I was researching a topic for today's post – looking into recent advancements in robotics – and got a bit sidetracked.  I had been reading about Harvest Automation's new plant nursery robots, which move and re-space potted plants in a nursery as the plants grow and require more space between them.  This backbreaking work is apparently perfect for robots.  The work is highly repetitive, awkward, and difficult.  The owners of nurseries cited worker injuries as a primary reason for adopting the robots.

Then I read about Badische Staatsbrauerei Rothaus AG's recent adoption of robots to package its beer bottles and wash and fill its kegs.  The robots again were used for the highly repetitive and difficult work lifting heavy items.  The owners again cited worker injuries and safety as a primary reason for adopting the robots.

As I read the brewer's story, I ran across this advertisement by Huawei ('Wa Wei') shown to the left.  The advertisement showing a ballerina's feet is quite disturbing to me, which I guess is the point of it – I'll probably always remember Huawei now.  Then, I did a Google search for "ballet feet." Yikes.

It occurred to me that ballet was the perfect opportunity for a startup robot manufacturer to make meaningful change that would improve the lives of these workers.  It appears to be very difficult to master, looks to require highly repetitive practice and the workers all destroy their feet. So here is my call for a stop to intentionally injuring ballet workers (i.e., ballerinas) in the name of art.  Surely implementing "balletbots" would also bring a younger audience to a classical entertainment form.

Until then, be sure to keep current on your workers' compensation insurance.  Requirements for workers' compensation insurance are governed by state law.  Each state has different requirements for when you must purchase worker's compensation insurance.  For example, Tennessee requires it once you have 5 of your own ballerinas, while Illinois requires it if you have any ballerinas.  The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has a great synopsis of the workers' compensation requirements of all fifty states.  In Tennessee, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development has published various resources to help employers navigate these requirements.

If ballet happens not to be core to your business and you consider it to be fairly hazardous (like I do), you might consider simply outsourcing your ballet needs to a company (say the Nashville Ballet) that is better equipped to deal with the inherent risks of that particular industry.  Like insurance, outsourcing can be a great way of mitigating risk and can also be a great way to reduce your costs in overseeing a project that is not core to your business.  I am not ashamed to say that I rarely hire ballerinas or potted plant movers or bottle labelers in my practice.  I would not hesitate to outsource that to a third party should the need arise in our offices.

When dealing with a third party company, the rules for shifting liability also change.  It is not possible to shift responsibility for an employee who is injured while performing her duties.  However, it is perfectly reasonable to expect a ballet outsource service provider to accept full responsibility for injuries related to the product or service they provide, even one of their workers is injured at your office (NOTE: If you do something stupid and hurt them, you're back in the ring).

For ticket information to the Nashville Ballet look here.  We're planning to take our kids to see Peter and the Wolf, but I'm secretly hoping there are robots.

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