Christopher Mims

I don’t know that algorithms are, themselves, the root of the problems that we have in our labor markets these days. But I do think that management by algorithm facilitates an additional level of remove between management and frontline workers. And whenever you have that, whether it’s a geographic or a communications remove, or in this case abstracting people away through software and scheduling algorithms, there’s a danger that the different layers of an organization just lose touch with one another. And that saps the humanity and the compassion required to run most businesses sustainably in an economy where everyone is an at-will worker and there’s a shortage of workers.

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