Future of Work

TechCrunch reports: "When Florida-based Chetu hired a telemarketer in the Netherlands, the company demanded the employee turn on his webcam. The employee wasn’t happy with being monitored 'for 9 hours per day,' in a program that included screen-sharing and streaming his webcam. When he refused, he was fired, according to public court documents (in Dutch), for what the company stated was ‘refusal to work’ and ‘insubordination.’ The Dutch court didn’t agree, however, and ruled that “instructions to keep the webcam turned on is in conflict with the respect for the privacy of the workers’. In its verdict, the court goes so far as to suggest that demanding webcam surveillance is a human rights violation." Continue Reading →

According to USA Today, downtown Las Vegas was "packed" as it reopened the other night. Market Watch is reporting that "American Airlines stock jumps after 'steady' rise in demand leads to increased flying," and CNET is reporting that CES 2021 (January 6-9, Las Vegas) is in the works as both a physical and a virtual event. Continue Reading →

Last week, I tweeted, “Does anyone just want to have a conference call? I’m not sure how much longer I can stare into a camera and pretend not to be multitasking. Just asking.” I was only half kidding. Continue Reading →

If you were giving a graduation speech to the class of 2020, what would your message be? That’s a question I made the mistake of trying to answer on Twitter. Continue Reading →

Chances are your company already has its preferred video conferencing tools. If not, here’s a list of the tools we’ve been using at The Palmer Group for the past several years. Continue Reading →

I am working remotely today. In fact, I work remotely every day and have been doing so for the past 20 years. The technologies that enable anyone to work 7/24/365 from anywhere in the world are so commonplace, there’s almost no need to list them (although I will reference a few specific tools I’m fond of in this article). What you need to know is that the sociology of productive remote working is much more difficult to master than the technology. Said differently, learning to work by yourself is harder than you think it is. Here are a few tips and techniques that will unlock your inner badass remote worker skills. Continue Reading →

Everyone wants to work for your company. You receive hundreds of resumes every day. There are simply too many for humans to read. So, like many companies, you use a service that ingests the resumes and uses AI to score potential candidates against job descriptions. From your perspective it is the perfect use case. It’s fast. It’s efficient. And the candidates who make it through the system are pretty high level. This sounds awesome – but what happens to the candidates who don’t make it through the system? Continue Reading →

Can you sign an AI to a recording contract? Should you? How about hiring an AI recording engineer? Is its work Grammy-eligible? Shelly and Ross talk about the Grammys and how AI-models are starting to impact the music we hear. Ross’s son Theo shows off his cello chops and we chat about talking Teslas. Continue Reading →

At one of the pre-Grammy parties I attended, I was asked about controversy surrounding the way the Recording Academy (the organization that produces the Grammys) categorizes music for the show. This led to some very interesting questions: Who (or what) will be eligible to win a Grammy in 2030? What will the categories evolve into? Will music need to be recorded at all? Continue Reading →

Independent contractors in California now have to pass a "test" to maintain their independence. This may be good for a few Uber and Lyft drivers, but it is a stinging blow to companies and workers that rely on the financial flexibility of contract work. Continue Reading →