Tuesday, May 28, 2019

The more things change, the more they stay the same: Temps 1997 - 2019

NYT May 28, 2019, by Daisuke Wakabayashi
The exploitation of the temps by High Tech companies started more than 20 years earlier, Microsoft leading the way:

LA Times December 7, 1997 by Leslie Helm (later Editor of Seattle Business Magazine)
"And earlier this year, about 90 receptionists were fired and told that Microsoft's clerical needs would henceforth be handled by an outside provider, with which they could enlist. Along with their jobs, those employees lost their Microsoft benefits and stock options.
"We were overpaying them," said Bob Herbold, Microsoft's chief operating officer." 
And the push to use more temporary workers has paid off for the company. “Boy, it’s had a positive impact financially,” Herbold said in an interview.
From C-Net January 2002 about Herbold's compensation, who was the highest paid employee (more than twice what Gates was paid) or Seattle Times, September 30, 1997 by Michele Matassa Flores (now Executive Editor of the Seattle Times).
Microsoft's chief operating officer Bob Herbold received $1.18 million in salary and bonuses last year, and another $3 million from selling stock
Was he overpaid?

Google Shadow Workforce

Excellent article by Daisuke Wakabayashi in the New York Times about the exploitation of temporary workers by Google. Leslie Helm's article about Microsoft's abuse of its temps in the LA Times in December 1997. Plus ça change...

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

No vacation nation, revised CEPR report

Announcing here the revised report from the CEPR, revising their reports of 2007 and 2013:
Nearly 1-in-4 Americans Receive No Paid Vacation or Holidays
WASHINGTON - The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) first published a study comparing paid vacation time in the US to other rich countries in 2007 and again in 2013. In a newly revised report released today, No-Vacation Nation, Revised reports that the United States continues to be the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation time or holidays.