a woman's work is never
*cue nine to five, dolly enters stage left*
Meatspace is Lora and Sarah’s weekly digest of weird/wack/need-to-know tech news — and our warm takes on all of it.
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Dear friends,
A necessary prereq of living in our cap society is Working, pumping paid or unpaid labor into the ether. An example of paid labor is that of singer Azealia Banks, who presumably got paid to write/record her new song which seems to be about *checks notes* cutting off Elon Musk’s neural activity via satellite (per a now-deleted post on her IG). An example of labor that is typically unpaid is housework, except if you are the writer Sarah Miller conducting a Marxist experiment with her bf where she gets paid for cooking/taking ants out of the maple syrup.
For many people on the former more corporate grind, their employment may be contingent on......personality tests! Friend of the ‘space Emma G wrote this week abt how tests like Myers-Briggs and literal enneagrams are shockingly prevalent/revered in offices. Tag urselves we are “blue” “yellow” and “red” personalities personally - but we’ll never say who’s which.
Other workers in the tech space, constantly bogged down by thoughts of “is what i am doing as evil as they say,” are going to therapy (“gym for the soul”) to reflect and relax. Or more realistically, as one psychologist told Nellie Bowles, learn how to “tune out despair-inducing headlines and ... get back to the business of crushing it.”
The bra company that purveys that weirdly intimate survey to determine your boob shape is roiled in scandale, as women told The Goods that they entered what they thought was a feminist workplace and instead found a culture of harassment, poor parental benefits, and enforced happy hours (dread!).
This exposure of the hypocrisy of a supposedly empowering “by women for women” brand reminds us of the thinx period panties fallout of 2017, as their founder Mikki Agrawal also used the “feminist” brand to exploit employees, particularly women. Also of the fallout at Feminist Apparel in 2018, after its male CEO was exposed as a sexual abuser and laid off all his staff. No feminist consumption under capitalism et al.
FRIENDS
the show is apparently having a 25th anniversary, prompting such brand activations as a Ralph Lauren line of women’s workwear inspired by the character Rachel lol. Whether you like the show, think it’s terribly regressive, or (galaxy brain) believe the vagueness of Chandler’s job—and his deep resentment of it—says prescient things about the future of work, as Megan Garber does, it does get you thinking about uhhh friends.
Posting content can be for friends..but it can also be for work! (is building a brand work? discuss) Tavi Gevinson, who grew up literally publishing her teenaged diaries, explores this q in this week’s NY Mag cover story.
Similarly, being somebody’s “close friend” can be a state of being or... a paid premium subscription, writes Kaitlyn Tiffany, as it is for influencers like C*r*line C*lloway on Insta. Love you, mean it!
To keep your (IRL) friends call them stop texting them!! (except not sarah because she broke her phone and her thumbs keep twitching. A phantom limb!)
THERES NO WE IN IPO
Another week, another eventful chapter in wework’s journey (or not) to going ✈️IPO.
We founder Adam Neumann is well not a typical CEO. His downright zaniness was well-captured in this WSJ profile.
A little appeteaser of what the article contains: he left nuggets of weed on a plane leading a pilot to worry he was involved in global drug trafficking...his first company was in the biz of selling baby knee pads (slogan: “Just because they don’t tell you, doesn’t mean they don’t hurt”).... he’s extremely tall....his wife (Gwyneth Paltrow’s cousin) has fired ppl after short meetings because she didn’t like their energy…..truly chefs kiss.
To back up a lil: the reason We is so in the news this week is because even after deflating its valuation drastically to like $15 billion instead of originally planned like $47 billion, investors are skeptical. So, We decided this week to delay its IPO, to Oct at the earliest and [who knows!] at the latest.
Investors were concerned about things like We’s complicated corporate structure (see: several ppl with title “chief We officer”); the business model of renovating and renting out spaces that other landlords own, and...well neumann himself, who has a ton of control over the company
To address that last concern, We curbed Neumann’s voting power last week. (To clarify, not us -- We.)
Another big ole red flag to investors were Neumann’s numerous conflicts of interest. Beyond his kooky antics, it seems for years he has been doing things like borrowing against his stocks, leasing land he owns to We offices, and personally purchasing the trademark to We and trying to sell it back to Wework for $6 million (strong “I” energy). He also did responsible things like parlay his passion for surfing into a $13.8 million We company investment into a startup that makes surf waves in pools. Sound!
A red flag to We’s tenants may be the sketchy security of their WiFi networks! Reporters for CNET hacked it easily and improperly accessed a sweet birthday card decorated with Nicholas cage as a cat. (See https://nickcagecats.tumblr.com/ for more)
But the most stunning We news of the week was actually this:
Katie Notopoulos got to the bottom of the story, learning that the company was locked out for three (3) days .“Not to get too existential on it all, but it reinforced our appreciation for the little things in life. We take so much for granted,” said one locked-out employee. So true.
Next up to IPO: Airbnb! In 2020? They weirdly announced it like a year early but that could be bc Airbnb’s might be a special IPO that offers equity to hosts.
TASTY BITES
Uber has new feature where u get a message if ur car stops unexpectedly/for a long time. Then u can confirm u are okay/call 911. Sort of unclear to us how this will work in practice if someone is in imminent danger but okay (MIT Tech Review)
FB is expanding its definitions of hate speech/language around extremism (NYT)
E-scooters play a surprisingly pivotal role in this story about the Russian man who killed a Chechen rebel in Berlin (ty Sam H) (WSJ)
Amazon made a big climate pledge (TechCrunch) but it may be full o’ holes (Gizmodo)
Taylor Lorenz reports that a bunch of big Youtubers getting de-verified (NYT)
People are designing clothes to shield them from surveillance! Juggalos are somehow involved (OneZero)
Amazon’s Alexa has a new feature where you can donate to a candidate easy as “donate to x.” this seems too easy..... (h/t isabel r) (Amazon blog)
Someone who used to work for a senator filed a human rights complaint alleging that said senator made him dress as a leprechaun before he was fired (Albany Times Union)
Warm wishes for a work-free weekend!
Sarah and Lora