Protocol | Policy

The White House endorses the PRO Act

The labor-friendly legislation, which tech companies have opposed, would pave the way for gig workers to join unions and organize among themselves. It would allow more workers classified as contractors at companies like Uber and Lyft to gain access to the full range of benefits offered to full-time employees.

"[The PRO Act] clarifies that employers may not force employees to waive their rights to join together in collective or class action litigation," the White House said in a statement endorsing the legislation. "The bill also closes loopholes in Federal labor law by barring employers from misclassifying workers as independent contractors."

The PRO Act passed the House last February and it is up for another vote in the House this week. But it will likely face significant roadblocks in the Senate, where it would need Republican buy-in to pass. The White House in the statement on Monday said it "looks forward to working with the Congress to enact this critical legislation that safeguards workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively."

A coalition of groups and tech companies including Uber, Lyft, Doordash and Taskrabbit has been lobbying aggressively against the bill.

 Emily Birnbaum

Emily Birnbaum ( @birnbaum_e) is a tech policy reporter with Protocol. Her coverage focuses on the U.S. government's attempts to regulate one of the most powerful industries in the world, with a focus on antitrust, privacy and politics. Previously, she worked as a tech policy reporter with The Hill after spending several months as a breaking news reporter. She is a Bethesda, Maryland native and proud Kenyon College alumna.

Diversity Tracker

Tech company diversity reports are more important than ever

More tech companies released their reports following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Tech companies started reporting their own numbers around 2014.

Photo: SCC/Getty Images

Years after most tech companies had been publishing diversity reports, Snap's CEO Evan Spiegel remained steadfast about not releasing his company's numbers. "I've always been concerned that releasing that data publicly only reinforces the perception that tech is not a place for underrepresented groups," he said during an all-hands in June 2020 after years of only releasing a report internally.

A few months later, Snap, one of the most vocal diversity report holdouts, became part of a second wave of companies that started releasing diversity data. Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, others like Tesla and Oracle — which was facing a shareholder resolution on more transparency — also publicly released diversity reports. Netflix, although it had been posting diversity data on its jobs page quarterly since 2013, also released its first formal inclusion report in 2021.

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Biz Carson

Biz Carson ( @bizcarson) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol, covering Silicon Valley with a focus on startups and venture capital. Previously, she reported for Forbes and was co-editor of Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. Before that, she worked for Business Insider, Gigaom, and Wired and started her career as a newspaper designer for Gannett.

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Four processes to keep you innovating through change

If you've ever tried to pick up a new fitness routine like running, chances are you may have fallen into the "motivation vs. habit" trap once or twice. You go for a run when the sun is shining, only to quickly fall off the wagon when the weather turns sour.

Similarly, for many businesses, 2020 acted as the storm cloud that disrupted their plans for innovation. With leaders busy grappling with the pandemic, innovation frequently got pushed to the backburner. In fact, according to McKinsey, the majority of organizations shifted their focus mainly to maintaining business continuity throughout the pandemic.

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Diversity Tracker

The tech industry needs to standardize diversity reports

No tech firm reports diversity the same way. That makes tracking progress harder.

Tech lacks a standard, comprehensive method of reporting and presenting employee demographic data.

Illustration: Christopher T. Fong/Protocol

Diversity reports don't always tell the full story of what representation looks like at tech companies.

The earliest versions of tech industry diversity reports created a binary narrative about diversity and inclusion, according to Bo Young Lee, Uber's chief diversity officer. The reports, which tech companies began consistently releasing in 2014, communicated that "diversity is about gender representation, and it's about race and ethnicity, and it's about nothing else," Lee told Protocol.

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Megan Rose Dickey

Megan Rose Dickey is a senior reporter at Protocol covering labor and diversity in tech. Prior to joining Protocol, she was a senior reporter at TechCrunch and a reporter at Business Insider.

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Protocol | Workplace

Introducing Protocol’s Diversity Tracker

Tech companies talk a good game on diversity. Our new tracker shows where there's progress – and where there isn't.

Our tracker contains historical and current diversity data for the most powerful tech companies.
Illustration: Christopher T. Fong/Protocol
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A new media company from the publisher of POLITICO reporting on the people, power and politics of tech.

Protocol | Workplace

Productivity apps can’t stop making money

ClickUp had one of the biggest Series C funding rounds ever. Here's how it matches up to the other productivity unicorns.

ClickUp made $400 million in its series C funding round.

Photo: ClickUp

Productivity platform ClickUp announced a milestone today. The company raised $400 million, which is one of the biggest series C funding rounds in the workplace productivity market ever. The round, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global, put the private company at a $4 billion valuation post-money.

In case it's not clear: This is a massive amount of money. It shows how hot the productivity space is right now, with some predicting the market size could reach almost $120 billion by 2028. In a world of hybrid workers, all-in-one tool platforms are all the rage among both startups and productivity stalwarts. Companies everywhere want to escape tool overwhelm, where work is spread across dozens of apps.

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Lizzy Lawrence

Lizzy Lawrence ( @LizzyLaw_) is a reporter at Protocol, covering tools and productivity in the workplace. She's a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she studied sociology and international studies. She served as editor in chief of The Michigan Daily, her school's independent newspaper. She's based in D.C., and can be reached at llawrence@protocol.com.

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