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Old 02-21-2016, 12:12 PM
 
1,834 posts, read 2,008,874 times
Reputation: 4351

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Free food for some but not others? It's almost as if they want to kill morale.
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Old 02-21-2016, 12:21 PM
 
Location: Ohio
24,624 posts, read 19,046,817 times
Reputation: 21733
Quote:
Originally Posted by BugsyPal View Post
Maybe she should have written a review on Glassdoor.com instead.
Hopefully, she learned that actions have consequences.
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Old 02-21-2016, 12:25 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,709,568 times
Reputation: 28561
Quote:
Originally Posted by NaleyRocks View Post
Read the whole piece and I don't feel even a little bit of sympathy for her. Just the opposite, I feel angry because her letter discredits those who are truly suffering and trying to advocate for change. There are real economic disparity issues that need to be addressed but if someone were to be referred to her letter as an example of these issues they'd be disgusted. This is just a poor me, I don't want to suffer or sacrifice anything to get ahead letter. She had a job with free health insurance and free food- those are amazing benefits, especially for a minimum wage employee. Her financial problems are her own fault for not living within her means.


Easiest fix- she could have gotten a roommate, or two roomates. That would alleviated 99% of her problems. She wonders why the guy at CVS was able to give her money- maybe because he knew how to budget? How to make good financial choices?


Why does she think that since the CEO hired her that he should support her? Did he offer her more money then change her salary after she agreed to the terms? Was she somehow lied to about the perks?


Then the icing on the cake, she puts up places where people can give her money? FOR WHAT? Being stupid and losing her job? Refusing to live within her means?


And someone posted pictures which seemed to clash with the claims of sacrifice and suffering. This girl had plenty of opportunity and choose instead to throw it away and blame her crappy life choices on her CEO. Not Sorry.
I live in the Bay Area. And while I agree she did sound a little bratty. But let me tell you more about reality here.

Housing is so expensive that people making $100K+ need to get roommates. They can afford to live in an OK place within an easy transit commute to SF jobs. Now let me clarify, 1 bedrooms near yelp, and in most parts of San Francisco rent for $3000. These aren't posh one bedrooms. These are older apartments that may not have a dishwasher or even a laundry room in the building. Do you want laundry in you apartment? I hope you $4500 to spend a month.

You can move out of SF, to let's say downtown Oakland and pay $3000 for a fancier one bedroom. Or a basic one bedroom in a nice / convenient part for $2500. Again, this is a basic place without a dishwasher ranging in age from roughly 1920s to 1980s. Your commute costs would be about $7-$8 per day. It'll be old. The flooring and kitchen cabinets might be fairly new.

So in most metro areas, there are cheap close in places or far nice places. You can compromise in NYC and live in good parts of the Bronx or Queens and still have a reasonable commute, and fairly affrodable rent. You can move to CT or NJ and get a nice home in a good school district on middle class wages. The Bay Area doesn't have this. Every single place within about a 45-60 minute commute to any job center is expensive. The entire region. Median home price in the region for a basic family sized home is $1M. If you want 3 bedrooms, good schools and a 30ish minute commute to SF or Silicon Valley you need at least $1.5M.

Another example, the formerly cheap, still drug infested area of San Francisco, the Tenderloin, has new 1 bedroom apartments for about $3500. And keep in mind you will see people selling and using drugs on the street, defecating, and all sort of other stuff. You'll probably have a homeless person sleeping in your doorway, for $3500. And you will step over human feces on your walk to work.

There are also SROs that cost $1200. And in case you aren't familiar with an SRO, this means you get a really small room, a lot like a dorm room but less nice. A shared bathroom in the hallway with 5-8 people. You may have access to a kitchen, but you probably won't want to use the kitchen that is shared with 30-40 people. You might get a microwave or hot plate or small fridge for your room. And remember that costs $1200 in the same neighborhood.

Or you can choose to live 30-40 miles out in a place like Concord. Where the 1 bedrooms in a mediocre part of town cost about $1500. And the commute costs are about $12 each day.

You might be able to find a deal in one of the areas of Oakland or Richmond that have drive-bys pretty often. That costs about $700 for a room. You might get shot on your way home walking from the bus, but sure that's an acceptable risk right? At least you'll pass the drug dealer on the corner, maybe you'll score a deal.

One of my sister's coworkers lives and illegal windowless basement room. It's a "steal" at $1000 a month.

So let me sum this up. If you are making less than about $50K as a single here in the Bay Area, you are below the poverty line. $50k means you can comfortably afford a roommate and live on the very margins of the region.

This isn't an exaggeration. So when you think "hmm, there are college grads who should be able to get decent jobs complaining about paying for food and housing, then what about the families where people make minimum wage and have 3 jobs and kids, where can they live?"

Then you end up with people who live 90 miles away and commute 2-3 hours to work at the mall in SF.

It is a lot bigger problem than this one millennials rant.
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Old 02-21-2016, 12:26 PM
 
Location: Sunshine Coast, QLD
3,674 posts, read 3,018,002 times
Reputation: 5466
Love how you americans side with Corporate America, yet your almighty dollar is worth about .72 here in Oz. We enjoy some of the best rights and protections for our workers, plus we don't have to worry about mass shootings every day. You couldn't pay me enough to go back to 'Murica-land of the underpaid, disposable worker shooting gallery!
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Old 02-21-2016, 12:35 PM
 
2,564 posts, read 1,624,622 times
Reputation: 10069
Quote:
Originally Posted by LeaveWI View Post
Love how you americans side with Corporate America, yet your almighty dollar is worth about .72 here in Oz. We enjoy some of the best rights and protections for our workers, plus we don't have to worry about mass shootings every day. You couldn't pay me enough to go back to 'Murica-land of the underpaid, disposable worker shooting gallery!
Not all of us do, which will hopefully be reflected in the coming election.
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Old 02-21-2016, 12:36 PM
 
Location: Living rent free in your head
42,745 posts, read 25,916,011 times
Reputation: 33842
Quote:
Originally Posted by jade408 View Post
I live in the Bay Area. And while I agree she did sound a little bratty. But let me tell you more about reality here.

Housing is so expensive that people making $100K+ need to get roommates. They can afford to live in an OK place within an easy transit commute to SF jobs. Now let me clarify, 1 bedrooms near yelp, and in most parts of San Francisco rent for $3000. These aren't posh one bedrooms. These are older apartments that may not have a dishwasher or even a laundry room in the building. Do you want laundry in you apartment? I hope you $4500 to spend a month.

You can move out of SF, to let's say downtown Oakland and pay $3000 for a fancier one bedroom. Or a basic one bedroom in a nice / convenient part for $2500. Again, this is a basic place without a dishwasher ranging in age from roughly 1920s to 1980s. Your commute costs would be about $7-$8 per day. It'll be old. The flooring and kitchen cabinets might be fairly new.

So in most metro areas, there are cheap close in places or far nice places. You can compromise in NYC and live in good parts of the Bronx or Queens and still have a reasonable commute, and fairly affrodable rent. You can move to CT or NJ and get a nice home in a good school district on middle class wages. The Bay Area doesn't have this. Every single place within about a 45-60 minute commute to any job center is expensive. The entire region. Median home price in the region for a basic family sized home is $1M. If you want 3 bedrooms, good schools and a 30ish minute commute to SF or Silicon Valley you need at least $1.5M.

Another example, the formerly cheap, still drug infested area of San Francisco, the Tenderloin, has new 1 bedroom apartments for about $3500. And keep in mind you will see people selling and using drugs on the street, defecating, and all sort of other stuff. You'll probably have a homeless person sleeping in your doorway, for $3500. And you will step over human feces on your walk to work.

There are also SROs that cost $1200. And in case you aren't familiar with an SRO, this means you get a really small room, a lot like a dorm room but less nice. A shared bathroom in the hallway with 5-8 people. You may have access to a kitchen, but you probably won't want to use the kitchen that is shared with 30-40 people. You might get a microwave or hot plate or small fridge for your room. And remember that costs $1200 in the same neighborhood.

Or you can choose to live 30-40 miles out in a place like Concord. Where the 1 bedrooms in a mediocre part of town cost about $1500. And the commute costs are about $12 each day.

You might be able to find a deal in one of the areas of Oakland or Richmond that have drive-bys pretty often. That costs about $700 for a room. You might get shot on your way home walking from the bus, but sure that's an acceptable risk right? At least you'll pass the drug dealer on the corner, maybe you'll score a deal.

One of my sister's coworkers lives and illegal windowless basement room. It's a "steal" at $1000 a month.

So let me sum this up. If you are making less than about $50K as a single here in the Bay Area, you are below the poverty line. $50k means you can comfortably afford a roommate and live on the very margins of the region.

This isn't an exaggeration. So when you think "hmm, there are college grads who should be able to get decent jobs complaining about paying for food and housing, then what about the families where people make minimum wage and have 3 jobs and kids, where can they live?"

Then you end up with people who live 90 miles away and commute 2-3 hours to work at the mall in SF.

It is a lot bigger problem than this one millennials rant.
well said! And the girl we are talking about lives 40 miles from San Francisco and pays $1200 a month and doesn't turn the heater on because she can't afford a $120 utility bill. Another article I posted in this thread about tech company bus drivers describes a woman who gets four hours sleep because she has a 4 hour round trip commute from Stockton and a man who lives in his car. These people are stuck in an economy that they have no control over and virtually no way to influence changing it.
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Old 02-21-2016, 12:47 PM
 
183 posts, read 209,338 times
Reputation: 275
Quote:
Originally Posted by jade408 View Post
I live in the Bay Area. And while I agree she did sound a little bratty. But let me tell you more about reality here.

Housing is so expensive that people making $100K+ need to get roommates. They can afford to live in an OK place within an easy transit commute to SF jobs. Now let me clarify, 1 bedrooms near yelp, and in most parts of San Francisco rent for $3000. These aren't posh one bedrooms. These are older apartments that may not have a dishwasher or even a laundry room in the building. Do you want laundry in you apartment? I hope you $4500 to spend a month.

You can move out of SF, to let's say downtown Oakland and pay $3000 for a fancier one bedroom. Or a basic one bedroom in a nice / convenient part for $2500. Again, this is a basic place without a dishwasher ranging in age from roughly 1920s to 1980s. Your commute costs would be about $7-$8 per day. It'll be old. The flooring and kitchen cabinets might be fairly new.

So in most metro areas, there are cheap close in places or far nice places. You can compromise in NYC and live in good parts of the Bronx or Queens and still have a reasonable commute, and fairly affrodable rent. You can move to CT or NJ and get a nice home in a good school district on middle class wages. The Bay Area doesn't have this. Every single place within about a 45-60 minute commute to any job center is expensive. The entire region. Median home price in the region for a basic family sized home is $1M. If you want 3 bedrooms, good schools and a 30ish minute commute to SF or Silicon Valley you need at least $1.5M.

Another example, the formerly cheap, still drug infested area of San Francisco, the Tenderloin, has new 1 bedroom apartments for about $3500. And keep in mind you will see people selling and using drugs on the street, defecating, and all sort of other stuff. You'll probably have a homeless person sleeping in your doorway, for $3500. And you will step over human feces on your walk to work.

There are also SROs that cost $1200. And in case you aren't familiar with an SRO, this means you get a really small room, a lot like a dorm room but less nice. A shared bathroom in the hallway with 5-8 people. You may have access to a kitchen, but you probably won't want to use the kitchen that is shared with 30-40 people. You might get a microwave or hot plate or small fridge for your room. And remember that costs $1200 in the same neighborhood.

Or you can choose to live 30-40 miles out in a place like Concord. Where the 1 bedrooms in a mediocre part of town cost about $1500. And the commute costs are about $12 each day.

You might be able to find a deal in one of the areas of Oakland or Richmond that have drive-bys pretty often. That costs about $700 for a room. You might get shot on your way home walking from the bus, but sure that's an acceptable risk right? At least you'll pass the drug dealer on the corner, maybe you'll score a deal.

One of my sister's coworkers lives and illegal windowless basement room. It's a "steal" at $1000 a month.

So let me sum this up. If you are making less than about $50K as a single here in the Bay Area, you are below the poverty line. $50k means you can comfortably afford a roommate and live on the very margins of the region.

This isn't an exaggeration. So when you think "hmm, there are college grads who should be able to get decent jobs complaining about paying for food and housing, then what about the families where people make minimum wage and have 3 jobs and kids, where can they live?"

Then you end up with people who live 90 miles away and commute 2-3 hours to work at the mall in SF.

It is a lot bigger problem than this one millennials rant.
Yes, this is a problem in the Bay area but after reading her rant she just sounds like she lacks life experience and hasn't yet realized that not everyone gets a trophy for just showing up. Gasp - a whole year in the job before she can do something else at the company - as if that were such a long time -she needs to get real. This is why older people complain about millennial workers.

A cell phone is a luxury not a basic need.

She is at an age where most people (in high COL areas)still have housemates to make rent.

Yelp isn't helping company moral by segregating who gets the free food at work though...
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Old 02-21-2016, 12:50 PM
 
Location: Living rent free in your head
42,745 posts, read 25,916,011 times
Reputation: 33842
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rothwells mum View Post
Yes, this is a problem in the Bay area but after reading her rant she just sounds like she lacks life experience and hasn't yet realized that not everyone gets a trophy for just showing up. Gasp - a whole year in the job before she can do something else at the company - as if that were such a long time -she needs to get real. This is why older people complain about millennial workers.
A cell phone is a luxury not a basic need. She is at an age where most people (in high COL areas)still have housemates to make rent. Yelp isn't helping company moral by segregating who gets the free food at work though...
She's easy to criticize, I get that there's enough to not like about her to give people fodder for weeks on C-D, but does that mean that she doesn't have a valid point? Read Jade's post, this is a real issue people in the SF bay area are facing and a growing number of the homeless are actually employed. Someone suggested that she should have anonymously posted her beef with Yelp on glassdoor, but when is the last time a Glassdoor review made the headlines, or caused people to actually start talking about this issue?
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Old 02-21-2016, 12:54 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,709,568 times
Reputation: 28561
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2sleepy View Post
well said! And the girl we are talking about lives 40 miles from San Francisco and pays $1200 a month and doesn't turn the heater on because she can't afford a $120 utility bill. Another article I posted in this thread about tech company bus drivers describes a woman who gets four hours sleep because she has a 4 hour round trip commute from Stockton and a man who lives in his car. These people are stuck in an economy that they have no control over and virtually no way to influence changing it.
The other thing, people suggest: oh get a minimum wage job closer to home.

So she probably lives in Concord. The other minimum wage jobs are at the mall or Starbucks. And you can't get full time hours there without tenure. So she'd have even less money than she does now!

Most minimum wage jobs do not offer full time hours.

I can't believe so many are hating on her financial decisions. Were all of you guys financial smart in your 20s? I surely wasn't! The 20s are the times you are supposed to make mistakes. And I am sure all of you made plenty of them. But it was a lot easier to recover when the cost of living was lower.

When I was in my 20s it was pretty easy to find a nice apartment in Oakland for under $1000. You could find a roommate situation for about $500 in a convenient part of San Francisco. Even 5 years ago it wasn't that much more. Now this stuff is 2.5-3X more. And wages haven't grown that much.
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Old 02-21-2016, 12:59 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,709,568 times
Reputation: 28561
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rothwells mum View Post
A cell phone is a luxury not a basic need.
.
No it is not. It is required.

A. Millennials don't have home phones. In fact most people under 40 do not have a home phone.
B. You need a phone to get a job! You need to communicate!
C. If you only get one phone number, the best choice is a cell phone
D. If you only had a home phone, how would you get your messages? When was the last time you saw a pay phone?
You also need internet to fully participate in today's economy.
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