Top trends from the World of Work

Say goodbye to free catered meals, first-class travel and free coffee carts. Companies like Goldman Sachs and Salesforce are cutting back on employee perks, many of which were first introduced during the pandemic.

The perks were meant to draw top talent and retain existing staffers . But those perks are slowly disappearing as workers are asked to return to the office. Read more here .

Is the Metaverse dead in the water?

It’s been almost a year since Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta Platforms. The head of Meta said it would take years to transition to the immersive online experience. Data shows the metaverse could grow up to $5 trillion in value by 2030 .

But the company’s flagship metaverse offering for consumers, Horizon Worlds, is falling far short of performance expectations. Those who can afford the $400 price tag report glitch features and empty worlds. The platform has less than 200,000 active users, far short of the initial 500,000 goal.

Internal data shows that most users don’t return to the app after the first month. In fact, the user base has steadily declined since the spring. One internal document sums it up: “An empty world is a sad world.” Read more at the Wall Street Journal .

A Dutch court has ruled that it is a human rights violation to force workers to turn on their webcams. The case stems from a lawsuit filed by a telemarketer employed by Florida-based Chetu. The company insisted the employee be monitored 9 hours per day, including screen sharing and streaming his webcam. When he refused, he was fired for “refusal to work” and “insubordination.”

“I don’t feel comfortable being monitored for 9 hours a day by a camera. This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable. That is the reason why my camera is not on,” the court document quotes the anonymous employee’s communication to Chetu. The employee suggests that the company was already monitoring him, “You can already monitor all activities on my laptop and I am sharing my screen.”

The Dutch court found that tracking via camera for eight or nine hours a day is not permitted in the Netherlands. Read more at Tech Crunch .

In December 2019, luggage maker Away found itself in a scandal. Disgruntled workers at the company complained about working conditions . An investigation found that workers were expected to work long hours, avoid taking time off, answer messages at all hours, and more. It’s a common – although imperfect – norm at many start-ups.

“A startup is not a 9-to-5 job, period,” Leslie Feinzaig, founder and chief executive officer of the women-focused venture firm Graham & Walker LLC, told Bloomberg . “These companies move fast and grow fast, and anyone who goes to work at one should expect a quick-moving environment, and like a challenge.”

A new study finds that employees do not expect female bosses – like Away’s CEO – to insist on long hours. And they don’t respond well when that extra work is requested. Read more at Bloomberg .