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Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

theguardian.com

241–250 of 546 posts

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#241
post #174

> They earn too much to qualify for state healthcare, but not enough to afford the health insurance offered by their employer. They frequently struggle to find enough money for basics like food and clothes for their children. Victor recently borrowed money from his mother to hold a birthday party for one of his daughters, and from a friend to pay for a dentist appointment. They might want to look into not being marri…

> but not enough to afford the health insurance offered by their employer. This is what is wrong with health care in the US. How can this not be considered a serious flaw in the way the system is currently structured?

It's a feature, not a bug

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#242

>Nicole watches large amounts of leftover food go into the compost – food she’s not allowed to take home Why is she not allowed to take it home? It would be free for whoever her employer is, it would help her and her family. Also I really dislike wasting food.

> Why is she not allowed to take it home?

Liability. If her kids get sick she could sue. On one hand, I feel like this should be something a waiver solves. On the other hand, that opens the door for handing rotting food to employees

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#243

Almost 80k/year in salary leaves a family stuck in a garage over there? That's absurd

I have to travel to Facebook HQ once a month, unless I'm traveling to some other FB facility. Since I switch hotels and run in the mornings, this has given me a good opportunity to see what's going on in several different neighborhoods. One constant seems to be a pretty high number of camper vans, or sometimes plain old utility vans, parked semi-permanently on side street. I'm sure some of these are just there becaus…

>I have to travel to Facebook HQ once a month, unless I'm traveling to some other FB facility.

I'm curious, is this because of your role or do all FB employees do this if they work outside of MPK?

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#244

>Nicole watches large amounts of leftover food go into the compost – food she’s not allowed to take home Why is she not allowed to take it home? It would be free for whoever her employer is, it would help her and her family. Also I really dislike wasting food.

One of the reasons for disallowing employees from taking home food is that they will lose their motivation to sell food if they get to keep the unsold food after business hours. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the deli employees hide expensive food from customers and take it home after work because it's "unsold".

My cousin worked at Walmart during Black Friday sales and he has told me that his coworkers hide popular sale items in the back-shelf for themselves to buy it when they are off the clock.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#245
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wow. Just wow. For some people, marriage is more than a financial arrangement. In the eyes of the government the only thing in marriage that's more than a financial arrangement is hospital visitation privileges and the right to not testify against your spouse. I didn't say to annul their wedding vows or diminish whatever non-financial meaning their marriage has. > They'd also save a bundle by not having kids. Maybe…

That's the point, dude.

The point seemed to me, they were saying that selling a kid to pay for the others was equivalent to not being legally married.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#246

Almost 80k/year in salary leaves a family stuck in a garage over there? That's absurd

That's contractor salary, so remember no benefits. Maybe equivalent to 60K normal salary. With 3 kids that's not so easy.

  "Neither Facebook nor the food service contractor, Flagship Facility Services…"
It sounds like he is not a contractor, he is an employee - of the outsourced service provider, Flagship Facility Services.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's really important is that we design the system so that incumbent wealth can maintain their position by controlling the market through government regulation (licensing).

That's a great defense of your misstatement about what it takes to become an electrician. Of course regulation often goes wrong. I'm pretty sure that isn't a reason to do away with it altogether, it is merely a reason to find ways to do it better.

I didn't make a misstatement. Both cases have the same problem. The government has stepped in and made it more difficult for you to enter the market. In one case, you have to pay an electrician to take a class because the government won't let you learn for free. In the other case the government has made it even worse because you now have to perform labor at sub-market wages for 4 years before you're allowed to do work that you likely could've performed on your own after just a few weeks.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#248

> A spokeswoman for Facebook said none of the company’s contingent or contract workers have access to facilities such as clinics, gyms, or bring-your-child-to-work days One thing I liked about AirBnB was their entire staff including cafeteria workers and security guards were full-time employees who ate the same food, had access to the same facilities and events, and went through the first week 'bootcamp' alongside de…

athenahealth did something similar. New hires all came in waves and every two weeks there was a new class at Point Lookout on the coast of Maine. Whether you were the new CTO or a call center rep working out of Atlanta, they would fly you up there for a week to get properly indoctrinated. It was a wholly positive experience and it really set the tone for the rest of my time working there.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but not enough to afford the health insurance offered by their employer. This is what is wrong with health care in the US. How can this not be considered a serious flaw in the way the system is currently structured?

Plenty of people consider it a serious flaw. It's just that very few of them are in government.

Single-payer in California is currently blocked by just one guy (CA speaker of the house) because the people haven't bribed him as well as the health insurance lobby has.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#250

They could move to Texas. The price for that garage is probably more than the total cost of a 3000sqft house in north Fort Worth. The Toyota headquarters just moved from CA to TX and those guys are buying large houses in expensive areas of town in cash. I have known many people who have left CA for exactly this reason. I am sure CA is great when you are young and single, but once reality kicks in CA becomes very expe…

  The family of five have lived in this cramped space next
  to Victor’s parents’ house for three years.
It sounds like the garage belongs to his parents. Which implies they don't own it (so no equity to free up in order to buy a place in Texas), and they may well pay a very low (or no) rent.
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