<story><title>Uber CEO Plays with Fire</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/23/technology/travis-kalanick-pushes-uber-and-himself-to-the-precipice.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Retric</author><text>Flexible schedules has almost nothing to do with employees vs contractors.</text></item><item><author>bmelton</author><text>&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t think you can support a ridesharing company that by design treats employees as contractors and also be socially conscious&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t understand why not.  I have a total of five friends who have each chosen to drive for various ridesharing companies, and in the conversations I&amp;#x27;ve had with them, it seems pretty clear that none of them would be drivers if they couldn&amp;#x27;t set their own schedules, or if they were otherwise treated as actual employees.&lt;p&gt;To be fair, only one of them is driving as their main source of income; the other four are driving to supplement their day jobs for side money.  The flexible schedule is crucial to that.  The fifth prefers flexible scheduling as well.  Though he might otherwise be considered a &amp;#x27;full time&amp;#x27; employee, he working a schedule around a non-standard custodial agreement with his ex-wife, which means he might drive for 14-15 hours in one day, and none in another.</text></item><item><author>zitterbewegung</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think you can support a ridesharing company that by design treats employees as contractors and also be socially conscious . 
If you really want to do this use public transportation .</text></item><item><author>taude</author><text>I really hope Lyft doesn&amp;#x27;t do anything to screw up, as I&amp;#x27;ve uninstalled Uber and will probably never use the service again. However, I don&amp;#x27;t see myself going back to regular taxi system as that&amp;#x27;s even more corrupt and despicable.&lt;p&gt;I just hope Lyft plays the game with a social conscious and makes positive decisions and continues to treat drivers well (most Lyft drivers I talk to say they like driving for Lyft way better than Uber).&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not so sure that as a society we should be rewarding people with drive like this &amp;quot;Mr. Kalanick, 40, is driven to the point that he must win at whatever he puts his mind to and at whatever cost&amp;quot;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>adrianmonk</author><text>It is literally one of the criteria that the IRS uses to decide whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor.&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.irs.gov&amp;#x2F;businesses&amp;#x2F;small-businesses-self-employed&amp;#x2F;independent-contractor-self-employed-or-employee#SE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.irs.gov&amp;#x2F;businesses&amp;#x2F;small-businesses-self-employe...&lt;/a&gt; :
&amp;quot;In determining whether the person providing service is an employee or an independent contractor, all information that provides evidence of the degree of control and independence must be considered.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;One of the categories of control and independence is behavioral, which is described here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.irs.gov&amp;#x2F;businesses&amp;#x2F;small-businesses-self-employed&amp;#x2F;behavioral-control&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.irs.gov&amp;#x2F;businesses&amp;#x2F;small-businesses-self-employe...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;It says: &amp;quot;An employee is generally subject to the business’s instructions about when, where, and how to work.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Uber, Lyft, etc. leave the driver to decide which car they drive, where they buy gas, which jobs they take, and when they work or don&amp;#x27;t work. This is a big part of what goes into justifying their legal status as contractors rather than employees.</text></comment>
<story><title>Uber CEO Plays with Fire</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/23/technology/travis-kalanick-pushes-uber-and-himself-to-the-precipice.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Retric</author><text>Flexible schedules has almost nothing to do with employees vs contractors.</text></item><item><author>bmelton</author><text>&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t think you can support a ridesharing company that by design treats employees as contractors and also be socially conscious&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t understand why not.  I have a total of five friends who have each chosen to drive for various ridesharing companies, and in the conversations I&amp;#x27;ve had with them, it seems pretty clear that none of them would be drivers if they couldn&amp;#x27;t set their own schedules, or if they were otherwise treated as actual employees.&lt;p&gt;To be fair, only one of them is driving as their main source of income; the other four are driving to supplement their day jobs for side money.  The flexible schedule is crucial to that.  The fifth prefers flexible scheduling as well.  Though he might otherwise be considered a &amp;#x27;full time&amp;#x27; employee, he working a schedule around a non-standard custodial agreement with his ex-wife, which means he might drive for 14-15 hours in one day, and none in another.</text></item><item><author>zitterbewegung</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think you can support a ridesharing company that by design treats employees as contractors and also be socially conscious . 
If you really want to do this use public transportation .</text></item><item><author>taude</author><text>I really hope Lyft doesn&amp;#x27;t do anything to screw up, as I&amp;#x27;ve uninstalled Uber and will probably never use the service again. However, I don&amp;#x27;t see myself going back to regular taxi system as that&amp;#x27;s even more corrupt and despicable.&lt;p&gt;I just hope Lyft plays the game with a social conscious and makes positive decisions and continues to treat drivers well (most Lyft drivers I talk to say they like driving for Lyft way better than Uber).&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not so sure that as a society we should be rewarding people with drive like this &amp;quot;Mr. Kalanick, 40, is driven to the point that he must win at whatever he puts his mind to and at whatever cost&amp;quot;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Pulcinella</author><text>Uh yes it does. If you are sitting your own hours, they definitely points towards contractor.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.oregon.gov&amp;#x2F;ODA&amp;#x2F;shared&amp;#x2F;Documents&amp;#x2F;Publications&amp;#x2F;NaturalResources&amp;#x2F;20FactorTestforIndependentContractors.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.oregon.gov&amp;#x2F;ODA&amp;#x2F;shared&amp;#x2F;Documents&amp;#x2F;Publications&amp;#x2F;Nat...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>