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The trick to being the only poor person is to not let on. Once people know, they exploit the hell out of you. They don't seem to do it consciously; somehow it j
by kstenerud 5y ago
The trick to being the only poor person is to not let on. Once people know, they exploit the hell out of you. They don't seem to do it consciously; somehow it just happens. I made that mistake a few times during my time in SF.
- domano 5y agoHow does this exploitation look like?
- Cthulhu_ 5y agoUnderpaying but still making the other person happy because it's more than they earned before. Giving them the shit jobs, unpaid overtime, etc. Remarks behind the back about things like weight, eating habits, and being ashamed about things they take for granted. Having your existence denied completely (e.g. the cleaners mentioned)
- domano 5y agoInteresting. Coming from a rather poor background (refugee) i was lucky enough to not experience this in tech. I do notice a disconnect in perspective and priorities though. Also i live in europe, where this is maybe a tad different.
- kstenerud 5y agoI live in Europe now, and it's far less pronounced here. Americans seem much more status and class conscious.
- Grustaf 5y agoI'd say the difference is that Americans are obsessed with money, and they think you need to flaunt it just because you have it. The idea of having a rusty old beater car, let alone bike to work, if you're rich just baffles them. Status and class here is much more subtle, you often can't tell from the way a person dresses (at least at first glance) and what he drives if he's a billionaire or secretary.
- Aeolun 5y agoI think the pay difference in Europe is much lower. There’s also a ton of not quite poor, but certainly not rich people.
- marcinzm 5y agoI'm guessing lower pay, larger workloads, etc. I'm not surprised that many managers/founders will exploit your fears to get more work out of you for less. Same way that those on an H1B get the short end of the stick.
- LAC-Tech 5y agoOpposite happened for me. I find I'm more ambitious and a harder negotiator than most of the people I meet from middle class backgrounds.
- elzbardico 5y agoAlso, I think that most people have some unconscious bias that associate your apparent wealth level as a proxy for your competence level. People inherently trust more the judgement of people they think are rich. If you avoid looking obviously poor, you'll find out that you'd be given better assignments, more freedom, that your mistakes won't be scrutinized as much. The day you find this out and act accordingly, it is like as if you were black and them suddenly find out you woke white one day. All the invisible barriers, the glass ceiling, are subtly not there anymore. Yes, like racism, classism sucks. But you have only one life, your time is short, and while we must fight to try to change things, you'd also better be smart and try to work around classism just by not giving obvious clues about you have ever been poor.