Labor Loopholes at Pandora co-founder’s new startup
Pros
- (Rationed) snacks, Nespresso machine... - Interesting, diverse group of coworkers from all over the Bay and the world. - Unmonitored break time - Ability to read, draw, or listen to music at your desk while working.
Cons
- Lower-than-average wages for similar data quality/entry jobs throughout the Bay Area. - No ‘perks’ for non-salaried positions. - Strict limits on amount of hours allowed per week (24). - No organization in workflow, employees were constantly having to contact people in various parts of the company to find their work for the day. - Employees routinely made to do work that was outside of their position (manual labor, in-store tests, meetings, running trainings, etc.) with no additional compensation. - Routinely required to complete data work in a strict amount of time so that investors would think a computer program had done it. - Quality Trainers regularly censored in Slack channels. - Opposed unionization using captive meetings and encouraging a hostile work environment; used COVID as an excuse to lay off Quality Training department after they unionized. - Repeatedly refused to comply to California law in providing gender-neutral restrooms, eventually several employees changed the signs themselves. - Several people were fired for policies which were not in effect at the time the supposed infractions occurred. - Emotional manipulation and blatant lies from management on a daily basis; for instance, the day before a furlough, we were given a pep talk on how we shouldn’t worry about our jobs being put in jeopardy by Amazon stores launching. - “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group” prevented at every turn from making any changes in the company; essentially were a focus group on company policy for higher-ups.
