developed countries, workers have the right to a certain number of paid sick days. It’s a policy that isn’t rooted in just generosity — during pandemics like the novel coronavirus, it can literally save lives. When workers have to choose between earning a living and staying home sick, it incentivizes them to come to work when they're ill, and potentially infect their colleagues and anyone else they come into contact with. That’s why public health officials are concerned that millions of American workers don’t have access to paid sick days. And a disproportionate share of those workers are concentrated in occupations like food service and hospitality, where there’s potential to infect the hundreds of customers many of them interact with every day.
The Atlantic, 2019, 5:33… Should a job provide a paycheck or a purpose? Traditional religion lends some people meaning, community, and self-actualization. For many Americans, work has stepped in to fill that role. But this all-encompassing worship of work is setting us up for mass anxiety and inevitable burnout, says Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson.
Quartz, 2019, 7:40… Japan is tackling gender inequality with a "hunky dads" campaign. Japan’s workforce is shrinking and aging. To keep its economy growing, it needs more of its citizens to work, which means getting more women into the workplace. Nearly half of Japanese women quit their jobs after the birth of their first child. To get mothers back to work, Japan’s government has focused on encouraging men to more fully share household responsibilities. The government started a campaign called the “ikumen” project.
Pixar SparkShorts, 2019, 8:43… Purl, directed by Kristen Lester and produced by Gillian Libbert-Duncan, features an earnest ball of yarn named Purl who gets a job in a fast-paced, high energy, bro-tastic start-up. Yarny hijinks ensue as she tries to fit in, but how far is she willing to go to get the acceptance she yearns for, and in the end, is it worth it?
Vox, 2019, 6:48… We work in diverse places. We live in segregated ones. America policies engineered our segregated homes. But the workplace? That had the chance of being a place where we interact with people of other races — and form meaningful relationships. These maps show that this hasn't exactly happened. In fact, the most personal parts of our lives is still very segregated.
Adam Ruins Everything, 2018, 2:17… Adam unfolds the profoundly sexist and disrespectful treatment flight attendants endured during the Golden Age of flying. #truTV #AdamRuins
Vice, 2018, 30:55… Manisha Krishnan travels to Poole's Land, an anarchist commune on the western edge of Canada to figure out what exactly is drawing young people to live on the periphery of society. She ventures into the rainforest and confronts a variety of her deepest fears, but ultimately finds enlightenment in the spirit of the people who inhabit this mysterious place.
How does the power elite view their employees in 2017? First off, they remove the human element by calling them "performers" (as opposed to people) and are introducing technologies that further solidify a panoptical structure of control... This hour-long episode has shocking examples of economic and employment changes which are discussed in a corporate ideological framework. Technological impacts on education are discussed too. Concepts evident here include the work/life balance, the power elite, neoliberalism, panoptical surveillance, depersonalization, class struggle, and many more...
Available FREE for a limited time on YouTube. Original video link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0990xks/billion-dollar-deals-and-how-they-changed-your-world-series-1-3-work
A good short video (sponsored by GEICO) on how Millennials are being excluded from the housing market and how they adapt to (and transform) the changing American dream of homeownership.
A comical take on the unpaid, unappreciated domestic labor characteristic of the second shift. Where can I get one of these coffee tables?
This is a good example of religious privilege in American society—Christian students do not have to choose between honoring a religious holiday with their family or going to school to learn and advance one’s education. While students may commonly view missing a day or so of school as no big deal (or even desirable), missing classes may seriously disadvantage those who are highly invested in their education (especially if education is the key to social mobility). This is also a good example of competing social institutions.
An interesting and contemporary look at South Korean immigrants in the United States. We learn that 88% of young South Koreans (millennials) want to leave the country, but why? The answer seems to be in the unbearably competitive (i.e., long) work schedule. It appears that South Korea's neoliberal economy has created unattainable standards of materialism and an unsatisfying work/life balance. As a result, many young South Koreans see the social status structure of America as more desirable-- a view made more interesting when we consider how many Americans feel that Europeans have better policies towards vacations, parental leave, shift length, and more.
