"Marco Peña was among about 150 technology workers who were laid off....." Going on a limb but guessing Mr.Peña might be of hispanic origin. Most talk about Trump has been tone, but little of substance. Sizzle vs steak, and all. My hunch is that most of Pundits&Pols class focus too much on tone and too little on what Trump would actually likely do. And that there are many Mr.Peña's for whom, while the would prefer nicer words coming out of TV set, are more concerned with what their wallets are saying. And that while Trump might take us to uncertain unknown, Clinton is doubling down on a crappy known.
Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out, Grow Bolder
51–60 of 210 posts
Re: Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out, Grow Bolder
#52"Marco Peña was among about 150 technology workers who were laid off....." Going on a limb but guessing Mr.Peña might be of hispanic origin. Most talk about Trump has been tone, but little of substance. Sizzle vs steak, and all. My hunch is that most of Pundits&Pols class focus too much on tone and too little on what Trump would actually likely do. And that there are many Mr.Peña's for whom, while the would prefer nicer words coming out of TV set, are more concerned with what their wallets are saying. And that while Trump might take us to uncertain unknown, Clinton is doubling down on a crappy known.
Re: Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out, Grow Bolder
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
It probably won't happen anyway. But I don't think this is a good argument for these non-disparagement contracts.
You might feel different if you were a celebrity. I know one, and it's sad to see the curtains always drawn on the windows of the house, the paparazzi camped out in front, etc. I could see a nanny being hired and then threatening the celebrity with a tell-all book, or just cashing in on it anyway.
The point is that writing such a book is not always "disparagement".
Re: Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out, Grow Bolder
#54Couple of things about H1B: 1. While H1B workers are cheaper, they are also pretty much stuck with their employer. Not 100% but much less mobility than citizen. Sorry, this reeks just a wee bit of indentured servitude. 2. If you take Corp. Execs at their word, and that rising H1B caps is good for country, then would be good for a journalist to probe: what about a 10M worker cap? Or 1.5 billion worker cap? That would make america even stronger, no?
Re: Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out, Grow Bolder
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Accepting money in exchange for not disparaging someone is not a violation of free speech rights.
Not narrowly defined (as in, it is not the government preventing you from expressing a political opinion). But it does have the whiff of a coerced surrendering of one's rights. Suppose you could sign a completely unbreakable "indentured servitude" contract with another person, whereby by a specific payment now, you are required to work for them exclusively for the next 10 years in whichever capacity they so chose (as…
All contracts have remedies for breach of contract. Note that jail is not a valid remedy. I've signed non-disparagement contracts, where the remedy was I had to pay back the money. Seems quite reasonable to me, and not a violation of my rights.
Re: Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out, Grow Bolder
#56Couple of things about H1B: 1. While H1B workers are cheaper, they are also pretty much stuck with their employer. Not 100% but much less mobility than citizen. Sorry, this reeks just a wee bit of indentured servitude. 2. If you take Corp. Execs at their word, and that rising H1B caps is good for country, then would be good for a journalist to probe: what about a 10M worker cap? Or 1.5 billion worker cap? That would make america even stronger, no? It wouldn't take much dexterity for a reporter to untangle Corp america's public arguments from it's goals: H1B program helps THEM, and not the country. Come on, business press, do your jobs.
Re: Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out, Grow Bolder
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might feel different if you were a celebrity. I know one, and it's sad to see the curtains always drawn on the windows of the house, the paparazzi camped out in front, etc. I could see a nanny being hired and then threatening the celebrity with a tell-all book, or just cashing in on it anyway.
The point is that writing such a book is not always "disparagement".
I don't understand your point. The condition of employment at many places, not just celebrities, is that you don't talk about it outside of work. You get well paid for this discretion. Do you think that is a violation of your rights? I don't, the moment you accept the money.
How about NDAs? Should they be unenforceable?
How about Secret Service agents protecting the President. Should they not have to zip their lips about what they see and hear about what goes on in the White House? Is that a violation of their rights to accept such conditions of employment?
Many disputes are settled with the terms being non-disclosed. Should those be unenforceable, too?
Re: Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out, Grow Bolder
#58Listen, there's no point claiming the H1 situation isn't a rampant clusterfuck. Actual skilled laborers lie in limbo while busloads of cheap, disposable foreign workers are brought over to get exploited and depress domestic wages. It's a full on disaster. If you have to have temporary worker visas, fine. But don't tie them to a company. If there's a legitimate need, and they're legitimately skilled, they'll find work…
> disposable foreign workers are brought over to get exploited "exploited" is a matter of perspective. To an onlooker who has lived their whole life in a first world country, seeing people work for $x - (less-significantlyLess) [where $x is what is "typical" for the job] can be seen as bad/wrong/sad etc... I have spent time working in very poor parts of Mexico and Manila. Crime is rampant, I feared for my life at tim…
> "exploited" is a matter of perspective.
Yes, of course. But that doesn't change the fact that companies are systematically exploiting their life context in order to pay them below a fair market wage (in many cases), and in doing so is also exploiting the rest of the workforce to pay them less. Just because someone is happy doesn't mean they aren't being taken advantage of in a systematic, identifiable, and preventable way.
Re: Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out, Grow Bolder
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point is that writing such a book is not always "disparagement".
I don't understand your point. The condition of employment at many places, not just celebrities, is that you don't talk about it outside of work. You get well paid for this discretion. Do you think that is a violation of your rights? I don't, the moment you accept the money. How about NDAs? Should they be unenforceable? How about Secret Service agents protecting the President. Should they not have to zip their lips a…
I am not suggesting that the terms not be enforceable, which probably won't happen anyway.
Re: Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out, Grow Bolder
#60Listen, there's no point claiming the H1 situation isn't a rampant clusterfuck. Actual skilled laborers lie in limbo while busloads of cheap, disposable foreign workers are brought over to get exploited and depress domestic wages. It's a full on disaster. If you have to have temporary worker visas, fine. But don't tie them to a company. If there's a legitimate need, and they're legitimately skilled, they'll find work…
> Actual skilled laborers lie in limbo ... good help is always hard to find Sounds contradictory.
consider: age discrimination; or an otherwise very talented person is tied to some location (eg. home, or a rural town, due to dependents, or disability), or has the same name as someone "bad" in the news and thus look scary when googled (eg. "I'm John Tillman the nice Portland engineer not John Tillman the NY rapist!" (name is random contrived example)), or once made an un-PC undeletable post in a public forum, or is non-English-speaking, or simply bad with social skills but otherwise great engineer, etc. Also, much of the modern recruiting/hiring culture is still very oriented towards erring on the side of false negative/rejection, and riddled with irrationality and institutionalized jerky behavior.
If an engineer is Famous (due to several public accomplishments), like yourself, you may not have to encounter any of this. "Who cares where he lives or what he's said or how much money he wants, or age... it's Walter Bright!"