4 ms·

"Martinez, 30, actually works three jobs to support himself and his family. His Facebook shift goes from 1.15pm to 10.00pm, so he drives for Lyft in the morning

"Martinez, 30, actually works three jobs to support himself and his family. His Facebook shift goes from 1.15pm to 10.00pm, so he drives for Lyft in the mornings. On weekends, he picks up shifts as a park ranger. All that work affords him a three-room house that is home to four adults and four children: his wife, their two daughters, his mother-in-law, his wife’s sister, and her two children. The sister and her children sleep in the garage." I think it really sucks that the contractors sound underpaid and dont have access to the benefits. I also wonder why more people dont just leave Silicon Valley for basically anywhere else in the US (assuming they can find a job there) and live a more reasonable lifestyle. If you have three jobs, you dont get to see your family at all, and that is not living. Life is too short.

RodericDay 9y ago
Consider the opposite story, of someone languishing somewhere that isn't Silicon Valley. It could be characterized like this: "Well, if they were bold and courageous, they'd take their chances in SV. Tough it out for a year or so, but take advantage of the immense number of opportunities, and eventually climb up from the bottom rung and become successful." If poor people stay in poor places, people wonder why they don't move to take advantage of opportunity. If poor people move to expensive places, people wonder why they didn't stay back where they were and live within their means. It's always possible to blame the victim.
vinceguidry 9y ago
Moving is harder to do when you're not making enough money to save for it. You can say, "yeah, life is hard, save anyway" but that doesn't really fix anything.
Texasian 9y ago
Moving is expensive and disruptive, not just financially. Having to start your professional and personal life over is daunting as fuck.
- jmcdiesel 9y ago
  Financially, yes... But... the second part is mostly just the dread of it. I've moved (with family) 6 times in the last 7 years... most of which do to bad luck of contracts falling through in the companies i worked for and them just not having enough work to support the staff... lay offs... and while its disruptive, there is actually a ton of growth out of it that, honestly, has been worth it... Just because something is hard up front doesn't at all make it a bad choice...
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- acchow 9y ago
  Yeah. The inability to move is actually a huge friction to life and the economy. People are not able to go to where the jobs (or where they can afford a comfortable life) and companies aren't able to get the people they need. We should seriously have a discussion about government-subsidized moves.
CaliforniaKarl 9y ago
One issue is building up the savings to do the move, including the proper research, finding an apartment, etc. There's also the soft cost in losing in-person access to your entire friends network.
ptero 9y ago
I think they are comparing staff engineers with contract janitors. I think most of the pay differences are between engineer / janitor, not between staff / contract. I heard that engineers on contract at Facebook are in general paid very well and I suspect many could easily move to a full time position at a less-hot company, but choose not to.
rgbrenner 9y ago
Are his mother, wife's sister and wife working? Supporting 7 people + yourself on one persons labor is going to be tough no matter where you live

RodericDay 9y ago

Consider the opposite story, of someone languishing somewhere that isn't Silicon Valley. It could be characterized like this: "Well, if they were bold and courageous, they'd take their chances in SV. Tough it out for a year or so, but take advantage of the immense number of opportunities, and eventually climb up from the bottom rung and become successful." If poor people stay in poor places, people wonder why they don't move to take advantage of opportunity. If poor people move to expensive places, people wonder why they didn't stay back where they were and live within their means. It's always possible to blame the victim.

vinceguidry 9y ago

Moving is harder to do when you're not making enough money to save for it. You can say, "yeah, life is hard, save anyway" but that doesn't really fix anything.

Texasian 9y ago

Moving is expensive and disruptive, not just financially. Having to start your professional and personal life over is daunting as fuck.

jmcdiesel 9y ago
Financially, yes... But... the second part is mostly just the dread of it. I've moved (with family) 6 times in the last 7 years... most of which do to bad luck of contracts falling through in the companies i worked for and them just not having enough work to support the staff... lay offs... and while its disruptive, there is actually a ton of growth out of it that, honestly, has been worth it... Just because something is hard up front doesn't at all make it a bad choice...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
acchow 9y ago
Yeah. The inability to move is actually a huge friction to life and the economy. People are not able to go to where the jobs (or where they can afford a comfortable life) and companies aren't able to get the people they need. We should seriously have a discussion about government-subsidized moves.

CaliforniaKarl 9y ago

One issue is building up the savings to do the move, including the proper research, finding an apartment, etc. There's also the soft cost in losing in-person access to your entire friends network.

ptero 9y ago

I think they are comparing staff engineers with contract janitors. I think most of the pay differences are between engineer / janitor, not between staff / contract. I heard that engineers on contract at Facebook are in general paid very well and I suspect many could easily move to a full time position at a less-hot company, but choose not to.

rgbrenner 9y ago

Are his mother, wife's sister and wife working? Supporting 7 people + yourself on one persons labor is going to be tough no matter where you live