Michael Maffie
@maffie.bsky.social
Assistant Professor | Labor Relations, Platform Work | Developer, Coauthor Project (coauthor.fly.dev)
Pinned
Michael Maffie
@maffie.bsky.social
· Aug 5
The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy
This study investigates the mechanisms by which gig platforms degrade labour conditions over time, building on the concept of platform decay, or ‘enshittification’, initially developed in the context...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
🚨 I’m excited to announce that, “The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy” is now available online !
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Public sector employees are prohibited from striking, so they will sometimes call out en masse citing sickness - called catching the “blue flu” (named for police departments that would call out sick to put pressure on cities during collective bargaining).
abcnews.go.com/US/delays-sa...
abcnews.go.com/US/delays-sa...
80% of NYC-area air traffic controllers absent amid 'surge' in callouts: FAA
Staffing shortages snarled flights at a slew of major airports on Friday.
abcnews.go.com
November 1, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Public sector employees are prohibited from striking, so they will sometimes call out en masse citing sickness - called catching the “blue flu” (named for police departments that would call out sick to put pressure on cities during collective bargaining).
abcnews.go.com/US/delays-sa...
abcnews.go.com/US/delays-sa...
"Every aspect of it seeks to dictate decisions that have traditionally been left to each university — a degree of control over higher education that is characteristic of authoritarian countries."
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...
Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion
www.nytimes.com
October 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
"Every aspect of it seeks to dictate decisions that have traditionally been left to each university — a degree of control over higher education that is characteristic of authoritarian countries."
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...
For example, making a digital platform increasingly awful for gig workers.
#labor
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#labor
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
September 4, 2025 at 8:39 PM
For example, making a digital platform increasingly awful for gig workers.
#labor
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#labor
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Opening day! Here we go, Big Red!
@scjohnsoncollege.bsky.social
@scjohnsoncollege.bsky.social
August 25, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Opening day! Here we go, Big Red!
@scjohnsoncollege.bsky.social
@scjohnsoncollege.bsky.social
Reposted by Michael Maffie
Promising way to crowdsource data on academic journal decision timelines. I'm uploading my data. You can too!
Stories like this are why my lab started the Coauthor Project. If this was a manuscript central submission, can you upload it to the dashboard?
coauthor.fly.dev
coauthor.fly.dev
Coauthor
Web site created using Vite
coauthor.fly.dev
August 13, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Promising way to crowdsource data on academic journal decision timelines. I'm uploading my data. You can too!
Reposted by Michael Maffie
🚨 I’m excited to announce that, “The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy” is now available online !
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy
This study investigates the mechanisms by which gig platforms degrade labour conditions over time, building on the concept of platform decay, or ‘enshittification’, initially developed in the context...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 5, 2025 at 9:01 AM
🚨 I’m excited to announce that, “The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy” is now available online !
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Michael Maffie
This is an important “long view” contribution to the gig economy/platform work scholarship. Congrats @maffie.bsky.social!
I recognize many of the decay/degradation mechanisms you describe. They’re why so many seasoned gig workers have left these platforms, when possible.
I recognize many of the decay/degradation mechanisms you describe. They’re why so many seasoned gig workers have left these platforms, when possible.
🚨 I’m excited to announce that, “The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy” is now available online !
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy
This study investigates the mechanisms by which gig platforms degrade labour conditions over time, building on the concept of platform decay, or ‘enshittification’, initially developed in the context...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 5, 2025 at 9:25 AM
This is an important “long view” contribution to the gig economy/platform work scholarship. Congrats @maffie.bsky.social!
I recognize many of the decay/degradation mechanisms you describe. They’re why so many seasoned gig workers have left these platforms, when possible.
I recognize many of the decay/degradation mechanisms you describe. They’re why so many seasoned gig workers have left these platforms, when possible.
🚨 I’m excited to announce that, “The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy” is now available online !
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy
This study investigates the mechanisms by which gig platforms degrade labour conditions over time, building on the concept of platform decay, or ‘enshittification’, initially developed in the context...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 5, 2025 at 9:01 AM
🚨 I’m excited to announce that, “The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy” is now available online !
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Michael Maffie
Len Sherman and team from Columbia business school have just released this excellent report on Uber's pricing and pay which reflects many of the same trends we observed: len-sherman.medium.com/how-uber-bec...
How Uber Became A Cash-Generating Machine
Uber has achieved one of the most impressive turnarounds in recent corporate history — a $12 billion swing in free cash flow over the past…
len-sherman.medium.com
June 24, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Len Sherman and team from Columbia business school have just released this excellent report on Uber's pricing and pay which reflects many of the same trends we observed: len-sherman.medium.com/how-uber-bec...
Reposted by Michael Maffie
The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact
August 3, 2025 at 1:20 PM
The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact
Reposted by Michael Maffie
A new era of government censorship has begun.
It started with the silencing of scientific speech, when the admin blocked release of research on bird flu. But MAGA has also cracked down on other wrongthink—on race, geography (!), and of course Trump himself
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
It started with the silencing of scientific speech, when the admin blocked release of research on bird flu. But MAGA has also cracked down on other wrongthink—on race, geography (!), and of course Trump himself
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | A new era of government censorship has dawned
Donald Trump fancies himself a champion of free speech. Oh, really?
www.washingtonpost.com
January 31, 2025 at 1:47 PM
A new era of government censorship has begun.
It started with the silencing of scientific speech, when the admin blocked release of research on bird flu. But MAGA has also cracked down on other wrongthink—on race, geography (!), and of course Trump himself
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
It started with the silencing of scientific speech, when the admin blocked release of research on bird flu. But MAGA has also cracked down on other wrongthink—on race, geography (!), and of course Trump himself
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Reposted by Michael Maffie
You should never follow any of these color charts. They are all stupid.
I'll show you why. 🧵
I'll show you why. 🧵
July 25, 2025 at 6:09 AM
You should never follow any of these color charts. They are all stupid.
I'll show you why. 🧵
I'll show you why. 🧵
Reposted by Michael Maffie
NEW PAPER
Oil, shipping, tariffs: We are back in a world of cost shocks.
Our AI/LLM analysis of 138,962 corporate earnings calls shows how economy-wide cost shocks let large firms raise prices & increase profits—triggering sellers' inflation. 🧵
Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Oil, shipping, tariffs: We are back in a world of cost shocks.
Our AI/LLM analysis of 138,962 corporate earnings calls shows how economy-wide cost shocks let large firms raise prices & increase profits—triggering sellers' inflation. 🧵
Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
June 17, 2025 at 2:09 PM
NEW PAPER
Oil, shipping, tariffs: We are back in a world of cost shocks.
Our AI/LLM analysis of 138,962 corporate earnings calls shows how economy-wide cost shocks let large firms raise prices & increase profits—triggering sellers' inflation. 🧵
Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Oil, shipping, tariffs: We are back in a world of cost shocks.
Our AI/LLM analysis of 138,962 corporate earnings calls shows how economy-wide cost shocks let large firms raise prices & increase profits—triggering sellers' inflation. 🧵
Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Michael Maffie
An AI slop factory apparently tried to rewrite our article about AI not replacing workers en masse, but hit the paywall... so just summarised the paywall. If this is the robot that takes my job I'll be v embarrassed
July 24, 2025 at 5:46 PM
An AI slop factory apparently tried to rewrite our article about AI not replacing workers en masse, but hit the paywall... so just summarised the paywall. If this is the robot that takes my job I'll be v embarrassed
Editing an article about the enshittification of online services in Wiley's online proofing system is strangely validating.
July 22, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Editing an article about the enshittification of online services in Wiley's online proofing system is strangely validating.
Tell me you’ve never attended a faculty meeting without telling me you’ve never attended a faculty meeting.
July 16, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Tell me you’ve never attended a faculty meeting without telling me you’ve never attended a faculty meeting.
“These brass hats have one great advantage in their favor,” President Kennedy sardonically remarked to his aide Dave Powers: “If we listen to them and do what they want us to do, none of us will be alive later to tell them that they were wrong.”
time.com/5899754/jfk-...
time.com/5899754/jfk-...
Inside JFK's Key Decisions During the Cuban Missile Crisis
No other event offers as relevant lessons about presidential leadership in the nuclear age as those thirteen days in October.
time.com
June 22, 2025 at 11:17 AM
“These brass hats have one great advantage in their favor,” President Kennedy sardonically remarked to his aide Dave Powers: “If we listen to them and do what they want us to do, none of us will be alive later to tell them that they were wrong.”
time.com/5899754/jfk-...
time.com/5899754/jfk-...
Reposted by Michael Maffie
New paper out today, accepted at #FAccT2025, led by Jake Stein and me: "Not Even Nice Work If You Can Get It; A Longitudinal Study of Uber's Algorithmic Pay and Pricing" arxiv.org/abs/2506.15278
Over the last 3 years, we've been working with @workerinfox.bsky.social to audit Uber's algorithms. 1/
Over the last 3 years, we've been working with @workerinfox.bsky.social to audit Uber's algorithms. 1/
Not Even Nice Work If You Can Get It; A Longitudinal Study of Uber's Algorithmic Pay and Pricing
Ride-sharing platforms like Uber market themselves as enabling `flexibility' for their workforce, meaning that drivers are expected to anticipate when and where the algorithm will allocate them jobs, ...
arxiv.org
June 19, 2025 at 8:03 AM
New paper out today, accepted at #FAccT2025, led by Jake Stein and me: "Not Even Nice Work If You Can Get It; A Longitudinal Study of Uber's Algorithmic Pay and Pricing" arxiv.org/abs/2506.15278
Over the last 3 years, we've been working with @workerinfox.bsky.social to audit Uber's algorithms. 1/
Over the last 3 years, we've been working with @workerinfox.bsky.social to audit Uber's algorithms. 1/
🚨 Paper acceptance! Keep your eyes out for, "The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labor Conditions in the Gig Economy". Out soon in the British Journal of Industrial Relations.
June 18, 2025 at 12:37 PM
🚨 Paper acceptance! Keep your eyes out for, "The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labor Conditions in the Gig Economy". Out soon in the British Journal of Industrial Relations.
Reposted by Michael Maffie
Current tech industry status:
June 5, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Current tech industry status:
Paging r/MaliciousCompliance
Boy are they in for a surprise:
“The new Ohio statute…goes as far as to require college students at the state’s public colleges and universities to read at least five essays from ‘The Federalist Papers’ and Adam Smith’s ‘The Wealth of Nations.’“
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
“The new Ohio statute…goes as far as to require college students at the state’s public colleges and universities to read at least five essays from ‘The Federalist Papers’ and Adam Smith’s ‘The Wealth of Nations.’“
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
Red states tell colleges: Race and gender classes are out, civics in
Lawmakers in Utah, Ohio and Florida have mandated classes on civics and Western civilization and cut classes on race and gender from graduation requirements
www.washingtonpost.com
June 3, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Paging r/MaliciousCompliance
Coauthor update: (1) User dashboard and (2) call for paid study participants.
(1) Coauthor now displays your publishing stats against the population in our database, letting you know where you are more / less successful at publishing compared to our population of users.
(1) Coauthor now displays your publishing stats against the population in our database, letting you know where you are more / less successful at publishing compared to our population of users.
May 26, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Coauthor update: (1) User dashboard and (2) call for paid study participants.
(1) Coauthor now displays your publishing stats against the population in our database, letting you know where you are more / less successful at publishing compared to our population of users.
(1) Coauthor now displays your publishing stats against the population in our database, letting you know where you are more / less successful at publishing compared to our population of users.
Reposted by Michael Maffie
What do tax cuts for the rich do?
They increase inequality.
They have no effect on economic growth or unemployment.
"Our results provide strong evidence against the influential political–economic idea that tax cuts for the rich ‘trickle down’ to boost the wider economy."
They increase inequality.
They have no effect on economic growth or unemployment.
"Our results provide strong evidence against the influential political–economic idea that tax cuts for the rich ‘trickle down’ to boost the wider economy."
May 22, 2025 at 9:14 PM
What do tax cuts for the rich do?
They increase inequality.
They have no effect on economic growth or unemployment.
"Our results provide strong evidence against the influential political–economic idea that tax cuts for the rich ‘trickle down’ to boost the wider economy."
They increase inequality.
They have no effect on economic growth or unemployment.
"Our results provide strong evidence against the influential political–economic idea that tax cuts for the rich ‘trickle down’ to boost the wider economy."
Reposted by Michael Maffie
"This paper studies whether working from home (WFH) affects workers' performance in public sector jobs... we find that WFH increases productivity by 12%."
@afenizia.bsky.social
Evidence that administrations that reject WFH harm efficiency.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
@afenizia.bsky.social
Evidence that administrations that reject WFH harm efficiency.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
April 28, 2025 at 4:16 PM
"This paper studies whether working from home (WFH) affects workers' performance in public sector jobs... we find that WFH increases productivity by 12%."
@afenizia.bsky.social
Evidence that administrations that reject WFH harm efficiency.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
@afenizia.bsky.social
Evidence that administrations that reject WFH harm efficiency.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Reposted by Michael Maffie
🚨 Exciting new research in Human Resource Management! In this article, my coauthor Tashlin Lakhani and I explore strategic human resource management in the gig economy. 🚗
Check it out here: doi.org/10.1002/hrm....
Check it out here: doi.org/10.1002/hrm....
Human Resource Management in New Service Arrangements: Extending the Ability, Motivation, Opportunity Framework Into the Gig Economy
This article investigates how human resource (HR) practices affect organizational outcomes in one of the newest areas of service work: the gig economy. Combining theory on multi-sided markets and str....
doi.org
April 23, 2025 at 1:29 PM
🚨 Exciting new research in Human Resource Management! In this article, my coauthor Tashlin Lakhani and I explore strategic human resource management in the gig economy. 🚗
Check it out here: doi.org/10.1002/hrm....
Check it out here: doi.org/10.1002/hrm....