And employees have to be given paid holiday. And you have to pay them PAYE (so ~18% employer's side National Insurance Contributions). And if they're self-employed below the VAT threshold, they don't have to charge 20% VAT.
“92. ... The drivers provide the skilled labour through which the organisation delivers its services and earns its profits. We base our assessment ... in particular on the following considerations.
(1) The contradiction in the Rider Terms between the fact that ULL purports to be the drivers’ agent and its assertion of “sole and absolute discretion” to accept or decline bookings.
(2) The fact that Uber interviews and recruits drivers.
(3) The fact that Uber controls the key information (in particular the passenger’s surname, contact details and intended destination) and excludes the driver from it.
(4) The fact that Uber requires drivers to accept trips and/or not to cancel trips, and enforces the requirement by logging off drivers who breach those requirements.
(5) The fact that Uber sets the (default) route and the driver departs from it at his peril.
(6) The fact that UBV fixes the fare and the driver cannot agree a higher sum with the passenger. (The supposed freedom to agree a lower fare is obviously nugatory.)
(7) The fact that Uber imposes numerous conditions on drivers (such as the limited choice of acceptable vehicles), instructs drivers as to how to do their work and, in numerous ways, controls them in the performance of their duties.
(8) The fact that Uber subjects drivers through the rating system to what amounts to a performance management/disciplinary procedure.
(9) The fact that Uber determines issues about rebates, sometimes without even involving the driver whose remuneration is liable to be affected.
(10) The guaranteed earnings scheme (albeit now discontinued).
(11) The fact that Uber accepts the risk of loss which, if the drivers were genuinely in business on their own account, would fall upon them.
(12) The fact that Uber handles complaints by passengers, including complaints about the driver.
(13) The fact that Uber reserves the power to amend the drivers’ terms unilaterally.”
- FLAVOR: Ubuntu Server
- HEADLINE: ZFS on root in installer
- DESCRIPTION: as headline! ZoL is awesome. Extra hoops though to install on root.
- Head of development @ an ISV.
The ROI of them installing them is based on FIT payments from the grid at above market rate (the rates are indexed to inflation, but depend on when your installation was certified).
Disconnecting would therefore be a bad idea - FIT rates for new installs have plummeted.
This article starts with "We don't need a tech lead". Which may be true.
It then veers into "You don't need a tech lead". Which I don't think is true.
I am a greybeard by HN standards. I have worked on teams of highly competent developers where there was no tech lead. They failed badly - the lack of both the design consistency from a single source (a literal 'chief builder') and there being no final arbiter. Disagreements lingered to the extent of, in one case, man overboard. Turns out Architectural Consistency is important.
In my latter days I'm occasionally called upon to 'sort out' what's going wrong in particular businesses, often with developers at the 'less good' end of the spectrum. And I can say that in many of these cases the absence of (or, more usually, the lack of competence in) the technical lead is often the root cause of many of the project ills. It can be as if the entire product is cast adrift on whatever technology and technical debt built up from years past.
There are huge flocks of software engineering that barely know "the web is a thing", let alone how to move the herd in a consistent direction.
So if you have a team that's functional anarchy (or meritocracy, if you prefer) - great! Count yourself lucky.