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New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

washingtonpost.com

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Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#561

Post by donohoe »

calibas wrote: post #431

Why would anybody trust a NYT article about internal drama at the NYT? Does HN not understand bias? Compare the NYT article to other reporting, and you can see the difference. There's a few things the NYT forgot to mention, like the fact that these negotiations have been drawn out for 2 years now. Or this: "Throughout the bargaining process, Times management has engaged in numerous labor law violations, including imp…

Hello - former NYT employee here, who would have been part of the Guild union if I worked there still.

The story is written by a reporter, Katie Robertson, who is also part of their own union (Times Guild).

The Times has been pretty good at covering itself imho.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#563

Post by kergonath »

abletonlive wrote: post #541
code_for_monkey wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why are tech workers, my industry, so committed to this ideology? Do you think the tech layoffs of the last few years was a justified culling of lazy idiots?

Honestly yes. I've been interviewing people that have gotten laid off and almost 75% of the time I'm thinking that they were probably chosen for layoffs due to low performance

> I've been interviewing people that have gotten laid off and almost 75% of the time I'm thinking that they were probably chosen for layoffs due to low performance

The people interviewing with you might be a biased subset of those that were laid off. I don’t mean anything about your company, which could be great or terrible, I have no idea. But I would expect the best performers to get new positions quickly through their networks and connections. You would not see these people replying to random offers, but it does not mean that they were not high-performers who were laid off.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#564

Post by slg »

bko wrote: post #447
quandrum wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I want management to develop a system to determine who is low-performing, document when those workers don't meet the standards of performance, and reference those documents when they fire someone. It's just asking for due process.

This sounds good, but in my experience bad employees were known to everyone. It was difficult to pinpoint exactly why they were bad or toxic, but pretty much everyone agreed. If you gave them some benchmark they would need to hit (e.g. close tickets, be on call, etc), they would be able to do so. So creating a documentation trail is difficult, especially if its based on people saying they don't think he does good wor…

>If you gave them some benchmark they would need to hit (e.g. close tickets, be on call, etc), they would be able to do so.

Isn't this just a sign of bad management? If employees are capable of doing the work when their job is on the line, it isn't a question of skill or ability. It is a failure of the company to properly motivate, challenge, and reward them for their work.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#565

Post by SoftTalker »

metabagel wrote: post #547
SoftTalker wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the media have been salivating for this week for months now. Exactly why I'm not planning to read or watch any news this week. I'll vote tomorrow. That's what I can do. All the rest of it is out of my hands and I'm not going to spend any of my time or mental energy engaging in the manufactured drama sure to come. Like my barber said at my last haircut: the only sure thing about this election is that an idiot wil…

Not necessarily. Trump might not win. It boggles my mind at how proud people are to refuse to draw a distinction between two completely different candidates. One has demonstrated competence and public service, while the other has demonstrated incompetence and chronic self-dealing. Refusing to draw a distinction is moral cowardice.

I agree they are completely different. I don't think either are remotely qualified. I have been struggling with whether I'll vote for president at all. I cannot in good conscience endorse either candidate, on the other hand those are the choices I have. I guess I could do a symbolic write-in. I have never been less motivated for a presidential election in my life.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#566

Post by lallysingh »

themacguffinman wrote: post #471
lallysingh wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Descriptions from both sides are now included, what did you want here?

A neutral source from a third party news outlet. Do you think bias is a one-dimensional tug of war that cancels each other out when combined?

So.. journalism? We're in a meta space for that.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#567

Post by jrflowers »

themacguffinman wrote: post #471
lallysingh wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Descriptions from both sides are now included, what did you want here?

A neutral source from a third party news outlet. Do you think bias is a one-dimensional tug of war that cancels each other out when combined?

Would you prefer neutral coverage from a third party news outlet with a unionized workforce or one without a unionized workforce?

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#568

Post by FredPret »

sonthonax wrote: post #456
FredPret wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever done knowledge work with offshore contributors? It’s challenging to say the least. Even when working between first-world countries speaking English, there’s a host of serious problems. Cultural differences; different expectations; time zone differences.

The New York Times is a glorified blogging platform. Not to long ago it was a Wordpress site. I'm fully aware of how jaring it is for the median HN reader to hear this, but maintenance of a news website isn't the kind of skilled labour that commands a 250k a year paycheck anymore.

Perhaps but they do serve their blog at scale, including video and interactive widgets. They’re the most popular of the news blogs.

It’s not rocket engineering but it’s not nothing.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#569

Post by csallen »

miltonlost wrote: post #496
csallen wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that extreme? If you own a company, why shouldn't you be able to fire someone at any time? If you work a job, why shouldn't you be able to quit at any time? I don't think it's great that our society tries to treat work like it's family, and jobs like they're some guaranteed long-term relationship. It sets people up with the wrong expectations. Your company will lay you off or fire you once they run out of mone…

> If you own a company, why shouldn't you be able to fire someone at any time? Because that is bad for the individual worker. We live in a society, and society should look out for humans before corporations.

It's not black and white. It's a sliding scale. Society already does a ton to look out for the individual worker. It's more a question of where things should fall on that scale.

Coddling workers by expecting corporations to basically act as their family, their parents, their financial planners, their healthcare providers, etc., is terrible.

We should not be telling people to expect any particular corporation to provide them a livelihood indefinitely, when it's a simple fact that corporations cannot do that. They can afford to pay you when it's profitable for them to do so, and that's it. That's the deal. Period.

I'm all for taking care of people. That's what our government should do itself. We should not be placing that role on corporations. And we should not be telling people to expect that their jobs will last forever and they can't be fired. We should instead tell people to maintain their skillsets, maintain their savings, and live within their means, so they can weather inevitable job changes. That's what caring for people actually looks like.

Re: New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike

#570

Post by quotemstr »

stego-tech wrote: post #543
quotemstr wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's the uneven propagation of price information through the popular consciousness that makes inflation so insidious. You're absolutely right: a lot of people are calibrated on 2010 prices for income despite 2024 prices for expenses.

I will unashamedly admit I was one of those people until recently. When I got into the housing market, I thought $650k for a turnkey property fit for four adults would be sufficient, with another $70k set aside for repairs and projects (HVAC, oil tank removal, etc). Turns out I was wrong, and my failure to adapt my standards has likely cost me an opportunity to own a home sans a significant pay rise. Once I accepted…

I thank my lucky stars I was able to get something like a 2.5% mortgage locked in in a few years ago
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