fortune--2020-10-23--Will white women step up, at the polls against Trump and beyond?

In the lead-up to last night’s debate, President Trump escalated a theme that he’s been pushing for weeks. “Finally! Suburban women are flocking over to us,” he tweeted, though no polling data support the claim. His latest Twitter rant came on the heels of the more desperate note he sounded at a rally last week in Pennsylvania. “Suburban women, will you please like me?” he pleaded.
On the surface, Trump’s odes to “suburban housewives” may seem like a distraction from the serious issues at hand. But what he’s signaling is important. What he’s telling us is that he’s pinning his reelection hopes, once again, on white women. It’s a political play straight out of 1968: agitate white women about the imagined threat of urban violence and “low-income housing” invading their white, picket-fenced neighborhoods.
Will they take the bait? Can we, as white women, do better?
I’ve been delving into these questions—and others about white women’s identities and politics—for a new podcast called White Picket Fence. Although I’ve found some encouraging signs, many questions about white women’s politics remain.
If history is any guide, Trump is right to be courting white women. Majorities of white women have backed the Republican presidential candidate in nearly every election for the past 70 years. Throughout American history, much of white women’s political activism has been directed to maintaining white supremacy, from active support for school segregation and Jim Crow in the South to the fight against busing in the North. Beginning in the 1970s, Phyllis Schlafly channeled angst over eroding postwar economic stability for the white middle class into a mass political movement. Through her STOP ERA campaign, Schlafly solidified a base of highly religious white women who remain loyal to the Republican Party to this day.
Trump’s rants about the suburbs gin up that base. But they also tap into the more subtle ways that white women—even those who don’t identify as conservative—have been tacitly complicit with the structural racism that shapes American society. From the segregated housing patterns forged through decades of redlining and predatory lending practices to the inequitable public education systems that those practices have produced, white women and their families clearly benefit.
And yet, Trump also has good reason to be nervous. A lot has changed in four years. Women’s outrage mobilized the historic women’s marches in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election. Fueled by strong turnout among women of color and a nine-point swing in white women’s votes, the 2018 midterms ushered a diverse, record-setting wave of Democratic women into office. Over the summer, our nation—Black, brown, and white—took to the streets for record-setting mass protests against police violence. Support for Black Lives Matter surged close to 70%.
Here’s more good news: The seeds of a political realignment are there, all over the country, in communities large and small. For the podcast, I spoke with women in Ohio who have been gathering—in person and now virtually—for wine-fueled political conversation and using targeted digital content to activate their personal networks for political action. I spoke with Lisa, a white woman in rural Alamance County, North Carolina, who has channeled her outrage over Trump’s election into a local campaign for bail reform. I spoke with faith-based leaders in Minnesota who organized a viral #IAmASuburbanMom social media campaign. When Republican politicians claimed that “suburban moms” were fearful of the mass demonstrations that erupted after George Floyd’s murder, suburban women stood in solidarity with the protesters.
Common to this work is an understanding that, as political scientist Hahrie Han wrote, “to build power, outrage needs organization.” These community groups don’t fetishize white women under the guise of some consultant-crafted term du jour (i.e., “soccer moms”). Rather, they empower them as change agents. They provide safe spaces in which women can safely question or dissent from the dominant political orthodoxies of their communities and build their political knowledge, confidence, and agency.
Will it work? There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. The legacy of white women’s racism—even within gender justice movements from women’s suffrage to modern-day feminism—looms large. As Treva Lindsey, a professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Ohio State, told me, “Without actually reckoning with how, in particular, white women have contributed to, perpetuated, or been complicit with white supremacy, you see…fragile solidarities that are easily broken.” For this moment to be different, white women need to be clear on what advocating for justice requires of us.
The election will signal whether greater numbers of white women will do the baseline work necessary for moving our country forward. But in order for this moment to be meaningful, Nov. 3 must be just a starting point. “Transformation happens in the context of moving towards shared goals together,” National Domestic Workers Alliance executive director Ai-jen Poo told me.
Are white women willing to move forward? To fight as passionately for the dignity of others as we would our own? To correct the wrongs from 100 years ago, when our white foremothers secured their right to participate in American democracy, then turned a blind eye to the continued disenfranchisement of Black and Indigenous women?
Poo, for one, remains optimistic. “I do believe that if anyone is going to figure out how to show up right and model what it looks like to have a healthy multiracial democracy, it will be a process that happens among women first,” she said.
The most pressing question for this November, then, is not whether some mythic “other” white women will come around politically, but whether we—as white women who profess to care about equity and justice—will do our part.
And that’s an answer that can only come from each of us.
Julie Kohler is the host of the podcast, White Picket Fence. She is a senior adviser to the Democracy Alliance and a fellow in residence at the National Women’s Law Center. Follow her on Twitter.


fortune--2020-10-23--Who won last night’s presidential debate? Not Trump, betting site says

Trump claims at debate that China is paying for farm subsidies .
In fact , U.S. taxpayers are footing the @

Last night’s debate in Nashville didn’t change the odds of Joe Biden beating Donald Trump to win the presidency on Nov. 3.
That’s the verdict from one of the most closely watched political betting markets. Smarkets, a U.K.-based gambling company that allows wagers on political contests as well as sporting events, says Biden’s chances of winning remain unchanged at 67%, while Trump has a 33% chance of retaining the presidency.
The Electoral College forecast also wasn’t shifted by the final presidential debate of the 2020 campaign, with state-by-state wagers implying a 317–221 Electoral College victory for Biden, according to Smarkets.
There was a slight move in Biden’s favor in some key battleground states, according to Smarkets’ betting. The Democrat’s odds of winning Florida ticked up slightly to 55%, from about 51% before the debate, while Trump’s odds moved down from 50% to around 46%. In North Carolina, Trump’s chances also sagged by a similar amount.
Academic studies have shown the betting markets often provide more accurate forecasts of election results than traditional opinion polling. Among real-money political markets, Smarkets is carefully watched because it operates a peer-to-peer system, where odds are set only by the amount of money wagered on each side of a contract. In other gambling sites, a human or electronic bookmaker sets the odds to try to ensure the betting company itself always makes at least a small profit, and this can distort the predictive value of the odds.
The company says that about $13.7 million has currently been wagered in its “Next President” market, which takes bets on who will be the next U.S. leader.
The fact that a record number of Americans have already voted this year, taking advantage of early voting programs or mail-in voting, is one reason the debate had little impact on the betting odds, Sarbjit Bakhshi, Smarkets head of political markets, said.
“With over 49 million votes already cast, the pool of undecided voters up for grabs is shrinking by the day, and last night’s debate in Tennessee contained few surprises,” he said.


fortune--2020-10-23--Who wore it best? Rating Big Tech’s product debuts

This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
In just the past month, Amazon unveiled all its new Alexa goodies (including the wacky drone security cam), Google offered phones and speakers with new A.I. tricks, and Apple, well, Apple broke the bank to show off new iPhones and a mini-speaker imbued with Siri powers. Over the summer, Microsoft also officially launched its gorgeous dual-screened phone via a virtual event.
YouTube’s top tech reviewer Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) and his production manager and co-host Andrew Manganelli assessed all of those presentations in their most recent Waveform podcast episode. Ranking the players from top to bottom, Apple’s events lapped the field, boosted by impressive video production values alongside desirable new gadgets. Events by Microsoft and upstart phone maker OnePlus followed. Google and a couple of Samsung events brought up the rear, critiqued for having more advertising-like presentation styles.
But power rankings aren’t Data Sheet’s style. Let’s hand out some awards instead. It’s for sort-of-virtual events, so let’s dub them the Hallidays.
And the Halliday for sheer gorgeousness goes to Apple’s “Hi, Speed” event, which debuted the HomePod mini from the set of a beautiful two-story home that could easily slip into a Wes Anderson movie. The shot zooming down from the sky above Apple’s spaceship headquarters to VP Lisa Jackson standing on the roof, the wind lightly tussling her hair as she spoke, was just phenomenal. And the time lapse sunset video? Très magnifique.
Google grabs the “coconut shells for horses” Halliday, which honors the memorable Monty Python scene of turning necessity into invention, for its “Launch Night In” event. Unlike Apple’s bazillion dollar showcase, Google went for a stripped-down aesthetic and close-up shots of its presenters at its Pixel event. Google used tape on the floor of a warehouse space to outline different rooms. And Shalini Govil-Pai, the head of Google TV, was relatable telling stories about watching TV as a kid. Extra points for the montages of bloopers and silly moments.
Although Amazon showed off some cool products (see: the drone cam) at its 2020 Alexa event, its production values were not terrific and some of the presenters were a little stilted. But the company’s customer-centric culture shone through video clips of actual customers using the actual products. Amazon gets the 2020 Halliday for “doing it IRL.”
And that leaves Microsoft, where Surface leader Panos Panay wore his heart on his sleeve as he showed off the Surface Duo. “Empowering people includes sometimes challenging conventional thinking,” Panay said, the excitement over his folding not-a-phone phone leaping from his voice. That’s worthy of the Halliday for most passionate event.
So what happens when the pandemic recedes? Will Apple and its rivals bring back the looser, louder format of presenting live in front of big audiences? Or are we fated to watch beautiful, carefully edited recordings from now on?
I’m not sure. But if you rewatch the very end of last year’s iPhone 11 event, and see the ear-to-ear smile on Tim Cook’s face as the applause washes over him and he gives his team a big thumb’s up, I think you have your answer.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com
NEWSWORTHY
Look, ma, no hands. After years of promises, Tesla CEO Elon Musk finally delivered "full self driving" software to a small group of hand-picked customers. Tesla owners who got the update quickly started posting YouTube videos, some of which The Verge has helpfully collected. A much wider rollout is planned by year, so let's hope this works.
When the lights go down in the city. Danielle noted the demise of Quibi yesterday and the past 24 hours has led to an outpouring of post-mortems. Katie Baker at The Ringer may have summed it up best when she wrote that the company "died as it lived: with a tweet that I initially mistook for a joke." Jeffrey Katzenberg had a final hurrah as Quibi boss on CNBC. You may be sad that we won't have KBerg to kick around anymore, but fear not. “I’ve got to get on that horse and find the next mountain to charge up," he said. "It’s the only thing I know how to do and I’ve got a lot to prove.” A lot to prove indeed.
The bloom is off the chip. On Wall Street, it was disappointment all around, as Intel, Seagate Technology, and Limelight Networks all fell after reporting quarterly results. Intel reported revenue fell 4% to $18.3 billion, as booming laptop sales covered somewhat for declining (and more profitable) data center chip sales. Intel's stock, previously down 10% this year, lost another 10% in pre-market trading on Friday. Disk maker Seagate said its sales dropped 10% to $2.3 billion. Its shares, already down 13% in 2020, fell 4%. And Limelight, which helps distribute content across the Internet, surprised analysts with a loss of $4 million. Its stock, already up 51% this year, plummeted 20% in pre-market trading. IPOs also disappointed, as McAfee relisted after nine years of being owned by others only to see its stock price drop almost 7% on Thursday.
A very excellent servant, but a terrible master. While breaking their own rules to vote on a Supreme Court candidate with no Democrats in the room, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee also voted to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg. The pair are being called to answer for their companies' handling of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden's emails. Speaking of breaking rules, a California court ordered Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers as employees under a state law passed last year. The companies can still appeal to the state's Supreme Court while the ballot measure to repeal the new law, Proposition 22, goes before voters next month.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Steve Jobs' imprint on Apple's culture and organizational structure remains. Providing rare insight into how the company works, Apple University dean Joel Podolny and professor Morten Hansen have an essay in the Harvard Business Review detailing some of its leadership and management strategies.
Apple has hundreds of specialist teams across the company, dozens of which may be needed for even one key component of a new product offering. For example, the dual-lens camera with portrait mode required the collaboration of no fewer than 40 specialist teams: silicon design, camera software, reliability engineering, motion sensor hardware, video engineering, core motion, and camera sensor design, to name just a few. How on earth does Apple develop and ship products that require such coordination? The answer is collaborative debate. Because no function is responsible for a product or a service on its own, cross-functional collaboration is crucial.
When debates reach an impasse, as some inevitably do, higher-level managers weigh in as tiebreakers, including at times the CEO and the senior VPs. To do this at speed with sufficient attention to detail is challenging for even the best of leaders, making it all the more important that the company fill many senior positions from within the ranks of its VPs, who have experience in Apple’s way of operating.
FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE
A few great long reads I came across this week:
How a Malaysian Immigrant in Idaho Became the Go-To Expert on Podcasting (Marker)
Nick Quah’s newsletter vaulted him from obscurity to industry expert — a formula everyone is now trying to crack
Inside Gravity’s daring mission to make jetpacks a reality (Wired UK)
Inventors like Richard Browning have been trying to build jetpacks for a century. Now they’re here, what do we do with them?
How a downed internet balloon produced an unlikely love story (Rest of World)
A few hundred kilometers south of the Brazilian border and four and a half hours by bus from the capital of Montevideo lie Lavalleja and Treinta y Tres, rural departments in Uruguay’s bucolic interior.
This Teacher Went Back to School. A Team of Epidemiologists Tracked Her Moves. (Elemental)
Real life meets public health advice.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Here’s what Amazon’s new Echo speakers are like By Jonathan Vanian
Tesla shares pop after a big earnings beat—but its jump to the S&P 500 is hardly a ‘sure thing’ By Anne Sraders
White House and Twitter deny hacker accessed Trump’s Twitter with password ‘maga2020!’ By Robert Hackett
76% of American CEOs say they may shrink office space By Lance Lambert
Bitcoin surges to a 2020 high on PayPal’s embrace By Jeff John Roberts and Nicolas Rapp
Living with uncertainty: How leaders at American Airlines, Salesforce, Slack, and Diageo are moving past crisis mode By Maria Aspan
The perils of letting social media titans correct misinformation By Sarah Kreps and Douglas Kriner
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
The Guggenheim Museum awarded its biennial Hugo Boss Prize for "significant achievement in contemporary art." If you have never seen the winner's photography, you are in for a treat. Deana Lawson's nomination video, just 6 minutes long, is a great place to start. Have a great weekend.


fortune--2020-10-23--Trump says he will vote in person—but not on Election Day

President Donald Trump is taking his own advice and plans to vote in person in the presidential election on Saturday in Florida.
Trump is heading to his home state Friday for campaign rallies at The Villages and in Pensacola. He’s scheduled to spend the night at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach and says he’ll vote on Saturday before he flies north for more campaign rallies.
Trump revealed his plans on Thursday after the presidential debate with Democrat Joe Biden.
Earlier this year, as Trump pressed unfounded claims about fraud surrounding mail-in and absentee ballots, Trump said people should be required to show up in person at the polls to vote.
Trump also has voted by absentee ballot in the past.


fortune--2020-10-23--Santa Claus won’t be coming to Macy’s this year

Macy’s said Santa Claus won’t be greeting kids at its flagship New York store this year due to the coronavirus, interrupting a holiday tradition started nearly 160 years ago.
More than a quarter of a million people come to see Santa at Macy’s in New York each year, the company said, making it hard to create a safe environment during a pandemic. Before taking a picture with the jolly old man, crowds walk in tight quarters through a maze-like Santaland that’s filled with Christmas trees, running toy trains and elves in green costumes.
Santa also won’t be showing up at its Chicago and San Francisco stores, which have similar Santalands. But he will still appear at the end of the televised Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, the company said.
With the coronavirus still raging, stores and malls are having to rework their typical holiday strategy, which had been to pack as many people through its doors as possible. Walmart, for example, is holding its Black Friday deals over four weeks, instead of one day.
But the decision by Macy’s differs from big mall owners, which will still go ahead with in-person Santa visits by banning kids from sitting on his lap and making sure they stay six feet away from him.
Macy’s has been using Santa Claus to draw crowds to its New York store since the early 1860s, calling itself “The Home of Santa Claus” for decades. And Macy’s had a starring role in the 1947 film “Miracle on 34th Street,” where a girl discovers the real Santa inside the store.
Macy’s will be offering a free online experience on its website at the end of November, where families can play games, get a virtual tour of Santa’s workshop and take a selfie with Santa.
“Moving to a virtual engagement will safely bring the magic of Santa Claus to children of all ages this year,” Macy’s said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The pandemic has forced Macy’s to tweak other holiday traditions.
In order to deter crowds, its annual Thanksgiving Day parade won’t go through its usual route through Manhattan. Instead, floats, performers and giant cartoon balloons and will be filmed for TV in front of the Herald Square store in New York.
Macy’s also ditched a one-night firework spectacle on the Fourth of July, and held smaller unannounced firework shows to stop people from gathering to watch.


fortune--2020-10-23--How CEO Carol Tomé reset focus at UPS

How CEO Carol Tomé reset focus at UPS

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination advances, Ghislaine Maxwell’s deposition is unsealed, and Carol Tomé put UPS on a path to “better, not bigger.” Have a relaxing weekend.
– What’s up at UPS. We’re ending our unofficial Fortune Most Powerful Women week with an interview with an executive who previously appeared on our ranking as CFO of Home Depot: Carol Tomé, who was named CEO of UPS in June.
Tomé (No. 5 on this year’s list) tells our colleague Aaron Pressman that she’d planned on spending this year gardening after retiring from Home Depot in 2019. But UPS’s board—where she’s served since 2003—had other plans. So rather than pass 2020 minding her perennials, Tomé has been guiding UPS through a massive pandemic-fueled spike in demand, as well as narrowing the company’s focus and presiding over an improvement in stock performance.
There’s a lot to unpack in their Q+A, but one exchange really jumped out for me. Aaron asked about Tomé about her vow to make the company “better not bigger”—and how the company had done the opposite in the past. The CEO recalled an early exercise she did with the leadership team:
“[W]e put all our initiatives up on the wall around the conference room. I gave everybody 10 green dots and 10 red dots. Green were for those initiatives that we thought were wildly important. Red were for those we should stop doing.
All the green dots went up. No red dots. I said: You have to. So we went around again, and everybody used the red dots, which is very helpful, because it allowed us to say this is not important, right? We can put that on the shelf right now.
It allowed us to narrow our focus. It’s so critically important. You know, what is Lewis Carroll’s saying? ‘If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.’ That’s effectively where we were.”
I suspect many in corporate America can relate! Under Tomé’s watch, the shipping giant is resetting its compass and choosing its path with care. Read the full interview here.
Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee
Today’s Broadsheet was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Preempted interview. Before last night's debate, President Trump released footage from his 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl before the program aired. In the video, Trump complains about Stahl's questions as she presses him on his COVID-19 response. USA Today
- Committee confirmation. The Senate Judiciary Committee's Republicans voted to advance Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate. The committee's Democrats boycotted the vote. Coney Barrett could be confirmed as soon as Monday. CNBC
- Deposition details. The recent unsealing of a deposition by Ghislaine Maxwell shows the alleged accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein as a strong defender of the late convicted sex offender. Maxwell lost a court battle to keep the deposition, recorded through a defamation case brought by victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre, hidden from public view. Read the details of the deposition here: Miami Herald
- Customer success. Executives joined Fortune yesterday to share how their companies have—and haven't—moved past the chaos of the early days of the pandemic. Diageo chief commercial officer Julie Hamilton, American Airlines chief customer officer Alison Taylor, and Slack VP and global head of customer success and services Christina Kosmowski all shared insights. Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Gimlet head of content Lydia Polgreen and former Marriott global marketing officer Karin Timpone join Atlas Obscura's board of directors. Deep Instinct hired former Goldman Sachs managing director Heather Bellini as CFO. Netflix hired Fruit Tree Media executive Fiona Lamptey as director of U.K. features.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Power couple. Nicole Avant was President Barack Obama's ambassador to the Bahamas and is a powerhouse Democratic fundraiser; she's also married to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Avant's experience as a Black woman and her understanding of racial injustice, Sarandos says, guided him to develop content about the issue for Netflix (and her longstanding friendship with the Obamas didn't hurt as Netflix sought that mega-deal!). Town & Country
- Book business. Molly Stern was the publisher of Crown and editor of Michelle Obama's Becoming. She left amid a merger and leadership shakeup two years ago and is now launching her own publishing company. The business, Zando, will specialize in promoting authors via influencers and brands rather than bookstores and retailers. New York Times
- Abortion ruling. In Poland, a new decision by a constitutional tribunal effectively outlaws abortion under nearly any circumstance. The decision rejected abortion because of fetal abnormalities, leaving abortion legal only for a threat to a woman’s health or in the case of incest or rape. New York Times
ON MY RADAR
Man Repeller is shutting down The Cut
Belgium's deputy PM Sophie Wilmès in intensive care with coronavirus Guardian
The bind of being first Harper's Bazaar
PARTING WORDS
"I’m not going to ignore who I am at my core. I’m not going to make middle-aged white women comfortable about where they buy their yarn."
-Adella Colvin, founder of LolaBean Yarn Co., on her popular yarn business and speaking out for racial justice


fortune--2020-10-23--Workers are getting fired and penalized for reporting COVID safety violations

When COVID-19 began making headlines in March, Charles Collins pulled out a protective face mask from the supply at the manufacturing company in Rockaway, New Jersey, where he was the shop foreman and put it on. The dozen or so other workers at the facility followed suit. There was no way to maintain a safe distance from one another on the shop floor, where they made safety mats for machines, and a few of the men had been out sick with flu-like symptoms. Better safe than sorry.
Management was not pleased. Collins got a text message from one of his supervisors saying masks were to be used to protect workers from wood chips, metal particles and other occupational safety hazards. “We don’t provide or for that matter have enough masks to protect anybody from CORVID-19 [sic]!” If workers didn’t stop using the masks for that purpose, the supervisor texted, “we’ll have to store them away just like the candy!”
“I was shocked,” said Collins, 38. “They weren’t taking it seriously.”
Shortly after that, Collins left for a planned vacation. When he returned a week later, the company told him to quarantine at home for two weeks because he’d been traveling.
But when the quarantine ended, Collins didn’t want to go back to work. Co-workers, he said, told him that recommended safety measures such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing hadn’t been implemented. When he told human resources that he feared becoming infected and endangering his mother and his 8-year-old nephew who live with him, he said, he got an ultimatum: Return to work or resign.
Collins stayed home and says he was fired. He hired a lawyer and filed a complaint in the Superior Court of New Jersey under the state’s whistleblower law, the Conscientious Employee Protection Act. The law prohibits employers from firing, demoting or otherwise retaliating against workers who refuse to take part in activities they believe are incompatible with public health and safety mandates.
As many employers, with the strong encouragement of the Trump administration, move to bring employees back, a growing number of workers are resisting what they feel are unsafe, unhealthy conditions. In recent months, a few states have passed laws specifically aimed at protecting workers who face COVID-related safety risks and retaliation for speaking up about them. Some states, like New Jersey, have whistleblower protection laws already. But advocates say stronger federal protections are needed.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Labor, is responsible for enforcing 23 federal whistleblower statutes that protect workers from retaliation if they report workplace safety violations, among other problems.
But according to a new analysis, the agency isn’t up to the task. The National Employment Law Project, a workers’ advocacy and research group, found that of 1,744 COVID-related retaliation complaints filed with OSHA between April and mid-August, 20% were docketed for investigation and 2% were resolved. More than half were dismissed or closed without investigation.
“Even before COVID, workers had a really bad track record of getting any justice for their concerns if they were retaliated against,” said Debbie Berkowitz, director of the worker health and safety program at the National Employment Law Project and a former senior OSHA official.
The numbers are growing. Whistleblower complaints filed with OSHA increased by 30% between February and May, to 4,101, according to an August report by the Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General that criticized the agency’s handling of the complaints.
Nearly 40% of the complaints—1,618—were related to COVID-19, the report found, filed primarily by workers who claimed they were punished for reporting workplace safety violations. Those could include, for example, not having appropriate personal protective equipment or sanitation materials, or a lack of social distancing on the job.
While complaints rose, the number of whistleblower investigators decreased from the previous year, according to the report. The average time it took to close an investigation at the end of March was roughly nine months.
Worker whistleblower protections under the Occupational Safety and Health law are “incredibly weak” compared with whistleblower statutes that protect employees who report other types of wrongdoing, Berkowitz said. If OSHA dismisses a complaint, workers have no right to appeal the decision, and once they file a complaint with OSHA they aren’t permitted to take their case to court on their own, she said.
Consumer advocates would like to see those provisions changed.
Advocates have urged OSHA to adopt mandatory COVID safety standards for workplaces, but the agency has declined to do so, maintaining that its “general duty clause,” which requires employers to maintain a workplace free from hazards likely to cause death or physical harm, is sufficient.
“The Administration has remained committed to providing the Whistleblower Protection program with the resources it needs to fulfill its mission,” a spokesperson for the Department of Labor wrote in an email to KHN. “In fiscal year 2020, OSHA asked for and received five new full-time employees and requested an additional ten in the President’s budget for fiscal year 2021.”
If workers don’t pursue a whistleblower complaint through OSHA, they can file a state lawsuit claiming “wrongful discharge” or use a state’s whistleblower law, as Collins did.
According to a COVID employment litigation tracker by Fisher Phillips, an employment law firm, since the beginning of the year 169 [LV1] retaliation/whistleblower lawsuits have been filed across the country—the second-biggest category, behind suits related to remote work/leave, with 206 cases. An additional 27 lawsuits have been filed for wrongful discharge.
Juan Carlos Fernandez, the Morristown, New Jersey, attorney representing Charles Collins, said he’s seen a significant uptick in inquiries from workers about safety concerns in recent months. Before the pandemic began, he typically received one or two such calls per month. Now, he gets three or four a day.
Many callers say they were terminated after they asked for protective equipment on the job, Fernandez said. Others had asked for time off to care for a family member or a child whose school had closed because of COVID-19 and then were told not to come back to work.
In addition to reporting safety violations, Collins’ lawsuit claims, he was fired for asking to take time off. Under the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act, employees are generally entitled to two weeks’ paid leave if they’re quarantined, and another two weeks’ paid sick leave at two-thirds pay to care for a child whose school has closed, as well as expanded family and medical leave. Collins has cared for his nephew since his sister died two years ago in a car accident. His nephew’s school closed in March because of COVID-19.
Collins said his employer, ASO Safety Solutions, paid him for only the first week of his company-ordered quarantine. Any additional time off would come out of his accrued sick and vacation time, he was told.
ASO Safety Solutions didn’t respond to requests for comment, nor did the law firm representing the company.
In his response to the complaint submitted to the court, the lawyer representing the company denied that ASO had retaliated against Collins for whistleblowing, asserting he had resigned. The response, by John Olsen, with Ferdinand IP Law Group, also said that the provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act do not apply to the company. The lawyers have exchanged requests for discovery, Fernandez said, which should be answered in the next several weeks.
A few states and cities have stepped in to help whistleblowers. Virginia was the first to put in place statewide workplace safety standards related to COVID-19, spurred by concerns from workers in poultry plants, said Rachel McFarland, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville. The standards include specific provisions protecting workers from retaliation for raising safety concerns or refusing to work in a location they believe is unsafe.
Colorado and the cities of Philadelphia and Chicago likewise passed laws prohibiting employers from retaliating against workers who raise COVID-related safety concerns, refuse to work in unsafe conditions or take time off to minimize the transmission of the virus.
But these laws are the exceptions, said Brent Newell, a senior attorney at Public Justice in Oakland, California, who has represented the interests of workers in meatpacking plants. “Many states haven’t done that and won’t do that,” he said. “For the federal government to put it on the states to protect workers is wholly and fundamentally inadequate.”
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.


fortune--2020-10-23--The Biden campaign has less than two weeks to spend $180 million—here’s what it will do

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The presidential election is less than two weeks away, but both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden aren’t slowing down their fundraising efforts. The infrastructure is in place, and Americans are still feeling the brunt of the seemingly ceaseless donation requests through emails, phone calls, text messaging, and even a controversial California fundraiser that caused a rift between members of the Beach Boys.
For Trump, these last-minute appeals make some sense. His campaign has been lapped three times by Biden’s in terms of cash on hand, putting him at a severe financial disadvantage and potentially unable to blitz swing-state airwaves with ads or stuff mailboxes with flyers. The Biden campaign ended September with a cool $180.6 million sitting in the bank, while Trump’s coffers were notably lighter with just $61.3 million.
The Trump campaign insisted that it had enough to keep the lights on until Election Day but recognized that it had less money to work with.
“The Trump campaign has all the resources we need going into the homestretch of this election,” said spokesperson Samantha Zager. “As Hillary Clinton proved when she outspent us 2 to 1 in 2016, no amount of money can buy the presidency. Voters have to be enthusiastic about casting their ballot for a candidate, and that’s only happening for President Trump.”
Biden, meanwhile, will likely end the campaign with a positive balance. But that doesn’t mean his staff will be slowing down with their spending. In the third quarter of 2020, his campaign committee outspent Trump’s by about $110 million, and things are only expected to ramp up.
The vast majority of that, if spending patterns continue, will go toward TV and radio advertising followed by digital advertising (Facebook, YouTube, web banners) at a close second. Some of those buys are bigger than others: a 60-second ad narrated by actor Sam Elliott during the World Series and $4 million in television ads in now-purple Texas. He’s also been able to purchase ads in 17 battleground states, even though just six of those states are considered to be tight contests.
A lack of travel expenses owing to COVID-19 restrictions placed on the campaign has allowed it to spend money on out-of-the-box ideas: The campaign rented a $250,000 Amtrak train for a six-city tour through the country’s Rust Belt.
Sources close to the campaign say the goal is to spend every last dollar and end up with nothing left over as it closes up shop, but at that point, that seems like a futile task.
So what happens to the leftover cash? Well, a campaign isn’t exactly over when it’s over: Staff stay on to wind things down, close out offices, file and archive papers. Campaigns may continue to pay rent and salaries. They also need to repay any outstanding credit card bills or loans. Sometimes, candidates will continue to fundraise even after they drop out of the race to pay off these outstanding fees (Rudy Giuliani’s campaign was in debt for years after his presidential run).
But once the bills are paid and the campaign office keys are turned over, there may still be some cash left in the coffers. What then?
They can start their reelection campaign and transfer the remaining funds into that. As long as all debts are paid, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) allows candidates to move funds between authorized committees so long as they’re for the same person. Biden 2024 could be infused with a few million dollars before it’s even officially underway. They can also use the money to create a “leadership PAC” to support their political agenda.
But this election isn’t just about the top seat. The Senate and Congress are also up for grabs, and there are a number of important down-ballot races. There’s no limit set by the FEC on how much campaign money a candidate can donate to national, state, or local party committees. Biden could hand the Democratic National Committee some of his excess cash. His campaign can also give directly to state and local candidates and up to $2,000 to each federal candidate.
Finally, there’s the charity option. The Biden Cancer Initiative has suspended operations while he runs for office, but legally his campaign would be allowed to donate its excess funds to that or any other charity.


fortune--2020-10-24--Trump’s odds of winning rise or fall based on one overriding force

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President Trump got COVID-19 and recovered like a champ. But politically, the pandemic is the plague he can’t shake.
President’s Trump’s fortunes in his campaign for re-election haven’t been much aided by America’s sharp recovery since the depths of the recession in March. Delivering a big stimulus package in April didn’t seem to help, nor does failing to get a new one so far this fall appear to hurt, either. His numbers barely shift as his stance on COVID-19 careens from warning Americans to don masks and stay six feet apart to rallying folks to get on with their lives. We get good news on promising vaccines that send stocks surging, but not Trump’s polls, and bad tidings that could delay a cure for months, yet don’t make the President’s bleak prospects any worse.
To be sure, big events have caused the President’s prospects to wax and wane. He got a big bump right after the Republican convention, and another boost when he stormed back onto the campaign trail after his quick recovery from COVID-19. A downer was his obstreperous performance in the first debate. “Debates usually don’t move the needle, but Trump was panned across the board,” says Will Jennings of political gaming site Predicit. “That caused a significant hit in the polls.”
Still, the frenzied events and political maneuvers that should be pluses or negatives for the President are swamped by a single force: the trajectory of the pandemic. To an extraordinary degree, Trump’s standing in the polls and on the betting sites are tightly correlated to the number of new daily cases of COVID-19, and especially the trend in the outbreaks, with his standing falling when those numbers rise. Examining Trump’s ups and downs alongside the lurching course of the pandemic demonstrates just how powerfully this single issue dominates the president’s prospects for re-election. “Where COVID-19 infections are going is by far the biggest factor in determining Trump’s chances of winning,” says Michael Arone, a managing director at State Street Global Advisors.
At first, this correlation was not apparent. It’s hard to believe today, but in the early days of the outbreak Trump enjoyed high odds of staying in the White House. As news of the outbreak in China spread, Trump initially took quick action, banning Chinese nationals from visiting the U.S. on February 2, declaring a national emergency on March 13, and ten days later, invoking the Defense Production Act empowering the U.S. to direct private industry to produce critical protective equipment. On March 27, Trump signed the first $2.2 trillion stimulus measure into law. From mid-March to April 12, the number of new cases exploded from virtually zero to a rate of 32,000 a day. Still, in mid-April, Trump consistently held a 9-point lead of around 51% to 42% in the RealClear Politics average of odds on the top gaming sites.
Following that peak of 30,000-plus infections per day, the picture improved, making COVID-19 look like a passing wave. By May 27, the daily count had cratered to 20,000. On that date, Trump still held an 8-point lead. But then, cases jumped, and Trump’s numbers fell fast. From early June to July 24, daily infections more than tripled to 67,000. Meanwhile, the line on Trump took a stunning hit, falling in just 8 weeks from an 8-point advantage to a 24-point deficit—as his odds of winning dropped to 36%. A gain of 2.5 million jobs in May, announced in early June, didn’t help Trump. Instead, his decision end federal guidelines and leave safety measures to the states appeared to backfire, as outbreaks flared as restaurants and shops reopened in Florida and Georgia.
At the end of the summer, cases went the other way, receding to around 40,000 by Sept. 5, and declining to the mid-30,000s over the following week. The fall was a tonic for Trump, who was also coming off of the GOP convention in the last week of August. On Sept. 2, he pulled into a dead heat with Biden, and he stayed fairly close, within a 5-point range, through mid-September. Then the daily count took off again, rising from 34,000 on 43,000 on Sept. 23. By that time, Trump’s shortfall had swelled to 7 points.
Then came the October deluge. By Oct. 10—not long after Trump’s own COVID diagnosis and brief hospital stay—the daily number of new cases went to 58,000, and Trump’s odds shrank below 33%, putting him 34 points short of Biden. That uptick was followed by several days when cases fell into the mid-40,000. It looked briefly as though the virus was getting under control, as had happened in from late April to mid-June. Trump’s odds rose around 8 points to 40% in mid-October. Then the virus took another moonshot, hitting 64,000 on Oct. 21. The betting line on Trump took another big step down, settling at the current 36%, a tiny improvement from before the debate, but still 29 points short of Biden.
Put simply, it appears that the greater the daily number for cases of COVID-19, the more Americans think Trump’s doing a bad job. When cases are rising from already high levels, as is the case today, the damage is especially stark. By contrast, when cases had peaked but were falling in early June, Trump enjoyed a lead.
The President has beaten the gamblers’ odds before, of course, in 2016. Trump may have found openings with his charges of pay-for-play by Hunter Biden, and by highlighting Biden’s advocacy for phasing out oil and gas that are an anathema to voters in the vast fracking patches in western and northern Pennsylvania. Both sound good for Trump. But the data suggests that what looks good will be overwhelmed by what’s been the real Big Guy for months: the scourge of COVID-19.


fortune--2020-10-24--Can Christmas-themed Miracle bars help save America’s devastated bar industry?

Christmas will come early to New York this year. On Nov. 5, a pair of Miracle bars—the pop-up watering holes that scream “holidays” with twerking-Santa decor, elf-shaped mugs, and high-alcohol ‘Christmapolitans’—will open for business at two locations in the East Village and West Village. Nationally, Miracle bars and their Sippin’ Santa cousins will start selling their festive cocktails on Nov. 23.
The franchise started in the East Village in 2014 with Miracle on 9th Street and has since grown into an international behemoth. Last year, there were 107 Miracle outposts, and while the company is still finalizing the 2020 lineup, it expects around 100 participating locations across the country.
Menus will feature new cocktails such as the Fruitcake Flip—brandy, Jamaican overproof rum, amaretto, and fruitcake—and the On Dasher, made from bourbon, mezcal, sweet vermouth, and spiced hibiscus. The signature “Christmapolitan,” a holiday-themed riff on the Cosmopolitan with cinnamon and spiced cranberry sauce, will be back as well.
The most dramatic difference will be the venue’s vibe. In years past, booze-fueled revelers have been four deep at the bar. In 2020, says founder Greg Boehm, guests will have set times to celebrate. “The bars will be reservation-based,” he says, with both indoor and heated outdoor seating. “They will be more socially distanced and a little more structured.” To-go cocktails will also be on offer this year, along with celebratory mugs.
Despite the incongruity of trying to make the famously raucous and crowded Miracle scene Covid-19-friendly, the program could be a lifeline for bars, especially in New York, where drinking establishments have been severely impacted by the pandemic. Earlier in October, spending at bars was down 80% compared to the prior year.
Although the cost of participating in the Miracle franchise is not cheap—the initial investment to be a franchisee runs from $7,000 to $12,000, according to Boehm, and there are additional costs like restocking glassware because of inevitable breakage—the results have been notable. At Sapphire Fine Food and Fancy Drinks in Knoxville, Tenn., owner Aaron Thompson says his bar did over $200,000 in sales in December 2019, which represented 100% growth. “It makes up for the slower months,” he observes.
One bar that won’t take part in Miracle during this holiday season is Philadelphia’s Into the Valley. Owner Nicholas Elmi says its been a revenue driver in the past, but Covid-19 restrictions make it too challenging for his 30-seat bar. “We’ve done Miracle every year since [we] opened in 2016. As wonderful as it is for getting people out, it’s not the right call for us this year.” He says past sales easily doubled during the month of Miracle: “We would go from $10,000 to $12,000 a week to $25,000.”
Most places, however, that participated and remain open are signing up again, despite capacity restrictions. George Lahlouh, co-owner of Paper Plane in San Jose, Calif., says his bar took in an additional $120,000—a 40% increase in sales over five weeks, compared to the previous year—as a result of the Miracle pop-up. “We knew the stretch between Black Friday and New Years Eve were some of our busiest sales weeks of the year,” he says. “We didn’t foresee being able to expand on those numbers too much.”


fortune--2020-10-24--With offices closed, WeWork and other coworking spaces jump on market opportunity

With no end in sight to her work-from-home arrangement, Sarah Crabbe desperately wanted to find an alternative office space outside her packed New York City apartment.
“I love my apartment, but it is 900 square feet. It comes with a husband, an almost 4-year-old son, and a nanny,” Crabbe, a vice president of advertising sales at Discovery, told Fortune. “And we have done it for a very long time.”
When it became clear that the Discovery office wouldn’t be opening until at least 2021, Crabbe turned to WeWork. In September, she purchased the coworking giant’s All Access membership plan, an offering that was born during the pandemic, for $299 a month.
“I wanted to figure out how I could have the flexibility to even go someplace for a few hours to see different surroundings, have privacy, and get that energy from being in an office,” Crabbe said. “I am someone who thrives on that. Even if I don’t know the other people sitting near me, you still feel that energy.”
WeWork, which weathered financial troubles last year and sold off all noncore assets, is now enjoying a resurgence during the coronavirus pandemic owing to increased demand from workers who are fed up with working from home and are unsure if or when their offices will reopen. In addition to the All Access option, WeWork also launched a pay-as-you-go option in New York City with plans to expand in other markets. For $29 per day, anyone can reserve a desk at WeWork. Meeting rooms can also be booked for $10 an hour. Each coworking space includes precautions, such as social distancing, plenty of hand sanitizer, and a requirement to wear masks when visitors get up from their desks.
“We think this is what the future of work looks like. In a given week or month, an employee may work at corporate headquarters, a satellite office, a third place, and at home. They won’t just be in headquarters all the time. That seems clear,” said John Lewis, vice president at WeWork enterprise sales.
WeWork is already seeing a surge of interest. A company spokesperson said the company sold 13 times as many All Access passes in September as it did the previous month. There have also been four times as many single-day desk bookings from members during the pandemic, reinforcing the desire for a flexible work environment.
“I think it is an interesting business model, and as long as there is uncertainty about the future and what it looks like, I think you will see some people looking to this as an option,” Victor Calanog, chief commercial real estate economist at Moody’s Analytics, told Fortune.
While individual employees like Crabbe are paying out of pocket for an office that isn’t at home, some companies are also opting to give up their leases in favor of a flexible model in a coworking space.
When Anna Crowe, founder of Crowe PR, ended her company’s San Diego office lease in May, she said she wasn’t sure where or when her team of 16 people would be getting back together again to work in person.
After doing some socially distant team outings in July, she decided to sign an agreement at Moniker Commons, a coworking space near the beach in San Diego, for three months. The Crowe PR space only fits nine people comfortably at a time, which means not everyone can go into the office on any given day.
“We’re able to collaborate and meet with a few clients safely in person, receive and ship products from a central location, and experience some form of normalcy outside the office,” Crowe told Fortune.
She said that half of her employees are using the space two to three times a week, while others come in once a week or choose to work remotely Monday through Friday.
“If we learned one thing this year is that circumstances can change overnight, and, as businesses, we must adjust quickly, both on revenue and the expense side,” Crowe said. “I was looking for a flexible lease option so that our employees could have a choice of working remote or in the office without major financial implications.”
While Crowe signed the lease for a three-month trial, she said she thinks she will keep it next year since it provides her employees with an option while also “being mindful of the bottom line.”
Office vacancies are up, however it’s unclear what the long-term impact could be. Gross leasing volume dropped 53.4% in the second quarter of this year, according to data from JLL. That amounts to 14 million square feet in office space losses, the steepest decline since 2009, according to the report.
Calanog, of Moody’s Analytics, said there has been an overall “40-year trend” of offices using less space per employee. However, he said, “we’re all in the middle of figuring it out” when it comes to what long-term effect the coronavirus pandemic will have on commercial real estate. For now, he said, it’s a clear win for WeWork and other coworking spaces.
“The market opportunity is there will be an overshoot,” he said. “People will give up office space because they want to save money, and then they will realize they still need some sort of flexible workplace.”


fortune--2020-10-24--How to hold the corporate world accountable

On Tuesday, the Justice Department and 11 U.S. states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging, “For the sake of American consumers, advertisers, and all companies…the time has come to stop Google’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition.”
Yet, despite widespread, bipartisan censure, Google has been celebrated as a leader in “stakeholder capitalism”; its parent company, Alphabet, ranks fifth out of over 900 companies in JUST Capital’s recently released list of businesses that excel in addressing the needs of workers, consumers, communities, and the environment. Why the reputational disconnect?
The answer is the key challenge of the stakeholder capitalism movement: All too often, corporate goodness cannot be adequately measured and assessed.
But fortunately, that is starting to change.
There is increasing recognition that we need to depart from the past 50 years of “shareholder capitalism,” but less consensus on what that actually means. Influential actors such as the Business Roundtable and leading investors advocate that management must pivot its focus to address all stakeholders’ needs. But this is easier said than done. For instance, reports and analyses find that signatories of the Roundtable statement have performed worse in post-COVID response than other firms have. Adding more confusion to the mix, JUST Capital finds the opposite.
JUST Capital, a nonprofit spearheaded by hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II and celebrities like Deepak Chopra and Arianna Huffington, has created an oft-cited industry standard for measuring stakeholder commitment. But its approach typifies fundamental errors in identifying which companies are actually “doing good” in society.
Read JUST Capital CEO Martin Whittaker’s recent Fortune commentary: “In a time of crisis, Americans send a clear message to Corporate America: Focus on workers”
Environmentally sustainable initiatives, fair pay, corporate philanthropy, and statements about fighting systemic racism are important and admirable. But understanding stakeholder focus through systems like JUST’s fails to fully consider effects of companies’ business models on society, ultimately valorizing large tech companies that abuse their market power (like Amazon, No. 66 on the JUST list) and allow the spread of disinformation (such as Facebook, No. 21 on the JUST list). Such factors must be included when assessing how responsibly a company meets stakeholder needs. After all, isn’t the public an important stakeholder too?
For example, PepsiCo was the 24th company in the recent ranking. But despite some progressive policies and moves toward health-conscious products, PepsiCo’s primary businesses continue to market products with high-fructose corn syrup and other types of ingredients implicated in the obesity epidemic, as well as significant amounts of chemicals and additives, some identified as potentially carcinogenic. Further, the core of its business model is shipping large quantities of flavored water around the world, which has a tremendous carbon impact.
Granted, PepsiCo does many good things; its focus on safe water, sustainable agriculture, and reducing carbon emissions is commendable. But should PepsiCo really be hailed as one of America’s most “just” companies when its fundamental business model is destructive to society and the environment? As increasing attention is put on the idea of “stakeholder capitalism,” we need to seriously consider the role of companies in society. To call a company just, it is essential to understand the company’s fundamental business, and the effects of that business on the world.
Fortunately, there are better methods for assessing corporate accountability. The model spearheaded by the American nonprofit B Lab, for example, includes a rigorous evaluation of stakeholder orientation—the B Impact Assessment—that comprehensively assesses companies’ impact on the world, including effects of its business model.
Importantly, B Lab has also pioneered a new type of business, the benefit corporation, which places obligations on stakeholders in the company’s legal foundation. Thirty-six U.S. states, Italy, Colombia, Ecuador, and the Canadian province of British Columbia have adopted this model, and it is currently under consideration in many other jurisdictions. There are over 3,500 B Corporations, but over 100,000 firms, banks, and investors worldwide also use these tools to assess corporate sustainability.
Digging into the JUST Capital methodology exposes two more fundamental errors in how it considers companies’ responsibilities to stakeholders. First, its definition of “just” derives from public opinion surveys of Americans. The democratic intention behind this crowdsourced approach may sound good on the surface, but polling data is notoriously biased and isn’t appropriate for assessing the efficacy of different corporate practices. This is particularly so in an age when much public information is filtered through corporate marketing and PR. This might explain why nine of JUST’s top 10 companies are technology firms, despite growing questions about the real impact these corporations have on society.
A day in advance of the announcement of the recent list, JUST issued a statement that it was withholding the “JUST Seal” from Facebook due to recent media controversies and would investigate further. Really? Is that it? Is the high-tech industry more “just” than other industries, or are Americans’ ideas about “just” business practices biased toward high-tech? The same survey given in Europe or China would likely deliver dramatically different results.
Second, JUST relies on information voluntarily supplied by corporations themselves. Yet significant research has shown that self-reported social and environmental data is susceptible to “greenwashing,” a phenomenon where companies try to burnish their reputation by aligning with social and environmental initiatives—yet don’t follow through in their actual behavior.
Take Marriott’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. Despite publicly signaling virtuous behavior by signing the Business Roundtable statement, the company acted unjustly, laying off a significant percentage of its U.S. employees while paying $160 million in dividends to shareholders and increasing its CEO’s salary. Last year Marriott was part of the JUST 100, and ranked second in the restaurant and leisure industry (this year its ranking is 170).
B Corporations can’t greenwash because they are legally obliged to put stakeholder principles at their core. The B Impact Assessment is designed by an independent committee of international experts and focused on facts and data, not PR and selective self-reporting. B Corps aim to provide social and environmental impact, not just deliver profits to investors.
Some examples: Clothing brand Eileen Fisher has a “repair and care” program so that customers can increase the life of their products and keep fixable items out of landfills. Greyston Bakery practices “open hiring” to provide economic opportunities to marginalized populations, such as the formerly incarcerated. Participant, producer of Oscar-winning films such as Green Book and American Factory, aims to inspire social change through film and media.
By factoring in underlying business models, employing objective third-party standards, and holding companies accountable to those standards, the B Corp model is helping build a more sustainable and equitable capitalism.
And B Corps are increasingly getting noticed. In a revealing moment during the Big Tech congressional hearings on anticompetitive practices in July, Maryland Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin asked the “Big Four”—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook—CEOs if they had considered becoming B Corps. Met with silence, Raskin concluded, “Okay, I take it the answer is no.”
As consumers learn more about holding companies genuinely accountable, corporate bosses will need a better answer than silence.
Christopher Marquis is the Samuel C. Johnson professor in sustainable global enterprise at Cornell University and author of Better Business: How the B Corp Movement Is Remaking Capitalism.


fortune--2020-10-24--Are America’s twenty-somethings doomed to become a lost generation?

America’s youngest workers started the year with a rare opportunity to slingshot their careers in the hottest job market in decades.
They’ll end 2020 facing some of the nation’s bleakest employment prospects and the most volatile job market ever for recent college graduates.
The unemployment rate for young people age 20 to 24 was 12.5% in September, the highest among adults. Joblessness for them peaked at nearly 26% at the height of the pandemic in April—quadruple the level two months earlier—a bigger jump than in any previous recession back to the 1940.
Although the overall U.S. labor market is gradually improving, it remains far below its pre-pandemic health. Jobless claims fell to 787,000 in the week ended Oct. 17 at the same time that the number of Americans on extended unemployment benefits rose, according to Labor Department data.
Economists say the longer that young people are forced to delay their careers, the worse their prospects will be in the future to hold a job, accumulate wealth, or even get married or start a family.
For Tessa Filipczyk, this year was supposed to springboard her career in marine and coastal science. Graduating in June from the University of California at Davis, Filipczyk, 22, had applied for jobs related to ocean conservation, marine plant research and climate change advocacy. But none of those have panned out.
Now, she’s tutoring three children she used to babysit and it’s just eight hours of work a week.
“I was like ‘OK, I’m going to find a job; I’m going to work for a year and then I’m going to go to grad school,’” said Filipczyk, who’s living with her parents in Burlingame, California. “That all just got swept under the rug by Covid.”
Long-run potential
The labor market of 2020 is a gallery of shattered expectations and the fate of young people like Filipczyk could stifle the long-run potential for the economy, which needs a growing labor force to expand.
“There is a structure to the labor market — if you miss the entrance, how do you get back in?” said Julia Coronado, founder of MacroPolicy Perspectives LLC. “If you veer off the career path by necessity, how do you get back into the pipeline?”
The dramatic swings in unemployment this time around for adults in their early 20s illustrate how volatile the job market is for graduates and non-graduates alike.
For recent college graduates, unemployment during the pandemic peaked at 20% in June, the highest of any age group with at least a bachelor’s degree, Labor Department data show. That compares with a 13% peak in the recovery following the last recession.
To be sure, workers under the age of 20 saw an even bigger spike in unemployment rates and young people typically always get hit hard during a downturn.
The recession’s impact on young people could have political ramifications. First-time voters are an important group ahead of November’s presidential election.
About two-thirds of voters age 18 to 29 preferred former Vice President Joe Biden, while 56% disapproved of how President Donald Trump is handling the economy, according to a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist College poll conducted Oct. 8-13.
Long periods of unemployment, or working part-time gigs or temporarily in jobs outside their desired fields, can jeopardize young professionals’ future salary increases and opportunities for them to build key relationships.
“They take jobs that will help them live and pay the bills, and when times get better they try and switch over to a preferred career path,” said Ernie Tedeschi, a policy economist at Evercore ISI. “They haven’t built the skills and the professional networks and that puts them at a persistent professional disadvantage.”
During prior recessions, recent graduates were able to build connections through coffees and other in-person networking events. But that’s more difficult during a global pandemic. Otherwise-normal parts of job hunting, like interviewing in person, are also more complicated.
The longer the pandemic drags on, the larger the backlog of young people, according to Economic Policy Institute senior economist Elise Gould. Older workers could take jobs that would typical go to entry-level applicants, Gould said.
‘Left out’
Employers “don’t necessarily even have to pay more to get workers with more experience,” Gould said. “So those young workers may be left out.”
Job seekers who face high unemployment rates at the start of their careers may endure lower salaries during the first decade of their professional lives, said Jesse Rothstein, an economist and professor at the University of California at Berkeley who recently wrote a paper about the impact on college graduates in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Employment rates for those who graduated college in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis remained significantly lower over the past decade compared with older workers, Rothstein found. The last recession also prompted many young people to go back to school, while others changed professions frequently.
Zainab Ghadiyali, 35, from San Francisco, is a case in point. After graduating in 2009 with a degree in chemistry, she struggled to find a research job before eventually landing a position at a nonprofit. She later went back to school to study computer science.
Now, after working eight years in tech, she’s taking a career break entirely. She’s writing a blog and pursuing other hobbies before deciding her next move.
“Getting rejected constantly and being in that emotion was pretty hard,” Ghadiyali said of her early post-grad challenges. “Learning how to write code was far easier.”


fortune--2020-10-24--Americans are frantically buying military gear before the election

Conflict is on America’s streets in 2020, and “tactical apparel” has become a lifestyle industry serving militarized law-enforcement agents and the freelance gunmen who emulate them. Less than two weeks before Election Day, orders are rolling in.
Since last year, online purchases have driven a 20-fold jump in sales of goods like the $220 CM-6M gas mask — resistant to bean-bag rounds — for Mira Safety of Austin, Texas.
“It doesn’t matter who gets elected,” founder Roman Zrazhevskiy said of his new customers. “They think that no matter who wins, Biden or Trump, there are going to be people who are upset about the result.”
Not long ago — perhaps a generation — dressing like you’re going to war was for the veteran who never quite made it back from Vietnam or the angry young men who obsessed over gas masks and combat boots at the military surplus store. (Every American town seemed to have one, and only one.)
A shift became apparent with this spring’s Black Lives Matter protests and bitterly resented pandemic lockdowns. Now the gear is everywhere, from camouflage-clad antifa supporters to right-wing extremists who appeared at Michigan’s capitol even after men were arrested in a plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
In some suburban and rural settings, it’s become everyday wear. A retail chain called 5.11 Tactical, which traces its roots to a friend of President Donald Trump’s adult sons, is even trying to turn the survivalist look into a fashionable national brand. It’s racking up annual sales of almost $400 million with stores in places including Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Across the country, gun and ammunition sales have surged as well.
“It’s evidence of what many people have been expressing concern about for the last six months — the stress associated with the pandemic, a frustration or anger about various government mitigation efforts and a belief that those efforts are infringing on their individual liberties,” said Elizabeth Neumann, a former assistant secretary for threat prevention at the Department of Homeland Security.
Tactical gear speaks “to a form of militaristic patriotism, a way for them to find their identities,” said Neumann, who resigned this year over what she described as the Trump administration’s failure to address domestic threats.
Half the orders at Gladiator Solutions come from civilians, a big change from years when law enforcement was the major customer, said Matt Materazo, founder of the Danville, California, company.
“We’ve seen a big uptick coming out of New York, New Jersey, Illinois — not just those states but Chicago, Manhattan, Queens and San Francisco,” he said. “We never did business with folks from San Francisco.”
His biggest seller is a $220 body-armor plate meant to withstand bullets fired from an AK-47.
Before the pandemic, 5.11 Tactical, based in Irvine, California, was opening two stores a month, drawing customers for “Always Be Ready” events akin to cooking demonstrations at Williams Sonoma. Amid racks of military-style boots, pants and vests, the classes taught self defense, trauma care and “everyday/concealed carry.”
Unexpectedly high consumer sales maintained growth during lockdowns, according to Compass Diversified Holdings Inc., a Westport, Connecticut-based company that owns 5.11 Tactical among a portfolio that also includes Ergobaby infant carriers.
Same-store sales including e-commerce rose 10.5% in the second quarter after 7.5% growth in the first quarter, Chief Operating Officer Pat Maciariello told analysts on a conference call in July.
‘Preparedness Mindset’
The “increased preparedness mindset” is one reason 5.11 Tactical is potentially “transformational,” Maciariello said.
More evidence of a maturing industry: Buyers connect in online forums to discuss the best gear, compare prices and complain when companies rip them off. Megan Squire, a professor at North Carolina’s Elon University, has monitored extremist-group members who lay ballistic vests flat and post pictures, like so-called unboxing videos popular on YouTube. In one post, she said, an enthusiast mocked another user for buying armor that didn’t adequately cover his vital organs.
The 500,000-member U.S. Concealed Carry Association, which says it is “dedicated to helping responsibly armed Americans prepare for the before, during, and after of a self-defense incident,” has seen membership explode. The group is signing up members four times faster than a year ago, said Tim Schmidt, the president. For his part, he recommends against buying ballistic vests.
“You’re preparing yourself for a situation you shouldn’t be in,” Schmidt said. “There’s no reason to actively insert yourself into a violent situation.”
Tactical-gear companies are benefiting from a rush of citizens joining armed groups, some tied to anti-government or White supremacist factions.
“We’ve seen a large increase since April — it’s only getting bigger,” said Josh Ellis, owner of MyMilitia.com, which allows users to find groups near them. The fastest-growing, four-month-old Angry Viking, has signed up 1,500 members and has “thousands” waiting to join, according to leader Dylan Stevens, a 41-year-old from Houston who was a personal trainer until Covid-19 hit.
In September, when social-justice protesters converged on the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Stevens wore a black bulletproof vest, slung a semi-automatic rifle across his chest and joined others from his group. He said he’s told members that at the polls Nov. 3, they should wear civilian clothes and report suspicious activity to the police — unless an innocent person is getting attacked; then they’re allowed to “engage.”
MyMilitia.com is full of posts from newcomers seeking advice, with lengthy forums dissecting the pros and cons of tactical gear. “PREP FOR WAR THIS NOVEMBER,” one poster says, linking to DamascusGear, which sells body armor.
Trump Ties
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, has featured in the advertising of various brands. A gun enthusiast raising what he called an “Army for Trump” to watch polls, Trump Jr. drew criticism for appearing in July promotions for a Utah rifle maker owned by a member of The Order, a polygamist sect deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Trump Jr. later said, “I barely even know them.”)
Trump Jr. and his brother, Eric, have hunted and fished at the Montana lodge of the former owner of 5.11 Tactical, Dan Costa. An entrepreneur from Modesto, California, Costa owned the company when it went from selling a single pant worn by FBI trainees to becoming the first national “tactical apparel” brand. Costa sold a majority stake in 2007.
His new company, First Tactical, which merged with a Florida maker of body armor, Point Blank Enterprises, expects sales of more than $20 million this year, up from $9 million last year.
“It’s wear and tear,” Costa said. “The police are busy right now.”


fortune--2020-10-25--Running is the best strategy for staying productive while WFH

When second stimulus checks could arrive if Congress reaches a deal

Working from home is hard. Running helps—a lot.
At least it helps me. I don’t presume to advise anyone, but I’m willing to tell my story when asked. (And I was asked by my editor.) As a devoted runner for many years, I’m finding it more valuable than ever during the pandemic.
I’m not an elite runner. I’ve never run a marathon. My routine—subject to disruption, like all routines—is five miles before breakfast, six days a week. No more, no less. I’m not fast. On a flat route that run takes me 44 minutes, which is pretty pokey.
Here’s what I’ve found: On days that I run, my mind is sharper, my mood is sunnier, and my judgment is sounder. I have more energy, not less. All of that is in line with the extensive research on the benefits of exercise. I’ve also found a benefit you don’t read much about: Because I’m burning a lot of calories—not just while running, but also because running speeds up one’s metabolism through the day—I can eat a lot without gaining weight. And I really like eating.
I’m finding the benefits even greater in the pandemic because working from home increases the risks of becoming depressed, bored, and whatever is the clinical term for stir-crazy. Running gets me out of the house, which might not otherwise be necessary for days. I run outdoors in virtually all weather, and as a National Outdoor Leadership School instructor was quoted as saying, “Everyone is happier outdoors.” In the semi-rural area where I live I rarely see other humans on my run, but I do see deer, foxes, owls, black squirrels, and wild turkeys. Just experiencing a world outside my home and my head is beneficial, and in this pandemic you can go a long time without experiencing such a world.
The benefits of running in the pandemic may be far greater than the ones I can feel. Researchers from the University of Arizona note that while exercise is beneficial in many ways, what may be especially valuable “during this pandemic is its ability to both enhance immune defense and mitigate the deleterious effects of stress on immunity.” Specifically, “there is evidence that exercise can protect the host from many types viral infection.” Their conclusion: “It is imperative that we strive to maintain recommended exercise levels during this Covid-19 pandemic.”
Sometimes, when the crush of work is especially heavy, I skip my run for a day or two or three. I usually wonder in retrospect if I saved any time. Running jump-starts my brain, so I’ve typically done a good deal of work by the time I get home. I write and edit articles in my head. But when I don’t run, my brain doesn’t wake up until an hour after the rest of me.
Runners do hurt themselves, but even that can have a silver lining if it forces me to make changes with long-term benefits. In the spring I was running a hilly course, which punishes the knees and hips. When I started to hurt, I altered the course to eliminate some of the hills and focused on improving my form. (Key thoughts: Emphasize the arch in the lower back and look ahead, not down at the road.) Today my posture is better than it has ever been—and feels better—all day long.
Research says most of the physical benefits I get from running 30 miles a week are not much greater than if I ran 10 miles a week. But research also shows that while exercise may yield diminishing returns, it never entirely stops helping. Cleveland Clinic findings from 2018 showed that there is no ceiling on the benefits of exercise.
Frankly, I don’t care much about the findings. The benefits from running that I can feel are good enough. Now more than usual, I’m grateful I can do it.


fortune--2020-10-25--In must-win Florida, an economic rebound gives Trump a shot

Florida’s economic picture has been as murky as President Donald Trump’s odds of winning the state next month, but the outlook for both is brightening.
Florida, with 29 electoral votes, has backed the presidential victor every year since 1996 and is accordingly often viewed as a “must-win” state. Coronavirus cases and deaths have been declining lately after a summer surge, leading businesses to reopen and begin rehiring. The economy’s improving trajectory looked to benefit Trump, even if former Vice President Joe Biden’s support increased in late September. Then came a rash of layoff announcements at Walt Disney Co. and Universal Orlando Resort in Central Florida and American Airlines in Miami, clouding the picture once again.
“At least some more voters are now thinking about who will be better prepared to lead an economic recovery,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida. “To the degree voters think like that, it benefits Trump.”
The economy ranks first among issues in several Florida likely voter polls, with respondents favoring Trump over Biden in polls by Reuters/Ipsos and Quinnipiac University. The president is expected to campaign today in Republican-leaning parts of the Sunshine State, stopping this afternoon in The Villages, a large retirement community in central Florida, before an evening rally in the Panhandle city of Pensacola, according to his campaign website.
Trump’s campaign has to hope that Florida’s voters see the recent economic momentum and look past his handling of the virus that critics say caused the recession, said Kevin Wagner, political science professor at Florida Atlantic University.
“Republicans are much more willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt,” Wagner said. “But Democrats are less willing to do so, and a problem for the president is it appears many independents are less willing to do so.”
Long Lines
There are signs that point to a fledgling economic rebound in Florida.
Lines at the Magic Kingdom, the 49-year-old bedrock of Orlando’s economy, had grown surprisingly long by early this month. The plunging Seven Dwarfs Mine Train coaster required a 70-minute wait at one point on Oct. 2, although some pre-pandemic lines stretched past 150 minutes.
Florida’s struggle with coronavirus has eased since mid-summer, with new seven-day average cases dropping to around 3,200 a day from a peak of almost 12,000 daily in July, although they’ve rebounded some recently. Trump’s standing in the polls has risen since trailing by 8 points in midsummer. Biden still is 2.1 points ahead in RealClearPolitics’ average of state polls after pulling away slightly in recent days.
Meantime, Florida’s labor market is less bleak than it had been this summer. The jobless rate is down to 7.6% in September from 11.4% two months before, according to recent federal data. The Orlando area is a notable exception with its 9.8% unemployment.
Diners also are eating out more frequently in the Sunshine State than elsewhere, helping to propel the recovery. Governor Ron DeSantis is trying to further juice up economy while infuriating critics, by allowing restaurants last month to open without capacity restrictions.
Restaurants there are now seating about 60% of the customers they were a year ago, beating the national level, according to a seven-day average of bookings on reservation service OpenTable. More than 75% of diners have returned in the Tampa area, OpenTable data show.
Senior Vote Key
Both campaigns are heavily targeting two large voting blocs there, Hispanics and seniors. Floridians age 65 and older supported Trump over Hillary Clinton four years ago by a 17-point margin and helped him win the state. Yet, Biden had a 15-point lead among seniors in Florida in this month’s Quinnipiac poll.
In Pinellas County, where Democrats have a 1-point lead over Republicans in voter registration rolls, April Thanos bristles at Trump’s boasting about the pre-pandemic economy despite its decade-long record expansion.
“It wasn’t his economic upturn, it was left over from Obama,” said the 71-year-old Democrat, a city council member in tiny Gulfport. “He did nothing to help it. The trade stuff with China hurt the farmers. And he’s an idiot if he thinks when you put a tariff on something, it costs the originating country money. It costs the end user.”
Trump has made more headway with Florida’s Hispanics, running ads touting wage and job gains under his watch, including the campaign spot “Subio Los Salarios” or “Raised the Salaries.” A September poll of likely Miami-Dade County voters showed that, while Biden had a comfortable lead in the majority Hispanic county, it fell short of Clinton’s lead in four years ago. A Democratic pollster, Fernand Amandi, urged the Biden campaign to heed the results, because Democrats traditionally run up the score in liberal South Florida to offset weakness in conservative north Florida.
In Osceola County, a suburban Orlando community reeling with 13.3% unemployment, Emilio Ruiz owns a coffee kiosk in a mall popular with Puerto Rican seniors who come in to play dominoes. He sees Trump as the best bet to bring the economy back, even if his own sales are down 45% since the pandemic started.
“I don’t blame him at all, because I don’t think any world leader got to manage this situation the way everyone wanted to,” said Ruiz, 30, vice chairman of a local Hispanic Republican group. “Now more than ever, we need someone who can manage the economy. He did pretty well for the first three years.”


fortune--2020-10-25--The cofounder of underwear startup Parade on why the era of Victoria’s Secret is over

This is an installment of Startup Year One, a special series of interviews with startup founders about the major lessons they have learned in the immediate aftermath of their businesses’ first year of operation.
Cami Téllez, 22, has been working in startups and venture capital since she was 17. While studying English and art history at Columbia University in New York City, Téllez met Jack DeFuria in the local tech scene, and the two decided to go into business together. Téllez dropped out of Columbia in January 2020 to work on her latest venture, underwear brand Parade, full-time.
“As two 22-year-olds, we were both drawn to brands that have a cultural impact for Gen Z,” says Téllez. “Parade is a bold and expressive brand that’s seeking to rewrite the American underwear story.”
“Cami so innately understands the Gen Z consumer,” says Neil Blumenthal, cofounder and co-CEO of Warby Parker and an investor in Parade. “By building a value brand with a bold commitment to community, I see a future where Parade is the go-to underwear brand for all women. I’m excited to be along for the ride.”
Fortune recently spoke with cofounder and CEO Téllez about how the first few months are going and what the company plans to do next.
The following interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Cami Téllez of Parade. Courtesy of Parade
Fortune: From ThirdLove to Everlane, smaller and independent retailers have really revolutionized the market for undergarments, effectively forcing legacy brands like Victoria’s Secret to completely rethink not only what they sell but how they sell it. What inspired the launch of Parade? What makes it stand out?
Téllez: Jack and I really believe that brands are powerful when they write cultural scripts. I grew up going to the mall, going to Victoria’s Secret, trying on those add-two-cups bras. The days of Victoria’s Secret’s cultural script have come to an end, and now, the whole category is in crisis.
We felt that underwear had this massive untapped potential, and it was time for a new brand to come and rewrite the American underwear story by standing for social good, sustainability, and believing that underwear at its core is about sexiness, not self-expression.
Retailers have taken quite a hit during the pandemic. But Parade just surpassed a huge milestone in selling 500,000 pairs of underwear within the first year. What has it been like running a direct-to-consumer clothing business in this economic climate? What has it been like to work with supply chain partners and develop the initial collection?
[The majority] of women’s underwear in the U.S. is sold offline because this market is still owned by a few massive conglomerates. When quarantine happened, Parade’s rate of growth increased because we were perfectly positioned as an online value brand.
During economic downturns, people want to vote with their dollars more than ever. Our strong community of thousands of ambassadors and customers ensured that we didn’t just weather the storm, we came out stronger. Our revenue increased over 500% since the start of the year, and we have a clear path to profitability mid–next year.
‘We’re building the next big American underwear company and we know the path to get there is to continue listening to our community,’ says Téllez. Courtesy of Parade
That said, what has it been like to secure funding for Parade? Is it primarily self-funded, VC-backed, or some mixture of both?
We’ve raised a total of $8 million in funding since launching in October 2019. We’re backed by some of the best consumer investors in the world, including Lerer Hippeau, Greycroft, Cassius, and Vice Ventures. We’re also backed by many of the founders of “generation one of direct-to-consumer,” including the founders of Bonobos, Away, Warby Parker, and Casper. We’re lucky to have a team of investors and operators backing Parade that believe the best people to create a company for Generation Z is Gen Z themselves.
Parade is also now expanding with a limited collection of scarves. Why scarves, in particular, and will Parade be expanding to more clothing products in the future?
Parade is on its path to becoming a full-stack underwear company. We’re lucky to have some of the very best product talent in the world from Lululemon, Adidas, and Nike working with me to reimagine the experience of skin-contact clothes through sustainable fabric innovation and dynamic design. We’ll be expanding to three new, much-awaited categories next year. We don’t just want to own her underwear bottoms; we want to own the entire drawer, from the underwear she sleeps in and sweats in to her lingerie.
Post-pandemic and five years down the road, where do you see Parade in the market?
Our thousands of ambassadors and hundreds of thousands of customers cocreated the fabric of Parade, and they serve as feedback and inspiration for where we’re going next as we stay in the vanguard of the category. It’s easy to build a brand that’s relevant for two or three years, but to make Parade a brand that’s culturally important for 10 years we know begins and ends with listening to our community.


fortune--2020-10-25--Former Facebook employee’s new book exposes Big Tech’s dirty secrets

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The U.S. presidential race is a near dead heat , this A.I .
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Shortly after Mark Luckie left his job as a manager at Facebook in 2018, he revealed in a blog post an internal memo he sent to colleagues before he left. The topic? How Facebook fails its Black employees. Now, nearly two years later, he’s written a lightly fictionalized version of how Big Tech companies operate and the burden they put on some of their employees.
The novel, Valley Girls, tells the story through the lens of four main characters working in the communications department of tech firm, Elemynt, which Luckie said has elements of companies like Google, Uber, and Facebook. The story starts with optimism and gets progressively worse as the characters—all women—are put in increasingly compromising positions at work. Luckie said he wrote the book as fiction partly to protect his sources, many of whom had signed nondisclosure agreements with their employers.
“This is very much a part of tech people don’t see or hear about,” Luckie said in an interview. “When scandals arrive, they think of CEOs and executives. They rarely think about the people crafting the message around it.”
Luckie has worked for companies including Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter, in various roles that aid with influencer and media partnerships. During his time at the tech companies he said he watched young ambitious professionals, many of whom were women, join the communication teams only to face situations in which they might have to “hide” company information or “negotiate” their way out of it even if they ultimately disagreed with the company.
With two journalism degrees and professional experience at major media companies, Luckie wanted to write again following his exit from the tech industry. He still has lingering worries about how Big Tech companies operate and the very real-world consequences, like live-streamed shootings on their services and hate groups using their tools for coordinated attacks.
Luckie recognized his privilege as a man who now had the freedom to stand up for others, and that’s ultimately what led him to write his new book. “The thing I kept thinking about is if I have to endure a little trauma to relieve others of theirs, then I’m all for it,” he said.
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
Fortune: How many of the stories in this book are true?
Luckie: Everything in this book is either a mashup or direct reference to something that has happened in real life in tech companies, though not one in particular. Readers who are very familiar with tech are going to recognize where these references come from.
I talked to about 40 women. Some were small conversations, some were large. But it was to understand this world from a female perspective, everything from sexual harassment to what it’s like to have feminine products in the bathroom. The biggest question I asked them is, how accurate is this as a representation of what you go through?
The name you chose for the book has already received backlash. Why did you choose Valley Girls as the title?
“Valley Girls” is a reference to the valley girls of the ’80s who were these supposedly dumb, ditzy blondes who hung at the mall. Even before I wrote a word of the book, I was thinking about how the term references how women in tech are treated as not as intelligent as men.
Having a book about women that references “girls” in the title would be controversial, but it encapsulates the sense of the book, which is the challenges they face. I had to prepare myself mentally for the kind of blowback it would receive. But what I came to realize is the title is the least controversial part of the book.
Why did you choose to focus on the experience of women?
What’s most important is this book isn’t exclusively about women’s experiences. This is the lens through which the book is presented. It’s more about how different types of women and men and people from various races and sexual orientations and abilities intersect and the friction that that causes.
The reason why I wrote the memo [upon my departure from Facebook] is because every week people reached out saying, “I had this problem with managers and the work I do.” Most of those conversations were with women. So I incorporated those experiences in this. I know this book would’ve had another dimension if it was a book about women by a woman. But I hope this is a springboard for people of all genders to tell their stories.
What did you learn while writing this book?
The biggest lesson I learned is that I was not alone in the experiences I went through, and that there are many shared stories across various demographics. It was also understanding just how bad tech companies are from the inside. When you put all this info together in 150,000 words, the ethics are quite questionable from the employee level to the CEO level.
I’ve been in a lot of rooms and have been privy to conversations about user suppression, interactions with government officials, hiding company secrets, manipulation of employees, and internal discussions. I’ve kept secrets even from family and friends about what I witnessed. And I decided I’m more obligated to making society less dysfunctional than propping up tech companies.
What might people be most surprised to hear?
People will be surprised to hear a lot. The many amenities that tech employees are afforded from childcare to spa treatments to in-flight manicures. The vending machines with free tech—keyboards, mice, headphones, things that cost hundreds of dollars are there for the taking.
As the book goes on those amenities are used to get people to work as much as possible and quell employee protest. Because if a company is giving you everything you need, if there’s a wine bar around the corner and an arcade, how bad could it really be? But there’s everything from discussions about user verification to the effects of the exploitation of celebrity culture to sexual harassment and assault.
What do you hope this book does for people who read it?
This is about sharing the torch of knowledge, putting it into the hands of people, and letting them do what they want, whether it’s to stay on the platform or not. For government and civil organizations, it’s a guide to help them hold tech companies accountable. It’s a guide for reporters and journalists to better understand the inner workings of the companies.
This is going to be useful for people who are not familiar with tech to understand what’s going on inside these companies. That’s who I really wrote it for—the average individual.
What is the fix for these problems you explore at Big Tech companies?
The fix is when tech companies’ bottom line is affected by regulation or users leaving the platform. That’s when the change is really going to happen. Right now, they have no incentive to change.