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A Guardian article, arguing that AI will affect 40% of jobs, and worsen inequality.

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A Guardian article, arguing that AI will affect 40% of jobs, and worsen inequality.

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Artificial intelligence will affect 40% of jobs around the world and it is "crucial" that countries build social safety nets to mitigate the impact on vulnerable workers, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund.

AI, the term for computer systems that can perform tasks usually associated with human levels of intelligence, is poised to profoundly change the global economy with advanced economies at greater risk of disruption.

Analysis by the IMF, the international lender of last resort, says about 60% of jobs in advanced economies such as the US and UK are exposed to AI and half of these jobs may be negatively affected. But the technology will also help to enhance some humans' productivity as AI improves their performance, it said.

According to the IMF, the safest highly exposed jobs are those with a "high complementarity" to AI, meaning the technology will assist their work rather than displace it entirely. This includes roles with a high degree of responsibility and interacting with people - such as surgeons, lawyers and judges.

High-exposure jobs with "low complementarity" - meaning the potential for being displaced by AI - include telemarketing, or cold-calling people to offer goods or services. Low-exposure occupations include dish washers and performers, the IMF said.

AI jobs exposure is 40% in emerging market economies - defined by the IMF as states including China, Brazil and India - and 26% for low-income countries, with an overall total of just under 40%, according to the IMF.

Generative AI - the term for technology that can produce highly plausible text, images and even voice from simple hand-typed prompts - has risen up the political agenda since the emergence of tools such as the ChatGPT chatbot.

Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF managing director, said AI's ability to affect highly skilled jobs means that advanced economies face greater risks from the technology. She added that in extreme cases some jobs in major economies could disappear.

"Roughly half the exposed jobs may benefit from AI integration, enhancing productivity," wrote Georgieva, in a blogpost accompanying the IMF research. "For the other half, AI applications may execute key tasks currently performed by humans, which could lower labour demand, leading to lower wages and reduced hiring. In the most extreme cases, some of these jobs may disappear."

She added that in most scenarios AI would probably worsen overall inequality across the global economy and could stoke social tensions without political intervention. AI is expected to feature prominently as a topic of discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, which top executives from the tech industry will attend.

"It is crucial for countries to establish comprehensive social safety nets and offer retraining programmes for vulnerable workers," Georgieva said. "In doing so, we can make the AI transition more inclusive, protecting livelihoods and curbing inequality."

The IMF analysis shows that higher-wage earners whose jobs have high complementarity with AI can expect an increase in their income, leading to an increase in inequality.

"This would amplify the increase in income and wealth inequality that results from enhanced capital returns that accrue to high earners," the IMF report said. "Countries' choices regarding the definition of AI property rights, as well as redistributive and other fiscal policies, will ultimately shape its impact on income and wealth distribution."

The report said workers in the UK, with its high proportion of graduates, might be better prepared to switch from jobs at risk of displacement to "high complementarity" jobs, although older workers may struggle to adapt and move to new jobs or retrain.

Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft, which is the biggest investor in OpenAI, the US company behind ChatGPT, said on Monday there would be jobs in the future but the question remained about what would be "the shape of these jobs". Speaking at an event hosted by the Chatham House thinktank in London, Nadella said AI could help with "mid-career transitions". He added: "I think this is the age where this is about expertise at your fingertips. So if anything, anyone can become an expert in anything because you have the AI assistant helping you."

Last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said the occupations at highest risk from AI-driven automation were highly skilled jobs and represented about 27% of employment across its 38 member countries, which include the UK, Japan, Germany, the US, Australia and Canada. It said skilled professions such as law, medicine and finance were most at risk.

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AI will affect 40% of jobs and probably worsen inequality, says IMF head

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'Crucial' that countries build social safety nets to mitigate impact on workers, says Kristalina Georgieva

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A BBC article, looking at how AI twins may represent the future of the modelling industry.

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A BBC article, looking at how AI twins may represent the future of the modelling industry.

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Alexsandrah never really wanted to be a model.

First scouted when she was 13, and then again as a young adult, she turned down those initial two opportunities. But then she finally decided to give it a go.

"What have you got to lose? Just see how it goes," she told herself.

Now full time in the industry, the London-based model is taking another chance in her career, by creating a virtual, AI-generated version of herself.

She hopes it will secure her future in modelling.

"Having an AI version of you kind of keeps you safe," she explains.

"I will benefit from it because it's literally an AI version of me, I'm not cut out from anything. All the proceeds, if any proceeds are made, will be coming to me.

"You don't have to travel, you don't have to do the airport runs, you don't have to do anything. It gives people an opportunity to also just live their lives and do other things, and be in two places at the same time," she adds.

Alexsandrah says she is one of the first to market a virtual version of herself to clients, in an industry that has become one of the latest to keep a watchful, over-the-shoulder eye at the growth of AI.

Nearly three quarters of the fashion executives in a survey published by management consultancy McKinsey in November last year, said AI was a priority for their companies in 2024. More than a quarter said they already used it in creative design and development.

Behind Alexsandrah's virtual twin is Cameron Wilson, founder and chief executive of AI and 3D modelling agency The Diigitals.

The company found its first taste of global success with the 2017 launch of Shudu, marketed as the world's first digital supermodel. Now counting 250,000 people among her Instagram followers, Shudu - a virtual influencer - has fronted campaigns for Balenciaga, Lexus and Balmain, but not without criticism.

"At the time that I created Shudu, it created a huge amount of comment about how a white person could create a black virtual character," Mr Wilson explains. "So when that happened, it really made me think about creating these characters in ethical ways, and the implications of it in the future."

The online backlash has shaped his latest work with Alexsandrah, who is paid to have her image used in any campaigns or photoshoots her AI twin appears in.

"We're trying to show, businesses, brands, magazines that they can still use AI and real models together, to encourage the fair use of AI rather than the doom and gloom of jobs being taken away," he says.

The protection of jobs is something groups representing those in the industry - models, makeup artists and hairstylists - want to see too.

Equity, which represents fashion models in the UK, tells the BBC it is lobbying the UK government bring in laws to strengthen the rights of performers.

"We encourage our members not to sign away their rights, and ensure that their image is only used based on fair pay and fair conditions of usage," says a spokesperson for the group..

Meanwhile, the British Fashion Model Agents Association urges caution against the growth of AI. "We are not burying our heads in the sand, AI is coming and the industry needs to be prepared and to adapt its business model to reflect this," says its director John Horner.

The perceived threat of AI to the fashion industry came to a head last year after fashion brand Levi's announced it would be using AI to generate models of more diverse body types and skin tones to increase representation of its product models.

Anger from within the modelling world followed, with accusations of laziness levelled at the brand, and some online describing the technology as "perpetuating racism". Levi's backtracked and said it was "committed to using AI technologies equitably and transparently".

Josephine Markham Webster, the boss of Mentor Models agency in Sheffield, was of those to voice anger at the time, and thinks AI generated models are a step backward for the industry.

"All this work has been done over the last few years with diversity, with representing women and men of different body shapes, different sizes, different looks," she says. "AI versions of models are taking away from that. It's a backwards move.

"It's going back to using the ideal standard of a model. It's not a real dress size. It's not real skin. It's not real beauty. And I think it's going to be damaging to the people who are modelling."

But there's no denying that demand for virtual models and influencers is growing.

In October last year, Facebook and Instagram owner Meta announced its latest attempt to merge the real and virtual worlds by introducing of a team of AI chatbots - modelled on celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Kendall Jenner and Bear Grylls.

Some reports suggest the celebrities are being paid as much as $5m (£3.96m) for their likeness.

"Brands are really looking for characters that can can exist on social media and really engage their audience, often to bring awareness to certain things," says Mr Wilson.

One of his latest clients was the charity Down's Syndrome International.

"We worked with them to create the world's first virtual influencer with Down's Syndrome; Kami. Along with over 100 different women from the Down's Syndrome community," he explains.

"When we try to create characters we're looking at it from an ethical perspective. How do we bring awareness to the space? How do we impact this space for the better?"

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'My AI twin may get me more modelling work'

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As the fashion industry grapples with the rise of AI, one model has created an AI twin of herself.

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An AP article, reporting on a decision by a federal judge ordering Starbucks to reinstate fired workers. 

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An AP article, reporting on a decision by a federal judge ordering Starbucks to reinstate fired workers. 

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A federal judge is ordering Starbucks to reinstate seven employees in Memphis who were fired earlier this year after leading an effort to unionize their store.

In a decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman agreed with the National Labor Relations Board, which had asked the court to intervene in May. The labor board said Starbucks violated U.S. labor law by interfering in workers' right to organize.

Lipman's decision requires Starbucks to offer to reinstate the employees within five days. Starbucks will also be required to post the court order in the Memphis store.

Starbucks said Thursday it strongly disagrees with the court order and will appeal. It will also request a stay of the opinion, which would delay the reinstatement of the employees while the appeal is considered.

The case has been among the most closely watched in the unionization effort at Starbucks. Since late last year, more than 220 U.S. Starbucks stores - including the Memphis store - have voted to unionize. Starbucks opposes the unionization effort.

Starbucks fired the seven employees in early February, citing safety. The Seattle coffee giant said the employees violated company policy by reopening a store after closing time and inviting non-employees - including a television crew - to come inside and move throughout the store.

"These individuals violated numerous policies and failed to maintain a secure work environment and safety standards," the company said in a statement Thursday. "Interest in a union does not exempt partners from following policies that are in place to protect partners, our customers and the communities we serve."

But the NLRB and the fired workers told the court that Starbucks had routinely tolerated off-duty employees and non-employees remaining in the store after hours to make drinks, collect belongings or assist each other.

"Such tolerance before union activity, but terminations resulting thereafter, supports an inference of discriminatory motive," the judge wrote.

The NLRB had begun administrative proceedings against Starbucks, saying the company was unlawfully interfering in workers' right to organize. But those proceedings can take so long that the NLRB asked the federal court for an immediate injunction requiring Starbucks to reinstate the workers.

"Today's federal court decision ordering Starbucks to reinstate the seven unlawfully fired Starbucks workers in Memphis is a crucial step in ensuring that these workers, and all Starbucks workers, can freely exercise their right to join together to improve their working conditions and form a union," the labor board's General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said in a statement. "Starbucks, and other employers, should take note that the NLRB will continue to vigorously protect workers' right to organize without interference from their employer."

One of the workers, Beto Sanchez, said he and his colleagues have suffered financial distress since they were fired, and he has had to work several jobs. Sanchez said he was so surprised after receiving a text about the favorable ruling that he dropped his phone.

"We've had a lot of tough moments, but we kept fighting each day," Sanchez said. "It feels like all the hard work has paid off during all those months, and we're just really happy."

The NLRB has filed a separate federal court case in New York seeking the reinstatement of seven pro-union workers who were fired from a store in Buffalo. A decision in that case is pending.

The agency lost a similar case in Arizona in June, when a federal judge declined to order Starbucks to reinstate three workers.

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Durbin reported from Detroit.

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Starbucks must reinstate fired workers, federal judge rules

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A federal judge is ordering Starbucks to reinstate seven employees in Memphis, Tennessee, who were fired earlier this year after leading an effort to unionize their store.

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A Guardian article, investigating the impact of AI on the way we apply for jobs.

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A Guardian article, investigating the impact of AI on the way we apply for jobs.

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When Ty landed an introductory phone interview with a finance and banking company last month, they assumed it would be a quick chat with a recruiter. And when they got on the phone, Ty assumed the recruiter, who introduced herself as Jaime, was human. But things got robotic.

"The voice sounded similar to Siri," said Ty, who is 29 and lives in the DC metro area. "It was creepy."

Ty realized they weren't speaking to a living, breathing person. Their interviewer was an AI system, and one with a rather rude habit. Jaime asked Ty all the right questions - what's your management style? are you a good fit for this role? - but she wouldn't let Ty fully answer them.

"After cutting me off, the AI would respond, 'Great! Sounds good! Perfect!' and move on to the next question," Ty said. "After the third or fourth question, the AI just stopped after a short pause and told me that the interview was completed and someone from the team would reach out later." (Ty asked that their last name not be used because their current employer doesn't know they're looking for a job.)

A survey from Resume Builder released last summer found that by 2024, four in 10 companies would use AI to "talk with" candidates in interviews. Of those companies, 15% said hiring decisions would be made with no input from a human at all.

In person, you get more social prompts. In this case, I was just talking to myself

Adele Walton

As Laura Michelle Davis wrote for CNET: "Today, it's not uncommon for applicants to be rejected by a robot before they're connected with an actual human in human resources." To make the grueling process of getting hired even more demoralizing, many people are afraid generative AI - which uses data sets to create text, video, audio, images and yes, robo-recruiters - will take our jobs altogether. But could AI help us find a new gig in the meantime?

The human element is lost

Ask an employer who uses AI in their hiring process about the choice, and they'll share a common refrain: these systems are used to cross quotidian tasks off a recruiter's daily schedule; AI helps weed through the top 1,000 applicants, but once you get to the top 10, it's a strictly human process.

In 2019, ZipRecruiter noted that AI systems could streamline boring tasks - like writing job descriptions or scanning résumés - and give hiring professionals "back time to spend on more strategic tasks". (Imagine how it feels to be on the other side, applying to dozens of jobs a day.) A survey conducted in 2020, sponsored by the AI interview system Sapia.ai, found that 55% of companies were increasing investment in automated recruiting measures.

"I do not use AI to write job descriptions, but I know many employers who do," said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. Pollak said that a manager might also ask an AI program to give them a list of reasons why they should, or should not, hire a final-round candidate. "Employers use it as a coach, as a guide, as a friend to bounce ideas off," she added.

Adele Walton was recently interviewed by AI. Photograph: Courtesy Adele Walton

But, as applicants like Ty now know, employers' use of AI goes beyond it being a sounding board.

Experts advise applicants to act as though they're speaking to a human during AI-led interviews, although that's easier said than done. Adele Walton, a 24-year-old journalist and content creator from Brighton, England, recently sat through an AI interview that felt extremely unnatural. "I expected a person or a panel," she said. "When I clicked on the call, I was surprised to enter a chat room with just myself."

Questions flashed on a screen that also showed her own face. Walton had 60 seconds to answer. "I was looking at how my face was moving, looking at how I looked on screen," she said. "As someone who's struggled with body dysmorphia, I found that my face was an unnecessary distraction in the interview process. I know I would have done better if there was another person there."

Walton did not get another interview. "In an in-person meeting, you get more social prompts from the other person," she said. "In this case, I was just talking to myself - or an AI system - with no measure of how well I was doing. I couldn't read anyone's face, body language, or see them nod yes. That small type of human reassurance that you get in a real interview is completely lost when companies outsource interviews to AI."

Applicants are gaming the system

If employers use AI to make their hiring process easier, why shouldn't applicants? That's Fanta-Marie Touré's mindset. The 24-year-old, who lives in Atlanta and works in cybersecurity, has used AI tools to tailor her résumé, write cover letters and even auto-apply to jobs. She does this through a program called Massive.

"It's very expensive to hire someone to help you with your résumé," Touré said. "A lot of people charge $150 an hour to do résumé reviews. That's a lot, so why not use a tool that costs me maybe $30 a month?"

Touré maintains that it's still important to "personalize" application materials - adding relevant anecdotes, for example. "Otherwise, everybody who uses AI is getting the same result," she said. "You have to tweak."

Sometimes, supposed hacks on how to game the AI recruitment process hit social media. A few years ago, Touré heard one trick: a TikTok creator advised applicants to copy and paste a job description on to their résumés, and then change the font of that description to a tiny size that matched the résumé's white background. A human wouldn't be able to see it, but AI would scan it, recognize the text verbatim and send it to the front of the pack. Or so the theory went.

A 2019 survey found that by 2024, four in 10 companies would use AI to 'talk with' candidates in interviews. Photograph: AsiaVision/Getty Images

"I never got any hits from that," Touré said. "That was a couple of years ago, and I bet the systems are smarter now."

It's a move that's familiar to Pollak, the ZipRecruiter economist. "That tactic has been used so widely that most job site algorithms now know to penalize it. Don't try to be too smart with your résumé: if a match is too close, it will be kicked out."

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According to Pollak, employers are more suspicious of AI-generated résumés and cover letters these days. "I'm hearing that employers are now discounting a lot of the information they receive that's in written form, and want to get to a face-to-face conversation as quickly as possible with the candidates so they can properly vet them," she explained.

Even on video interviews - with humans or robots - applicants can still call on AI programs to assist. Michael G is the founder of Final Round AI, an "interview co-pilot" that listens to recruiters' questions and prompts personalizedanswers in real time, based on the résumé and cover letter uploaded by the interviewee. (Michael asked that his last name not be used because Final Round AI is still in "stealth mode", a startup's temporary state of secretiveness to quell competition.)

"Users can quickly glance through the AI's response, and then develop their own response to the question," Michael said. "It's not like they need to read the text verbatim off the screen. It's natural: you have celebrities, TV hosts looking at teleprompters all the time. Why can't ordinary people use a teleprompter?"

According to Michael, Final Round AI has over half a million users, some of whom send him job offers they credit in part to the service. (That's tough to factcheck - Final Round AI has less than 2,000 followers across its social platforms.) Michael added that about 40% of users come from the tech industry, and 30% work in the banking or finance fields. The cost to use it can range from $0 to $100 a month. Michael says all personaldata is deleted at the end of the call, but generally, AI systems learn from the data they are fed over time.

Is it cheating? "I believe that because of AI, there are new boundaries and it's hard to define whether someone is cheating or not," Michael said, somewhat terrifyingly. "And, if I were an employer, I would prefer candidates who know how to use AI, because they bring value and a productivity boost to the company."

Michael said he used Final Round AI at points while answering questions for this interview; yes, you could tell.

Who's hit the hardest by AI hiring?

AI systems encode bias. You don't need to be a wildly imaginative person to consider how that might affect job-seekers - Amazon reportedly scrapped an in-house hiring algorithm, trained on data submitted by applicants, that favored men and penalized résumés that included the word "women". Will automated hiring processes also reject people who are not white, male and able-bodied?

AI won't pick a CEO

Rory Mir of the Electronic Frontier Foundation

"The current wave of AI uses algorithms that are probabilistic models, which means they simply rely on patterns in past data to make likely predictions," said Rory Mir, associate director of community organizing at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The problem is, patterns in past data include the patterns which emerge from systemic bias."

Racial bias is present when humans do the hiring: studies have found that hiring managers are likely to pass over names that are perceived as Black while reviewing résumés. Pollak said that to avoid such bias, ZipRecruiter strips "any kind of identifiable information" like names and zip codes from résumés before putting them through an AI system. But if a résumé still includes education, AI systems could theoretically learn to favor applicants who went to Ivy League schools. Pollak defended the practice of retaining education because "employers do want to know something like [that]".

Higher-ups in the corporate world rarely apply for jobs - at a certain pay grade, you network instead. Mir believes that early-stage or low-level applicants will "bear the brunt" of AI hiring: "AI won't pick a CEO. It might filter applicants for management, and it may have the final say on hiring a gig worker," they said. "Automated hiring will have an outsized impact on marginalized folks who rely on more precarious lines of work."

Case in point: 404 Media recently reported on a company called Paradox.ai, used by FedEx, McDonald's and the company that operates Olive Garden, which recruited people in customer and food service jobs with a "long and bizarre personality quiz" illustrated with "blue humanoid aliens". The goal was to discover how candidates "rank in terms of 'agreeableness' and 'emotional stability'".

Ty never heard back from anyone at the company after speaking with its AI recruiter; they assume they won't. They aren't surprised that the interview process is becoming more artificial.

"I've been in interviews where human recruiters ask me directly how I feel about using apps like ChatGPT for creative work, and if I would feel comfortable doing that at my job," they said. "So I guess it was only a matter of time before I got straight-up interviewed by a robot."

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The job applicants shut out by AI: 'The interviewer sounded like Siri'

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Employers are letting artificial intelligence conduct job interviews. Candidates are trying to beat the system

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A Guardian article, looking at how Egypt's nomad visas are luring foreign workers, but creating inequality. 

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A Guardian article, looking at how Egypt's nomad visas are luring foreign workers, but creating inequality. 

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Egypt’s economic woes lure digital nomads – but cast others out to sea

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While the Red Sea resort of Dahab draws those who earn dollars and can work anywhere, a third of Egyptians live in poverty and see a perilous voyage to Europe as their only hope

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A Guardian photo-essay by Lucien Migné, looking at the work of marginalised groups around the world whose livelihoods have remained largely untouched by the modernisation of work

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A Guardian photo-essay by Lucien Migné, looking at the work of marginalised groups around the world whose livelihoods have remained largely untouched by the modernisation of work

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For a moment, the workers disappear in the clouds of dust that billow across the white limestone plains as the old circular saws they handle cut through rock in a deafening noise.

Every day thousands of men and boys, some as young as 12, travel in the back of pickup trucks to the limestones quarries of Al-Minya, about 300km (186 miles) south of Cairo in Egypt. They slice the limestone into bricks by pushing the machines with saws across the lunar landscape.

The old equipment is unsafe and the work is extremely dangerous. Wearing scarves and sunglasses to protect themselves from the dust, many workers have respiratory diseases and complain of severe eye pain. In the summer, the temperature in the quarries can reach 50C.

"There are regular accidents. Some men have lost arms, legs and their lives," says the French photographer Lucien Migné, who travelled to the quarries in 2022. The workers "are aware of the risks, but they feel they don't have a choice". The limestone quarries are the main source of employment in the region. Workers can earn up to 120 Egyptian pounds (£3) a day, but risk paying the price with their lives.

From Egypt and Ethiopia to Bangladesh, Migné's work tells the stories of forgotten and marginalised people, whose livelihoods have remained unchanged by the rapid computerisation of society.

Migné focuses on what he describes as "feudal" power dynamics between the world's rich and poor, which come to the fore in how people work. "It's about shedding light on these working conditions with the idea that the photos can perhaps empower someone to act."

Throughout his reportage, Migné says he has been "astonished" by stories of human resilience in the face of strenuous, insecure and low-paid work.

In the Manshiet Nasser district of Cairo, a Coptic Christian community has been collecting, sorting and recycling the city's waste for nearly a century. Known as Zabbaleen, which means literally "garbage people" in Egyptian Arabic, the group are stigmatised for their religion and their work, and many live in extreme poverty.

And yet, the Zabbaleen have created one of the most efficient waste recycling systems in the world - providing one of Africa's most populous cities with a critical service. Women sort the waste while men recycle materials in informal, family-run workshops. The city produces waste faster than the Zabbaleen can process it and the work continues through the night. Many have respiratory diseases, probably caused by the toxic fumes given off when plastic is melted into small pellets that can be reused.

"It's gruelling and backbreaking work. But people aren't complaining. Like in every job, people talk and laugh," says Migné. "I found that people lived in great dignity. They consider what they do a job like any other. As long as there's a job to do, then it's good to take."

In Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, Migné met people struggling to survive after two years of war and a year of fragile peace.

More than 1 million people remain displaced by the conflict. Smallholder farmers have lost their crops, livestock and sources of income because of the war. "I have seen people dying of hunger," he says. "People here want the world to notice them."

In the Gheralta mountains, Leter Kidam sows teff seeds. She doesn't have enough money to buy fertilisers and expects a poor yield. Her daughters have to help her work the land if they are going to have anything to eat. "Here, if you do nothing, you will have nothing," says Migné.

In the south of the country, the semi-nomadic Borana people, who traditionally live from their livestock, have lost nearly all their cows and goats for a different reason: five consecutive years of drought. To survive, many have decided to leave their rural land and live in refugee camps in cities.

Didwardy, 16, Elguda Guyo, 56, and Tume Belisso, 30, live in a camp in the town of Dubuluk. They now earn a salary from a wealthier farmer managing hay reserves in preparation for the next dry spell.

"Many of the Borana people I met were suffering the loss of their traditional way of life and culture. Their independence in work was directly tied to this way of life," Migné says.

Migné wants his work to bear witness to disappearing trades, jobs and cultures. "The world is changing faster than ever before. Photography enables [us] to leave a trace of what has been."

This has been a pressing task in Bangladesh, where Migné documented the lives of people working at the Lion Circus - the largest circus still travelling the country. Once very popular, circuses now attract dwindling numbers of spectators and the tradition could soon disappear.

The Lion Circus's tight-knit troupe comprises several families, who live on the fringes of Bangladeshi society. With up to three shows a day, the work is physically demanding. The troupe lives in shacks made of corrugated iron at the back of the circus tent. The children don't go to school but are brought up collectively by the troupe and learn the circus acts from a young age. Here, work, family and culture are colourfully and joyfully intertwined.

"I love to show that beyond the daily hardship, there are family lives and strong social ties," says Migné. "In the west, as people increasingly work online, these strong bonds which for centuries have underpinned people's working lives are being eroded."

The photos, he hopes, can be a reminder of what wealthier societies are losing.

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Danger and dignity in some of the world's vanishing trades - a photo essay

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From Egypt to Bangladesh, photographer Lucien Migné has documented the work of marginalised groups whose livelihoods have remained largely untouched by the modernisation of work* All photographs by Lucien Migné

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A Conversation article, exploring how women face subtle forms of discrimination and bias in the workplace.

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A Conversation article, exploring how women face subtle forms of discrimination and bias in the workplace.

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Gender discrimination remains a pervasive issue in the workplace. While obvious cases of discrimination against women - like sexist comments or the systematic underpayment of women - dominate headlines, there are subtler, more insidious forms of discrimination that often go unnoticed.

Take Kelly, for example, a seasoned marketing manager we recently interviewed as part of a workplace discrimination project. Kelly had diligently worked towards a promotion, only to witness her junior colleague, Mark, receive it instead. This led her to wonder if Mark genuinely outperformed her, or if there was something more nefarious at play.

Kelly's quandary isn't unique. It reflects a pervasive, subtle challenge faced by women in many fields: incidents tinged with potential gender bias, yet ambiguous enough to defy clear categorization as discrimination.

It's easy to condemn blatant discrimination because of how obvious it is. But discrimination doesn't always reveal itself so openly; instead, it can be a spectre looming uncertainly in the background.

Examining ambiguous incidents

Our recent research aimed to investigate women's experiences of ambiguous incidents in the workplace. Seeking to understand the issue from multiple angles, we conducted interviews, a survey and an experiment.

The project uncovered myriad tales of women grappling with incidents that might have been driven by bias, but were cloaked in uncertainty. Their stories encompassed a wide spectrum of experiences, ranging from daily microaggressions, such as being ignored during meetings, to significant career milestones, like missing out on promotions.

Most of the women we interviewed wrestled more with ambiguous incidents than with overt discrimination. As Kelly put it:

"I think I would feel better if it was overtly gender discrimination, because at least you would feel somewhat validated in your perception, whereas you always question, like, maybe I'm not seeing things right, maybe I'm biased."

Like Kelly, 74 per cent of the women we surveyed reported that they had struggled with such ambiguities in the past year. Only 64 per cent said they had faced clear-cut discrimination. These aren't just numbers; they represent the silent battles and moments of self-doubt that many women experience.

Responding to possible discrimination

Following ambiguous incidents, many women reported feeling confused or frustrated, often ruminating over their experiences and struggling to make sense of them. But, as we found, ambiguous incidents had more than just emotional impacts.

We designed an experiment in which participants were exposed to the same discrimination incident, but at different levels of ambiguity. Some participants experienced the incident as clear-cut discrimination, whereas others experienced it as ambiguous.

The experiment revealed that when a situation is clearly discriminatory, women are more likely to turn outwards by speaking to human resources, consulting with supervisors or seeking advice from diversity and inclusion groups. This sort of action not only addresses the issue at hand, but also sets the stage for organizational change.

But when an incident is ambiguous, women tend to turn inwards. They try to adopt a more formal communication style, work harder or draw more attention to their achievements. While this may help them navigate discrimination in the short term, it does little to catalyze the kind of systemic change necessary to foster gender equality.

A call to leaders and allies

What can leaders and allies do to help?

First, we all need to shatter the silence that surrounds these incidents. Ambiguity thrives when communication is stifled. Creating an environment where whispers of concern are welcomed, not shunned, is paramount. This goes beyond just having an open-door policy; it's about building trust so that people know those doors lead to empathetic listeners.

Allies can also play a powerful role. When someone stands up and acknowledges these subtle biases, it doesn't just validate feelings, but also builds bridges. When colleagues and managers notice ambiguous discrimination, they should take the initiative to engage in private discussions with the affected women. A simple acknowledgement or private conversation can shift the narrative from doubt to trust.

However, it's essential to exercise caution. While it's important to listen, it's equally critical to distinguish between unintentional missteps and genuine bias. Colleagues and managers must take concerns seriously without unfairly penalizing people whose actions were ambiguous, but not biased.

To navigate this fine line, we must adopt a prudent approach. This involves seeking multiple perspectives, conducting thorough investigations and thoughtfully considering the context in which incidents occurred.

Lastly, as women start sharing their ambiguous experiences, their managers and colleagues should look for recurring themes. A single event may be an aberration, but a pattern is a cause for alarm. It signals systemic problems that require attention.

It's vital to recognize that, in the journey towards diversity and inclusion, it's not just the visible mountains we need to climb. Often, it's the foggy valleys of ambiguity that prove the most challenging to traverse.

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Hidden in plain sight: Women face subtle forms of discrimination and bias in the workplace

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While blatant discrimination is easy to condemn because of how obvious it is, there are subtler, more insidious forms that also need to be rooted out.

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A Guardian article, reporting on the life of a fast-food delivery rider, as they dodge death and immigration officers for little more than £3.00 per hour.

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A Guardian article, reporting on the life of a fast-food delivery rider, as they dodge death and immigration officers for little more than £3.00 per hour.

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Dodging death and immigration officers: 12 hours as a London fast-food rider – and all for £40

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A quarter of UK adults use firms such as Deliveroo, but few think about the cyclists who bring their takeaways. We joined one rider for a day

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A Guardian article, looking at how garment workers in Bangladesh face violent reprises when they ask for fairer pay and conditions.

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A Guardian article, looking at how garment workers in Bangladesh face violent reprises when they ask for fairer pay and conditions.

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When Masuma Akhtar arrived at the garment factory where she works on the outskirts of Dhaka on 31 October, she was expecting a normal shift. Instead, she was met with brute violence. "The moment I walked through the factory gates, a group of armed men began beating me with wooden sticks," says Akhtar. "I fell down on to the ground. Even then they wouldn't stop beating me."

Akhtar, 22, is a seamstress at Dekko Knitwears in Mirpur, where she spends long days churning out clothes for western fashion brands, including Marks & Spencer and C&A.

Bangladesh is one of the world's biggest producers of fast fashion, pumping out millions of tonnes of clothing every year to meet the demands of the world's most popular clothing brands, which are drawn to this small South Asian country where orders - and the labour needed to fulfil them - come cheap.

Although most fast fashion brands that source from Bangladesh claim to support a living wage, they are only required to pay the workers who make their clothes the legal monthly minimum wage, which is one of the lowest in the world and has remained set at 8,000 taka (£58) since 2018.

Negotiations over a new minimum wage for garment workers in Bangladesh have sparked mass demonstrations on streets across the capital. The protests have escalated since the government announced a minimum wage increase for the workers, from 1 December, to 12,500 taka (£90), far below the 23,000 taka a month workers say they need to keep their families from starvation.

Factory owners and police have responded to workers' protests with threats and violence. The beatings she received by armed men at Dekko Knitwears left Akhtar with a broken arm. "They hit my back, my thighs and my arms repeatedly," she says. Now, without use of one of her arms, she is unable to work. "I don't know how I will survive the rest of the month," she adds.

Masuma Akhtar's arm was broken when she was beaten by armed man at Dekko Knitwears in Mirpur. Photograph: Sazzad Hossain

Other workers at Dekko Knitwears say that the men beating them concentrated on their hands and arms. "They started hitting us mercilessly," says Bushra Begum, 25, another worker. "My livelihood depends on my hands, and they targeted them viciously."

Her colleague Rita Anwar, 26, tried to run away but was chased down the road by three men. "I am covered in blood clots," she says, pulling up her sleeve to reveal her injuries. "My back is black with bruises. The pain is so much that I can barely walk."

Before they left, the men issued a warning: the workers were not to take part in any more protests - or they would face consequences.

They can threaten and beat us but if we accept their ridiculous wage proposal, we will starve to death anyway

Naima Islam

As protests in Dhaka turned increasingly violent, three garment workers have been killed, allegedly after being shot by police in the first wave of protests. And last Wednesday, another woman died after being shot in the head.

Factory owners also threatened to shut down production and withhold wages by applying a "no work, no pay" rule. Over the weekend, more than 150 factories closed "indefinitely", as police issued blanket charges for 18,000 workers in connection with the demonstrations.

Workers were warned of dismissal if they continued to protest and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, a trade body, called for all factory recruitment to be paused, making it difficult for protesters to find work elsewhere.

But despite the violent crackdown on workers, those who have spoken to the Guardian are determined to see the fight through to the end.

"They are trying to silence us but we won't back down," says Naima Islam, a machine operator at Columbia Garments. "They can threaten and beat us but what they don't understand is, we have nothing to lose. If we accept their ridiculous wage proposal, we will starve to death anyway."

Islam, 28, is one of thousands of protesters who have had police reports filed against them, which trade unionists fear may soon lead to mass arrests. Many believe it is an attempt to forcefully suppress the wage increase movement.

But that hasn't deterred Islam and her co-workers. "We are not asking for much. This entire industry is built off our backs - the least we deserve is the bare minimum to survive," she says.

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Nazma Akter, president of local trade union Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation, condemns the violence against protesting workers. "The Bangladesh government must ensure workers are able to exercise their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining without fear of violence, reprisal, or intimidation," she says.

Garment workers block a key intersection during a protest in Dhaka on 12 November. Photograph: Abdul Goni/AFP/Getty Images

In a statement, Marks & Spencer said: "These are very serious allegations and we are urgently investigating them. We would never tolerate violence or intimidation of workers and set out very clearly in our global sourcing principles that workers must be guaranteed freedom of association and a safe workplace, as well as fair and transparent wages. As a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative, we have supported the tripartite minimum wage negotiations between the unions, Government Wages Board and the Employers' Association - and we continue to support cross-sector calls for an increase that provides a decent standard of living for workers."

A spokesperson for C&A said: "We are aware of the incident that took place in Bangladesh, and we are in close contact with the supplier to investigate. We condemn all types of violence, and we have a longstanding commitment to ensure the safety and health of all workers in our supply chain."

PVH did not respond to a request for comment.

Dekko Knitwears and Columbia Garments were approached for comment but did not respond.

Fashion brands sourcing from Bangladesh have said they support workers' calls for a higher minimum wage. In a joint letter in September, brands including Asos, Primark and H&M, wrote that they recognised their role in "supporting wage developments". But rights groups argue that this means little if brands don't agree to pay their suppliers more.

Yesterday, Human Rights Watch and Clean Clothes Campaign called on brands to take responsibility for their workers' wages and pay their suppliers more. Aruna Kashyap, associate director for corporate accountability at Human Rights Watch says: "Wage increases have consequences for suppliers' costs and eat into their profit margins."

"Brands themselves are driving low wages with their unfair pricing and purchasing practices," she adds. "To preserve their own profits, brands are putting themselves first."

Names have been changed to protect identities

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Bangladesh garment workers fighting for pay face brutal violence and threats

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Workers describe hands and arms being targeted in 'merciless' beatings as protests over low wages turn increasingly violent in Dhaka

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A Conversation article, investigating how human labour is powering the rise in AI.

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A Conversation article, investigating how human labour is powering the rise in AI.

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The Finnish tech firm Metroc recently began using prison labour to train a large language model to improve artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For 1.54 euros an hour prisoners answer simple questions about snippets of text in a process known as data labelling.

Data labelling is often outsourced to labour markets in the Global South where companies can find workers who are fluent in English and willing to work for low wages.

Due to the lack of Finnish speakers in these countries, however, Metroc has tapped into a local source of cheap labour. Were it not for the prison labour program, Metroc would likely be hard-pressed to find Finns willing to take data-labelling jobs that pay a fraction of the average salary in Finland.

These cost-cutting strategies not only highlight the significant amount of human labour still required to fine tune AI, but they also raise important questions about the long-term sustainability of such business models and practices.

AI's labour problem

The ethical ambiguity of prison labour-sourced AI is part of a larger story about the human cost behind AI's significant growth in recent years. One issue that has become more evident over the past year revolves around the question of labour.

Leading AI firms are not denying their use of outsourced and low-wage labour to do work like data labelling. However, the hype around tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT has drawn attention away from this aspect of the technology's development.

As researchers, including myself, are trying to understand the perceptions and use of AI in higher education, the ethical problems associated with current AI models continue to pile up. These include the biases that AI is prone to reproducing, the environmental impact of AI data centres, and privacy and security concerns.

Current practices of outsourcing data labelling work expose an uneven global distribution of AI's costs and benefits, with few proposed solutions.

The implications of this situation are twofold.

First, the massive amount of human labour that is still required to shape the "intelligence" of AI tools should give users pause when evaluating the outputs of these tools.

Second, until AI firms take serious steps to address their exploitative labour practices, users and institutions may want to reconsider the so-called values or benefits of AI tools.

What is data labelling?

The "intelligence" component of AI still requires significant human input to develop its data processing capabilities. Popular chatbots like ChatGPT are pre-trained (hence, the PT in GPT). A critical phase in the pre-training process consists of supervised learning.

During supervised learning, AI models learn how to generate outputs from data sets that are labelled by humans. Data labellers, like the Finnish prisoners, perform different tasks. For example, labellers might need to confirm whether an image contains a certain feature or to flag offensive language.

In addition to improving accuracy, data labelling is necessary to improve the "safety" of AI systems. Safety is defined according to the goals and principles of each AI firm. A "safe" model for one company might mean avoiding the risk of copyright infringement. For another, it might entail minimizing false information or biased content and stereotypes.

For most popular models, safety means that the model should not generate content based on prejudiced ideologies. This is partly achieved through a properly labelled training data set.

Who are data labellers?

The job of combing through thousands of potentially graphic images and snippets of text has fallen on data labellers largely concentrated in the Global South.

In early 2023, TIME magazine reported on OpenAI's contract with Sama, a data labelling firm based in San Francisco. The report revealed that employees at a Kenyan satellite office were paid as little as US$1.32 per hour to read text that "appeared to have been pulled from the darkest recesses of the internet."

WIRED also investigated the global economic realities of data labellers in South America and East Asia, some of whom worked more than 18 hours per day to earn less than their country's minimum wage.

The Washington Post has taken a close look at ScaleAI which employs at least 10,000 workers in the Philippines. The newspaper revealed the San Francisco-based company "paid workers at extremely low rates, routinely delayed or withheld payments and provided few channels for workers to seek recourse."

The data labelling industry and its required workforce is set to expand drastically in the coming years. Consumers who increasingly use AI systems need to know how they are built as well as the harm and inequities being perpetuated.

Transparency needed

From prisoners to gig workers, the potential for exploitation is real for all entwined in big AI's thirst for data to fuel bigger (and possibly more unpredictable) models.

As institutions and individuals are swept up by the momentum of AI and all of its promises, the public tends to pay less attention to ethical aspects of the technology's development.

Researchers at Stanford University recently launched a website showcasing their Foundation Model Transparency Index. The index provides metrics on measures of transparency for the most widely used AI models. These metrics range from how transparent companies are about where they source their data to how clear they are on the potential risks of their models.

Ten AI models were examined based on criteria of how transparent the company that operates them is about its labour practices. The index shows that tech companies have much work to do to improve transparency.

AI is becoming a growing part of our increasingly digital lives. That is why we must remain critical of a set of technologies that, unchecked and unexamined, may cause more problems than they solve and deepen divides in the world rather than eliminate them.

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Long hours and low wages: the human labour powering AI's development

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Tech firms are relying on low-wage workers to power their AI models. That raises serious ethical questions about how the technology is being developed.

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A Big Think article, asserting that it isn’t income inequality that is the world’s most pressing problem, but time inequality. 

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A Big Think article, asserting that it isn’t income inequality that is the world’s most pressing problem, but time inequality. 

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UNPACKING THE SOURCE Why do Dr. Marian Tupy and Dr. Gale Pooley “dissent” from this view? How does including a consideration of human knowledge change the way we calculate the level of resources available to us? What are the five reasons why thinking in terms of ‘time price’ instead of ‘money price’ provides a better insight into standards of living, and levels of inequality? Overall, ask students if they agree with the statement, “economics can be much more illuminating by going beyond money and atoms to knowledge and time”? How does this make us rethink population growth?

Key terms Limited resources, Finite, Human knowledge, Time prices, True prices

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“Time inequality” is the world’s real problem, not income inequality

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Inequality should be measured in terms of the time it takes for us to earn the money to buy the things we need.

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A Guardian article, investigating whether claims about workers' rights being improved by the Qatar World Cup actually match up to reality. 

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A Guardian article, investigating whether claims about workers' rights being improved by the Qatar World Cup actually match up to reality. 

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One year ago, things were looking up for Shakir Ullah Khan. The World Cup in Qatar was about to kick off, and Khan had travelled from Pakistan to Qatar and had found aprestigious job as a security guard at the tournament. "I was happy to join a big organisation like Fifa," says Khan. But it did not last. "Once we started work ... all my hopes turned to mud."

Sweeping labour reforms put in place after the international community condemned the deaths and exploitation of migrant workers building Qatar's World cup dream were supposed to be the lasting legacy of the tournament. Instead, one year on, migrant workers in Qatar say that life is no better for those left behind.

The Qatari authorities and Fifa have claimed otherwise, with the Fifa president Gianni Infantino describing the event as "the best World Cup ever ".

A spokesperson for the Qatar government said the event "accelerated labour reforms in Qatar, creating a significant and lasting tournament legacy".

Workers now benefit from a minimum wage, the freedom to change jobs, a simplified complaints mechanism with easier access to justice, and improved health and safety standards, the spokesperson said, adding: "One year on from the World Cup, Qatar's commitment to labour reform remains as strong as ever."

The UN's International Labour Organization (ILO), which has been working in partnership with the Qatari authorities since 2018 to reform its labour system, is equally bullish. It says it has "witnessed continued commitment from, and cooperation with" the Qatari authorities since the World Cup.

Amnesty International launched a report on Thursday that tells a different story, claiming that progress on implementing Qatar's new labour laws has stalled since the World Cup.

Ella Knight, Amnesty International's migrant labour rights researcher, says low-wage workers "still face huge risks of exploitation today, including of forced labour, and the prospect of remedy and compensation for abuses is a faint hope for many".

Khan says that shortly before the start of last year's tournament, he and hundreds of other workershad been hired by a local private security company contracted to provide security at a number of key World Cup facilities.

They understood they had been employed for six months - and documents and contracts seen by the Guardian support these claims - but just days after the final, they were suddenly fired, with about three months left to work.

When they tried to negotiate for their outstanding wages at offices linked to the company, hundreds of workers were detained or deported.

Khan and two colleagues were charged with organising a gathering without permission, sentenced to six months in prison and fined 10,000 rials (£2,205). Khan was released in August. One of his colleagues was not freed until 1 November, having been detained for more than nine months.

Today, Khan is still in Qatar, struggling to renew his official documents, without which he is unable to work or even safely leave the overcrowded room he shares with six others. "Sometimes I don't eat for one or two days because I can't work and I have no money," he says. "I can't see any solution."

The Qatar government said the event "accelerated labour reforms in Qatar, creating a significant and lasting tournament legacy". Photograph: Pete Pattisson

Wage theft (the non-payment of wages or benefits) continues to be "rampant" while solutions are "ineffective and inadequate" says Migrant-rights.org, which advocates for workers' rights in the Gulf.

The ILO's annual progress report, released this week, reveals that in the past year, about 1.14bn rials (£250m) has been paid out to workers through a government fund set up to cover workers' unpaid wages and support companies struggling to pay their workers.

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The assurances of the Qatari authorities sound hollow to Saikou Colley, a teenager from the Gambia who also signed up to work for the same security company on the eve of the World Cup. Colley and two friends from home paid local agents huge sums to come to Qatar, drawn by the "life-changing opportunities" offered by the tournament.

But like Khan, just days after the final, they were suddenly left jobless and homeless. The three were eventually referred to a government shelter, which turned out to be more "like a prison".

A year later, Colley is still in Qatar, fighting for compensation through the courts, and worrying about his family back home.

In August, despite having no legal representation, the teenagers won their cases and Colley was awarded 21,000 rials (£4,640) to cover his unpaid wages and the cost of his flight home. His sponsor has appealed against the judgment so he remains trapped, desperate to go home but unwilling to give up on his compensation.

"I blame Fifa and the Qatari government. If they had stood by their words and imposed penalties on those that violate basic human rights, we wouldn't have got to this place," says Colley.

Fifa earned a record $7.5bn (£4.6bn) in the four-year cycle leading up to the Qatar World Cup, but it has yet to announce the results of a review, launched at the Fifa Congress in March, into whether the steps it has taken to provide remedy to workers who suffered abuses linked to the tournament are in line with its human rights commitments.

For workers such as Colley, that cannot come soon enough. Earlier this week, he returned to court to pursue his compensation, only to learn that a decision was once again postponed. "If we had known [how long it would take] we wouldn't have stayed because there is no future here in Qatar," says Colley. "There's only pain and suffering."

Fifa did not respond to a request for comment.

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Workers' rights were touted to be part of the Qatar World Cup's legacy. One year on, what has changed?

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Despite their rosy narrative, the tournament hosts - and Fifa - face criticism for continued exploitation of migrant labour

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A Guardian article, reporting on the the pioneering efforts of Maasai women to ending the all-male leadership of the land in Kenya.

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A Guardian article, reporting on the the pioneering efforts of Maasai women to ending the all-male leadership of the land in Kenya.

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In the hot midday sun on the edge of Mara Ripoi conservancy in Maasai Mara, a group of women gather under the shade of a gnarled, old Balanites aegyptiaca tree, or oloireroi in Maasai.

The women listen keenly as Everlyne Siololo outlines some key benefits of belonging to the newly formed 5,500-hectare (13,500-acre) conservancy.

"This was hardly possible a few years ago," says Siololo, 29, during a break in the meeting. "There were times when a woman's voice was rarely heard. In fact, some men still look down on uneducated women. They need to trust women more."

This wildlife reserve is one of a handful where some of the key decision-makers are Maasai women, who are carving out space in a domain long dominated by men. The reserve borders Maasai Mara, Kenya's enormous game park, which spans more than 1,500 sq km in the Great Rift Valley. Along its borders, many former Maasai cattle-grazing areas have been converted into wildlife conservancies where controlled grazing is allowed.

Two-thirds of Africa's protected land lies outside national parks, and conservancies are one of the main models designed to protect those vital habitats. A conservancy is formed on land that is collectively owned and managed by Indigenous communities - such as the Maasai - and set aside for protection, so it will not be carved up into small farms or developments. The community earns income by partnering with wildife tourism companies, which pay rent.

Maasai societies are highly patriarchal, and governance of the conservancies has typically fallen to men. Now, however, a new generation of women are taking up leadership roles and guiding jobs, and Ripoi is one of the few conservancies in the greater Mara ecosystem where women hold administrative rights: making decisions on cattle grazing zones and financial matters, and discussing employment opportunities - including whether jobs go to women.

"A local chief urged my father to take me to school, though most of my siblings are uneducated," says Siololo. She now holds a diploma in tourism and wildlife management from Maasai Mara University - the highest level of education of her polygamous family of 16 boys and 12 girls. "After college, I too wanted to become a chief, to ensure all girls in our village are enrolled in school, while any dropouts were assisted to continue with their education. Empowering a woman is about safeguarding community interests."

Siololo was too young to become a chief, but she took up work as a driver-guide with Gamewatchers Safaris, a nearby tour company that protects 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres) of community land in the Maasai Mara. The company's managing director, Mohanjeet Brar, says employing women in the camps and conservancies makes a significant impact, as their income is typically used to improve the livelihoods of their families.

"I think we would all agree that women often make better decisions on the use of funds in a household," Brar says. "They are also pioneers for their communities and inspire many girls to dream big."

In Ripoi, three of the 10 governing conservancy committee members are women. Two of them, Norkishili Kayiaa and Nooltetiain Mpeti, are Siololo's stepsisters. The third is 23-year-old Margaret Tingisha.

These women must strike a delicate balance: attending to conservancy matters, domestic work including milking and getting children ready for school, where they start classes at dawn.

I could barely read or write when we joined the conservancy. Now, I can contribute in discussions

We arrive at Siololo's home as the first rays of the sun hit the plains. All but the youngest of her four children are in school. Armed with a plastic jug, Siololo heads to the cattle boma, an enclosure where the herd spends the night after grazing.

"This one is tough and does not take kindly to the process," Siololo says of one cow that must be restrained with ropes before milking. She narrowly ducks a kick from the "belligerent" animal. "Our livestock is central to wildlife conservation. Under the conservancy rules, we can graze our cattle and goats in secluded areas that do not interfere with wildlife," she says.

Kayiaa, 48, a mother of seven, says her involvement in conservancy administration has improved communication between her and her husband. She has also had to overcome stereotypes. "The first time the conservancy elected its officials, there was no woman," she says. "Then we said, there must be ladies. I was among those elected. Previously, women here had no say, even in the sale of a family goat," she says.

Each year, the conservancy pays 3,400 Kenyan shillings (£16) an acre, cash that the women use to feed and educate their children.

Tingisha's family has leased 50 acres to the conservancy, and the money earned has enabled her to open a beading business.

"I quit school at grade four and could barely read or write when we joined the conservancy," says Tingisha. "I have since learned how to read and write and can contribute in discussions about employment opportunities for our people," she says.

Evans Nchoe is Siololo's husband and a local businessman. "Educating girls and empowering women is changing Maasailand," he says. He is happy that Maasai women are becoming more engaged in matters that were previously the preserve of men, and decries the former culture that demeaned women. "We have a new generation of men that is closer to women than the previous one. Today, we sit down and consult. I was elated when Everlyne came and told me that she had got a job. Today, more men wish their wives are employed too. That is progress."

Despite this progress, the women in Ripoi want more leadership and employment opportunities within Maasai Mara conservancies given to women - and higher up the chain.

"True, we have women committee members but what if a woman was the conservancy chairperson, treasurer or secretary?" Siololo says. "When such opportunities arise, they usually consider the boys, thinking that girls will not cope with camp life, but when a goat gets lost at night, it is the women who look for it in the bushes despite the dangers from wild animals."

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'We said, there must be ladies': the pioneering Maasai women ending all-male leadership of the land

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In one Kenyan reserve, women are taking up roles that give them a say in community life and protecting the land they depend on - inspiring a new generation to follow in their footsteps

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A Guardian article, investigating how garment workers in places such as El Salvador have lost out on $4bn of severance pay.

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A Guardian article, investigating how garment workers in places such as El Salvador have lost out on $4bn of severance pay.

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Garment workers have lost out on $4bn of severance pay, says rights group

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The employees, who made clothes for western clothing brands, were legally entitled to the money after losing their jobs

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An Independent article, investigating whether companies that monitor employees’ performance hinder rather than help productivity. 

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An Independent article, investigating whether companies that monitor employees’ performance hinder rather than help productivity. 

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How Black Mirror-style surveillance tech could be making workers less productive

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People aren’t robots – so why are companies monitoring employees’ performance as if we were machines? Helen Coffey dives into the murky world of constant tracking and investigates whether it could hinder rather than help when it comes to boosting productivity

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A Guardian article, looking at the work of India's seaweed divers - and how its demise is a dying, but dangerous, art.

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A Guardian article, looking at the work of India's seaweed divers - and how its demise is a dying, but dangerous, art.

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With sacks tied around their saris and well-used goggles as their only equipment, the seaweed collectors of India's south-east coast have been diving in the Gulf of Mannar for decades, passing skills from mother to daughter.

The women spend six hours a day in the sea, diving up to 4 metres (13ft) to harvest the seaweed from sharp rocks, holding their breath as they tuck the fronds into bags tied around their waists.

In Rameswaram, on the Tamil Nadu coast, it is a dying art. More girls are now able to go to school and pursue working lives that are less dependent on the dangerous tides and bruising work.

Sethunambu, who, like most of the women, goes by only one name, thinks she is about 60 now, and has been diving for much of her adult life. "I am in this profession for the past 20 years, and I have encountered the risks along with other women like me," she says.

"We tie a sack over our sari, around our waist, and gather the plants that we have scrapped off the rocks with our bruised hands while diving deep into the water."

The collected seaweed has to be dried before it is sold to traders, who sell it on for use in the food and beauty industries. Under the best conditions of low tides and favourable weather, the most the divers can earn is £120 a month.

Munishwari lives in Mangadu village, 3km from where she collects the seaweed. Although she followed her mother's path, and the trade has earned her a living, Munishwari does not want to see the next generation follow her into the tradition.

I want my own children to move out of this circle, and to choose education

Munishwari, seaweed collector

"I suffer from allergies and itchiness on a daily basis, my hands and feet are bruised, and sometimes I encounter dangerous fish in the water," she says.

"I have been living in fear with this occupation, although it was the only source that brought some bread to my house. I want my children to move out of this circle and choose education over this. However, I will teach my daughter the art as a backup plan."

Lavanya, another harvester, is proud of her work. "Our earnings are modest and we face financial constraints due to limited value assigned to our harvests. However, we give our best and make the most out of whatever life offers us. We take pride in whatever we are earning with dignity," she says.

In the small town of Olaikadu, Suganthi Ravi, 39, lives with her two daughters and a fisher husband. She is one of about 300 local women who harvest marigold seaweed from March to May. Ravi spends the rest of the year selling seaweed products and handcrafts made by her and the other women. A committed environmentalist, she also visits schools to talk to children about the importance of looking after the sea.

"There is a shrimp farm nearby that has a lot of wastewater, which is being dumped in the sea," she says. "It affects the seaweed growth, and we do not want such waste to impact our livelihood. It also harms the fish."

The seaweed divers are facing increasing challenges due of the climate crisis and coastal development. Rising salination levels, extreme weather conditions and changes in nutrient cycling and pest populations are all eating into their earnings. Government regulations to protect marine ecosystems are also bringing new red tape to their work.

Few of the women will mourn the passing of their trade. They all emphasise the risks they face from venomous creatures in the water, and the scrapes, bites and stings that can lead to expensive and painful hospital visits.

For now, though, the women celebrate the financial independence the seaweed brings them. "Although the dangerous habitat and unpredictable tides always pose a threat to our lives, it brings satisfactory wages to our homes," says Ravi.

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'A dying art': India's female seaweed divers look to a brighter future for their girls

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For generations, mothers in Tamil Nadu have taught their daughters the dangerous trade. But while their work has brought them financial independence, few are mourning its passing

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A Conversation article, looking at how reimagining time can help create a fairer workplace for those with disabilities in Canada.

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A Conversation article, looking at how reimagining time can help create a fairer workplace for those with disabilities in Canada.

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Despite the fact that people with disabilities are entitled to equality under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the provincial Human Rights Codes, they continue to face systemic barriers in accessing employment, education, transportation and housing.

Individuals with disabilities are under-represented in the Canadian labour market. Only 60 per cent of people with disabilities are employed in Canada, compared to 80 per cent of those without disabilities.

Studies also indicate that Canadians with more severe disabilities are more likely to work part-time than their able-bodied peers. Men with disabilities, for example, are three times more likely to work part-time than their able-bodied counterparts.

Working-age individuals with disabilities are also twice as likely to live in poverty compared to those without disabilities.

Recent initiatives like the Canada Disability Benefit Act and legislation like the Accessible Canada Act are important steps towards equality for people with disabilities, but more needs to be done to ensure they can flourish in the workplace.

'Crip time'

One way to dramatically improve the lives of people with disabilities is by understanding time in a way that considers how people with disabilities experience barriers - something known as " crip time."

It acknowledges the lived reality of people with disabilities and how they experience time in domains as diverse as transportation, employment and even recreation.

The concept of crip time, originally developed by scholars of disability studies such as Alison Kafer and Ellen Samuels, has the potential to help Canadians reimagine how we think about disability.

Consider Joanna, a fictional example. She is a quadriplegic who uses specialized door-to-door paratransit buses to get around and pre-booked attendant services to assist her with daily activities.

Someone like Joanna is likely to face frequent delays when commuting to work because paratransit often involves long wait times. In many cases, no paratransit bookings are available, forcing people with disabilities to use inaccessible transit systems.

Alternatives to paratransit, such as wheelchair-accessible taxis, are often unavailable or unaffordable for people with disabilities. The severe shortage of wheelchair-accessible taxis has only worsened over the past several years.

Joanna is also likely to face barriers when attendants are tardy or fail to show up at all. Even recreation programs that are accessible to wheelchair users may have waiting lists or require significant time to access.

Together, these barriers have the potential to significantly curtail Joanna's ability to do her job. By understanding how these barriers affect people with disabilities - as well as other areas of daily living - crip time can guide policymakers and advocates towards more effective solutions.

Remote work

In a dramatic departure from pre-pandemic norms, a growing number of workplaces have embraced working from home in the wake of COVID-19. No longer stigmatized, remote work now offers a tool to level the playing field for people with disabilities.

In an ongoing study of working adults with disabilities, we found that many participants flourished when they were given the opportunity to work at home.

One participant shared:

"I have never been as productive and as happy, both personally and professionally, as when my work was 100 per cent remote."

Another participant disclosed remote work as being beneficial to their personal health:

"I had more time to focus on my own self, my appointments and [my] mental health. So I feel remote work has been amazing for me."

It's clear that remote work has the potential to help people with disabilities excel professionally. In light of this, companies should be proactive in offering such workplace accommodations to employees.

More inclusive workplaces

We need to reconsider how workplaces view productivity. Creating flexible workplaces that allow people to work part-time and/or from home is a more inclusive approach.

By creating more inclusive workplaces, companies can harness the talent of individuals who might otherwise be excluded from the workplace. Companies miss out on talent opportunities when they don't hire people with disabilities.

Flexible workplaces could also benefit people without disabilities, such as single parents and students who are only able to work part-time. With appropriate support from governments and employers to ensure part-time workers receive adequate benefits, the potential of crip time as a policy tool is profound.

Although our study is still ongoing, we're hopeful our preliminary findings will change how we think about the role time plays in the lives of people with disabilities.

By understanding and addressing the ways people with disabilities experience time differently than able-bodied people in their everyday lives, we can build more inclusive - and productive - workplaces for all of us.

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Reimagining time will help employers better support workers with disabilities

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One way to dramatically improve the lives of people with disabilities is by understanding time in a way that considers how people with disabilities experience barriers - something known as "crip time."

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A Guardian article, which tries to answer the question: "Which jobs will survive the AI revolution?"

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A Guardian article, which tries to answer the question: "Which jobs will survive the AI revolution?"

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At the 2021 Australian and US Open tennis championships, all the line judges were replaced by machines. This was, in many ways, inevitable. Not only are these machines far more accurate than any human at calling balls in or out, but they can also be programmed to make their calls in a human-like voice, so as not to disorient the players. It is a little eerie, the disembodied shriek of "Out!" coming from nowhere on the court (at the Australian Open the machines are programmed to speak with an Australian accent). But it is far less irritating than the delays required by challenging incorrect calls, and far more reliable. It takes very little getting used to.

In the slew of reports published in the 2010s looking to identify which jobs were most at risk of being automated out of existence, sports officials usually ranked very high up the list (the best known of these studies, by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne in 2017, put a 98% probability on sports officiating being phased out by computers within 20 years). Here, after all, is a human enterprise where the single most important qualification is an ability to get the answer right. In or out? Ball or strike? Fair or foul? These are decisions that need to be underpinned by accurate intelligence. The technology does not even have to be state-of-the-art to produce far better answers than humans can. Hawk-Eye systems have been outperforming human eyesight for nearly 20 years. They were first officially adopted for tennis line calls in 2006, to check cricket umpire decisions in 2009 and, more recently, to rule on football offsides.

Yet despite the arrival of this smart technology, there are now many more people employed in sports officiating than ever before. Wimbledon has decided to retain its line judges, in part for aesthetic reasons. As the only major tournament played on grass, looking good against a green backdrop is a key part of the money-making machine (hence the requirement that the players wear nothing but white). The line judges are mainly there for their uniforms. In 2022, as for the previous 17 years, these were designed by Ralph Lauren.

Cricket matches, which traditionally featured just two umpires, currently have three to manage the complex demands of the technology, plus a referee to monitor the players' behaviour, which still involves a large element of human discretion (who's to say what is meant by "upholding the spirit of the game"?). Football matches have up to five officials, plus the large teams of screen-watchers needed to interpret the replays provided by the video assistant referee system (VAR). The NBA Replay Center at Secaucus, New Jersey, which employs 25 people full time, along with a rota of regular match officials, would not look out of place at Nasa.

Efficiency - even accuracy - turns out not to be the main requirement of the organisations that employ people to give decisions during sports games. They are also highly sensitive to appearance, which includes a wish to keep their sport looking and feeling like it's still a human-centred enterprise. Smart technology can do many things, but in the absence of convincingly humanoid robots, it can't really do that. So actual people are required to stand between the machines and those on the receiving end of their judgments. The result is more work all round.

Robots can dance, but they still need human choreographers to look convincing

It remains surprisingly hard to know which jobs are likely to go with the arrival of AI, though we can be confident that the scope and character of employment will change. Many studies of the risks of automation, like Frey and Osborne's, choose to treat work as a series of tasks, which can then be measured by their suitability to be undertaken by machines. This assumes that the barriers in the way of human replacement are simply the current limitations of the technology, which for now include a continuing inability to exhibit a range of human-centric cognitive and mobility skills. Robots are good at repetitive tasks, even when these are highly complex, along with ever more voluminous data crunching, but they often struggle with simple forms of human interaction. If your job involves creativity, aesthetic judgment, truly fluid movement or social sensitivity, then on these measures you are likely to be safe for now. Robots can dance, but they still need human choreographers to look convincing.

However, a task is not a job, not in the modern meaning of the term. Jobs are positions created by organisations that have their own requirements. It is too simplistic to think of these requirements as nothing more than the efficient performance of a task, even in the case of heartless, money-grubbing corporations. It also matters whether the job makes sense in relation to the corporation's needs. Most jobs continue to require people to fill them, because people are the human element of the impersonal organisations that provide the jobs. Otherwise, the machines would appear to be running the show, which is a dangerous look in a world where people still count.

How things look isn't everything. There are significant parts of every organisation where appearance doesn't matter so much, in the backrooms and maybe even the boardrooms that the public never gets to see. Behind-the-scenes technical knowledge that underpins the performance of public-facing tasks is likely to be an increasingly precarious basis for reliable employment. This is true of many professions, including accountancy, consultancy and the law. There will still be lots of work for the people who deal with people. But the business of gathering data, processing information and searching for precedents can now more reliably be done by machines. The people who used to undertake this work, especially those in entry-level jobs such as clerks, administrative assistants and paralegals, might not be OK.

The future of employment necessarily involves a complex set of relationships, which are far more likely to alter what we understand by work than to abolish it. There are the relationships between people and machines, some of which may turn out to be zero-sum (more work for them means less work for us), but most of which are still liable to be mutual. Doctors who use technology to diagnose cancers are going to need to hone other skills - including better ways of communicating what the machines are saying - but these will be far easier to acquire than expecting the technology to hone the skills possessed by the doctors. Then there is all the work for the managers, lawyers and ethicists who will need to decide on whether the doctor-machine relationship is proceeding as hoped, and what to do when it goes wrong. In the age of AI, there will be no shortage of work in hospitals.

'The technology does not even have to be state-of-the-art to produce far better answers than humans can.' Photograph: Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Getty Images

In the world of work, it's still people, organisations, machines - in that order. Might the order change? Could the organisations come to prioritise the machines over the people, or the machines come to take the most consequential decisions on behalf of the organisations?

History offers a partial guide to what might happen. Worries about automation displacing human workers are as old as the idea of the job itself. The Industrial Revolution disrupted many kinds of labour - especially on the land - and undid entire ways of life. The transition was grim for those who had to switch from one mode of subsistence existence to another. Yet the end result was many more jobs, not fewer. Factories brought in machines to do faster and more reliably what humans used to do or could never do at all; at the same time, factories were where the new jobs appeared, involving the performance of tasks that were never required before the coming of the machines. This pattern has repeated itself time and again: new technology displaces familiar forms of work, causing massively painful disruption. It is little consolation to the people who lose their jobs to be told that soon enough there will be entirely new ways of earning a living. But there will.

It does not always happen, however, that new tasks are found for the previous generation of workhorses. This was most notably the case with actual workhorses. Throughout the 19th century, fast-growing industrial production was heavily dependent on the labour of horses to transport people and goods, above all in the United States. From this labour a huge number and variety of jobs were created for the people needed to sustain horse-powered enterprises.

Just 50 years later the horse-powered economy had almost entirely disappeared from urban areas, if not yet from rural ones. Fifty years after that it was more or less gone throughout the whole country. But an enormous number of new jobs were created to service the needs of the automobile. By 1950 the auto industry had generated 7m or more net new jobs, which accounted at that point for 11% of the total American workforce.

What weren't created were many new jobs for the horses. Their skill set - pulling, carrying, not complaining about it - turned out to be insufficiently adaptable for the new era. Eventually there was nothing much left for them to do, outside the leisure industry. When the first model-T Ford (22 horsepower) rolled off the production line in 1908 there were around 25 million horses in the United States, alongside 90 million people. When the first Ford Falcon (260 horsepower) appeared in 1960, there were just 3 million horses left - and nearly 180 million people. The horse as worker was effectively obsolete.

Cars lack adaptability compared with horses. That didn't stop us building an entire economy around them

Might humans go the way of the horse? Our skill set too could turn out to be insufficiently adaptable, once machines are able to do most of the things we can, at many, many times the speed. The "human power" of deep learning technology - for instance, 3,000 years of chess knowledge picked up by AlphaZero in less than 24 hours (human power: 1,000,000+) - is exponentially greater than the horsepower of even the swiftest automobiles. It is true that smart machines also lack adaptability, above all the ability to switch between entirely different tasks. But cars lack plenty of kinds of adaptability compared with horses: they can't step over obstacles, or move sideways, or swim through streams. That didn't stop us building an entire economy around them, and road networks suited to all their limitations, sacrificing many millions of our own lives over the following century to inevitable road accidents in the process.

Where humans most clearly differ from horses, however, is that we are not uncomplaining. We are the opposite. We have agency, expressed through our ability to communicate our choices. When the horses were phased out, it was by organisations in which they did not have a say. We do have a say in the organisations that might choose to phase us out. We had better use it.

One reason we should is that these organisations have agency too. Without our input they will make their own choices. And smart machines, also unlike horses, can make their own choices as well. It is fanciful to suppose that they would choose to phase us out once we did not serve their purposes any more. They don't have that kind of agency - the human kind. But their ability to perform certain tasks better than we can is sufficient to allow them to shape how we live if we choose to let them. Just as cars came to shape how we live once we chose to let them.

It was never up to the horses. It was not up to the cars. It is not even up to the new breed of self-driving vehicles. It is still up to us, our states and our corporations.

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What makes a job different from other kinds of work is its relationship to the passing of time. When work comprises a task or a series of tasks, time is measured by how long the task takes to complete, and by how long its results last. Often there is a connection between the two, but not necessarily: the books that take the longest to write are by no means the ones that are sure to endure; the songs that take the longest to compose are not always the ones that people want to sing. Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, which is among the most covered songs of the past 50 years, took 10 years and endless revisions to get right, but Forever Young by Bob Dylan, which has been re-recorded almost as often, was knocked out in a single sitting (as were many of Dylan's songs).

For Hannah Arendt, what distinguished work, and what made it potentially so satisfying, was this possibility of durability: things could be built that might long outlast their makers. These artefacts could be anything from books and songs to tables and chairs to states and constitutions.

At the same time, many jobs are longer lasting than the tasks they require. Being president is a single job with many responsibilities, some of which demand attention only from one day to the next. The job of a furniture maker could last an adult lifetime, during which many hundreds or even thousands of tables and chairs might be built. What gives jobs their durability is that the organisations that generate them have sufficient longevity of their own.

But often the price of job security is drudgery or repetition. Doing the same job for many years can be boring. That is why organisations try to offer progression as well as stability. A career is more than just a job - it usually involves changing roles within a given field, and when appropriate changing organisation too. Being a banker is a career; working for a bank is a job; devising a banking product is a task; closing a deal is an action. Yet being a banker also means running the serious risk of getting fired. It is potentially more rewarding than being a civil servant - in financial terms anyway - but it is less reliable.

These trade-offs - between job security and variety, between risk and reward - have been familiar throughout the history of modern employment. They echo the wider trade-offs between the personal and the impersonal, the human and the artificial, that define the modern age. Where the balance is struck varies with time and place. During much of the 20th century - the great age of the career, and indeed of "careers advice" in schools - large corporations, along with the state, could offer solid prospects for career progression. It was possible to remain in the same organisation for a working lifetime and still have a range of satisfying working experiences.

The 21st century is different. Many large organisations have relatively few employees compared to their 20th-century equivalents. The rapid proliferation of smaller, shorter-lived companies also means that longevity is not what it was. In the age of the startup, getting a job, even (and perhaps especially) a highly paid one, doesn't guarantee much security. Jobs are shorter lived, and as a result careers are far more fragmented. For anyone first entering the workplace in the third decade of the 21st century, it makes little sense to talk in terms of "careers advice" at all. The experience of work is far more likely to involve a portfolio of different occupations, some inevitably undertaken at the same time. A single person might have many jobs, but many jobs are unlikely to make a single career.

The rise of smart technology has a lot to do with this. Some of it is simple uncertainty - trying to picture the arc of a working life is almost impossible when the rate of change is so rapid. Apocalyptic warnings about the impending hollowing out of the professions make training to be a lawyer, or an accountant, feel far riskier than it once did. That doesn't mean that people have stopped training to be lawyers - the number of enrolments at US law schools is continuing to grow, as is the number of schools offering law degrees. But there is a widespread expectation that this will result in many more qualified lawyers than there are legal jobs, let alone legal careers. The hope must be that knowing the law will still provide good training for the increasing variety of human-oriented tasks that a portfolio career might require, with or without machines to do the heavy lifting.

But even in the shorter term, new technology has changed the relationship between careers, jobs and tasks. Performing tasks is what machines are good at. The better they get at it, the more work becomes task-oriented. In many ways, talking about the prospect of machines taking people's jobs is a misnomer, because once machines do the work these are no longer jobs. Machines don't require job security, any more than they require the other appurtenances of modern employment regimes: holidays, healthcare, positive feedback, redundancy pay. Jobs are what humans do.

The potential upside of the AI revolution is enormous. It is not hard to see how these systems could be deployed to make human beings vastly better off, by liberating us from drudgery, sparing us from disease, transporting us safely and stimulating us endlessly. The biggest boosters of the new generation of thinking machines promise what would until very recently have seemed impossible: lifespans extended by hundreds of years, telepathic communication, an exponential explosion of creativity and scientific discovery. It all seems unlikely but, given the current rate of progress, who's to say they are wrong?

At the same time, it is very easy to see the looming downsides, including the real risk of catastrophe. Even if we can work out what to do with our spare time, how to distribute these new resources equitably and whether we really want to know what everyone else is thinking, there is still the chance that we will lose control of the intelligent systems we have built. They are meant to work for us, but already it is possible to suspect that we will end up working for them. If they become much smarter than we are, will they still want to do our bidding? Will they even care about us at all? After all, these are just machines. For now, and probably for ever, they are going to lack a conscience, a heart, a soul. We built them to expand our horizons, but if we cannot keep them tethered to a human-centred perspective, it may be the last thing we do.

This is an edited extract from The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States and AIs by David Runciman (Profile), published on 7 September. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com

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The end of work: which jobs will survive the AI revolution?

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A Guardian article, exploring how young Koreans are rebelling against a culture of very long hours.

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A Guardian article, exploring how young Koreans are rebelling against a culture of very long hours.

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'Working during my holidays and weekends became a routine," says Lee Sang-hyuk as he describes the culture of overtime at the large pharmaceutical company he used to work for near Seoul. "I gradually realised that my life and health were deteriorating due to excessive hours. I had no energy, and neglected my personal relationships."

He developed back pain from long hours sitting at his desk, and said he became anxious and lethargic. "During the few times I was able to meet my friends, I couldn't even enjoy that, as all I could think about was work. I thought I was the problem," the 35-year-old told the Guardian.

What Lee did next would once have seemed extraordinary for an employee in South Korea's culture of long working hours: he quit.

His story is not an isolated case. It represents a broader movement taking shape in South Korea among a generation of determined youth rebelling against the suffocating grip of the country's rigid work culture. The "MZ generation", as they are referred to in South Korea, encompassing both generation Z and millennials, is at the heart of a potential generational shift away from a culture of overwork.

The last straw for some came in March with the government's proposal to revise the working hours system, permitting up to 69 hours a week. The current law allows the basic 40-hour working-week principle to be applied to companies, with overtime limited to a maximum of 12 hours, though exceptions do exist.

The plan was presented as a solution to labour market challenges that offered flexibility to companies by allowing them to calculate average working hours over longer periods of time. Prior to becoming president, Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative who is seen as pro-business, suggested that people be allowed to work 120 hours a week if necessary.

My parents told me to endure it. But when I finally left the job, they supported my choice to pursue a better life

Lee Sang-hyuk, pharmacist

It was also promoted as a way to benefit working women by enabling them to accumulate more overtime hours, which could be exchanged for time off in the future, addressing family and caregiving responsibilities in a country that already has the lowest birthrate in the world.

But the proposal sparked a backlash from young people, unions and opposition politicians, forcing the government to rethink its decision. A spokesperson for the main opposition Democratic party called the Yoon administration " shameless", and said the country was returning to a " history of labour hell ".

Young workers demonstrated against an "irresponsible and inhumane policy detached from reality", and the policy was widely criticised on social media.

The government appeared to quickly back down, with Yoon's press secretary, Kim Eun-hye, promising to listen to workers' opinions more closely in the future, especially those of the MZ generation. However, a replacement policy has yet to be put forward, and there are fears that the 69-hour proposal will return in some form later this year.

South Korea is one of the countries with the longest working hours in the industrialised world. This is often seen as a legacy of its remarkable economic growth. Historically, people stayed with a single company until retirement, as this provided job security and a guaranteed income. This arrangement was frequently accompanied by the expectation of long hours and dedication to the company.

"This cultural belief continues to be perpetuated today," Lee says of his parents' generation, who still believe in self-sacrifice for the sake of family and country. "At first, my parents told me to endure it to gain more for my career development.

"But when I finally did make the decision to leave, they readily supported me and appreciated that I had made a courageous choice to pursue a better life for myself."

Excessive work hours have been linked to an increased risk of suicide in South Korea. It is the leading cause of death for people aged 10 to 39.

"Young people have learned how harmful working long hours can be," according to Kim Ji-hyun, head of policy at the Youth Community Union, an activist group that advocates for better working conditions for young adults.

"They have realised that, even when they work diligently in their current workplace, the company's benefits and profits do not always reach the employees."

Young people are becoming increasingly anxious about committing to a single company for a long period, especially given the rising costs of living. A survey by JobKorea, a job information portal, revealed that 55% of employees from the MZ generation have no intention of pursuing management positions, while 47% said they were preparing to move to another company.

Young people may have seen family members get sick from overwork. They are protesting at something they know is wrong

Kim Ji-hyun, Youth Community Union

"They may have seen family members, relatives or friends who have to survive on their own, even after getting sick from overwork. It's natural for them to protest against something they know is wrong," says Kim.

Lee Myung-ha, 36, worked for a government agency, and was often on round-the-clock duty, conducting international business. She sometimes worked until 4am, and felt she was always under pressure to prove she was doing her best.

"I felt I was not myself," she told the Guardian. As the youngest member of her team, she was also expected to take on additional time-consuming tasks such as organising birthday parties and managing office supplies. She says she was never compensated for these extra duties.

A survey by Gapjil 119, a civic organisation that campaigns against workplace abuses of power and mistreatment, found that 59% of respondents who worked overtime said they were not paid for it. "Excluding workplace harassment, the most common query we receive relates to wages and working hours," said Gapjil 119's executive director, Oh Jin-ho.

He highlighted the lack of legal provisions for accurately tracking the hours employees work, particularly those who sign a contract with a " blanket wage" system, in which overtime is factored into the salary.

This system, he says, is open to abuse, with employers demanding extra hours from staff who find it difficult to refuse. "And although Korean labour law requires overtime to be compensated at 1.5 times the regular rate, many cases arise where such allowances are not paid," Oh said.

The 69-hour proposal, said Oh, was akin to legislating the promotion of death from overwork, a cause of death that officially claims about 500 lives each year, though the true figure is likely to be higher.

Politicians are debating legislation to address the misuse of the blanket wage system, and campaigners are calling for its abolition. A recent survey by South Korea's labour ministry found young people's desired working week was 42 hours.

Almost half of the MZ generation respondents would not take a job that required them to work more hours than they wanted, even if they were compensated for the extra hours.

A labour ministry official told the Guardian that the government acknowledges public concerns and has been gathering feedback from different sectors. "We will also conduct a nationwide survey and [run] focus groups, and intend to announce a comprehensive revised plan for the work-hour system later this year," the official said.

Lee Myung-ha, who now works 30 hours a week as a manager in a Seoul wine shop, has discovered other pleasures in life after leaving her office job. "I can negotiate holidays better, meet my friends and learn new things," she says, though she admits she is only able to do this because she can save money by living at home with her parents.

At the pharmacy he now runs in Bucheon, near Seoul, Lee says a balanced life is essential. He believes that South Korea needs a more efficient work culture to remain globally competitive.

"The first step is properly limiting working hours to ensure sufficient rest time for workers," he says. "To have a healthy and happy life is to be in control of one's life."

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Death from overwork: young Koreans rebel against culture of long hours

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Hard graft is ingrained in South Korean society, but when the state proposed a 69-hour week, it was had to back down as millennials and gen-Zers opt out of traditional working practices

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Workers Rights news & latest pictures from Newsweek.com

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All the latest breaking news on Workers Rights. Browse Newsweek archives of photos, videos and articles on Workers Rights.

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Find stories about workers' rights from the Associated Press.

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Find stories about workers' rights from the Associated Press.