Take this example, the people voted that DC tipped workers should get a higher minimum wage, but now it's being repealed by the DC city council:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-council-...
Do you guys, by any chance, have relocation reimbursement?
When applying for new jobs, do you leave out the name of your current employer? Do you think it's a good idea? I thought about replacing the name with something generic, like "Embedded Systems Company".My fear is that if I'm mass applying to other jobs, especially to startups with small teams that may not have a formal HR practice in place, a tiny set of them may call my current place for...
And given that most voice recognition software require some decent hardware (think your phone or your pc). I doubt it's gonna fit into that tiny earpiece with today's hardware specs.
If targeting "right to work" is the first step, then perhaps we can organize something around abolishing that. If abolishing is too difficult, then perhaps modifying it so that "right to work" only applies to companies that have less than $1 million but have safeguards in place to ensure fair layoff packages, but companies with more than $1 million must allow unions. That way, small companies don't have to worry about unions and when they're big enough, they'll have the money and the lawyers to deal with it.
Waiting is a loser's game. With another recession, the government will do just enough to keep people content, but not go that extra length to solidify those protections. With changing seats of power over time (re-elections), there's no guarantee that the next set of people in power won't dismantle protections... causing the cycle to repeat... causing us to wait for another recession... and so forth.
ie, there's a difference between "free software" and "open source".
While I agree, I almost never see anyone going one step further and saying what can be done about it. "Call your representatives!" says many, but this is a mainly passive action that depends too much on faith in the incorruptibility of our representatives. We can continue to do this, but we need a more powerful and active direction.
With the tech bubble collapsing and people losing their jobs (especially with what's currently happening in Silicon Valley), I think maybe it is time for a dedicated union for both engineers (us) and other employees. That is, some kind of active effort designed to spearhead these principles. How can this happen? HN readers are smart; we can organize ourselves, can't we?
However, what we don't see is the terms of the layoff that the employees are forced into. Generally, employees don't have a say in what they get in their layoff package, and many times it is not a fair amount in comparison to the work they do and in comparison to what management is getting. In addition, employees generally have to sign a legal document that prevents them from defaming the work practices/management/etc of the company. Either they sign and get their package, or they get nothing at all. I'm basing this on accounts from personal friends who have worked in startups, and although I'm speaking from an anecdotal point of view, I don't see what other data points we can draw from given that no one is allowed to speak out legally.
The bottom line is, we will always be screwed over since we lack basic worker protections. We can talk about bad management and how that can be solved, but ultimately I think each and every one of us need to collectively force a set of protections for workers. Either through law or by forming a strong collective. Until then, this cycle will continue.