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We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees

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Re: We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees

#91

Post by moftz »

londons_explore wrote: post #78
rwz wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my first job in US I had about a year and a half of unused PTO accumulated. I gave my two week notice like a good team player I was and then left on the agreed upon date. I obviously didn't get any of the PTO paid to me and in retrospect realize that I could have just taken my last two weeks off with the same outcome. I was so sure that there must be some law that would force employer to pay out unused PTO, that I…

How does one accrue a year and a half of paid time off? Don't most companies cap it at 5 days or something?

A place I used to work set it at 160 hours, got bought, then changed it to 80 hours, everyone made a big enough stink by threatening to take off during critical times. They changed it the cap to two times your yearly accrual rate which put the cap somewhere between 240 and 400 hours depending on your seniority. The cap was nice but it was almost impossible to use that much leave with the amount of job responsibility you had. You could sell your hours but it had to be agreed on at the beginning of the year and the payout spread out across the year so there was no way you could get a quick influx of cash.

Re: We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees

#92

Post by moftz »

jobigoud wrote: post #79
el_dev_hell wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This x1000. If a benefit isn't spelled out in black and white, it should be considered non-existent. Example: I used to get a ham at Christmas time. This was a gift from the company (i.e not in my contact). We had a bad year in 2017 and there was no ham - that's fine.

How is paying what's due a "benefit"?

PTO is a benefit since there is no law that it has to be given out. Paying out PTO after you leave is another thing that isn't mandated so therefore it's a benefit. PTO and the payout of the balance shouldn't be a benefit, it should be the law.

Re: We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees

#93

Post by astura »

born_a_beetle wrote: post #38

read your contract when you get hired, people. You shouldn't expect anything more than what's guaranteed right there in front of you.

I've never actually had what can be described as an "employment contract," the only thing is I've ever signed is a paper saying my starting salary, full time status, and that I'm "at will" so employment can be terminated for any reason by either party.

Policies like this (PTO accruals, buybacks, etc.) are determined by HR policies that are unilaterally published by the company, but they aren't "guaranteed" by any means; HR policies can (and do) change at any time with no notice. So how does "reading my employment contract" protect me? They can just change the policy from "we'll buyback your unused PTO" to "you forfeit unused PTO" a week before the layoffs. I've actually seen this exact thing happen before. (end PTO buybacks then immediately enact mass layoffs)

Once I worked for a company for about 3 or 4 years during that time they dropped the 401(k) match completely (no advanced notice), dropped long term disability (maybe a week advanced notice), dropped max PTO accruals, and changed the health insurance significantly every single year, including changing the company managing the plan. Then there's always the classic "we're changing the PTO accrual schedule."

Do you people who apparently have "employment contracts" sign a new one every time your pay changes? Or benefits change? What if someone refused to sign the new one? Then they'd just get fired on the spot, so it's basically the same thing as a unilateral company directive, just with a lot of handwavings.

Re: We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees

#94

Post by Phlarp »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #83
ggm wrote: post #13

Why, why do so many "trendy" companies shit on workers rights?

Because Buzzfeed is not a trendy company. It’s a tabloid dressed up as journalism.

If it breaks real news, with real sources, that turn out to be real stories that they had real scoops on does it matter?

If it barks like journalism and wags its tail like journalism than is it not journalism? (it might also have fleas like a dog!)

Same argument for "trendy company".

Re: We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees

#95

Post by cribbles »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #90
gerbal wrote: post #31

Maybe they BuzzFeed's remaining employees should unionize to keep this same shit from happening to them.

Another company tried that: "News workers unionized. Days later, they were jobless. Was it payback?" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/04/dnainfo-goth...

See also Mic,[1] which laid off its entire editorial staff in response to the formation of a union (but prior to a contract being signed).

For counterexamples, see Vice,[2] which negotiated a nearly 30% pay hike in their first union contract, and Slate,[3] whose editorial union recently negotiated a $51,000 starting salary with annual pay increases.

Note that a union is not a guarantee against layoffs. See [4]: the Huffington Post recently lost 15 of its unionized employees to a layoff. On the upside, they were contractually guaranteed severance pay - because they collectively bargained for it.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/mic-layoff-bustle-union-labo...

[2] https://gawker.com/vice-writers-get-a-union-contract-with-a-...

[3] https://wwd.com/business-news/media/slate-media-editorial-st...

[4] https://twitter.com/HuffPostUnion/status/1088524725259628544

Re: We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees

#96

Post by astura »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #77
hedora wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talk to the person that hired them, and see what sort of references they came with.

I really can't imagine that unless you're a senior manager yourself. Most likely the answer would be a surprised and more or less sensibly worded "it's none of your business".

That's even assuming you know whose responsible for hiring them, which you don't, unless you work in a 5 person company.

Re: We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees

#97

Post by djohnston »

djohnston wrote: post #73
jds375 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because not every employee was complicit in that....... And those that weren’t most definitely DO deserve their PTO. The problem is when you say “same people” you’re just lumping everyone together and implying everyone at Buzzfeed news was trying to run articles that ruins a person’s life forever. That’s what you’re missing.

not all buzzfeed employees

it's funny you don't like this argument in the context of buzzfeed. when i made the same point to the thread-mob hating on facebook employees, no one shared my view that maybe not all employees of a company that has issues are responsible for those issues.

Re: We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees

#99

Post by jorgec »

born_a_beetle wrote: post #38

read your contract when you get hired, people. You shouldn't expect anything more than what's guaranteed right there in front of you.

However Buzzfeed is acting in good faith, it paid a minimum of 10 weeks plus other benefices until April. It is some shocking, usually, companies are crueler (the average is to give nothing) and how their former employees are retributing it? Bitting it back.

Re: We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees

#100

Post by a_tractor »

drivingmenuts wrote: post #53
lgleason wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To a certain degree, what goes around comes around. In general Buzzfeed is a purveyor of fake news so the silver lining is that it will develop a reputation as an employer.

Which parts of their news is fake? Aside from some recent claims by the current Presidency (who claims that about any non-positive reference), I’m unaware that they’ve invented anything, in part or in full, to claim it as news. They may be annoying as all get-out in some aspects of their overall operation, but you’re claiming they make shit up?

Do you not yet understand that the term "fake news" does not strictly refer to news that is literally fake and made up, or is that just a straw-man that makes it easier to be dismissive?

Fake news features, but is not limited to:

The "half-truth," a deceptive statement made by using some, but not all, elements of the truth.

The Big Lie Technique (also the Bold Faced Lie; "Staying on Message."): The contemporary fallacy of repeating a lie, fallacy, slogan, talking-point, nonsense-statement or deceptive half-truth over and over in different forms (particularly in the media) until it becomes part of daily discourse and people accept it without further proof or evidence.

Information Cascade, "in which people echo the opinions of others, usually online, even when their own opinions or exposure to information contradicts that opinion. When information cascades form a pattern, this pattern can begin to overpower later opinions by making it seem as if a consensus already exists."

Confirmation Bias: the common tendency to notice, search out, select and share evidence that confirms one's own standpoint and beliefs, as opposed to contrary evidence.

Whatever narrative the mainstream media is pushing may be "based in facts" while remaining incomplete, inaccurate, and, overall, false.

Finally, considering the fact that the sources for 90% of information media likely to be consumed by the average person are owned by 5 or 6 consolidated corporations, the idea that they would not and have not abused this incredible power is easily one of the most naive and deliberately ignorant statements a person could make in 2019, especially in the information age just as they are finally being exposed.

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