Work Reform

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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.

Our Philosophies:

All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.

Our Goals

Higher wages for underpaid workers.
Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
Better and fewer working hours.
Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.

founded 1 year ago

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A billionaire wrote this letter to Google a year ago. How likely is that Google's layoffs and actions since then are at least partly because of this? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I think the comments are cutting Alphabet too much slack. Yes the billionaire is heartless, but he isn't wrong. Alphabet was careless. They binged on talent because they did not, and do not, place significant weight on the consequences of their hubris. Why? Because ultimately it is the workers that have to pay the price, not the executives that hired carelessly. If you do not force management to care, they won't.

I always think of Indeed and their CEO. They too hired too many too quickly and were forced to fire. What did the CEO do? Not only did the company make sure the severance package was generous, the CEO took a pay cut too.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I have heard that sometimes they hire talents just so the competitors don't get them, so talented people end up doing bullshit jobs and the salary discourages them from moving to more interesting but risky endeavors.

Edit: source https://www.businessinsider.com/google-meta-staff-do-fake-work-says-vc-keith-rabois-2023-3?r=US&IR=T

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yup, I heard this rumor at Google when I worked there, and it does make some amount of sense. If the best engineers aren't working for the competition, then nobody else can compete. I doubt it's true, but it did often felt like we were paid to work on trivial tasks.

It's a shame because there was work that could have been done to improve Google's business, but execs took engineers off of them to move to Google Cloud (AKA, "sit on your hands and wait 2 years for your doc to be approved"). Google had so many good products that engineers truly wanted to work on like Stadia, Domains, and Area 120, and they cancelled them all. It happened so often that a couple of my coworkers pretended to hate working on their team "so it wouldn't get cancelled".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

The thing about Google is that they have one of the highest profit-per-employee metrics in the whole industry.