Originally published at: Housekeeper sues Jeff Bezos over "unsafe and unsanitary" work conditions | Boing Boing
…
5 Likes
His whole not allowing his employees to pee thing seems to be consistent across settings.
46 Likes
Over a hundred billions dollars and he was too cheap to put a toilet in the laundry room or hire extra minimum-wage staff to comply with limits on work hours.
34 Likes
Douche bags’ go’n douche. Pay your taxes, Dead Beat Billionaire…
16 Likes
Tsk tsk. In the old days they would make secret corridors and rooms in mansions so the help could shuffle throughout the house unseen.
Today’s billionaires are too lazy to build proper mansions. It’s sad, really. /s
35 Likes
I admit, my first thought was (with an /s, of course) that it was a little unfair for a housekeeper to complain about unsanitary conditions (“Your JOB is to keep the place clean.”)
But Christ. what an asshole.
1 Like
I was touring behind the scenes at the Newport Mansions years ago, which were built at the height of the Robber Barons era of wealth concentration, and noted that while the main areas were all marble and gilt, even the servants stairs were often of quarter-sawn oak of impressive thickness and width, and the servant’s quarters, while small and ill-furnished after decades of unuse, had originally had floors of 18" wide oak and maple boards and large airy windows, the servant passages were wide and well lit, and the kitchens and other servants-only areas were generally roomy, well situated and easily accessed. The surviving servants furniture, admittedly probably why it survived, wasn’t fancy, but sturdy and practical, often made in the same style as the more fancy stuff in the family’s bedrooms. The modern “mansions” I’ve been in don’t even have separate servants passages, let alone servants’ quarters – the hirelings are expected to go away when not needed, I suppose.
I am not trying to glorify the past, I’m sure the servants were regularly abused mentally, physically, and sexually. IIRC, this was the era of women servants being told to leave, or turn their faces to the wall, when men of the household and their guests came through to avoid, in essence, being sexually harassed or raped. Sadly, I doubt that aspect, at the “I have servants” level, has changed much.
11 Likes
Won’t let the housekeeping staff use the bathroom?
Color me shocked.
17 Likes
Bathrooms are for the elite… the help can just hold it… /s
8 Likes
It’s so crazy that billionaires are so petty about this stuff given how precarious their positions would be if they weren’t surrounded by people tasked with looking after their comfort, health and safety.
If the people ever rise up en masse against the super-rich then the odds of survival for people like Jeff Bezos may well depend on whether or not the people who secure his home or cook his meals or crew his yacht want to see his head on a pike or not.
21 Likes
Also, billionaires love to brag and flaunt their wealth. What better way to do that than pay world-class wages for the best servants that money can buy so that your maid can afford her own luxury home with a maid or whatever.
15 Likes
Good point. “Oh, your yacht has its own support yacht with a full-time crew? That’s nice. My housekeeper’s housekeeper has her own housekeeper.”
19 Likes
Weird that the billionaires haven’t been inspired by that Credit Karma commercial.
7 Likes
The old-style robber barons were comfortable with staff, and wanted them on hand to see to their every whim, so ‘on hand’ also meant separate passages, etc.
The ‘nouveaux riche’ haven’t come to terms with having minions so close at hand - they have daft ideas of privacy (ironic seeng how many of them make money from exploiting our privacy) - so prefer the staff to not be around at all.
The old money had no issues with staff not keeping secrets - loyalty was expected. Today, any servant with a smartphone is a privacy risk. So they don’t even bother with ‘servants only’ access passages. I bet some of them even do their own cooking from time to time - old money wouldn’t even know where the kitchen was.
9 Likes
Why make friends when you can just have explosive compliance collars? Has anyone cornered the explosive collar market? Business will be booming! /S
5 Likes
It will probably surprise no one that super-rich preppers (you know, the folks who are spending their obscene wealth on figuring out ways to survive the collapse of society rather than using their resources to help prevent it) have openly pondered just that approach.
Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system, and asked: “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?” The event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.
This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from raiders as well as angry mobs. One had already secured a dozen Navy Seals to make their way to his compound if he gave them the right cue. But how would he pay the guards once even his crypto was worthless? What would stop the guards from eventually choosing their own leader?
The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed “in time”.
11 Likes
I love the idea of special combination locks on the food. Sorry, armed guards! I guess you are stuck as this dude’s unpaid slaves for the rest of your life. I mean, what else are you gonna do, make him open it for you somehow?
7 Likes
2 Likes
15 Likes
Piss in his cars!
3 Likes
