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Miserable is, of course, a sliding scale. You can definitely find more miserable. But for example... I ducked into the office midsummer to knock out a bit mor

Miserable is, of course, a sliding scale. You can definitely find more miserable. But for example... I ducked into the office midsummer to knock out a bit more work on a project that was falling behind. It was sweltering in the building because the property manager didn't enable the air conditioning on the weekend to save money. I found a pod of our recently-hired contractors working in the middle of the floor. Asked them what was up; found out they pull 7-day coverage (not all; they work staggered shifts so they're individually pulling 5 of 7 days, but we had 7 days of coverage for their job because they were answering customer queries). Asked if the AC was broken; was told that's how it always was. Nobody had thought to turn on the Goddamn AC because nobody had realized we were now requiring human beings to be in the building 7 days a week. And yeah, 85 degrees isn't exactly a 19th-century textile mill, but it's outside OSHA regs and none of these folk were empowered to do anything about it. They didn't even have a channel to complain to anyone. I told facilities management that I'd be working Saturdays and Sundays and if something wasn't done about the HVAC I'd probably have to file a formal complaint. Problem got fixed right quick. When you're an actual Googler with the right color badge a mistake like that gets solved within a day. I worked closely with Google contractors for years and that's tip-of-the-iceberg shit. The company wasn't (usually) actively trying to screw them over, but it was real, real easy for the regular process to stop remembering to treat them like fellow employees (because Google's real keen on them not being "fellow" employees).

andsoitis 4y ago
You write: > The company wasn't (usually) actively trying to screw them over Why don’t they speak up to their employer who can then raise it with Google? Since you yourself say Google is T actively creating a terrible working environment, it stands to reason they would respond positively.
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  > Why don’t they speak up to their employer who can then raise it with Google? That's not how incentives are aligned. The employer is incentivized to provide Google a service at maximum value with minimum cost and inconvenience. When an employee at a contracting agency complains, the easiest solution to the problem is to take them off the contract. When I said tip of the iceberg... Now consider how those incentives work when the issue is harassment.
- shkkmo 4y ago
  You are assuming they didn't. If they didn't, they probably had good reasons to believe that speaking up wouldn't help. The NLRB's ruling is that since Google has so much control over the work conditions, Google has to be directly involved in negotiations with the workers' union and thus has to listen to things like "Please turn the AC on where we work on the weekends."
  - j33zusjuice 4y ago
    But working in the 21st century is paradise, and no one who doesn’t *want* to be taken advantage of or mistreated or forgotten about ever is because the market is totally free, and there is no such thing as power imbalance when negotiating with a company. Unions just aren’t necessary. Corporations are wonderful, and they don’t withhold information that could be bad for business, but good for the public. Their product is made with complete openness, and everything is regularly reviewed and audited by independent, unbiased watchdogs. If they don’t like their conditions, they can leave at any time, as long as they leave individually.

andsoitis 4y ago

You write: > The company wasn't (usually) actively trying to screw them over Why don’t they speak up to their employer who can then raise it with Google? Since you yourself say Google is T actively creating a terrible working environment, it stands to reason they would respond positively.

shadowgovt 4y ago
> Why don’t they speak up to their employer who can then raise it with Google? That's not how incentives are aligned. The employer is incentivized to provide Google a service at maximum value with minimum cost and inconvenience. When an employee at a contracting agency complains, the easiest solution to the problem is to take them off the contract. When I said tip of the iceberg... Now consider how those incentives work when the issue is harassment.
shkkmo 4y ago
You are assuming they didn't. If they didn't, they probably had good reasons to believe that speaking up wouldn't help. The NLRB's ruling is that since Google has so much control over the work conditions, Google has to be directly involved in negotiations with the workers' union and thus has to listen to things like "Please turn the AC on where we work on the weekends."
- j33zusjuice 4y ago
  But working in the 21st century is paradise, and no one who doesn’t *want* to be taken advantage of or mistreated or forgotten about ever is because the market is totally free, and there is no such thing as power imbalance when negotiating with a company. Unions just aren’t necessary. Corporations are wonderful, and they don’t withhold information that could be bad for business, but good for the public. Their product is made with complete openness, and everything is regularly reviewed and audited by independent, unbiased watchdogs. If they don’t like their conditions, they can leave at any time, as long as they leave individually.