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Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

theguardian.com

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Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#341

Post by mgbmtl »

koolba wrote: 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…

And some people still say that "single payer healthcare" is non-sense. Amazing..

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#342

Post by jonas21 »

angersock wrote: post #324
SteveGerencser wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We used to allow employees to take home any food left over at the end of the day. Worked great for about 4 months. Then the food cost started creeping up, then it nearly exploded. Seems that the late shift discovered that if they simply made a lot of food right before closing they could take it home so it wouldn't be "wasted". You know it has gotten bad when people are starting to argue about who gets to work the clo…

So, how much were you paying your employees? Were you giving them enough hours? Were they getting tipped-out appropriately? People aren't shitty just to be shitty--there's usually a reason they find themselves taking advantage of a system.

If people can take advantage of the system, some percentage of them will, regardless of what they're getting paid.

Random example: at my previous job, people would book more expensive travel options (on the company's dime) so that they could accumulate (personal) frequent flyer miles on their preferred airline. And they were all making 6-figure salaries.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#343

Post by oh_sigh »

bykovich2 wrote: post #224
oh_sigh wrote: post #208

They're living in their parents garage. With the single biggest cost of living(housing) removed, I'm curious how they can't afford life at 80k/yr. Besides for housing, cost of living does not need to be particularly higher in SV than elsewhere. Either that, or the parents are charging them market rate to live in the garage, which is probably illegal anyway...

How do you figure that "besides for housing, cost of living does not need to be particularly higher in SV than elsewhere"? While housing is undeniably the most wildly out-of-control expense in Silicon Valley, the rest of the essentials of life ain't cheap either.

What other essentials of life? A car and car insurance are within bounds of normalcy. Food at grocery stores is in line with the rest of California and farm raised food can be dirt cheap. Good public schools are readily available. Healthcare costs are the same as anywhere else in the USA.

What other essentially things besides housing are inflated in SV? Yes, you can go out and buy $20 bean sprout sandwiches, but that isn't exactly a necessity.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#344

Post by throwaway2048 »

koolba wrote: 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…

Perhaps they can eat cake too

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#345

Post by ringwalt »

wbl wrote: post #65
ringwalt wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you can't really consider the Bay Area housing bubble and cost of living spike without taking the tech boom into account. I think it's both the fault of NIMBYism/failure to build sufficient housing in the South Bay, and the fault of large companies, VCs, and startups for doubling down on the South Bay instead of distributing new jobs more evenly throughout the rest of the country.

Why should they given the gains to concentration? Other metro like Chicago and NYC do have tech offices.

I'm not convinced that concentrating tech exclusively in the valley has objective network effects that outweigh the costs.

Regardless, from personal experience most of my colleagues would prefer to live in any large metro area but the South Bay (including friends in Mountain View, some of whom were told in the interview process that Google did not have availability in NYC, Chicago, or Pittsburgh). It's untenable for Google to hugely expand its Mountain View campus (http://www.mountainview.gov/depts/comdev/planning/activeproj...) while its satellite offices, where many employees would prefer to work, are at a standstill. This is driving potential employees on the east coast into Mountain View, where they don't want to be, who end up pricing out working-class families from the bay who are desperately trying to stay there.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#346

Post by alphagrowth »

The lense you view this article through defines the value structure of how you see the world. There is no real issue here other than pride.

They have food, shelter, clothing and the best schools in the country for their children but they live in a garage. The fact that this article exists, implies that the CEO of Facebook is responsible for his employees and contrator's pride. As well as the housing crisis of the Bay Area.

If he can solve the Bay Area housing crisis I would vote for him for president.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#347

Post by Houshalter »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #274
canadian_voter wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might want to look into not being married. Wow. Just wow. For some people, marriage is more than a financial arrangement. They'd also save a bundle by not having kids. Maybe they should sell one of them, it would help pay for the others?

> For some people, marriage is more than a financial arrangement. For sure, but you don't have to tell the government about it. You can still have a ceremony and wear rings and swear you'll live together until you die. Informally, you can pretty much have whatever kind of marriage you want, even a polygamous one. No-one is going to stop a bunch of people from living together as roommates in some kind of committed rel…

There's no federal law against it, but many parts of the US have laws against "unlawful cohabitation". Which is the main tool used to enforce the ban on polygamy. The laws could apply to unmarried couples that live together, but have only ever been used against polygamists. The supreme court recently turned down hearing a case to overturn such laws, keeping the practice illegal: http://www.sltrib.com/home/4848475-155/polygamy-remains-a-cr...

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#348

Post by oh_sigh »

canadian_voter wrote: post #198
koolba wrote: 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…

They might want to look into not being married. Wow. Just wow. For some people, marriage is more than a financial arrangement. They'd also save a bundle by not having kids. Maybe they should sell one of them, it would help pay for the others?

You can get married in your church and simply not get a marriage license if that is what is important to you.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#349

Post by greglindahl »

ocschwar wrote: post #279
cscurmudgeon wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not get rid of political NIMBYism? Aritficially reducing housing supply to increase demand is morally wrong.

The fact is Apple, Facebook and Google have not been able to do that already, despite all three companies and their employees showing interest in doing precisely that. Turns out our democratic processes have not yet been entirely subverted, for better and for worse.

Both Palo Alto and Mountain View have recently elected pro-growth majorities to their city councils.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#350

Post by ThrustVectoring »

jimrandomh wrote: post #257

This is a problem with zoning in the area. Paying these workers more money would enable them to move out of a garage, but the amount of housing would stay the same, causing prices to rise until someone else is forced into a garage. Unfortunately, local governments in the south Bay area are controlled by people who want to maximize the price of their houses, injury to the poor and middle class be damned.

We really need some regional or state-driven action to drive down housing prices in critical areas. It'd be pretty straightforward - make a "Zoning Authority" tax and levy it on counties, cities, and neighborhoods that do not meet a development target. Want to be an obstructionist NIMBY? I'm fine with that if we're charging you $10k/yr for the privilege.
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