#Retail Workforce Management

[hybridpayroll]

Workers Compensation Administration Solutions

If one of your employees is injured on the job, you must track their journey, submit, report, and maintain accurate records to ensure compliance. Failure to do so can result in complex issues that could result in fines or other sanctions impacting business continuity. Workers Compensation administration and management is an integral part of our PEO offering. https://hybridpayroll.com/

[2ribu]

Automatisasi Bisnis dengan Kekuatan AI

Automatisasi bisnis telah menjadi topik utama dalam dunia usaha modern. Dengan kemajuan teknologi kecerdasan buatan (AI), perusahaan kini memiliki peluang untuk mengoptimalkan proses mereka, meningkatkan efisiensi, dan mengurangi biaya operasional. AI tidak hanya menggantikan tugas-tugas manual yang berulang tetapi juga membawa kemampuan analisis data yang canggih, prediksi yang akurat, dan…

[aarunresearcher]

United States voice biometrics market size is projected to exhibit a growth rate (CAGR) of 16.85% during 2024-2032. The increasing focus on security and the need for robust authentication methods, the rising demand in financial services, the rapid technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and the shift towards multi-factor authentication (MFA) are some of the factors propelling the market.

[beautifullache]

🦄The Sims 4🦄

🎆PATREON ONLY🎆

Steve Madden

PTO 10 days off

Steve Madden is about fashion-forward product and great people. We are proud of our talented, diverse workforce. Our employees are energized, intelligent and passionate about our business and committed to providing excellent customer service.

Cashier

Sales Associate

Stock Associate

Shoe Stylist

Sales Supervisor

Key Holder/Sales Lead Fashion Show Mall

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

Ed Hardy

PTO 10 days off

A product and master of the true, traditional craft of ink, Don Ed Hardy, "The God Father of Modern Tattoos," is an American born, internationally recognized artist. A brilliant creative who developed the potential of tattooing as a legitimate, expressive art form and is primarily responsible for its global growth over the past fifty years. His unique aesthetic and innovative techniques are still being utilized by tattoo artists today.

A product and master of the true, traditional craft of ink, Don Ed Hardy, "The God Father of Modern Tattoos," is an American born, internationally recognized artist. A brilliant creative who developed the potential of tattooing as a legitimate, expressive art form and is primarily responsible for its global growth over the past fifty years. His unique aesthetic and innovative techniques are still being utilized by tattoo artists today.

Cashier

Stock Associate

Sales Associate

Key Holder

Store Assistant Manager

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

Chanel

CHANEL is a private company and a world leader in creating, developing, manufacturing and distributing luxury products.

Founded by Gabrielle Chanel at the beginning of the last century, CHANEL offers a broad range of high-end creations, including Ready-to-Wear, Leather Goods, Fashion Accessories, Eyewear, Fragrances, Makeup, Skincare, Jewelry and Watches.

CHANEL is also renowned for its Haute Couture collections, presented twice yearly in Paris, and for having acquired a large number of specialized suppliers, collectively known as the Métiers d’Art.

CHANEL is dedicated to ultimate luxury and to the highest level of craftsmanship. It is a brand whose core values remain historically grounded on exceptional creation. As such, CHANEL promotes culture, art, creativity and “savoir-faire” throughout the world, and invests significantly in people, R&D and innovation.

At the end of 2019, CHANEL employed more than 28,000 people across the world.

Fragrance and Beauty Advisor

Fashion Advisor

Boutique Operations Specialist

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

Christian Dior

The Christian Dior group was formed through successive alliances among companies that, from generation to generation, have successfully combined traditions of excellence and creative passion with a cosmopolitan flair and a spirit of conquest. Together, these companies now make up a powerful, international Group, sharing their expertise with its newer brands and continuing to cultivate the art of growing well while transcending time, without losing their soul or their image of distinction.

Trainee

Sales Associate

Beauty Advisor

Show National Artist

Beauty Stylist

Boutique Manager

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

Giorgio Armani

Join us in our mission to passionately convey Giorgio Armani’s unique vision of timeless and natural elegance, where fashion and design provoke a confident state of being for all people by fostering beauty in the world.The Armani Group is one of the leading fashion and luxury goods groups in the world today. Our company designs, manufactures, distributes and retails fashion and lifestyle products including apparel,accessories, eyewear, watches, jewelry, home interiors, fragrances, cosmetics, chocolates, hotels and restaurants under a range of brand names: Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani and Armani Exchange.

Client Advisor

Stock Associate

Sales Supervisor

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

L'Oreal Luxe

L’Oréal Luxe opens a unique world of beauty. Its international brands incarnate all the facets of elegance and refinement in three major specializations: skin care, make-up and perfume. L’Oréal Luxe products are available at department stores, cosmetics stores, travel retail, but also own-brand boutiques and dedicated e-commerce websites.

Freelancer

Freelance Fragrance

Freelance Makeup Artist

Allow Teen

Allow Young Adult

Allow Adult

Allow Elder

DOWNLOAD

[elysiuminfra]

sometimes you find out interesting facts. in 2006, the housing bubble reached its peak, which led to the subprime mortgage crisis, which led to the recession. the cost of a house in california at the time was over 500k. currently it is closer to 800k. there are some places where housing has stayed cheaper, but in others, like california, DC, washington, it is now harder to buy a house than it was during the housing bubble. the 2008 recession was awful. so many lost their jobs. everything. but we now live in a day and a time where the value of a dollar and how it correlates with our wages is nothing like how it used to be. you could make a living doing certain jobs. now so many people have to work two jobs to make ends meet. people work while sleeping in their cars. this generation is very employed, but its not enough.

poverty and recessions have always been a societal issue with every generation in america, but this one seems weirder. it’s not that there are no jobs. it’s not that the workforce isn’t there. it’s that most jobs just aren’t enough to survive on anymore. and the most accessible jobs (retail, food service) are psychological nightmares. inhumane conditions sometimes. and it’s not for a lack of positions open either. there is a chronic understaffing problem everywhere i go. i see it all the time. and its because of the greed of large employers.

fake job openings. skeleton crews. only hiring part time so you dont have to pay benefits. fake interviews. you get the job? you have to spend the majority of your waking hours being treated like less than human. metrics metrics metrics, for people to get bonuses bigger than six months worth of pay. less money for them to waste on their employees. incentivize cruelty in managers. you are an employee. they are corporate. their decisions change your life, and you are pennies on a spreadsheet. you make us so much money! but we can’t afford to hire you full-time. i think about it all the time. hashtag retail

[tmblrplsdonutbanme]

Men Own The Fashion Industry

Sexist clothes from Walmart

Women spend 226% more on the fashion industry than men, yet they hold just 12.5% of CEO positions at major fashion companies.

Over 85% of graduating majors from top fashion schools are female, yet only 1 in 6 people employed by the fashion industry are women (Fair Trade Certified).

This makes women in the fashion industry even more disadvantaged, because the most female-concentrated jobs in fashion are in sweatshops.

The industry employs approximately 75 million factory workers worldwide, yet less than 2% earn a living wage. 90% of these workers are women.

Even in retail, where women dominate the workforce, female managers earn about 85% of what male managers do.

but only around 14% of the top 50 major fashion brands are run by women (2018)

And only around 10% of fashion executives are women, who make 83% of what male executives do (2020)

Among the world’s top 50 fashion companies, only 7 have achieved gender parity in their executive teams. Women are still dramatically underrepresented in the boardroom, holding less than 13% of board seats.

Despite many dismissing the gender gap as "a reflection on women's ambitions", Women start their fashion careers with high ambitions—even higher than men. At entry level, 70 percent of women aspire to become top executives, versus 60 percent of men.

however, despite more women graduating from fashion college than men, and women having more ambition than men, only around 10% of fashion executives are women

Even among fashion, women make 70 cents to the dollar for what every male fashion designer makes

Less than 50% of womenswear brands are designed by women, highlighting a significant male presence in creative roles.

Studies show that women in fashion leadership positions are 63% more likely to have their decisions questioned than men in similar roles. This persistent doubting of their capabilities often leads to overworking, with many feeling compelled to put in extra hours and take on additional projects just to maintain their standing.

-According to a study spearheaded by the CFDA, Glamour and others called "The Glass Runway," HR managers interviewed admitted they prioritize male candidates over female candidates when interviewing for managerial positions 

To clarify, 85% of fashion school graduates are female 70% of women in fashion school aspire to be an executive 70% of retail workers are women 90% of sweatshop laborers are women yet only 1 in 6 people employed by the fashion industry women. This means that the 90% of the 85% of fashion school graduates who dream of being a female entrepreneur in the fashion industry end up being either retail workers, underpaid fashion designers or work in a factory doing manual labor.

The Fashion Industry's Hidden Gender Pay Gap (And How It Affects Your Wellness) - Fashion Post Magazine

Beneath the Seams: The Human Toll of Fast Fashion - Earth Day

A Gender Gap: Why Do Men Still Rule the (Fashion) World? | NOT JUST A LABEL

The glass runway and gender diversity in fashion | McKinsey

39 Thought-Provoking Fashion Industry Statistics [The 2025 Outlook]

[tomorrowusa]

Those cheap clothes at Shein have a big price tag which few consumers are able to see.

This is the sound of Panyu, the neighbourhood known as the "Shein village", a warren of factories that power the world's largest fast fashion retailer. "If there are 31 days in a month, I will work 31 days," one worker told the BBC. Most said they only have one day off a month. The BBC spent several days here: we visited 10 factories, spoke to four owners and more than 20 workers. We also spent time at labour markets and textile suppliers. We found that the beating heart of this empire is a workforce sitting behind sewing machines for around 75 hours a week in contravention of Chinese labour laws. [ ... ] But even past 22:00, the sewing machines - and the people hunched over them - don't stop as more fabric arrives, in trucks so full that bolts of colour sometimes tumble onto the factory floor. "We usually work, 10, 11 or 12 hours a day," says a 49-year-old woman from Jiangxi unwilling to give her name. "On Sundays we work around three hours less." She is in an alleyway, where a dozen people are huddled around a row of bulletin boards. They are reading the job ads on the board, while examining the stitching on a pair of chinos draped over it. [ ... ] The migrant worker from Jiangxi is looking for a short-term contract - and the chinos are an option. "We earn so little. The cost of living is now so high," she says, adding that she hopes to make enough to send back to her two children who are living with their grandparents. "We get paid per piece," she explains. "It depends how difficult the item is. Something simple like a t-shirt is one-two yuan [less than a dollar] per piece and I can make around a dozen in an hour."

Let's do a little math. One Chinese Yuan = 13.81 US cents (or $0.1381) as of Monday. So if the migrant worker from Jiangxi earns CN¥ 2.00 per t-shirt (US$0.2762) and does a dozen in one hour, she is effectively earning US$3.31 per hour. For comparison, the US minimum wage was US$3.35 per hour in between 01 January 1981 and 01 April 1990.

The working hours at Shein factories are as miserable as the pay. A "standard" working day is 14 hours.

Standard working hours appear to be from 08:00 to well past 22:00, the BBC found. This is consistent with a report from the Swiss advocacy group Public Eye, which was based on interviews with 13 textile workers at factories producing clothes for Shein. They found that a number of staff were working excessive overtime. It noted the basic wage without overtime was 2,400 yuan (£265; $327) - below the 6,512 yuan the Asia Floor Wage Alliance says is needed for a "living wage". But the workers we spoke to managed to earn anywhere between 4,000 and 10,000 yuan a month. "These hours are not unusual, but it's clear that it's illegal and it violates basic human rights," said David Hachfield from the group. "It's an extreme form of exploitation and this needs to be visible." The average working week should not exceed 44 hours, according to Chinese labour laws, which also state that employers should ensure workers have at least one rest day a week.

There are other issues mentioned in the article such as the sourcing of cotton from Xinjiang where the Chinese Communist Party is committing genocide against the Uighur people.

Don't buy clothing made in sweatshops from ANY country. In the US it was sweatshop conditions at clothing manufacturers which were one of the spurs for the growth of labor unions in the early 20th century.

I would add that "fast fashion" is generally wasteful and bad for the environment. Buy clothes which are not likely to quickly become unfashionable and those which are sturdy enough to last for a while.

[pathetic-gamer]

random, deeply unscientific poll time because I'm curious how well this website reflects the overall labor force lol

before you mark "unemployed," READ THE EXPLANATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

DETAILS AND INSTRUCTIONS:

*The number listed beside each category is the number of job positions available to the total workforce, not necessarily the number of people who are actually employed.

*Not having a job does not automatically make you "unemployed." Unemployed means you are a participating member of the workforce but don't have a job currently. To be consider part of the active workforce as defined by the BLS, you MUST be ALL of the following:

16 years of age or older

residing in the 50 states or DC

available for work

actively seeking employment in the last 4 weeks

not on active duty in the military

DO NOT select unemployed unless you meet ALL of the criteria above.

Examples of not having a job but not counting as unemployed: stay-at-home parent (I know this one is a bad reflection of reality, i know i know pls dont yell at me), a full-time student not currently working, a 25 year old who hasn't applied for any jobs in over a few months, someone with a permanent or temporary disability who is either not working/seeking employment or on FMLA.

Other notes and explanation:

This is a list of all non-agriculture industries that employ 10 million or more people, based on the most recent data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The math might be way off bc I wasn't very careful lmao. If you have more than one job across more than one industry, pick the one that makes up the majority of your income.

A handful of familiar sub-industries that make up a portion of a larger industry but are less than 8 million people are listed in the "Other" category so that the much larger sub-industry can have its own line.

For example, healthcare belongs to "healthcare and public services," which is around 22M and includes childcare and social support services. Because direct healthcare delivery makes up such an enormous portion, I separated it out. The rest is fewer than 5M and thus does not get its own line, so they're included in "Other." (Insurance specifically is included in finance.)

More things included in "other":

Construction

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction

Utilities

Real-estate

[ark-inkweaving]

In Destiny We Trust (Not)

Show me, oh Destiny, where my end begins; for you laid ruin into my blood and I let rot into my soul, but you never carved damnation in my path

There are three truths to Zeno’s life: grandfather is always right; spirits and sentinels are evil; it’s his duty to hunt them. The fourth truth, the one he buried into his heart, is that he holds his best friend dearest than anything else in the world. Sweet, gentle Ike, distant and untouchable and yet the best thing that happened to him. But the spirits grow agitated in Milan. Restless, and dangerous, and Zeno is still not allowed on the field on his own. And just then, Ike and his family move back, right into the fray, into the danger. One by one, the truths come out. So do the secrets. So do the lies.

Overview

Type ⛧ Novel

Genre ⛧ Urban Fantasy

Subgenre ⛧ Magical Realism

Target Audience ⛧ Young Adult

Status ⛧ Planning

Wordcount ⛧ N/A

Contains ⛧ Romance, Families of Choice, Queer Characters and Themes, Coming of Age, Superhero/Magical Girl Inspiration

POV ⛧ Third Person, Present Tense, Single Narrator (Zeno)

Trigger Warnings ⛧ Graphic Violence, Mild Gore, Emotional Abuse, (Past) Abuse/Neglect

[characters and masterlists under cut]

Main Cast

Zeno ⛧ he/him ⛧ 18 A highschool student in his last year of an electronics course. He comes from a family of exorcists, and spends most of his free time training for combat and to help his sister when she will take over the family business. however he’s still only a reserve in the team, and less experienced people have been prioritized over him

Ike ⛧ he/him ⛧ 19 After spending his teenage years abroad and in international highschool, Zeno’s best friend is just coming back to Milan to study fashion design. he’s a novice sentinel, and is deeply interested in the study of both human and non-human magics

Diana ⛧ she/her ⛧ 20 Zeno’s older sister, a business major with plans to take over their family’s restaurant once their parents get too old. she’s currently the longest standing active exorcists, and unofficially considered the leader of their team

Stefano ⛧ he/him ⛧ 19 Diana’s boyfriend, he’s also the second longest standing active exorcists. He works in a mechanic’s shop and frequently acts very brotherly with all the younger exorcists, towards whom he’s very protective

Gaia ⛧ she/her ⛧ 20 Ike and Diana’s best friend from childhood. She’s a university student in construction engineering and very friendly, but has little to no patience for bullshit or arguments

Elia ⛧ he/him ⛧ 22 Diana’s boyfriend and the third longest standing exorcist of the team. He’s almost done with a law degree, and he is a practical guy with a strong belief in hierarchies and authority

Antonio ⛧ he/him ⛧ 74 Zeno’s grandfather and current custodian of the artifacts that allow the teens to fight as exorcists. He’s authoritative, dry and doesn’t like being disobeyed

Side Characters

Andrea ⛧ ne/nem ⛧ 17 youngest of the exorcists, they’re the kid of Stefano’s boss. they’re quite artsy and timid and they’re often doted on by the entire team

Sara ⛧ she/her⛧ 21 Diana’s friend from a highschool language club, she’s apprenticing in a construction firm as an analyst. she also occasionally helps out at the restaurant of Zeno and Diana’s parents

Matilde ⛧ she/her ⛧ 18 Stefano’s younger sister. She is also going straight into the workforce and is currently getting the certifications to work maintenance on industrial machinery

Mireia | Mia ⛧ she/her ⛧ 41 Ike’s mum, an authoritative but kind woman. She works as a sales manager for a local retail chain, and is often traveling to meet with clients

Guido ⛧ he/him ⛧ 39 Ike’s stepdad is a quiet and gentle man. He’s the one who instilled in his children a passion for magic, and he works as a Spanish language professor at Unimi

Useful Links

Taglist

Magic System ⛧ Basics | Earthen Magics

Harbingers of the Otherside

Order of the Exorcists

Writing

OC Week Day 6 ⛧ Forbidden

Ship Writing Ask

FFF301 ⛧ Torrential

Tags

#ark destiny

#siliverse

#idwtn character files

all #idwtn [character name] tags

❊

⛧ In Destiny We Trust (Not) Taglist ⛧ @elkieselkiewrites @wildweeds @mymomsaysbobcipher

[karlkellyleadershipcoaching]

Is your leadership connecting with what younger retail workers actually want? The answer affects your entire business sustainability.  

Why younger employees leave retail jobs (And How to Keep Them) 

A Gallup study found that 73% of younger workers report leaving or planning to leave their jobs due to unsustainable expectations and lack of leadership support from the companies they work for. 

Unlike previous generations, today's retail workforce is not satisfied with "that is just how retail is."

They are looking for more from their employer and their life: 

Purpose beyond profit 

Mental health recognition and support 

Growth pathways that interest them 

Quality work-life balance and boundaries 

Leaders who really care 

Retail businesses successfully managing younger workers at the moment have transformed their leadership approach. They have moved from the "tough it out" retail culture to environments where wellbeing and performance work together.

[hybridpayroll]

Ancillary Services Denver - Hybrid Payroll

What do you mean by ancillary services?

Ancillary services refer to supplemental or secondary services that support or enhance a primary service or product. They are often essential for the overall effectiveness or convenience of the main service but are not the core offering themselves.

Examples of Ancillary Services by Industry:

Healthcare:

Diagnostic services like lab tests or imaging (X-rays, MRIs).

Physical therapy, pharmacy, or rehabilitation services.

Ambulance or home healthcare services.

Travel and Hospitality:

Airport shuttle services or baggage handling.

Room service, spa treatments, or guided tours.

Travel insurance or concierge services.

Technology and Software:

Technical support or training programs.

Cloud storage or data backup services.

Maintenance and updates for software.

Utilities and Energy:

Backup power generation.

Energy efficiency audits or home automation tools.

Retail:

Gift wrapping, delivery, or assembly services.

Extended warranties or customization options.

Characteristics of Ancillary Services:

Supplementary: They add value to the main service/product.

Optional or Required: Some may be optional (e.g., room upgrades), while others may be necessary for proper functioning (e.g., maintenance agreements).

Revenue Streams: They often provide additional revenue opportunities for businesses.

[dertaglichedan]

US discount retailer begins epic 'going out of business' sales as it prepares to close all locations

Big Lots is beginning 'going out of business' sales at all its stores across the US, as it prepares to close its remaining locations. 

The discount retail chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September, and has already shut hundreds of stores nationwide. 

In a press release Thursday, the company said it would begin the sales at its 963 remaining locations, after a sale to a private equity firm fell through. 

More than 400 Big Lots stores have already closed this year, marking a 30 percent decrease in its footprint. 

In an email to employees shared with Nexstar, president and CEO Bruce Thorn said that the pending store closures could 'be reversed if we successfully complete a sale.'

He added that Big Lots is continuing its efforts to secure an alternative deal with the private equity firm Nexus Capital Management, or with another party.

'In the meantime, we will continue to serve our customers both in-store and online,' he continued. 

He added that a reduction in the workforce would be necessary, however, and layoffs would begin in January, KTLA reported. 

[transgenderdoctorwhomst]

re the tag nightmare on my last post: its not even like the trade im trying to get into is like, my lifelong dream or anything, it's just one i've kind of thought would be neat to do for a while, and i'm kind of decent at it without any training, i literally applied on a whim and decided to go through with it.

its just like. wow, what appears to be an attainable simple goal of Go To School And Get A Qualified Skill To Try To Be In Slightly less Poverty! surely i can at least complete step one of getting a student loan to actually start that goal! i've only been stuck in unqualified and barely employable hell for years, and it's exciting to feel like i can actually do something! oh, sorry, nope, literally everything is in your way.

you didn't go to school right out of high school, which you barely graduated with the literal bare minimum credits and grades required? get fucked, no scholarships. trades programs are always trying to get people and will cover your training and schooling costs! unless you're an adult and the only trade school nearby is legally a high school (because grade 12 students can do their last year there, and get all their training costs covered), and for some reason your course doesn't qualify for apprenticeship grants. also you can't drive for reasons out of your control and the closest bus stop is a twenty minute walk away. also the closest normal post-secondary school is in a different town.

like. what the fuck am i supposed to do. this was like, plan C, because plans "be normal employable in a normal retail workforce" and "freelance artist" both failed for the same reasons i barely managed high school

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Prejudice impedes workforce reintegration of Brazil's former inmates

Initiatives are limited to state actions in São Paulo and Minas Gerais and to programs offered by a few companies

Gabrielli Teixeira de Sá vowed never to repeat that chapter: at 18, she began serving a 13-year sentence for drug trafficking, leaving behind a 3-month-old daughter and a 4-year-old son.

“I told myself I would never go through that again— that no matter what, I would not go back,” she says. “Not even to sell candy at a traffic light. I always had a goal: to get out one day, get a job, and be registered.”

Now 31, Ms. Sá works as a manager at a perfume and bazaar store in the Pereira retail chain in Campo Grande (MS). Before her promotion in August 2024, she was part of the group’s Reeducandos Program—which seeks to reintegrate former inmates into the job market—where she began as a florist.

“I believed there was an opportunity, but I didn’t have much hope because of the prejudice that exists against people who have been in prison,” she says. She remains on parole.

The reintegration of former inmates into the job market is progressing, but obstacles remain significant. Policies to assist former inmates are still sporadic, says Walkiria Zambrzycki Dutra, a researcher at the Center for the Study of Crime and Public Safety (Crisp/UFMG) and project manager at the Veredas Institute.

Continue reading.

[biblioflyer]

Breaching the Severed Floor: Layers of Reality and the Right to Imagine

This is part three of my three part rambling about Severance. Expect spoilers for Seasons One and Two. Part One addresses how Lumon maps to high control groups. Part Two is about Innie humanity, their rights, and an exploration of what we owe to people whose lives are more conditional and contingent than our own. This essay will address physical and informational control in Severance and Severance as a Techgnostic story.

The penultimate mechanism for controlling the Innies is limiting their exposure to ideas and experiences not sanctioned by Lumon.

Keeping their existences physically constrained to the Severed Floor is perhaps the most obvious mechanism by which the Innies are kept "pure." Restricting the possessions that may be taken with them into the Severed Floor also plays a major role.

Control of information is a thing I think a lot about. My day job is one where I have professional commitments to intellectual freedom. As such, the way in which the information environment of the Innies is managed and the apparent functions of different information management strategies is one that draws a lot of attention from me.

Lumon is a business that is also a cult. As a result, it seems to not be able to help but get in its own way because the interests of the business side seem to conflict with the urge to proselytize. Realistically these things probably work in reverse: Lumon proselytizes because the Eagons sincerely believe these various rituals and philosophies aren't just good for the soul, they're wise and effective management techniques.

As a result, Lumon probably doesn't really think of itself as inefficient or incompetent, because the metrics by which outsiders would judge Lumon's productivity simply aren't relevant to the Eagons. In part because they are convinced of their own superiority to those outside of the Kier milieu but also because, at least for the activities centered around Mark S and his cadre of macrodata refiners, conventional metrics for success like profitability are irrelevant: the Mysterious and Important Work is what matters. This also tends to mirror tech startup mentality where a pathway to profitability is assumed to manifest after the product matures so having a plan in place to control costs and deliver a product people actually want to pay for is less important than doing the work.

Because of the nature of the Mysterious and Important Work, the Eagons are only able to rely on a relatively small number of trusted acolytes to manage their most sensitive operations. Anyone who is not 100% bought into the program who comes into contact with the Innies may contaminate them with outside ideas. In my opinion, this is the answer to why security at Lumon is ultimately so lax. The physical and psychological constraints are meant to do the heavy lifting for the handful of acolytes who oversee the Innies which in turn permits the Eagons to hand pick the people who are brought into the inner mysteries.

This is the ouroboros of downsizing and automation. Many a fan has criticized Lumon's poor security, but real companies do this in various forms. While the stakes are less existential, its been widely reported that the pivot to self checkout in big box retail has caused losses from user error and outright theft to skyrocket. Yet this is tolerated because, at least in theory, the savings from a streamlined workforce wherein one inconsistently motivated and trained employee babysits as many as ten checkout stations (source: my local Walmart) where there is rampant error and theft is greater than paying more cashiers to be available for customers.

Lumon clearly isn't directly motivated by profitability nor does anyone really complain about being understaffed. There is a supreme confidence in the capability of their physical and ideological interventions to keep the Innies docile and productive as long as these interventions are competently enacted.

Lumon does undergo a certain amount of introspection after the failures of Season One. Seth Milchik seems to have overall less freedom than Harmony Cobell did after the revelation of her having gone rogue to stalk Mark Scout in the outside world: a sign that the mysterious Board of Directors and the Eagons have realized that even lifelong acolytes cannot fully be trusted to have "mastered their tempers" and faithfully execute its directives. The company also enacts a series of innovative distractions and incentives to try to restore the "buy in" of the Innies long enough to complete Cold Harbor.

At the same time though, all of the sweeteners are obviously designed to keep the Innies from paying attention to the conditionality of their existence and the imbalance of power between themselves and Lumon. Yet the breaches of containment and with it the loss of total control over the Innies' access to information and the outside world are a bell that cannot be unrung.

Ricken's book on self actualization becoming Innie contraband due to a single act of sloppiness on the part of their Lumon captors is worth assessing both from a security standpoint and also from an information control standpoint. On the side of security, it reflects Lumon's overconfidence and the inherent problems on relying on hermetically sealing the information environment that their employees live inside of. The more that Lumon controls the environment of the Innies, the more restrictive it is, the more that it actually creates more failure points.

Because its impossible for any human to maintain a peak level of hyper vigilance day in and day out guarding for wrongthink and outside contamination, much of the security is simply automated. The Outies are searched before they enter the elevator to go down to the Severed Floor first by a security guard and then by a scifi magic system that can detect concealed writing on a person's body. This ensures that the Outies can't bring anything in and the Innies can't smuggle anything out. At least in theory.

Except its unsevered supervising staff that wind up contaminating the floor. Its Lumon's own conditioned acolytes who are the uncontrolled variable because the processes of the Severed Floor work so reliably with so little human intervention that no one in the moment considers the consequences of carelessly leaving a book where Innies might be able to access it. This is the sort of mistake that seems highly improbable on any given day. Yet as with any low probability event, over the long run it becomes inevitable that an unsevered would leave, to use a Dan Carlinism, an "intellectual contagion" somewhere that Innies are unlikely to visit unsupervised on a day where an Innie does just that: visit unsupervised and encounters the contraband.

Which is where we encounter that which has become a major animating force in modern society: the allure of the forbidden. This is not to say that the allure of the forbidden, Dan Carlin's "intellectual contagion", isn't present at all times and places. People have always rebelled. There have always been people who feel an attraction to that which feels mysterious, scandalous, or excessively denounced. At the same time, it doesn't feel controversial to say that we're in the midst of a period where just the aesthetic of something being censored or restricted is enough to generate tremendous energy and interest, even if the "forbidden" nature of the ideas in question is nonsense or at least lacks a nuanced understanding of how information flows through various mediums.

The Techgnosticism of Severence

The notion that we are being lied to and our access to truth mediated for nefarious purposes isn't new. "Orwellian" didn't enter our lexicon by accident. The Matrix is a cyberpunk tribute Gnosticism, a worldview nearly two millennium old that engages critically with the repeated motifs of punitive, capricious, and vain gods in the supernatural realm across belief systems both contemporary to the original Gnostics and predating them. Its almost assuredly also a reaction to the corporeal forces that wielded compliance with assorted rituals, taboos, and theologies as a convenient filter to screen for malcontents. Malcontents who might undermine authorities relying on the divine as the stick to compel obedience where and when legitimacy based on competent and just governance is unavailable.

Severance, the tv show, is in my view another entry into that long tradition of asking why the universe seems to be at best indifferent to human happiness and why so much intellectual effort goes into trying to recontextualize the harms of authorities and deities as justified and for our own good.

In this way, Ricken's book is a lot like Gnosticism being introduced to someone who finds the religious institutions of the Roman Empire oppressive, finds a lot of bothersome contrasts between the behavior of the early Christian church and the minister folk hero at its center, and perhaps has privately questioned the protection racket style of relationship between humans and their gods present in many spiritual frameworks.

I'm going to repeat my disclaimer here that I don't have any issues with people who practice what they preach if what they preach is empathy, charity, and mercy and I'm not unaware of assorted theological explanations for what the Gnostics and other critical observers see as a radical transformation between a wrathful Old Testament God and a New Testament God who is seemingly all about love. The metaphysical reason someone feels compelled to be kind and abstain from cruelty is interesting to me but its not necessary for me to buy into it to accept them as a good person.

In this view, I see Lumon as a sort of Demiurge relative to the Innies. A wrathful, controlling creator god who has interposed itself between its creations and a higher reality of "truth." In Gnosticism freedom and a more benevolent existence is found on the other side of the stern patriarchs and their entourages that humans have bent the knee and sacrificed to since time immemorial.

The literal form of the analogy falls apart here, much as it does in the Matrix, in that the world on the other side of the Severed Floor is one that is largely inhospitable for the Innies. Their survival is contingent on technological infrastructure that is primarily controlled by Lumon. Their survival is conditional on Lumon seeing value in their continued existence. The lives of the Innies are also in the hands of Outies with whom they cannot have meaningful contact with except where mediated by Lumon or through some challenging skullduggery.

On the other hand, if we get a bit less literal with this, the metaphor can be extended. Gnosis is often used as a shorthand for spiritual revelation. In this way, while Neo and the Innies weren't particularly greeted with an ideal world upon awakening in the outer world, they did gain a greater understanding of their selves and their circumstances. With that understanding comes a greater capacity to yearn for, if not true freedom, then at least greater autonomy and to take measures to demand the forces arrayed against them to bend.

The Innies have pierced the boundaries of reality, done an end run around the oppressive god that rules their universe, and come back with tangible proof of a life that could be led outside of Lumon's capriciousness. After the false start of using the Overtime Protocol to awaken in the Outie world and Lumon's "new covenant" with the Innies where it affected greater compassion and genorosity, the Innies reject Lumon's velvet glove and seem poised to lead a general strike.

Their demands are almost certainly going to go beyond merely improving working conditions and into recognition of their personhood. A personhood that a corporation cannot summarily switch off, even though it is their creator and the operator of the infrastructure that gives them consciousness. Phrasing it this way also reminds me of the trials and tribulations of Data to be legally recognized as a citizen of the Federation instead of Starfleet property, although Data's existence was far less conditional.

Additional Severance Discussion:

Lumon, the Eagons, and High Demand Groups

On This Floor We Believe Innies are People: What do we owe artificial life?

[ultraversetechnologies]

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