公告事項

2020/05/28 [時代解讀] 『零』工經濟的零『工』窮途

[時代解讀]
庚子之亂: 『零』工經濟的零『工』窮途
As the gig economy grows, its workers's paychecks shrink
By Alana Samuels
💖搶鮮課程體驗:https://forms.gle/ZzGMbKRYZmS5etvu9

***精選段落***
As more workers rush to apps, they’re encountering people trying to make money off their situation. Even before the pandemic, hustlers had been selling access to bots that grabbed jobs before humans could, and charging potential workers to use these bots, says Matthew Telles, a longtime Instacart shopper who has been outspoken about the platform’s flaws. As the apps get more crowded, he says, people desperate for income can’t resist the bots “It’s an old-school racket,” he says. Bots are also a problem on services like Amazon Flex, but Telles says Instacart in particular has become a target. (Instacart says that using unauthorized third parties in an effort to secure more batches is not permitted and that anyone found to be doing so will be deactivated.)

***精選詞彙***

hustler (nc) 黃牛
[延] hustle (vt) (粗魯地)推擠他人
[片] hustle somebody into something 催促某人做決定
[例] The salesperson is hustling Johnny into buying the app.
[中] 業務正催促強尼趕快買這個應用程式。

bot (nc) 提供網路自動化服務的程式
[衍] chatbot (nc) 聊天機器人
[衍] nanobot (nc) 奈米機器人

outspoken (adj) 如實陳述的
[衍] blunt (adj) 直言不諱的;不加修飾地的
[例] To be blunt, your proposal isn't attractive.
[中] 坦白說,你的提案並不吸引人。

batch (nc) (被視為整體的) 一群人或物
[類] patch (nc) (與其他區塊不同的)小區塊
[例] There are some white patches on the shirt.
[中] 這件襯衫上有一些白色色塊。

deactivate (v) 停止運作
[反] activate (v) 開始運作
[例] The program is activated by a code.
[中] 這個程式需要密碼激活。
[解] deactivate = de (相反的) + act(行動)+ive(形容詞詞綴) + ate(動詞詞綴)

***段落翻譯***
隨著越來越多人想用這類應用程式賺些外快, 不肖人士早已準備好要從這些人身上再狠賺一筆。 Instacart 資深代購人員馬修·泰利斯直言說出該平台的缺失:甚至在疫情爆發之前,黃牛就在用搶單程式截取訂單,並向有意願使用他搶單程式的代購人員收費。當越來越多人使用這個程式,急需收入的人也會無法抵抗它的誘惑。「這樣的問題層出不窮,」他說。在 Amazon Flex 這樣的服務平台上,搶單程式也同樣是個問題,但泰利斯指出Instacart 尤其是這些程式目標。( Instacart 則表示,不允許使用任何未經授權的第三方程式來獲得更多派單, 被發向使用的話使用者帳號將被停用。)

***用語解析***
零工經濟 (gig economy)是指在某個特定時間內的短期工作。當工作任務完成或期滿,聘僱關係即終止。gig一詞是由英語俚語而來,起初是指音樂家的一場演出,進而延伸出短期非固定工作的意思。

原文出處: TIME Vol.195