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Google Training Document Reveals How Temps, Vendors, and Contractors Are Treated (theguardian.com) 136

"An internal Google training document exposed by The Guardian reveals how the company instructs employees on how to treat temps, vendors, and contractors (TVCs)," writes Slashdot reader Garabito. "This includes: 'not to reward certain workers with perks like T-shirts, invite them to all-hands meetings, or allow them to engage in professional development training.'" From the report: "Working with TVCs and Googlers is different," the training documentation, titled the The ABCs of TVCs, explains. "Our policies exist because TVC working arrangements can carry significant risks." The risks Google appears to be most concerned about include standard insider threats, like leaks of proprietary information, but also -- and especially -- the risk of being found to be a joint employer, a legal designation which could be exceedingly costly for Google in terms of benefits.

Google's treatment of TVCs has come under increased scrutiny by the company's full-time employees (FTEs) amid a nascent labor movement at the company, which has seen workers speak out about both their own working conditions and the morality of the work they perform. American companies have long turned to temps and subcontractors to plug holes and perform specialized tasks, but Google achieved a dubious distinction this year when Bloomberg reported that in early 2018, the company did not directly employ a majority of its own workforce. According to a current employee with access to the figures, of approximately 170,000 people around the world who now work at Google, 50.05% are FTEs. The rest, 49.95%, are TVCs.
The report notes that "the two-tier system has complicated labor activism at Google." On November 1st, after 20,000 workers joined a global walkout, "the company quickly gave in to one of the protesters' demands by ending forced arbitration in cases of sexual harassment -- but only for FTEs."
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Google Training Document Reveals How Temps, Vendors, and Contractors Are Treated

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  • Executive Summary (Score:3, Insightful)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @08:12PM (#57795126)

    Badly.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      It's completely standard. Any time I have ever worked as a contractor, all interaction with the organisation or agency was strictly business.

      For what I "lost" in perks and meetings, I more than made up for in money.

  • the company did not directly employ a majority of its own workforce. According to a current employee with access to the figures, of approximately 170,000 people around the world who now work at Google, 50.05% are FTEs. The rest, 49.95%, are TVCs.

    1) The two numbers add up to 100%. So, there's presumably no other category that isn't mentioned.
    2) The first number is greater than the second.

    How then is that *not* a majority, albeit a slight one?

    • by Anonymous Coward

      That original report was from earlier in 2018. The current numbers show that it has swung back toward FTEs from TVCs.

  • Microsoft got into hot water for abusing temps years ago. Apparently they didn't punish Microsoft hard enough to send a message to other similar orgs.

    • by doktor-hladnjak ( 650513 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:13PM (#57795960)

      The way contractors are treated at all these tech companies including Google is exactly a result of what happened to Microsoft and how it was punished. They did not make a distinction between how employees and contractors were treated which got them in hot water for not offering equivalent benefits and perks (like stock).

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @08:37PM (#57795274)

    They used to be Temps, Interns and Contractors (TICs) but that had an obvious negative sound and it was less well know. It was mostly used to poke fun of people (usually friends but not always) and was only a few docs. It was changed to (a) not sound so bad and (b) separate interns from The Others because interns were thought to have actual value. I think the terminology changed some time around 2005 or 2006. Around the same time, a special group of temps had their badges changed to be brown (they became "Brown Badgers" in all conversation) and weren't allowed on the main campus. There was an incident with a chef and one of these folks hoarding food to take home.

    Google has never cared about non engineering staff. (There are expectations, yes.) After Wayne Rosing departed, those feelings became more pronounced. This is who they have always been but now there are large enough masses of unhappy people to do something noticeable. (This is far from the first time but previously these things stayed inside and were handled differently.)

    • by Anonymous Coward

      TVC are doing all kinds of jobs, including QA and engineering.

      I have been in an engineer role for 3 years. Some of the folks in QA have been around since 2010.

    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Better to call them what they are in reality, DWFs, the disposable work force eww Alphabet is really the alphabet of douche baggery, probably work through the entire Alphabet, for each element of douche baggery as in A is for Arsholes who turn workers into disposable labour etc, etc.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    This is done so that Google doesn't fall into the trap that Microsoft did in the 80's which forced the IRS to develop a set of rules and draw a line on the separation that must be maintained legally to be defined as an independent contractor. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/independent-contractor-defined

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Author never worked for a large company... or is just trying to stir-up negativity among people who never have.

    If you've ever worked for a large company, you would have seen a presentation of "how to treat contractors (etc)" around orientation time, and probably once a year after that. This is normal for a US-based company - there's nothing unusual or strange about Google having such a presentation, and there's also nothing unusual about the stipulations therein.

    (Yes, these companies are perhaps not actual

    • by paulhar ( 652995 )

      Currently work for a $60bn one, and before that worked for a $14bn one. One is a pure software company, the other was 'tin wrapped software'.

      Never heard of such a presentation. Never had any training like this. Can't imagine how, in the real world, it would work since employees rarely discuss whether their employment status with others, especially outside of the immediate team they work in.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @08:48PM (#57795342)

    I work at a public university in the US. I've been both a permanent and, later, a temporary employee. I've seen the same type of thing, where my employer treats permanent and temporary employees very differently, even when the job duties are the same. Temporary employees don't get any paid holidays, so they're required to use vacation leave or be unpaid. An arbitrary decision was made to close the university for the national day of mourning last week on Wednesday. For permanent employees, it was treated like a permanent holiday. For me, I had to burn vacation leave. The university goes to some length to limit the benefits that can be paid to temporary employees, not unlike what Google is doing here.

    It's not like temporary employees don't work as hard as permanent employees. The university also has a policy that temporary employees can be terminated immediately for any reason or, presumably, no reason at all. This means that when my boss engages in some very unprofessional behavior, reporting it carries the risk that I could be terminated because I spoke up. It doesn't matter that I'd be right that his behavior is unreasonable, I could be terminated for reporting it. This opens the door to a lot of abuses and, yes, I've seen them, and been on the receiving end of some of this unprofessional behavior.

    The biggest thing #metoo got wrong is being just about taking down powerful men who abused their position to harass women. Any time there's a massive power differential, where subordinates don't feel they can speak up without retaliation, those abuses will happen. I've seen it happen to others, including graduate students threatened with having their visas revoked if they didn't work well in excess of 40 hours per week. I've seen faculty who frequently were nasty to female graduate students working for them, who often left meetings crying because of how nasty their advisor was. I've seen outright racism tolerated and the department refuse to do a thing.

    Why am I still there? I'm working on leaving, and trying to make sure I land in a good situation next time.

  • because they can always dangle the threat of turning you into a temp when you get too uppity. Crap like this is why workers Unionized and why companies spend a small fortune demonizing Unions. You can't negotiate with mega companies on your own unless you're one of the top 1% of math geniuses. And let's be real here, if you're spending your time reading posts on /. you're probably not...

    But damn, if IT folks aren't the most stuck up I've ever met. I think it comes from talking to people who can barely t
    • by Actually, I do RTFA ( 1058596 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:15PM (#57795978)

      You can't negotiate with mega companies on your own unless you're one of the top 1% of math geniuses.

      I don't know why that would help you negotiate. Negotiation involves understanding your value and having the confidence to ask for it. Confidence is a personal trait unconnected to math ability. And knowing your value is hard for almost everyone.

    • by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Thursday December 13, 2018 @12:05AM (#57796148)

      because they can always dangle the threat of turning you into a temp when you get too uppity. Crap like this is why workers Unionized and why companies spend a small fortune demonizing Unions.

      You need to be choosier on who you work for. I used to work in a union environment and it was a nightmare. Office politics out the wazoo. I still have friends there and all they talk about is how a third of their coworkers are incompetent and un-fireable, and how it's generally impossible to get anything fix or improved. The people who are lousy at their job get promoted so competent people can fill in the positions that actually do work.

      I now work for a medium-sized IT company and, basically, have complete control over how I do my job. Everyone helps each other. If I need any additional resources I get them. I can work from home when I want to, unless there are meetings, which are rare. There are zero office politics, nobody is gunning for anyone else's job. Best of all, my boss, his boss, and HIS boss are all ex-programmers and IT guys. I can walk into any of their offices with any kind of problem and they'll try to get it fixed.

      I'm sure such an environment could exist under unions, but I think unionization stems from a bad work environment to begin with. It certainly doesn't seem to help.

      • There is no reason why unions should make people unfireable, and in most of the Western world it does not. One third incompetent sounds unlikely, though. Office politics... that happens almost everywhere, unions or not, because it is a function of people.

        • by JBMcB ( 73720 )

          There is no reason why unions should make people unfireable,

          In the union situation I was involved with, you weren't promoted based on ability. You were promoted based on how long you've been there, and, more importantly, who you suck up to. Your career path was entirely dependent on the union reps liking you. There were shenanigans you wouldn't believe.

          One manager was sleeping around with her subordinates. Her uncle was the union rep (which is how it was theorized she got her job in the first place as she didn't really know what she was doing.) When the *clear* viol

  • So Google is just like every large company on the planet? Who would have thought it.

  • by pegr ( 46683 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:50PM (#57795892) Homepage Journal

    OMG! Google has hit peak Microsoft! Lol!

    • by grumpy_old_grandpa ( 2634187 ) on Thursday December 13, 2018 @03:54AM (#57796618)

      * Used to be hip, no dull corporate - check
      * A bubble of cult-like culture - check
      * Lack of innovation since their one-trick pony - check
      * Abusive monopoly power, including antitrust lawsuits - check
      * Too much money for their own good - check
      * Too big to fade away - check

      To be fair, those would also fit many other large corporations. A noticeable difference between Google and Microsoft is that Google has miraculously managed to hold on to their badge of cool-place-to-work, despite all the bad press over the last years. Microsoft never managed to rid themselves of the stigma of shit software and computer crashes and viruses.

      • Microsoft never managed to rid themselves of the stigma of shit software and computer crashes and viruses.

        Google is developing the same legacy, since every product they create gets crapped up more and more until it sucks and then they abandon it. The only products which have really stood the test of time have been search and gmail, and maybe Earth. They also haven't managed to kill Drive yet in spite of their best efforts.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        * Used to be hip, no dull corporate - check
        * Lack of innovation since their one-trick pony - check

        Well neither of those are true. Microsoft was never hip, and Google has kept producing lots of innovative stuff (Maps/Street View, Android, Gmail, Chrome, computational photography etc.)

        There is a lot wrong with Google, but the similarities only go so far.

  • No wonder they ditched the 'Don't Be Evil' thing - at least, they don't look quite as hypocritical. You Google people apparently can't wait to become as despicable as Microsoft.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I worked at IBM. Almost the same policies there. What I had heard was that at one time IBM treated contractors more like regular employees, but then some of the contractors sued. Those contractors claimed that since they were being treated the same as regular employees, then they should receive benefits like regular employees.

    Also, IBM used to report the number of employees they had in the US. But for the past several years, as I saw US jobs being moved overseas, IBM stopped reporting how many US employ

  • I work as an independent IT contractor in the UK and I would never want to be part of the payroll at the companies that I work for.

    Being off the payroll means I get far more flexibility in the hours and days I work, which gives me a much better life/work balance and the time to follow my other interests. In a normal year I work around 180 days.

    I have also escaped corporate politics and the bullshit that goes with it.

    So please donâ(TM)t feel sorry for me, I donâ(TM)t want any wage slave t-shirt and

  • by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Thursday December 13, 2018 @09:45AM (#57797440) Journal

    I worked somewhere like that ... for three months.

    They had a gym/workout center ... in the basement of the building where most of us IT contractors were. I was shown it on my welcome tour, but told that I couldn't use it.

    A department was really happy with what I did for them (with their website) so they invited me to a department picnic ... then their secretary called me back sheepishly to un-invite me; said she that wasn't allowed to invite me after all because I was a contractor.

    I left in three months because the commute sucked, but the silly and frankly childish stuff like that didn't hurt when making the decision to leave.

    • by Shotgun ( 30919 )

      I worked at a large company that make networking equipment. I was a "contractor" for way to many years. When a permanent position came up, I was allowed to "interview" for it. I was told that I was not smart enough to work there (after taking the initiative to fix there completely broken test automation system).

      I was gone by the next week, but I still kick myself for waiting around so long on continued promises of a permanent position. Particularly galling was the senior engineer's snide remarks that co

  • "Every leap of civilization was built off the back of a disposable workforce. We lost our stomach for slaves. Unless... engineered. And I can only make so many." - Niander Wallace

  • "not to reward certain workers with perks like T-shirts, invite them to all-hands meetings, or allow them to engage in professional development training."

    A) Working for a large contracting firm on a government agency contract - includes all of the above

    B) Having also been a sub-contractor for said contracting firm, when such - included all of the above

    PS - I work for one of the largest IT contractors in the world, which was formerly a part of one of the largest companies in the world, on a project for one o

    • by paulhar ( 652995 )

      I'd actually argue not being invited to all-hands meetings would be a perk. And I've got enough t-shirts, thanks.

    • by Shotgun ( 30919 )

      But does the company you work for get paid enough to afford those things. Or, are you required to work 9to5, with no vacation or health benefits, at a rate that gives you just slightly less salary than the full-time employees.

  • Temp is short for temperamental - which is why they can't get full time employment.

  • Or... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Trifecta_Dave ( 4341581 ) on Thursday December 13, 2018 @12:10PM (#57798166)
    ...Google just wants to ensure that their employees don't cause contractors to be reclassified as Full-Time Employees by the IRS. This is a very common issue and is of particular focus for the IRS currently. If you've paid someone as a contractor/1099 and the IRS audits your payroll taxes, Google would owe the "unpaid" payroll taxes (7.5%) plus penalties. Here is information about employee classification: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/u... [irs.gov] In addition to the items listed, thing like including them in all company meetings, giving bonuses, giving direct/day-to-day instruction are all things that companies have to do in order to avoid this issue. The penalty is assessed against one year of the person's wages if they're reclassified. This helps limit the damage as, even if a contractor has worked for 20 years at a company that should have been treating them as an FTE, they'll only assess back payroll taxes and penalties on that one year. All that said, I'm not saying I agree with what Google is doing - they could certainly afford to hire FTEs - but this strikes me as good policy given the regulatory environment around this issue.
  • The blurb even spells it out: contractors and others don't get full benefits of employment, any more than any joe on the street would, not being full employees.

    What's the issue?

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