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The Tech Worker Handbook

techworkerhandbook.org

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Re: The Tech Worker Handbook

#51

Post by AussieWog93 »

ipaddr wrote: post #37
moksly wrote: post #20

Regulating big tech is a democratic issue. It’s not up to the individual tech worker to do so, and I’m not convinced that all these movements aren’t “soft-solutions” organised by big tech to avoid people working on real solutions. Solutions like legal intervention from the EU and whatever government you are under. Poor working conditions are solved by forming unions. In Denmark we have strong unions, and while their…

Curious what is the cost of a big mac meal with fries and a coke?

Other people have answered your question directly, but I just wanted to add this: One of the things I have learned since starting and seriously optimising a consumer-focused full time business last year is that consumer discretionary spending, at least in the current era of opulence and advertising, does not follow the laws of economics in the same way that it does for commodity businesses.

Unless you're doing something really wrong, the labour cost to produce most consumer goods is both much smaller than the gross profit from the sale, and largely uncorrelated to the price.

Re: The Tech Worker Handbook

#52

Post by iammisc »

throwaway4303 wrote: post #33

Whistle-blowing and public pressure does help in improving working conditions for all workers at tech companies. Example Article highlighting lack of benefits for contract workers at Google https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/technology/google-temp-wo... Result- Google instituted new policies for contractors who now get full-time like benefits including healthcare, sick and parental leave https://www.wired.com/story/g…

That's great, but these benefits shouldn't come from the workplace.

> sick

As a contractor, you don't need to report time to the company you didn't work due to being sick. If Google is requiring this, they are statutory employees. That is the real problem. Providing 'benefits' to 'contractors' is just a bandaid. Either the benefits ought to be provided through other means, or the contractors are really employees and that needs to be fixed.

Re: The Tech Worker Handbook

#53

Post by dkdk8283 »

btheshoe wrote: post #31
moksly wrote: post #20

Regulating big tech is a democratic issue. It’s not up to the individual tech worker to do so, and I’m not convinced that all these movements aren’t “soft-solutions” organised by big tech to avoid people working on real solutions. Solutions like legal intervention from the EU and whatever government you are under. Poor working conditions are solved by forming unions. In Denmark we have strong unions, and while their…

For the most part poor working conditions are not the problem at big tech. Unethical decisions surrounding wellness of users are.

Tech workers are very well paid yet complain the most and often have unchecked egos. Code will not fix the world. People fix the world.

Re: The Tech Worker Handbook

#54

Post by treebot »

btheshoe wrote: post #31
moksly wrote: post #20

Regulating big tech is a democratic issue. It’s not up to the individual tech worker to do so, and I’m not convinced that all these movements aren’t “soft-solutions” organised by big tech to avoid people working on real solutions. Solutions like legal intervention from the EU and whatever government you are under. Poor working conditions are solved by forming unions. In Denmark we have strong unions, and while their…

For the most part poor working conditions are not the problem at big tech. Unethical decisions surrounding wellness of users are.

You can still use unions to fight unethical decisions though

Re: The Tech Worker Handbook

#55

Post by 8note »

ericd wrote: post #50
flooow wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a highly paid UK tech worker, this scab does not speak for me.

The whole peer pressure to join a union thing is a huge turn-off to the whole idea of unions, at least for me. Convince, don’t pressure.

The pressure is a convincer.

If you don't care that everyone in the union will hate you and your ability to do work will also be reduced, feel free to scab.

If you want work to go smoothly with the union members, you should be in the union

Re: The Tech Worker Handbook

#56

Post by kodah »

Whistleblowing seems to be where everyone's faith is these days. Training people on whistleblowing is supposed to be an internal matter. By that I mean companies can have whistleblowing programs to identify problems proactively. This is generally how the US military (and the government more widely) use theirs. This should shield the company from responsibility if they at least attempt to act, not to mention it would probably buy trust from the public.

I've worked in big tech for a bit now and I've seen a lot of open door policies, but never a whistleblower program.

Re: The Tech Worker Handbook

#57

Post by softveda »

moksly wrote: post #20

Regulating big tech is a democratic issue. It’s not up to the individual tech worker to do so, and I’m not convinced that all these movements aren’t “soft-solutions” organised by big tech to avoid people working on real solutions. Solutions like legal intervention from the EU and whatever government you are under. Poor working conditions are solved by forming unions. In Denmark we have strong unions, and while their…

That example of dock workers striking or truckers stopping work to support McDonalds workers is outlawed in Australia. It is called industrial pattern bargaining. So it is not that union can do much always, depends on the country.

Re: The Tech Worker Handbook

#58

Post by akiselev »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #51
ipaddr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious what is the cost of a big mac meal with fries and a coke?

Other people have answered your question directly, but I just wanted to add this: One of the things I have learned since starting and seriously optimising a consumer-focused full time business last year is that consumer discretionary spending, at least in the current era of opulence and advertising, does not follow the laws of economics in the same way that it does for commodity businesses. Unless you're doing someth…

Generally that's true in the consumer space but the food business has few barriers of entry so it's very competitive and low margin. Most restaurants barely make 30% gross margin after labor and COGS, before rent and marketing.

McDonalds is a special case though, both because of its franchise model and because its corporate owned restaurants are largely real estate plays. The latter have a much more complex pricing model that takes into account property taxes, available borrowing terms, VAT, etc along with the usual labor and cost of materials. A McD's in a cheap part of El Paso, Texas might be paying 2% property taxes on its prime real estate while an equivalent location in an expensive part of Denmark might pay a lower .92%. Meanwhile the latter is appreciating at thrice the speed and passing more of the tax burden onto the customer in the form of a 20% VAT that doesn't appear in the sticker price.

Re: The Tech Worker Handbook

#59

Post by [deleted] »

moksly wrote: post #20

Regulating big tech is a democratic issue. It’s not up to the individual tech worker to do so, and I’m not convinced that all these movements aren’t “soft-solutions” organised by big tech to avoid people working on real solutions. Solutions like legal intervention from the EU and whatever government you are under. Poor working conditions are solved by forming unions. In Denmark we have strong unions, and while their…

[deleted]

Re: The Tech Worker Handbook

#60

Post by PragmaticPulp »

tptacek wrote: post #5

This seems pretty fluffy. I read through the "Legal Handbook" and it doesn't seem as much like a handbook as it does a long article about what it's like to be a whistleblower, along with some very high level stuff about what it's like to engage a lawyer. Like, a really basic thing here is that the legal advice starts by asking people to evaluate whether the misconduct they're thinking about violates laws. But it prov…

> I read through the "Legal Handbook" and it doesn't seem as much like a handbook as it does a long article about what it's like to be a whistleblower, along with some very high level stuff about what it's like to engage a lawyer.

I looked through the "Media Handbook" and had the same conclusion: The advice doesn't really seem to be written with the tech worker's best interests in mind. It's more of an advertisement for journalists to collect stories.

The Media section reads like a promotional piece for a media platform called Lioness ( https://www.lioness.co/ ) and its founders. Instead of providing actionable advice about how employees should protect themselves, it mostly glorifies past whistleblowers and encourages the reader to do the same.

A truly worker-focused handbook would begin with a long section about whether or not going to the media is a good idea as well as propose some anonymous alternatives. Traditional whistleblowing may not involve the media at all, especially when government intervention (and the resulting rewards if fines are collected) are at stake. Encouraging employees to go straight to the media is reckless, IMO. There is a time and place for whistleblowing, but this is clearly written as a feeder publication for journalists.

The more I read this website, the more it feels like a promotional piece for the authors and their budding media outlets than an actual advice book for workers.

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