Titles says it all. But I will go into detail mostly because I need an outlet to vent.
I just got hired by a international technology company. I wish I could name&shame but I'm a new member of a small new team in a newly created office.
Just a few details and I could expose myself And my coworkers.
I am in the US. Obviously. Where else can you get screwed like this?
I'm a cis white male with a few years experience in an adjacent field. I am basically a Field service engineer. I have a degree in STEM but most of my coworkers don't . While I am capable and maybe even “over qualified” I still need training, and I am being flown around the country for training and company “team building” events constantly. As are my team mates.
It's exhausting but I am truly excited for the work. It's very hands on, which is something I thrive on.
They have good healthcare. And other benefits. For me, it's a huge step toward a stable career. Even as recently as Iast fall. I was struggling to find a good job. This position was a lifesaving lucky break for me and my family. Most importantly they are relocating me. It might be my ticket out of my home state, a dream I have always had.
I tell you all this to show just how important this job is for me. Just how much I am willing to lick boot and drink the company Kool aid. All's I want is to be good at my job. To be appreciated and paid a living wage.
I have been burnt so many times by companies, but even such I was willing to believe that maybe this one would be different. Mostly because it isn't American, and they made SUCH an effort to explain to me how the we're “bottom up” company. And other general non-sense.
So believe me when I say I was shocked to hear that my Mexican co-workers (33%of my team)
are :
A: being paid up to 30k less annually
B: having their 90 day probationary periods extended
C: being punished severely for things I had received warnings for.
D: being generally mistreated and ignored.
E: having under-performing white co-workers promoted before them and over them.
F: fired without reason or warning.
It's sickening and so disappointing. The saddest part for me is this:
The only reason I know this stuff is going on is because one of my mexican co-workers trust me enough to tell me what is happening to the others. I have witnessed some things and heard some comments but nothing that would let me know the depth of the mistreatment.
we have many international transplants on our team and I wrote somethings off as a language barrier issue.
Well today they fired one of our Mexican teammates. Well call him J. I worked with him last week and he was working so hard. J led the project we were working on and he did a great job. He was eager, attentive and genuinely putting in the effort.
J situation is one of pure exploitation, he is hired on through a 3rd party company as a contract-to-hire. While he is a W2 worker for his temp-agency, he is a “contractor” to MY company. And can be fired at any time for no reason.
And so they did.
Apparently they told him they were downsizing the team and he didn't make the cut. Ya know did make the cut? Lazy ass old white dude called H. H is fucking useless. He is in the same situation as J. Contract to hire thru the same Temp agency. H doesn't do shit, ever! He doesn't make any attempt to accept tasks or even talk to other teammates! He openly play games on his phone throughout the entire day, even while on the factory floor, something strictly forbidden.
I could go on. There are many things to be upset about. But ultimately they are not happening to me.
It's so infuriating to know two, maybe three of my best teammates, People who have been at multiple “team building” events with me, are being treated this way.
It's so obviously a race thing, and it falls deeply along cultural lines. I only know about some of these things because the one Mexican co-workers on my team who trusts me enough tells me what is happening to the others.
America is so deeply broken. I am looking for housing in the city I am relocating too and it's a rat race. It's cheaper than the place I am fleeing, but not by enough. Not even remotely enough.
I wonder how much longer this country can keep going on like this. I think we will reach our breaking point and revolt or something but then I read some history and remember just how long people can suffer. Just how many times the exploiters get away with it.
As apart of my job I fly around the country. Every city I go, there are they same deep systemic problems that aren't getting better. Homeless, housing, etc.
Each one of my co-workers are so deeply exploited and isolated even when we make genuine connections to each other. even when I read and educate myself on worker solidarity and race relations I feel so helpless to help my co-workers.
I have everything on the line for this job, a decade of schooling and years of work experience have finally paid off in a small way to get me closer to a living wage.
Why is everything so fucking awful all the time?
And to think I'm one of the lucky ones.