Ask HN: Start a charity-driven staffing firm? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Start a charity-driven staffing firm?

#21

Post by DoreenMichele » Sun, Mar 24, 2019, 3:19 PM UTC

I’m a veteran of the NYC IT staffing market but recent years have me disillusioned with the business

Why are you disillusioned with the business?

Why do you feel that simply giving half the money to charity somehow makes it okay to continue working in an industry that you currently see in a negative light?

Do you think you could make a staffing firm that would solve the issues within the industry such that you would stop feeling negatively about it?

I'm all for some charitable giving. I think that helps make the world work better. The world needs some means to help those folks for whom life simply isn't working for some reason.

But I generally feel that when people see regular paid work so negatively and their answer is to do the same work, but give away most of the profit, then this suggests the system is broken. Something is fundamentally wrong. A new model is needed so people can feel that their paid job actually matters and is a positive thing.

Best of luck.

Re: Ask HN: Start a charity-driven staffing firm?

#22

Post by frlnc_throwaway » Sun, Mar 24, 2019, 3:41 PM UTC

barry-cotter wrote: post #17

You are crazy and this could work. However, if you’re going to run a staffing agency there are multiple ways you can do good with it. There’s only so much money to go round and your customers are not going to pay you more money because you donate a lot of money to charity though it may help with marketing and sales. Ultimately the money is either going to come from you or your employees. You’ve decided it’s going to…

I also used to be interested in effective altruism.

They're mostly smart people, and I respect them for sticking to their principles.

However, I don't think working at something you feel neutral, or negative, towards, and then donating the bulk of your income, is a path to personal happiness.

You need to do more thinking and reflection on your personal values, priorities, and the work you personally find fulfilling, meaningful, worthwhile. It can take years of thinking to figure out your purpose, but it can be done.

Try this as a place to start:

https://www.romangelperin.com/shop/self-actualizing-people-i...

Or maybe this: http://aristotleadventure.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-is-centr...

Re: Ask HN: Start a charity-driven staffing firm?

#23

Post by throwawaymlc » Sun, Mar 24, 2019, 6:50 PM UTC

All of the big firms in NYC already have their own heavily branded / promoted charity day / events / philanthropy programs - your own charitable contributions aren't going to be a selling point for them.

If you want do this for your own reasons, great, I am sure it could deliver a lot of meaning and satisfaction in a field where that is perhaps hard to come by.

(Shameless plug - I do happen to be on the job market in NYC now, if you wanted to connect or offer any advice I'd be receptive, email in my profile).

Re: Ask HN: Start a charity-driven staffing firm?

#24

Post by causehealth101 » Sun, Mar 24, 2019, 10:14 PM UTC

To me, it comes across as a disingenuous marketing gimmick.

If you're still going to be a staffing agency making income from placements, what changes will you implement to transform it into a "service"?

And what's the difference between your idea and simply being an individual who donates a portion of their income to charity?

Re: Ask HN: Start a charity-driven staffing firm?

#25

Post by barry-cotter » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 1:19 AM UTC

frlnc_throwaway wrote: post #22

barry-cotter wrote: post #17

You are crazy and this could work. However, if you’re going to run a staffing agency there are multiple ways you can do good with it. There’s only so much money to go round and your customers are not going to pay you more money because you donate a lot of money to charity though it may help with marketing and sales. Ultimately the money is either going to come from you or your employees. You’ve decided it’s going to…

I also used to be interested in effective altruism. They're mostly smart people, and I respect them for sticking to their principles. However, I don't think working at something you feel neutral, or negative, towards, and then donating the bulk of your income, is a path to personal happiness. You need to do more thinking and reflection on your personal values, priorities, and the work you personally find fulfilling,…

I suggest you take a look at the 80,000 hours website. Earning to give has become less emphasised as 80,000 Hours has done more research and the broader effective altruist community has grown, in experience, numbers and expertise.

https://80000hours.org/articles/comparative-advantage/#shoul...

> Should I earn to give or do direct work?

> We often advise people who say: “I have high earning potential, so I have good personal fit with earning to give, so I should earn to give”.

> But this doesn’t follow. We’re in a situation where we need the right ratio of funders to direct workers, so what matters is comparative advantage. This means you need to compare your earning potential to other people in the community who might do direct work or earn to give.

> If they have even higher earning potential, then you might have a comparative advantage in direct work, even though you have high earning potential compared to people in general.

> Cases like this might be common. There are people doing direct work in the community who could donate over $500,000 per year earning to give. So, even if you have earning potential this high, you might still have a comparative advantage in direct work.

> Of course, some people’s comparative advantage will be earning to give. If it looks like you might be less good than existing people doing direct work, or you have struggled to find work in direct work, we think that earning to give is a great alternative.

Re: Ask HN: Start a charity-driven staffing firm?

#26

Post by ceoddevelopment » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 8:41 AM UTC

Equal staffing is primary and all occlusion has fault for deriving conduct, trust me I'm a Chief Justice for the Los Angeles County Attorney General's Office and the remand is a receipt if there is a Chief for arbitration. The settle is a court of amount and the law form must acquire funding for you to be paid without privilege for release and the issue can be solved to endure dichotomy because there are no churches allowed anymore. This was by broadcast today or yesterday. Don't cite me. We have precedence and it takes a hill of walls to settle out of court that you remand on a counting for staffing that "law is staging a coup". On who? This is how law works. Anyway, the settlement is remanded a court by staffing, the privilege extends a work of debt and not of load so you can avoid the side hoe. No more loans on amount and coerce to action on the remission of rampant spending not on of the equity for spending. Good luck and Good night. My name is Lenin Marty Chavez, your Chief Judiciary Advisor. By law. Facebook and Twitter are by name. I'm making the LinkedIn and Pinterest soon, I think. There are laws and then there's Justice. This is law.

Re: Ask HN: Start a charity-driven staffing firm?

#27

Post by ceoddevelopment » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 8:43 AM UTC

barry-cotter wrote: post #17

You are crazy and this could work. However, if you’re going to run a staffing agency there are multiple ways you can do good with it. There’s only so much money to go round and your customers are not going to pay you more money because you donate a lot of money to charity though it may help with marketing and sales. Ultimately the money is either going to come from you or your employees. You’ve decided it’s going to…

You're under arrest, cease and desist or we will throw you to jail and then prison for sake of pre-emption. You will conclude on alimony your perjury and that is case in final. Council.

Re: Ask HN: Start a charity-driven staffing firm?

#28

Post by throwaway322 » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 4:42 PM UTC

Thanks to all who replied to a stranger on the internet thinking a crazy idea out loud. I appreciate the links that were shared and will definitely take a deep dive into them. There seem to be a few agencies out there in the temp space helping out those looking to get back into the job market (ex-cons, homeless, etc.) which is great. Temp placement, even at the lower end of the pay scale, takes a rather large amount of capital to cover payroll and what I’m guessing would be very high insurance costs (manual labor, ex-felon, etc.) Also, probably more than 1 or 2 people could handle from an hours in the day standpoint without administrative/recruiting help. I feel like the big firms probably give such marginal amounts that while helpful feels more to me like marketing spin which a few of you felt this post could be construed as. The industry as a whole has such a negative reputation and unfortunately it’s probably well deserved. Maybe some of you are right and I'm barking up the wrong tree but I appreciate your thoughts nonetheless and plan on taking up the offers to chat/correspond by a few of you. If you didn’t have a profile in your email and wanted to touch base I set up charitystaffing@yahoo.com where we can correspond and I can send you my personal email address/details.