Appunti di Inglese II

THE HERO’S JOURNEY

Joseph Campbell’s concept " can be a powerful framework for crafting personal narratives in a professional context. The Hero's

Journey is a template that involves a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed

or transformed. In personal branding, you can use this structure to map out your professional journey:

1. The Ordinary World: This is where you start off in your narrative, your usual environment before the adventure begins. For

a professional, this could be their life before embarking on their career or before a significant turning point.

2. The Call to Adventure: This is the point in your life when you are first given notice that everything is going to change. For

professionals, this could be the realization of their passion or a significant opportunity/challenge they faced.

3. Refusal of the Call: Often, the future hero refuses to heed the call, which can be out of fear, insecurity, or a sense of

inadequacy. In a professional setting, this could be the initial hesitation to take on a new role or pursue a new path.

4. Meeting with the Mentor: The hero comes across a seasoned traveller of the worlds who gives them training, equipment,

or advice that will help on the journey. In your narrative, this could be a superior, or a colleague who has provided guidance.

5. Crossing the First Threshold: This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, venturing into

an unknown and dangerous realm. For a professional, this could be starting a new job or launching a business.

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies: This is where the hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the special world. In a career journey,

these are the challenges faced, the colleagues and mentors who helped along the way, and the competition or obstacles

overcome.

7. Approach to the Inmost Cave: This represents the hero's preparation for the major challenge in the special world. In

personal branding, this could translate to a person gathering their strengths and resources in preparation for a big project

or career move.

8. The Ordeal: Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space and confronts death or faces their greatest fear. In

a professional's journey, this could be a major crisis or setback in their career.

9. The Reward: After defeating the enemy, surviving, and overcoming their greatest personal challenge, the hero is ultimately

transformed. In the world of work, this is the success or achievement following the great effort or the overcoming of a

significant hurdle.

10. The Road Back: The hero begins the journey back to the ordinary world. This step in the professional's journey could involve

a return to a more traditional path after taking a risk or the consolidation of gains after a period of innovation.

11. The Resurrection: This is the climax in which the hero must have their final and most dangerous encounter with death. For

the professional, it's the final push, the last test in which they apply everything they've learned.

12. Return with the Elixir: The hero returns home with the "elixir," and uses it to help everyone in the ordinary world. In a

career narrative, this is where the individual contributes their knowledge, experience, or success back to their team,

company, or community.

6. ECONOMICS

GIG ECONOMY

A gig economy is a labour market that relies heavily on temporary and part-time positions filled by independent contractors and

freelancers rather than full-time permanent employees. Gig workers gain flexibility and independence but little or no job

security. Many employers save money by avoiding paying benefits such as health coverage and paid vacation time. Others pay

for some benefits to gig workers but outsource the benefits programs and other management tasks to external agencies.

A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common. Freelancers, independent contractors,

project-based workers and temporary hires all fall under the title gig workers and are found across every industry. Gig

employees could be really anyone who enters into formal agreements with a company to provide services without being on the

company's payroll.

The gig economy also saves businesses resources, like benefits, office space and training, while providing employees benefits

like an improved work life balance and freedom to select jobs or gigs that they're interested in. While this flexibility is appealing,

gig workers in turn, usually trade that in for modest pay little or no health or retirement benefits, tax complications and out of

pocket equipment expenses. And there's a blurred line between those who voluntarily work as contractors and those who are

being taken advantage of by an employer that might classify someone as a contractor to get out of paying fair wages and

benefits.

Contractor of gig? Independent contractors are temporary employees of a business who work as freelance or contingent help.

They usually take on larger projects, meaning they typically work on fewer individual projects at a time. They often work with

agencies and clients under a written or verbal short-term contract, allowing them to negotiate details such as how they

complete a project and its price. They are generally paid hourly for their services.

EU REGULATION OF GIG WORK

The most recent regulations on gig work in the EU aim to provide employment rights to gig workers, including pensions, paid

leave, and workplace accident insurance. The proposed Directive on improving working conditions in the gig economy aims to

ensure the correct determination of workers' employment status and improve transparency.

The European Union's Platform Work Directive aims to ensure delivery drivers and on-demand chauffeurs get better social

protections against the power of the online platforms they work for. The directive seeks to balance the interests of platforms

and workers by setting clear guidelines on the use of algorithmic managers and determining workers' employment status. The

Council has agreed on its position on new rules granting labor rights to people working in the gig economy.

THE EU WANTS TO FIX GIG WORK – UBER

A small group of protesters stand in Brussels to direct their anger at the politicians, who are inside, deciding the future of

Europe’s gig economy. The demonstrators have also printed their message onto a banner. It reads: “Don’t Let Uber Make the

Law.” Among the crowd are three men work for different companies and live in different countries, but their experiences

working as couriers for some of Europe’s most popular food delivery platforms have led them to the same conclusion. Platforms

are taking advantage of their workers, they claim, and now those same companies are attempting to sabotage new rules that

were supposed to fix the gig economy’s problems.

When EU officials first suggested new rules to regulate the gig economy two years ago, they were hopeful that the job was

about to change for the better. Negotiations between EU officials over what exactly those rules, known as the Platform Work

Directive, should include have been beset by infighting.

Uber spokesperson Casper Nixon did not directly address allegations the company is trying to sabotage the rules, which are still

being finalized. “The Platform Work Directive as drafted might cost genuine independent their protections, jobs and flexibility,”

he says. “Like any company, we regularly engage with European policymakers to share our experiences and position on

regulation that impacts our business, drivers, couriers, and consumers.”

By 2025, the EU predicts more than 40 million of its residents will work for digital platforms. The new EU platform work rules

were intended to better balance the interests of platforms and workers by setting clear guidelines on the use of algorithmic

managers, as well as the gig economy’s most contentious issue: workers’ employment status.

But recently, any optimism that the new rules could offer more certainty has soured. Unions and activist groups representing

platform workers are wary of Uber’s influence because the company’s lobbying has been successful before

Both Van Sparrentak and Chaibi say that arguments put forward by Uber, particularly that a directive that automatically

classifies platform workers as employees would threaten jobs, have been repeated by other MEPs and representatives of the

European Council. It’s true that the Transparency Register does not make it seem like Uber is doing huge amounts of lobbying

but using other tools. This includes funding research and advertising. Chaibi points to a 2021 study on platform work by the

consulting firm Accenture, which states it was commissioned by Uber. Another study by consultancy Copenhagen Economics

was commissioned the same year by Delivery Platforms Europe, a lobbying group that counts UberEATS among its members.

Uber was also among a group of five companies that signed a letter published by the Financial Times in June that argued the

EU’s platform regulation was taking the wrong approach. It has also been funnelling money into online ads.

“Our advertising campaign simply puts certified facts about the company in the public domain,” says Uber spokesperson Nixon.

“Uber supports a strong and enforceable directive that ensures platform workers maintain the independence they want and

receive the protections they deserve, such as minimum wage, holiday and sick pay.”

Many MEPs favour rules that would presume all platform workers are employees—unless the platforms can prove otherwise.

But some representatives of EU member states, sitting in the European Council, prefer a system where workers first have to

prove they meet a number of criteria before they can challenge their employment status. That’s because member states worry

that if the rules are too strict, platforms would respond by shrinking their platform workforce. Some of these countries don't

want to confront a business model that might push people out of employment statistics.” Platform workers worry that member

states would struggle to enforce whatever new rules the EU passes.

The point of Spain’s riders’ law was also to force platforms to classify more of their workers as employees. Instead of doing that,

Glovo tweaked many of their couriers’ work terms so they could still be classified as independent. Platform workers are battling

to fight for the basic rights (minimum wage and maximum working hours) that exist in the rest of the economy. This is strategy,

using the discourse of innovation and technology to take out these rights is very problematic.

DIGITAL SLAVES?

In the digital space, traditional labour relations are altered:

 new forms of coercion and control (algorithmic management and control)

 new forms of rights abuse and exploitation (platform-mediated work, diminished worker agency)

Technology is enabling new forms of coercion and control over workers. Workers in precarious conditions who seek

employment via digital platforms are highly vulnerable to coercion and control via forms of algo