Blogging May Not Be Deadly, But It Has a Whole Sweatshop of Other Problems
It’s currently the hottest story at TechMeme. The New York Times reports that “In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop“. Drop dead, that is. They consider professional blogging a “digital-era sweatshop”, referring to a factory where its workers are sorely underpaid and unprotected.
Bloggers call it a really low blow. Of course it’s concluding that blogging can be the death of you is full of hype and hot air; as long as you maintain a healthy lifestyle, you shouldn’t have a problem. You don’t even need to be a blogger, or a web worker in general, to have this problem. (I suggest you read the Top 10 Quotes Against Work to see just how wretched are lives our because of work.)
The Big But
But I have to say that NYT is going somewhere with its term, sweatshop.
I believe that unless you’re a high-profile blogger, you are suffering in a new kind of sweatshop. Since we are only beginning to lay the groundwork for web-based employment, we lack the very same labor rights older generations have fought for at the beginning of the 20th century! How very modern of the Web, isn’t it? Indeed, there are very many questions that need to be answered, but I have to wonder if anybody is asking them at all.
Fighting for online “labor” rights in a Philippine setting is harder. Isn’t cheap labor exactly why outsourcing is such a big thing in the Philippines? They allow themselves to be worth much less than their foreign counterparts so that more opportunities may arrive their way. Skellie writes that you should “never write for less than $50 for a 500+ word post — even when you’re just starting out.” If you’re a Pinoy problogger and you’re earning $50 a post, can you raise your hand? I’d love to know the name of your employer.
American bloggers will soon enjoy health benefits, which is a pretty good sign online media is starting to look a little more legit, but as I have asked before, what about Filipino bloggers? Are they not supposed to enjoy any sort of benefits compared to the office workers of Makati, Eastwood, and Ortigas just because unlike them, they can work anytime, anywhere?
Come to think of it, do Filipino web workers even sign any sort of contract when they engage in online work? (I’m not even going to ask if they pay their taxes.) Do they even care about protecting themselves, in case the company suddenly disappears or turns out to be ripping them off, especially if they are working for them full-time? Who will back them up when they complain that their creations have been plagiarized?
In the U.S., job security has become an issue lately because of the country’s plunging economy, but they’re still a first world country. Foreign employers won’t be worrying about Filipino health benefits! It’s foolish to align ourselves with them all the time just because we can communicate with them more easily over the Internet. The digital divide is still very real, and it’s constantly widening whether we like it or not.
We’ve had tons of blogging summits, conferences, parties, meetups, and all sorts of get-togethers in the past few years. I have to wonder if any of those events have actually addressed these very real and more pressing issues. To borrow a very popular phrase: kung hindi ngayon, kailan? kung hindi rito, saan? kung hindi tayo, sino?
Health Care Benefits for U.S. Bloggers Becomes Reality; How About the Philippines?
In the US, Blogger & Podcaster Magazine is a launching a pay-to-join blog advertising network that offers health care to its members. From The Blog Herald:
TechCrunch is reporting that Blogger & Podcaster Magazine (BPM) is launching their own blog advertising network. To become part of the network you are required to pay $5 a month. According to BPM, this fee will help get you mainstream exposure by including your blog in The Blogger & Podcaster Guide in USA TODAY and several other publications.
BPM is also looking to deliver healthcare benefits to U.S. bloggers and podcasters looking to go full-time. Details are currently vague. Once more details are released, we’ll bring you the latest.
Blog networks usually offer revenue sharing at best, sometimes bonuses for writing popular posts (frontpage on Digg, etc.). But that’s it. Although the details on what type of healthcare will actually be provided to the member bloggers, this is a groundbreaking development in the quality of blogging as a profession.
In the Philippines, it would be hard to imagine this ever being implemented, but with the number of Filipinos blogging for prominent blog networks, the push for added benefits like this could become a reality. Let’s hope it happens soon.
