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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

#301

Post by prostoalex »

humanrebar wrote: post #91
ocschwar wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re-read the comment. There's a lot of truth to it: raise their wages, and in a heartbeat, those workers will see their rents rise.

...and more development projects will make financial sense, so there will be more investment in housing. Rising rents are a short term problem, but they do provide long-term solutions. Of course, communities in the Bay Area (and elsewhere) can make it less expensive to build affordable, denser housing. That should have similar long term benefits.

> and more development projects will make financial sense, so there will be more investment in housing

Maybe. The price of land and the price of construction labor reflect the new realities as well.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#302

Post by chaostheory »

rhaps0dy wrote: post #238

>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.

There's no excuse for food waste. If they're not willing to work with local charities directly, they should at the very least work with Copia to deal with it https://www.gocopia.com/

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#303

Post by IanDrake »

If you're going to be featured in an article highlighting your financial difficulty, move the $450 Dyson fan, 65" DLP TV, and overhead projector out of the frame. It begins to erode their footing and make you question their priorities.

I have friends that make much less than these folks. Some can barely make ends meet and sometimes I will help them with their personal finances. Which is when I usually discover why they can't make ends meet. $150/m cable bill, $100/m mobile bill, a car they can't afford, and constant meals out. They're usually living larger than me on 1/4 the income.

It's sad really, and I'd argue that it's probably not their fault. The level of entitlement we feel is out of control at all income levels.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#304

Post by kafkaesq »

danesparza wrote: post #136
Dude2018 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how capitalism and meritocracy work unfortunately.

Nope. There are many forms of capitalism... Humanistic capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanistic_capitalism Anarcho-capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism Democratic capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_capitalism Eco-capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-capitalism Inclusive capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusive_capitalism Neo-capitalism: https:/…

Then there's, you know, "capitalism in actual practice".

Which is what the Dude above was referring to.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#305

Post by efsavage »

oneshot908 wrote: post #268
steffan wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> See also senior and older FB engineers being discouraged from participating in perks and events intended for younger and junior employees because FB can multitask at sucking. Can you elaborate? I don't recall ever seeing anything of the sort while I worked there.

There are all sorts of wonderful shop classes and related perks at FB. Older and senior talent in my experience is discouraged from attending these classes. Maybe they weren't always that way or maybe someone smacked them with a clue bat over that behavior, don't know...

I'm over 40 and haven't noticed this at all. If anything the median age in the woodshop classes I took was well above the company's.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#306

Post by oneshot908 »

efsavage wrote: post #305
oneshot908 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are all sorts of wonderful shop classes and related perks at FB. Older and senior talent in my experience is discouraged from attending these classes. Maybe they weren't always that way or maybe someone smacked them with a clue bat over that behavior, don't know...

I'm over 40 and haven't noticed this at all. If anything the median age in the woodshop classes I took was well above the company's.

Interesting, either times have changed, or, much like Google, you're in a big company and your experience all comes down to the team you join. Either way, great info, thanks!

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#307

Post by prostoalex »

Bartweiss wrote: post #84
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people are pondering outside of that claim because young programmers in Palo Alto also want cheap real estate so there's a shared interest. But things this article brings up that are more uncomfortable for the members of this board to think about like paying service workers more or pondering this: “They look at us like we’re lower, like we don’t matter,” said Nicole of the Facebook employees. “We don’t live t…

> At the end of every shift, Nicole watches large amounts of leftover food go into the compost – food that she’s not allowed to take home. On that one in particular - is there a law against that? I know rules on food service workers taking things home vary quite a bit.

There's a lack of law to protect companies from legal liability in case someone gets food poisoning. Once the food leaves campus, the company has no control over packaging, storage, temperature, allergy labeling, etc.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#308

Post by austenallred »

pxeboot wrote: post #135
akgerber wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'cost of living trap' is due far more to a growing amount of wages (good!) chasing after an essentially-capped housing supply near those jobs. When well-paying manufacturing jobs boomed in Detroit during the 1910s auto boom, its population doubled in a decade, and increased by 50% in the following decade— but its housing stock grew to match! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit#Demographics On the other hand, th…

Aren't the high wages already a response to the high cost of living? If cheaper housing was available, what would stop wages from (slowly) going down?

Competition for talent

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#309

Post by chaostheory »

ryandrake wrote: post #258
jeffdavis wrote: post #185

They make decent money -- good money even. This is really an article about the high housing costs in the Bay Area. I don't see any other real message here. All of the people who oppose residential development near work sites are to blame. Period.

Sorry for having to be "that guy" but they're living in Menlo Park for crying out loud! I'd love to live in Menlo Park too, but I can't afford it, so instead I live 2 hours away and commute to work like everyone else. In the Bay Area, living close to work is pretty much a luxury for the rich.

yeah if they lived in the East Bay or further north with access to BART such as Pittsburg or Concord, it would be more affordable. I've had developer coworkers live there talk about the commute. Not fun, but makes the finances better.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#310

Post by SteveGerencser »

angersock wrote: post #252
perfectstorm wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 popul…

That's the dumbest goddamn thing I've ever heard, least of all because a TV on sale on Black Friday is pretty far from a nice sandwich. This sort of selfish reasoning--"but but but what about the poors that might somehow abuse the system"--is cancerous, and you sir or madam are a shitty person for suggesting it.

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 closing shift.

Does everyone do this? No. Do enough people do it to force these sorts of rules to be put in place? Yes.

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