Folding up the con-profits

One of the interesting things about the recession* we're headed into is the specific way the non-profit sector is going to implode. 

Earlier this year, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) abruptly laid off its entire helpline staff. The announcement came just two weeks after the helpline workers voted to form a union, Helpline Associates United (HLAU). Workers were informed that they were being replaced by an artificial-intelligence chatbot named Tessa.

NEDA, the largest nonprofit organization dedicated to providing support to people struggling with eating disorders, launched the helpline in 1999. The organization claimed that the layoffs were unrelated to the success of the union effort—a claim that the workers and the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the union representing them, categorically dismissed. Rather than having a phone helpline staffed by human workers, the association planned to run an online chat helpline operated exclusively by Tessa.

Incidentally, that's the A.I. bubble in a nutshell right now.  Capital is always looking for new and innovative ways to operate more efficiently ... um... intimidate workers into submission.  Does the chatbot even work?  What a ridiculous question. Everyone knows that's not even the point. 

Helpline staff continued their work when NEDA did a soft launch of the bot in late May. But within days, major problems emerged. People shared stories on social media about their disturbing experiences with Tessa; in one case, it dispensed weight loss advice. But shortly before NEDA planned to entirely eliminate the phone helpline and transition to Tessa on June 1, the organization announced that it would shut down both the helpline and the chatbot. NEDA no longer offers any resources by phone or online chat.

Who cares if a robot can actually replace the workers or not. Who cares if the job even gets done at all! This is far from the last we'll see of this phenomenon. So many ostensibly do-good missions will be thrown in the trash just so that workers can be punished as management hoards what's left of all the drying up donor cash.  And that cash is definitely drying up. This is very likely just the beginning.

 

* Yes let's call it that. We can argue about the technical "health of the economy" metrics in a different post later. But the short version is, in this economy people have been abandoned. Housing and health care costs are up. The COVID era safety net measures have been yanked away. Wealth concentration is worse than ever. Union density is lower than ever. And nobody has any belief that there's a better future ahead. The fact that stock prices haven't totally tanked doesn't help most of us. The fact that unemployment is low doesn't mean people have jobs that actually sustain them.