The Cost of Shadow Work
I am so so <i>so</i> glad to see this article because I feel like I&#x27;m a crazy person for seeing this everywhere in my life and not hearing anyone else complain about it. I feel like I&#x27;m constantly cleaning up the mistakes of huge corporations that I have no way to fight back against. Perfect example, a few months ago Xfinity &quot;accidentally&quot; overcharged me by ~$10 on a monthly bill. Of course now the ball is in my court--either I let it slide and fork over the cost of a breakfast out to their shareholders for no extra value, or I give up some of my valuable time to call them and go through the hell of phone customer service, a 10-15 minute commitment minimum. In the end I got the charge reversed, cold comfort, I was out a quarter hour and my heart rate had gone up. Of <i>course</i> that brings my productivity down. But hey, at least it&#x27;s good for shareholders, right?<p>I don&#x27;t know what we can even do about this. Where&#x27;s the government? They don&#x27;t have my back. &quot;Competition&quot; is a non-solution. I have one other cable provider in my area and they have all the same anti-customer incentives as Xfinity. It&#x27;s legimately criminal, though obviously not illegal, since we know who pays the folks who write the laws...