💻24/7 Work People - The Neal Ungerleider Newsletter
Non-Linear Workdays + Training AIs To Post On Reddit + PBR's Cannabis Drink + More!
One of my favorite topics these days is the future of office work. Not favorite as in this is going to be awesome, but favorite as in this is worth paying attention to.
With that said, Dropbox recently published a long blog post on their new Virtual First work policy which I’m still unpacking. Like many other tech companies of their size, Dropbox managed the transition to remote work much easier than other firms. Dropbox is also in a cohort of companies (Microsoft, Salesforce—looking right at you) that are set to make massive amounts of money from their customers not returning to their office.
Buried in Dropbox’s blog post is some interesting wording about “Non-Linear Workdays”:
We’re embracing what we call “non-linear workdays.” We’re setting core collaboration hours with overlap between time zones, and encouraging employees to design their own schedules beyond that. As our workforce grows more distributed, this will help balance collaboration with needs for individual focus. We want to prioritize impact and results instead of hours worked.
Which, of course, is a very productivity gospel way of saying You Will Work Around The Clock.
It’s important to note that Dropbox isn’t the first company to popularize the Non-Linear Workday terminology (I believe it’s GitLab, but email me if I’m wrong) and definitely not the first to promote that philosophy.
We live in an time where smartphones and remote work have popularized the idea—at least for a certain slice of the white-collar knowledge and managerial workforce—of being on the clock for 10 or 11 hours a day. COVID’s changes will just accelerate that further.
With, as always, TBD effects for society. Hmm…
New Futures
I’ve been thinking a lot about Sophie Aubrey’s look at how QAnon believers infiltrated the wellness movement. TLDR: What happens when a conspiracy theory mutates into what’s basically a religious heresy that helps believers make sense of a confusing world? And when the world isn’t run by secret organized conspiracies but rather by very flawed and shortsighted leaders, what happens then? And what happens when conventional social media influencers adopt said religious heresy? Also see: The aesthetics of conspiracy theories on Instagram.
Security expert Martin Hron at Avast managed a successful proof-of-concept hack of an internet-connected coffee maker. Remote takeover of a coffee maker so you can make it spew water, make loud noises and demand a ransom? Why the heck not.
The Berkman-Klein Center (obligatory I’m-affiliated-with-them disclosure here) has published a US Elections Disinformation Tabletop Exercise Package which is an extremely useful way of brainstorming what could go right/wrong with the US presidential election process.
One more sign of things (slowly, slowly, slowly) returning to a healthier, more enjoyable normal in the United States: Fans attending Major League Games again.
Advertising/Marketing/PR:
Holly Ellis at the Freelancers Union makes a compelling case for why writers need to understand SEO.
Activist Nandini Jammi looks under the hood of brand safety programs on Twitter.
The Wayfair-Qanon fiasco and why brands now have to worry about online disinformation. Growing up in 1990s NYC, I remember the Tropical Fantasy rumors—basically, that drinking a local budget-priced soda would make you sterile. The old 1990s rumormongering took place by word of mouth; now, of course, word of mouth can be weaponized via social media amplification to be much more damaging to brands. So it goes.
Adweek’s Robert Klara looks at how Los Angeles coffee shop chain Alfred turned their cup sleeves into an advertising revenue generator. Truly interesting case study of how a brand turned a strategic differentiator (Large # of consumers working in the entertainment industry) into a secondary revenue source.
Migrating an iconic alcohol brand over to cannabis makes sense, which is why Pabst Blue Ribbon-branded cannabis seltzer is now a thing.
Media:
In a good old fashioned bit of corporate synergy, Fox News is starting a book imprint via similarly Rupert Murdochy HarperCollins.
A new study in Nature finds evidence that non-aspirational posting on Facebook correlates with more satisfaction with one’s life.
Print magazine industry continues to be brutal and terrible with Bonnier selling iconic magazines to a private equity firm including Saveur, Popular Science and Field and Stream.
Quartz is up for sale. I love Quartz and the 2020 media economy is brutal; these two facts can coexist at the same time.
Continuing with the brutal media economy theme, holy crap Disney is restructuring around streaming content.
Someone trained an OpenAI-based bot to post original replies on AskReddit. The bot’s replies were coherent even though there were a few tells they were AI generated. Scary precedent but someone was bound to do it sooner or later. We’ll see how widespread this becomes.
Nicole Laporte over at my old employers Fast Company published a great article on why Hollywood self-censors in order to sell films in China. Money quote from Judd Apatow: “A lot of these giant corporate entities have business with countries around the world—Saudi Arabia or China, and they’re just not going to criticize them […] And they’re not going to let their shows criticize them or they’re not going to air documentaries that go deep into truthful areas because they make so much money.” See also NBA-China relations.
Speaking of that, happy 25th birthday Fast Company!
Tech:
Just a reminder that digital surveillance is everywhere and the IRS will happily buy user geolocation info that data brokers harvest from freemium mobile games.
Speaking of mobile games, it’s noteworthy that the Coalition for App Fairness—the US’ first lobbying group/trade association for mobile apps—launched this month. Noteworthy both for the fact that apps are now a mature enough category to have lobbying needs distinct from the rest of the software industry… and for the fact that app publishers face a two-pronged regulatory approach both with government and the Apple/Google app store gatekeepers.
Gmail is rebranding, and so are Google’s other productivity tools! Hello Google Workspace.
AT&T quietly announced that they are no longer connecting new DSL customers. This has big ramifications for customers in the 72% of AT&T territory which still doesn’t have fiber internet.
Wired’s Juli Fraga writes a little bit about Twitch’s self-help and personal improvement subcultures, complete with obligatory Jean Grae shoutout. Also, Twitch as the Uber of content creation.
CB Insights put together a huge motherlode of early pitch decks from 21 startups before they became billion-dollar companies.
Venmo’s launching their own credit card with up to 3% cash back and lots of sweet, sweet proprietary user data to leverage.
Healthcare workers from seven countries show how they set up their phone homescreens.
Visualizing 25 years of the Gartner Hype Cycle.
Fun:
Meet the Coco de Mer, a rare fruit that looks exactly like, you know…
How to visualize the decision trees in Choose Your Own Adventure books.
The Nap Ministry is dedicated to “the liberating power of naps.”
1980s fast food chain Rax self-imploded thanks to a series of bad business decisions that included some of the worst television commercials ever made. Did your corporate leadership ever have to make a 15 minute video justifying your marketing decisions to furious franchisees? These folks did.
Things I’ve Enjoyed Lately:
This profile of the Field Museum’s new dinosaur curator, Jingmai O’Connor, who named a fossilized bird she discovered after Bad Religion singer Greg Graffin.
The most New York real estate story ever told: The New York Review of Books’ new offices are in Milton Glaser’s former townhouse which used to be a Tammany Hall clubhouse.
That’s it for this issue. Email me here and please don’t hesitate to contact if I can be of assistance. Thank you for taking the time to read this damned thing.
Love and coffee,
Neal
About This Newsletter: Neal Ungerleider is a strategic communications consultant who works with advertising/PR agencies and in-house clients. He worked as a journalist in a previous life. Neal’s newsletter focuses on marketing, media and communications news.
Follow Neal on Twitter, connect on LinkedIn and learn more about his services at nealungerleider.com. You can contact him at neal@nealungerleider.com.