评论
打印
So for some of the people I interviewed in Squeezed,
我在《Squeezed》一书中采访的某些人
when they were going through economic hardship they’d get sick physically,
如果他们遇到了经济困难 身体上也会生病
they would be psychologically troubled,
心理上会受困
they’d have to go on anti-anxiety medications—
他们需要服用抗焦虑药物——
sometimes they wouldn’t even have healthcare so that would be an added expense,
有时候他们不愿意接受治疗 因为这会增加开支
and some of the subjects might experience something called “decision fatigue”
有些人可能会经历所谓的“决策疲劳”
where they’d be unable to make decisions or choices in their lives—basic choices—
他们无法在生活中做出决定或选择——基本的选择——
because they’ve been so overwhelmed by the feeling of economic uncertainty.
因为他们已经被经济不确定性冲昏了头脑
They were thinking constantly “How do I survive?”
他们一直在想“我要怎么生存？”
rather than “How do I lead a better life?”
而不是“我该如何过上更好的生活？”
or “How do I get my kid on the best course?”
或者“我如何让孩子走上最好的路？”
And so that’s a commonplace—just that overwhelmed aspect when you don’t have resources.
这种现象比比皆是——当你缺乏资源的时候 就是会这么六神无主
That’s all you’re thinking about.
脑子里只能想那些问题
Well, one of the challenges for people seeking employment in a gig economy is that they’re disposable;
在零工经济中 寻求就业的人面临的一个挑战就是 他们是可被抛弃的
they can always be replaced by somebody else,
他们随时会被别人替代
they may not have relationships with another human being at Uber or at Lyft, whatever.
他们可能与Uber或Lyft的其他人没有关联
Supposedly it’s this idea of independence, but it’s often in fact this kind of
也许这是所谓的独立 但它其实是一种
free-floating quality where they’re not clearly connected to a boss or colleagues.
漂浮不定的特点 他们并没有明确的老板或同事
And I think that can be really dangerous,
我觉得这很危险
because then these peoples’ experiences are not humanized to the people who are hiring them,
因为这些人的经历对雇佣他们的老板而言没有任何人性
they’re just cogs in wheels,
他们就像是车轮上的钝齿
and we should really start thinking about that because I think they can be really debilitating.
我们真的应该开始考虑这一点 否则这些人会感到很衰弱
I talk about teachers who drive Uber in a chapter,
我在一章节中谈到了开Uber的教师
and I think for many of them they were recruited by the company.
他们中有很多人都是被公司雇佣的
They had a motto four or five years ago: “Uber—teachers driving our future.”
四五年前他们有一条格言：“Uber——教师操控着我们的未来”
So teachers and nurses were attractive to Uber simply as middle class icons,
所以Uber对教师和护士都很感兴趣 把他们当做中产阶级的象征
but they weren’t attractive enough to the people in their community
但它对社区中的人不够有吸引力
who they were teaching or the politicians in their community to give them a wage
那些他们教授的人 或者社区中给他们发工资的政治家
so they wouldn’t have to drive Uber on the side.
让他们无需把开Uber当做副业
So to me that’s one of the dangers of the gig economy too,
所以我认为这也是零工经济下的一种风险
that the formally middle class can be used just as a symbol
严格意义上的中产阶级只被当做一种象征
and a kind of respectability that they can be offering these companies
和他们提供给公司的体面
while they’re kind of riffling through these once-stable professions for solid people that they can exploit.
同时他们还会换掉这些曾经很稳定的职业 寻找可以利用的老实人
Many of the people I wrote about are not in organizations or even in corporations or contingent,
我写到的很多人都不在机构、公司或工作团队中
which means that they work part time, on contracts, they work gigs,
也就是说他们做的是兼职 根据合约 他们做的是临时工作
which is now a huge amount of the population,
现在有很多人都是这样
or they work too-few hours to be counted as employees.
他们工作时长太短 不足以被算作员工
So I’m not sure it becomes an organizational thing most of the time,
我并不是说这就是机构的问题
but in terms of what we’re doing at Economic Hardship Reporting Project
但就我们在“经济困难报告项目”中所做的事而言
we’re trying to pay journalists who have fallen on hard times a dollar a word plus expenses.
我们给处于困难时期的记者的薪水是一字一美元 还报销开支
And that’s just like one small way to keep them afloat.
这只是帮助他们继续生存的一种方式
We have people writing for us who were living without heat,
我们的某些撰稿人没有供暖
on food stamps, on government medical care, they were really struggling,
依赖粮票和政府的医疗服务为生 他们举步维艰
and that this is one thing that I’ve noticed has been interesting lately—
最近 我发现这一点还挺有意思——
I call them sort of white collar alt-labor, this is like white collar unions, almost, for journalists,
我把他们称作白领阶层高调劳工 就像白领工会 包括记者
for other employees in the past who’re not necessarily unionized freelance journalists.
和其他员工 在过去 这些人不一定会被当做自由撰稿记者
And what we’re doing is part of that, but there’s all sorts of other things cropping up.
我们所做的就是其中一部分 但还有其他事情不断出现
There are collectives for caregivers that I’ve written about,
我还写到了看护人员这个集体
so they’re sort of working together, they’re owning the apps where they rent out—
他们是一起工作的 他们拥有租出去的那些软件——
where they try to get customers for housecleaning or nannying.
他们通过软件让客户获得房屋清扫或保姆服务
And so I think, what can organizations do?
所以我就在想 机构能做什么？
Organizations can try to empower their poor workers by giving them resources,
机构可以给贫穷的员工资源 让他们拥有权力
both economic and from the companies themselves—
包括经济资源和公司自身的资源——
for instance, like an app that they themselves would own a part of
比如 一款让员工自己持有的软件
rather than just simply the company owning the app and the worker just this teeny piece of teeny “task rabbit,”
而不是由公司持有 员工只是这微小的“兔子任务”中微不足道的一份子
they would instead be a part of the app.
应该让他们成为软件的一部分
Cooperatives is another way I think that we can start to think about that, especially web-based cooperatives.
合作是另一种我们可以考虑的方式 尤其是基于网络的合作方式
That’s becoming really important
这非常重要
given the concentration of wealth where we have a teeny number of people owning these companies
毕竟是拥有这些公司的一小部分人享有大量财富
and just hundreds of thousands of people working for them driving Uber, cleaning houses, et cetera.
让成千上万的人开Uber 打扫屋子等 为他们工作
We can start talking about people owning a share of the digital economy and the gig work that they’re doing.
我们可以开始讨论在数字经济中占有一席之地的人和他们所做的临时工作
