Tag: workers rights

Why Is It So Hard To Get a Job Right Now?

Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 6 Comments

My spouse has been unemployed for the last 14 months. And 15 months ago, I lost my full-time job and had to immediately pivot to freelancing to support us both.

It’s cool! We’re good! We are millennials forged in the fires of multiple once-in-a-lifetime economic disasters. We’re Frugal and Good With Money and totally unsurprised to find ourselves yet again scraping our way up from the bottom.

… is what I would’ve told you nine, or even six months ago.

But now, more than a year into being a single-income household, cracks are starting to show in our optimism. My husband, a college-educated, highly talented, experienced worker, has applied to more than 300 jobs. He made it to the interview stage of 10 of those. He made it to the final interview for 5 jobs. And he has yet to receive a single job offer. (Completely unrelated, uh… join our Patreon!)

He’s not alone. Not being alone is part of the problem. Millions of people are going through the same struggle right now, flooding the job market with too much competition for too few job openings.

We got a message from a follower who goes by Cloud Structures that read,

“I did everything ‘right’: I went to a great school, did all the internships, worked hard, and… nothing. I’ve applied to hundreds and hundreds of jobs in the past few years. I’ve gotten career coaching, gotten certifications, networked, and chatted, and schmoozed. I feel insane.“

I really don’t blame them for feeling insane. It’s hard out there for a jobseeker! This whole process has made my spouse and all my unemployed friends (of whom there are disturbingly many at the moment) feel completely worthless, unemployable, and disrespected.

My husband has been ghosted by companies and recruiters alike. He’s received form rejection letters for applications when he was perfectly, 100% qualified, without even a screening interview.

I don’t think it’s dramatic to say that we’re currently experiencing an epidemic of unemployment during one of the worst job markets in a century. So today I’m gonna roll up my sleeves and unpack just why that is.

Read More

All Labor Deserves Compensation. Don’t Be a Dick About It.

Jess Fickett ("Piggy") 16 Comments

I’m sometimes surprised about what people find controversial around here. Our articles about abortion and reproductive rights are met with pretty universal agreement. While one of the most controversial things we’ve ever written was about the American tipping system:

If You Can’t Afford to Tip 20%, You Can’t Afford To Dine Out

You should read it. But if you don’t want to bother, here are the highlights:

  • Our tipping system is whack by design. Employers are allowed to pay servers below minimum wage with the expectation that customers will make up the difference in tips. This means tipping is not, as the word would suggest, a reward for good service. Rather, it is pretty fucking mandatory if you want to qualify as a Decent Human Being.
  • So if you don’t tip at all, your server is being criminally underpaid. This isn’t your fault, but it is your responsibility. Which means diners should factor the cost of tipping into their budget when dining out since employers are passing off the cost of their payroll to the customer.
  • The solution is to automatically fold service charges into the bill, which more and more restaurants and bars are doing. But it’s by no means universal quite yet. So in the meantime your options are to cook at home or tip your server at least 20%.

The number of comments on that article that don’t simply complain about the necessity of tipping, but completely disregard the humanity of servers is staggering. The contempt and disrespect from these trolls is, uh… super gross! Here’s a sample:

Damn. I did not order a side of ableism with this comment. Please take it back.

It’s the day after Labor Day. So I’m spending this article on the dignity of labor: what it is, why it’s deserving of respect and fair compensation, and why disrespecting labor is a massive dick move.

Read More

The Bitches Get Riches Brand Promise: Social Media, Plagiarism, and AI in an Age of Exploitation

Lauren Torres ("Kitty") 10 Comments

“You know how we joke about our ‘brand promise’?” I say to Jess in our weekly meeting.

“You mean our guaranteed minimum of dick jokes? Naturally! Why?”

“I’m thinking of finally writing a real one.”

“Oh, like a sentence or two in the sidebar?”

I make a face. My coblogger regards me with the abrupt suspicion of a dog owner whose faithful friend is chewing on an item of unknown provenance. “How long is it?”

“Kinda long…” I concede, a bad dog chewing faster.

She sighs. “I look forward to reading it.” This is what she says when she’s resigned to receiving an eleventy-thousand-word shitstorm that defies editing for clarity and brevity, delivered the morning we’re supposed to publish. And like X, I’m gon’ to give it to her.

Lately my brain has been leaking big, scary thoughts about the nature of the work we do here. Conversations about AI, plagiarism, social media, and the value of creative labor swirl through my head. I try keeping these thoughts where they belong: in the shower. But sometimes they escape and bully their way to my word processor.

Today, I want to spell out the real Bitches Get Riches promise. To make specific promises, and to explain why they’re so important. Because I want you to know me—and because I want you to know what you can (and cannot) expect from “content creators” in this time so fraught with artifice and greed.

It’s a little different from our usual. Indulge me, and I’ll strive to reward you for your patience.

Read More