Kia ora and welcome to The Weekend, a smorgasbord of the best links from The Spinoff and around the internet. This week we’ve been adopting the grindset for Work Week, in partnership with Trade Me Jobs. It’s kind of meta when your work is to write about work. And speaking of Meta: I enjoyed(?) convincing various people to join me in virtual reality to try out work in the metaverse. I’m still not sure if virtual reality is a future, the future or no future at all, but a lot of people are spending a lot of money on it. Work, rest and tapping on articles: all are best accompanied by fresh Coffee Supreme. Keep reading!
Meta, formerly Facebook, is trying to build a metaverse – a virtual world where you can run your whole life, including work. I strapped a virtual reality headset to my face, convinced a few colleagues to join me, and gave it a spin. Because I pay a lot of attention to ~ internet culture ~ I find it very easy to be cynical about corporate innovations that seem intent on profiting from more of your time and attention, but I tried to engage in good faith with the vision of work Meta is promoting. Who is it for? What could it do? And how might it change workplace communication?
Introducing the Coffee Supreme Iced Coffee range. Roasted for flavour, cold-brewed for taste and canned for convenience —good times by the can are here.Perfect for those rushed mornings, sunny arvos or when you’re packing the chilly bin. Available online by the 4-pack now or by the can at your local cafe who uses Supreme. Grab yours.
“I think it was a terrible decision by the judge,” said Stuart Nash in an interview on Mike Hosking’s radio show this week. Nash, who resigned from his police minister portfolio a few hours later, was boasting to Hosking about how he was tough on crime and had called his friend the police commissioner to talk about a sentencing. Problem is, interfering with the independence of police is a flagrant violation of the cabinet manual,legal expert Graeme Edgeler explains. “In countries where police aren’t viewed as impartial, respect for the rule of law tends to break down.”
The Gone by Lunchtime team warm themselves by the policy bonfire after Chris Hipkins’ “reprioritisation”
For this month’s edition of The Side Eye, Toby Morris investigatesthe case of the missing dads: why do so few fathers take the paid leave granted to primary caregivers in the law? A culture that expects women to be the main caregiver for young children and a pay gap that means men often earn larger salaries — these contribute to men not being enabled to participate in looking after kids. But examples from elsewhere show that when the law provides more paid leave for both parents, more fathers take that time. “It’s an investment that benefits not just partners and their kids, but all of society — everyone wins,” Morris says.
A message from Anna Rawhiti-Connell, editor of The Bulletin and head of audience at The Spinoff
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone reading who is a Spinoff Member. Thank you for valuing independent journalism and helping keep it free for everyone. If you’re not a member yet but would like to support our mahi, sign up today!
A high school teacher’s bag is often heavy with marked papers. A government contractorpays her own ACC levy. A sex worker drinks too much coffee. A mumworries about if her children have noticed the caterpillars starving on the swan plant. Throughout Work Week, we’ve run a daily series where people who do different kinds of mahi explain what a day in their life looks like — the joys and frustrations, the stigma and the lunchroom, the dishes and the heavy vats of oil. It’s a fascinating range of insights into other people’s work and their worlds.
Stay tuned this weekend for stories about work as a publishing assistant, polar oceanographer, and Twitch streamer
It’s not a bird but it is a plane (Image: Tina Tiller/Microsoft)
“‘I went to the top of the Sky Tower and watched Richie McCaw land a plane on the Harbour Bridge’ sounds less like something that actually happened to me and more like a phrase you might use to awaken a sleeper agent. It really did happen, though, just not how you’d imagine it,” writes Sam Brooks, who recently viewed new Aotearoa landmarks in the world’s most popular flight simulator. For four decades, people have been using Microsoft Flight Simulator to experience piloting planes across the world. “The Simulator splits the difference between being calming and being completely engaging. It forces you into a certain active stillness,” he says. After a week of work, a soothing game that lets you have a fake job as a pilot sounds very appealing.
Everything else
Weekend watching: where to watchOscar nominated films (aside: this is the first year I’ve watched more than two movies in the Oscars race and I can confirm that emotionally investing in awards shows is a futile endeavour!)
I read Heartburn last week at the recommendation of my editor Madeleine Chapman and enjoyed it a lot. Here’s why Nora Ephron’s only novel still endures after 40 years
Justin Latif loves golfing. But why hasn’t Auckland Council looked at the billions of dollars it spends on maintaining those smooth greens?
To 'careen' means to clean the bottom of a ship. The word you should have used is 'career'. Please do not let ignorant Americanisms creep into our language.
To 'careen' means to clean the bottom of a ship. The word you should have used is 'career'. Please do not let ignorant Americanisms creep into our language.