This weekend we published an article about burn bags, "spillage," demands for clerks' personal cellphones and disillusionment at the Supreme Court. Here's a 🧵 on why all of this is all so important, even if you're not into inside-baseball SCOTUS matters. bit.ly/3wmq2mA After the draft opinion overturning the right to abortion leaked last spring, the Chief Justice announced a big internal investigation. To use the court's recent word, they felt this was an "assault" on their deliberative process.

New: Meet Rev. Richardson, a hospice chaplain who had to rack up “productivity points” as she tended to the dying.

Her story illustrates the rise of the worker productivity score, one of the biggest expansions of employer power in generations. 🧵 nyti.ms/3dl37lq Don’t underestimate the scale. Our reporting shows that 8 of the 10 largest U.S. employers track productivity metrics for ind'l workers, many in real time.

Docs, engineers, podcast producers + many others are being measured too. Social workers are dinged for “idle time.”

Yesterday, amid concern about the future of #Metoo, a NY appeals court affirmed Harvey Weinstein’s conviction. A foregone conclusion, right? No! This was high drama and a big deal for the future of #Metoo (🧵) nyti.ms/394FcFc Despite the overwhelming number of allegations against him, the Weinstein case/conviction pushed boundaries. The women were not so-called “perfect” victims. (They’d had consensual sex and friendly contact.)

NEW: How a secret two-part allegation against Chris Cuomo helped upend CNN. (Thread.) nyti.ms/3oUEijd Late last year, after he was suspended, CNN got a lawyer’s letter on behalf of a Jane Doe, accusing Cuomo of assaulting her years earlier– and then using his position at CNN to discourage her from coming forward.

Today @mega2e and I are publishing an unusual book, intended to reach a particular group of young people. Perhaps you’d consider helping us. (🧵) @mega2e Something special is going on right now with students and journalism. So many young people are interested in bringing secrets to light, challenging authority, and doing stories that can make a difference.

Just published: The gravest problem with the way Amazon treats employees may be one you’ve never heard of. As the company hit record profits, it fired and underpaid employees who sought leaves for illness, new parenthood and life crises. (Thread.) nyti.ms/3CbuXZ9 We're not talking about a worker here or there. These are systemic failures, which we were able to document in part by obtaining Amazon's own internal records.

Today’s the fourth anniversary of the publication of the Weinstein story. Here’s a short 🧵 on what’s happened to one of our bravest sources since—or rather, what she’s managed to make happen. Back then, sources weren’t merely scared to talk. Many were legally prohibited from telling me and @mega2e their own stories.

A key finding of this story is that Jeff Bezos *intentionally* encouraged turnover among hourly Amazon workers-- an approach with massive consequences (thread)
nytimes.com/interactive/20… Bezos feared a long-serving work force, calling it “a march to mediocrity,” according to David Niekerk, who was the architect of HR in Amazon’s warehouses.

We have *lot* of new info on Amazon. Please read the article-- a real story, with twists. But here’s a roadmap of our findings on sky-high turnover, alarming racial inequities, mistaken firings, and how it all ties back to Bezos' ideas about lazy workers. nytimes.com/interactive/20… Amazon boasts about its hiring. But for the first time, @kyweise obtained Amazon’s turnover numbers: roughly 150% per year. This is so extreme that multiple Seattle leaders told her they worry about running out of workers.

Exclusive: this investigation took us all the way to Bezos and the heart of Amazon’s employment model. We have a lot of new information, and Twitter convention says I need to start shooting it out this second. But I don’t feel ready. (Thread.) nyti.ms/2SDFpXz Because my deepest wish is that you read this story yourself. It’s about a group of people who had very intense journeys with Amazon over the past year. We would love for you to experience those stories, as we did in nine months of reporting, without knowing the endings.

This thread is for parents of teenagers. I have something for you: the first chapter of @ronlieber’s THE PRICE YOU PAY FOR COLLEGE. Because ye gods, here’s what we and our kids are facing. bit.ly/3pfXrKM Beyond obvious changes, like $$$ tuition prices, the system has changed from when we were in school. Nearly all colleges use so-called “merit-aid” to pay kids for good grades.
nytimes.com/2021/01/23/bus…

In reporting this story, I learned so much about how airplanes are really cleaned, gathering info from scientists, pilots, flight attendants, airlines, and (most critically) cabin cleaners themselves. A short thread, in case you're debating whether to fly: nytimes.com/2020/07/17/us/… Cleaning has become a marketing tool, and the airlines have publicized a ton about overnight disinfection, sprays they say repel the virus for days on end, etc. But scientists say one task is paramount:

NEW: We asked janitors from airlines to offices to Disney how things are really being cleaned as coronavirus rages. Many raised alarms and revealed glaring problems. Dirty rags. Bathrooms that are not disinfected. (Thread)
nyti.ms/3fGY8b3 2/Think about how many custodians work: Unseen. At night. Jobs go to the lowest bidder. Median wage is $13 an hour. In recent years, many workplaces have cut back on cleaning. (I hadn’t known this.) Now: Enter coronavirus.

New: for this latest Dilemmas column, we took on the question of whether it's truly safe to take a walk. If you think the answer is simple or easy, read on (thread) nyti.ms/2WMFacA The outdoors is becoming contested ground. Parks and trails in the US are being closed due to overcrowding. In France you can only exercise for one hour, alone, with a permission form. India’s prime minister just told 1.3 billion (!) people to stay indoors.

So basically: Times reporters now must try to unearth the identity of an author that our colleagues in Opinion have sworn to protect with anonymity? nyti.ms/2CyF3Jh?smid=n… Or is the entire newspaper bound by the promise of anonymity? I don't think so, but this is fascinating. Not sure if there's precedent.