Instead of Hazard Pay, Spectrum Offered a $25 Gift Card To Technicians Who Enter Homes Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic (buzzfeednews.com) 107
Amber Jamieson writes via BuzzFeed News: Spectrum technicians connecting cable and internet for customers during the coronavirus outbreak will receive a $25 gift card for a local restaurant as a "token of our appreciation" from management, after staff called for hazard pay and protective equipment. "These gift cards never expire, so if you choose a restaurant that is currently not open, the card will remain valid for future use," read the Monday night internal staff email from Tom Adams, the executive vice president of field operations. "Please take some time out of your busy day to enjoy a meal and recharge."
Field technicians told BuzzFeed News on Monday night they feared going into people's homes during the pandemic to fix their internet and cable without gloves, a mask, or hand sanitizer in case they got sick or carried the virus to other customers or loved ones. On Monday night, the company announced it was offering a $25 weekly gift card as a thank you -- an initiative that left many workers who spoke with BuzzFeed News unsatisfied. "Would you do it for $25?" asked a field technician from Irwindale, California, who asked to remain anonymous, along with the other technicians quoted in this story, to protect his employment. He called Spectrum management "vultures."
Field technicians told BuzzFeed News on Monday night they feared going into people's homes during the pandemic to fix their internet and cable without gloves, a mask, or hand sanitizer in case they got sick or carried the virus to other customers or loved ones. On Monday night, the company announced it was offering a $25 weekly gift card as a thank you -- an initiative that left many workers who spoke with BuzzFeed News unsatisfied. "Would you do it for $25?" asked a field technician from Irwindale, California, who asked to remain anonymous, along with the other technicians quoted in this story, to protect his employment. He called Spectrum management "vultures."
Goofy plans like this are a result of... (Score:5, Insightful)
... some exec picking a number of hundreds of thousands of dollars Spectrum is willing to pay for an incentive program and leaving flunkies to do the division, based on number of techs and houses visited every week which resulted in the pitiful number. A number they're too frightened to tell the exec is pitiful.
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I'm also sure they figure how many of these cards will remain unused/lost/whatever.
Re:Goofy plans like this are a result of... (Score:5, Funny)
If only...
That's quite underwhelming actually (Score:5, Interesting)
For a company that makes nearly a billion dollars a week ( they made ~$45B in 2019 ) this seems rather pathetic doesn't it ?
In contrast, here is what the most hated telecom in America is doing:
( which, honestly, surprised the hell out of me )
https://www.prnewswire.com/new... [prnewswire.com]
Re:That's quite underwhelming actually (Score:5, Insightful)
Watch AT&T slash jobs [slashdot.org] again [slashdot.org] to make up for the bonus they paid out.
They did it [slashdot.org] once before, so they'll do it again.
Maybe they'll thrown in a price hike [slashdot.org] too.
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They've actually been slashing jobs pretty hard for several years now.
A new announcement usually comes every quarter.
Re:That's quite underwhelming actually (Score:5, Insightful)
Note that the 20% bonus is only for union employees. My gut feel is, if you checked, most of the "front line" people are actually contractors who would not be in line for a bonus.
Re:That's quite underwhelming actually (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'm wondering when the lawsuits for reckless endangerment will start flying.
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What's the alternative, though? Leave people at home unable to correct to the Internet, so they can't do their jobs remotely or do remote learning? If they have to go to someone else's house to get Internet access, you're going get viral spread anyway.
Think about the alternatives before telling my to STFU, dumbass.
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Maimonides: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Terry Pratchett: Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
———
Pratchett hasn't written many books since he became dearly departed at age 66.
You might want to keep a man like Pratchett alive for the rest of his life, by keeping the fuck away from his n
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"What's the alternative, though?"
Do you have reading comprehension issues? Provide the hazard pay and safety gear, namely masks, gloves, sanitizer.
Do you not understand that not only could the technicians get sick, but spread it to every house they go to?
I'm really tired of stupid people opening their mouths.
I don't think that is the point of the lockdown (Score:2)
Most who deal with these things do understand that given time, most people will indeed become infected.
The goal is to ensure that we do not become infected all at once.
No medical system on earth can handle that. That is what would lead to huge numbers of deaths, which would otherwise have been preventable with the availability of things like hospital beds and equipment.
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Just make sure you don't have any contact whatsoever with anyone older or sicker or anyone your age who will have contact with anyone older or sicker.
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Just make sure you don't have any contact whatsoever with anyone older or sicker or anyone your age who will have contact with anyone older or sicker.
Or anyone your age who will have contact with someone your age who will have contact with anyone older or sicker. Or anyone your age who will have contact with someone your age who will have contact with someone your age who will have contact with anyone older or sicker.
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Or just anyone who thinks they are perfectly healthy and are unaware of any underlying medical condition. There have already been quite a few deaths like that already.
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For a company that makes nearly a billion dollars a week ( they made ~$45B in 2019 ) this seems rather pathetic doesn't it ?
Well... the company has to look out for what's most important -- executives and shareholders.
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For a company that makes nearly a billion dollars a week ( they made ~$45B in 2019 )
Revenue != Profit.
Believe it or not, they don't get their equipment for free, and their workers actually expect to be paid.
Spectrum's profit last year was about $1.2B, less than 3% of revenue.
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As a percentage of revenue is a meaningless distinction. The point is, any business that's not failing is going to have some profit on $45B in revenue - and we don't have to look up their numbers to be sure of that.
$1.2B is enough to give every 5th family in the nation a $25 restaurant gift card.
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For a company that makes nearly a billion dollars a week ( they made ~$45B in 2019 ) this seems rather pathetic doesn't it ?
In contrast, here is what the most hated telecom in America is doing:
( which, honestly, surprised the hell out of me )
https://www.prnewswire.com/new... [prnewswire.com]
Apparently you don't know the difference between revenue and net income.
Pro tip: the net income is usually a lot smaller than the revenue.
See: https://finance.yahoo.com/quot... [yahoo.com]
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FTA: "AT&T will pay a 20 percent bonus above the regular hourly base rate to our front-line union employees"
Interesting, but makes me wonder how many front-line employees are not unionized?
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The ones that are contractors and not AT&T employees...which is probably most of them.
Speaking of Apple... (Score:5, Interesting)
One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone's screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company's dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing more than 10,000 iPhones a day.
"The speed and flexibility is breathtaking," the executive said. "There's no American plant that can match that."
workers need an union! (Score:3)
workers need an union!
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Why a union? Why not decent employment law? Why have a third party involved that sucks money from both other parties?
It takes a special sort of society that will fight tooth and nail for protections for unions but not protections for employees directly.
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And how to get decent employment law in a country where laws go to the highest bidder?
A century ago, it took a combination of factors, automation so not so many workers needed, studies that showed working workers less actually increased productivity along with management that read and understood the studies and, most important, workers mobilizing in unions along with the threat of a socialist revolution.
Without those unions, employment laws would not have happened and even with unions, it was a war to bring
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How do you protect unions without decent laws affording them protection? In the US you got laws protecting unions, which is why unions work for you.
Without laws protecting unions, unions are worthless in a country where you can lay off the entire workforce and have no problems replacing them with new employees practically overnight. Don't think that what worked in the US and Europe in the 19th century would work in modern China etc, because the situation is very different - new workers can be brought up t
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Sorry, missed that you were talking about China's laws. America partially got those laws through democratic means, China is an authoritarian capitalist society, they could have another revolution to get those laws (sure worked great last time) or the people in charge could get scared of the people enough to bring in those laws. Otherwise, I don't know how in China.
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tell it, brother!
seriously. you are 100% correct.
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You don't comprehend that these are good jobs, and most of the workers travel for the job. They're there to work, not to live. They're migrant workers, not immigrants. That's why they live in a dormitory; it is a perk. Getting woken up for an extra shift is a perk that goes to the best workers! The more money they make in the 2-5 years they work in the factory, the longer it will last when they get home.
These jobs are regionally competitive for workers, a union would be a waste of their money. Unions are fo
Re:Speaking of Apple... (Score:5, Insightful)
... Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing more than 10,000 iPhones a day.
"The speed and flexibility is breathtaking," the executive said. "There's no American plant that can match that."
And there's the problem, right there - that anyone even pretending to be a human being could say, complimentarily and with a straight face, either "The speed and flexibility is breathtaking", or "Please have a meal a week on us in exchange for putting yourself and your loved ones' lives at risk". But such is our reality, because we keep giving corporations our support, adoration, and sometimes adulation - not to mention all that money. Whatever else could we reasonably expect?
Also, reading that "There's no American plant that can match that" quote, can't you just hear the dickhead's envy, and his longing for similar 'performance' in the US? Maybe that's what Trump had in mind when he talked about "making America great again"...
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ah, the whatabout-ism defense.
pathetic.
you don't understand what america is about (where you born here? just curious). to say 'well, let them risk their lives' is damned heartless and cruel. its not part of the american ideal and you want to put us back 100 years.
no thanks. we don't need your kind of thinking, here. go somewhere else to run your sweatshop.
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Even going to school in the US would not leave you with such a naive view of what the American way is. Did you sleep through everything history and social?
Taking risks is and always was at the heart of how the US deals with things. You can see it in your finances, in your conduct towards the world, nature and so forth.
The US revolves around doing whatever the hell brings the quickest results and consequences be damned, especially when they can be pinned on somebody else... and if that somebody else is "tomo
Re:Speaking of Apple... (Score:5, Insightful)
The key phrase in all of your whatabouts was YOUR. If I ride in a car, I am risking MY life. If I step out in sunlight I am risking MY life. Fine,m it's mine to risk. If I visit a bunck of places right now, I am risking MY life, my loved one's lives, YOUR life, etc. Only one of those lives is mine to risk.
I wonder how the executives might feel about shaking hands with the people who go out and do in-home service every day? Without hand sanitizer.
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You seem to have lost the thread of the conversation. Look at the post I responded to and it might all make more sense.
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The belief that life should be risk-free, and that only evil people or evil corporations would suggest you do something risky, is a naive fantasy at best, economically destructive at worst.
I think you fail to understand what is going on. This isn't about absolute safety. These corporations ask you to take a risk so they can profit over it.
THEY get the extra customers, YOU get the risk.
This is not some natural risk emerging from an unforeseen circumstance, it's fully fabricated to make the workers take the burden.
In that respect they are in FULLY EVIL MODE.
But just the amount of disdain for human life, the disrespect for their own workers, it's staggering.
Slap in the face (Score:3)
Where I work we're at least trying to minimize risk. We're screening any potential on-site, for both necessity(work or school related) and whether they're a possible health risk. I know we have sanitizer and gloves at the very least.
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There is advice out there that if you receive really terrible service at a restaurant, leave a penny as a tip so they really get the message and don't tell themselves you just forgot to leave a tip of someone must have swiped it.
A $25 gift card in lieu of hazard pay or protective gear is a bit like that penny tip.
It's 2020 (Score:2)
The best part was when I first signed up, they wouldn't skip they guy. He came out with his own modem (that he wanted to rent to me at $5/mo) and I had to argue with him for 10 minutes to get him to provision my existing modem. He only relented when he realized it would take longer to keep
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You will be surprised at how often you try to get something done, and suddenly it's like you are back in 1950 with manual typewriters, rotary phones, and file cabinets.
When *they* want to get something done (such as terminating your service), suddenly it's the Jestsons age.
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Up here in Canada, one of the ISP's, Rogers, has launched a self-installation program to go with its ban on techs entering customers houses.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2020/0... [mobilesyrup.com]
I'll also note that most of the grocery chains here (Walmart excepted) have given all their workers $2 raises and at least a $50 bonus, retroactive to close to the beginning of the month when the shit started hitting the fan.
We're finding out who the most important workers are, namely those who supply food.
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Especially because, unlike some hard-sell opportunities, it's not really necessary if you want to force modem rentals: DOCSIS is fairly clear on the fact that, architectural
Kiss of Death (Score:3)
A $25 Gift card promotes more visit to work. Making it a multiple risk at this time of pandemic crisis.
A gift pack of eye protection, face mask, hand glove, hand sanitizer is more useful.
If you're in New York, the area along subway line had the most casualties. One can expect
everything you touch there is contaminated.
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Have you seen what those things go for currently? That's way more expensive than 25 bucks a week.
Well, maybe we could give that kit to the service reps in a year or maybe two. And if we only have to pay it to those that actually survive 'til then... yeah, I think you have an idea here...
Re:Kiss of Death (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a classic example of externalizing costs. Most of the risk and cost is to the worker and society at large, not the company.
Externalized costs are the best argument in favour of regulating capitalism. If there is one area of capitalism that should be regulated it's externalized costs.
Before a Spectrum employee enters ... (Score:4, Interesting)
... my home, they will be met with hand sanitizer, and a pair of gloves. Before they get back in their truck, they will use the outside water hose to wash their hands thoroughly, then their face and scrub their fingernails with a disposable tooth brush and then clean their nose, and gargle with Listerine.
We're all in this together.
Re:Before a Spectrum employee enters ... (Score:4, Funny)
In what? A lunatic asylum?
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Re:Before a Spectrum employee enters ... (Score:5, Funny)
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Pro tip: All the surfaces are covered in bacteria.
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Protip: Some surfaces are covered with more and/or nastier kinds of bacteria.
make it cash and per day (Score:2)
rather have the cash and more. who knows what restaurants will still be open after this is all over.
Just-wow (Score:2)
I don't even know what to say about this. I feel like I fell into Clown World. >:(
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under paid and desperate (Score:2)
They have their employees so under paid and desperate that an extra $25 a week is attractive.
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$25 is the value put on an employee's life.
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$25 is the value put on an employee's life.
well, depends. is that good at the waffle house??
asking for a friend.
Re: under paid and desperate (Score:4, Insightful)
This is the problem. People self isolate, do everything to wall themselves off, and thing nothing of ordering a delivered meal..... delivered by some poor shmuck who canâ(TM)t afford to take time off because there is no sick leave and has probably unintentionally coated their delivery food containers with numerous sneezes and snotty hands!
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Well, wear gloves when you take the bags from the delivery schmuck. Take the food containers out of the bag and then move to food to plates from your house - do this upstairs in Mom's kitchen. Then lose the gloves. When you get down to the basement with the plate, put it in the microwave for a minute to kill of anything left living. Down that meal with a Mountain Dew. You are all set, safe in the basement and sated.
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It's not even 25 bucks. it's a gift voucher from a bunch of businesses who are desperate for every dime they could make currently, selling those vouchers for a fraction of those 25 bucks they can be redeemed for.
This is despicable on so many levels it ain't even funny.
These cards may never expire... (Score:3)
These cards may never expire, but the technicians might.
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Then there's a good chance those vouchers won't be redeemed and you not only save the money, it's likely that those vouchers didn't cost Spectrum the 25 bucks printed on them, so they might even be able to claim 25 against tax that they will never really have to pay for.
It's just so win-win.
PPE should be mandated by the government. (Score:2)
The market does not police itself ethically nor, by nature, can it.
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two words: (Score:2)
Evil bastards
Easy on Spectrum - guessing at how it happened (Score:3)
*OK there was one guy who did the math but he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. These incentive meetings are always feel good meetings and if you rain on the bosses happy talk, even when you are right, you will be the next scapegoat when something fails. "Yes" men get promoted. The guy who warns about the disaster gets blamed for it.
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If you don't have enough money to pay hazard pay to your front line employees who risk their damn life to keep your business in business, throw one of the useless C-Levels from the top of your office. That should free up a few millions.
If that's not enough, keep throwing.
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Unfortunately I do. I have to deal with them on a daily base, so yes, I do know how they work. And I know human nature, one of the reasons I can't really wait for AIs to take over, they can't be any less humane or any more antisocial.
Top level management is generally quite well staffed with psychopaths that would literally have no problem climbing over a pile of corpses if they think they can get away with it. Which makes sense. Because if you waver for a moment because you have qualms that it might be unet
Vultures? (Score:3)
Sorry, but I can't just let that stand. They are most certainly not vultures. Vultures are a relevant piece in the food chain and we would have a huge problem in this world without them. Diseases would spread because of decaying corpses that are not disposed of quickly enough. Vultures actually help to curtail the spread of diseases and put themselves at risk due to exposure to those pathogens in their very necessary and helpful duty of cleaning up the mess left behind by other animals dying.
If anything, this management is the opposite thereof.
They are a pest. And the world would be a better place without them.
changes (Score:1)
About 4% of infected ends up on a ventilator, half of those dies. That's probably also the 'oldies', and I assume that the workers are younger.
That still leaves a 2% chance of being put into a coma and put onto a ventilator.
Huge chance of becoming infected.
$25 gift card to compensate. Wow.
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And we haven't even figured out yet how many will have lasting negative effects on their health, even if they survive.
Shoot, the utility I work for. (Score:3)
Was telling him. All the bars are closed. Best saving plan ever.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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Spectrum uses contractors for most of their installs/repairs. The contracting company may not want to get sued for spreading illness or risk liability insurance increases. Spectrum doesn't pay these people - they only offer the $25 gift cards. Unless this only applies to corporate employees - but I doubt that, since I don't think there's very many of those that do home visits.
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Too bad you can spread COVID-19 long before you have any symptoms. And you can have a mild case with no fever at all.
Spectrum office's (Score:3)
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Highlights the problem though (Score:2)
So if we need connectivity at home, and something goes wrong (or we had just moved in), what do we do?
I'm supposed to work at home, what do I do if I need service?
"Essential" workers depend on a network of "non-essential" people.
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Most people can figure it out.
The next phase of human evolution will be to separate those who can DIY and those who cannot. The non-DIY humans will eventually die out and the human population will emerge stronger as a result.
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They've been sending out people for speed upgrades and/or setups that could possibly have worked from a self-install kit.
Spectrum Blunders again (Score:2)
Management at Spectrum would have been much better off doing nothing.
No one would have been surprised, and no one would have been more upset than
they already were.
Instead, they take one of the very few options that is guaranteed to make things worse.
Bad employee management, poor customer relations, and an unbelievable PR nightmare.
The Charter/Spectrum CEO is the guy who (Score:2)
Re:Per House (Score:5, Informative)
According to the Fuckin Article they get a card per week, not per house.
and as a Spectrum customer, I can tell you how shithouse their company is.
Re:Per House (Score:5, Funny)
According to the Fuckin Article they get a card per week, not per house.
and as a Spectrum customer, I can tell you how shithouse their company is.
One house a week=one card a house.
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I wish I could give you the funny mod that joke deserves. Then again, I thought the entire story was a sick joke. You know, early April Fools for people with a really SICK sense of humor.
I can see a standup comic now: "Of course I make jokes about the news of the day, but today's news is Covid-19, and I suppose you're all sick of it, so let's go to the interviews..."
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I can tell you how shithouse their company is.
The worst companies don't even let them visit the shithouse during work hours
Re:Per House (Score:4, Insightful)
"These gift cards never expire, so if you choose a restaurant that is currently not open, the card will remain valid for future use,"
Should be:
"These gift cards never expire, so if you choose a restaurant that is currently not open, the card will remain valid for future use provided you're still alive then."
Very generous of them.
Re:Per House (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only is it 1 card per week, it's also a RESTAURANT gift card. Great for whenever they open for business again!!!
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I guess they're gambling that most of the workers who go for it will die before they can redeem the card.
Re:Per House (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do they not just give an extra $25 into their pay packets ? The $25 would be usable immediately rather than having to wait. For the technician to benefit from the $25 they will have to spend money - does a restaurant bill ever come to exactly $25 ? The technician has to like restaurant food.
These vouchers will have cost Spectrum less than $25, restaurants will sell them in bulk at a discount because they know that the diner will spend extra on alcohol, etc, etc.
Why does Spectrum not properly protect its staff by providing protection ? Probably because it will cost them more than $25 per week.
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Because the company traded cable service for gift cards. Say the cable for the restaurant is $50 a month. The restaurant could then give them $200 in cards for four months of service.
This happens all the time around here. For instance, the local Chinese restaurant will do a food exchange with a pizza place.
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Why does Spectrum not properly protect its staff by providing protection ? Probably because it will cost them more than $25 per week.
Providing them protection would call into question just how essential their services are when they are taking medical supplies that could have gone to hospitals (if they could even get these supplies). Sure, a Spectrum connection servicing a hospital might be vital. But just how important is a home visit for every single work-from-home customer that needs it? Or worse, fixing a speed issue when everyone in the home is actually off of work right now.
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No, it's not strictly "per house" and I would rather have cash. After all, if you get enough of these token payments, you will need to pay real cash on the income.
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But it is a gift card. not cash.
I have a gift card for AMC Movies, There are no AMC Theaters near my home so it is useless. I also have gift cards for restaurants that I don't go to.
Companies will often get these gift cards at a discount anyways as often just a promotion for people to go to such sites.
Also they don't need to pay income tax for them.
All in all it is really sketchy.