Saturday, October 22, 2011

Taking it to the belly of the beast: Occupy the Boardroom

This project--Occupy the Boardroom--is the newborn brainchild of friends, and it is brilliant, having truly taken off, and just in the past week. Even Jamie Dimon has received (and opened) his messages. Limitless greed and malfeasance on the part of Wall Street and the banks have devastated the lives of American families everywhere.


Yes, those are some "1-percenters" in the pic; they're yukking it up while actually drinking Champagne on a balcony over the Wall St. protests.

(I love a glass of good Champers as much as anyone, but I'll never be that, er, classy.)

Here, read just one true story. Then go read the rest and get truly pissed-off. You might even be moved to share your own tale with one of the many "pen pals" OTBR has listed. Or else just share the post itself. Courage!

Tax Breaks Aren't For Offshoring Jobs
From July 1, 2008 until May 18, 2010, I worked for JPMorgan Chase. I was hired through a temp service to do internal IT support over the phone. When hired I was told that if I kept my statistics (first call resolution, and call times) down that I would eventually be hired as an actual employee of Chase. Despite my statistics consistently being in the top 10 of all of the employees in my department, not just the other temps, after two years I was not only not hired, but I was laid off. However during that two years other temps with stats much worse than mine were hired. My reason for not being hired was never explained to me. It could have been the fact that I am in a wheelchair and Chase didn’t want a disabled woman bringing up their insurance rates, or perhaps it is because I am a lesbian and other than myself there was one other homosexual in the department who was actually an employee, but was also laid off at the same time as me.

The whole come work for us and we will eventually give you a great job with awesome benefits was just a scheme. In 2008 Chase received a State tax credit from Ohio and in return they were to create 1200 new jobs within the state. So what did they do? They hired a bunch of temporary employees, got their tax credit, and kept the temporary employees on staff long enough to not only not lose their tax credit, but to also set up their call center in the Philippines. Then two years later they laid off hundreds of people causing the state to lose more jobs than they had gained during that two year period. Other internal IT departments were outsourced to Mexico and the credit card fraud department was exported to India. Though you surely know all of this.

So through a loophole in the system your company caused more people in our state to be unemployed and still took taxpayer money to stuff your own pockets with under the guise of being a company creating more jobs.

-Name Withheld

18 comments:

  1. A very moving account.

    Hi D! I really like your new website, although the old one was impressive too. Suggestion: reformat your links so they show better. It took me awhile to find the ones that lead to the terrific OtB site. I wish them much luck. This site's approach is better than just writing letters because it aggregates the stories.

    Re the photo: I wonder if Marie Antoinette smiled in as much enjoyment of the passing scene.

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  2. Hi Amy, thanks for the suggestion, with which I agree, by the way. I will see if I can bold the links or somehow make them stand out a bit more without throwing off my "calm hued" environment (British skies and all that, ha!)

    Isn't the Occupy the Boardroom site a winner, though? Clever yet simple; emotional yet logical; just right, in fact. Austin and gang deserve major props. Here's hoping at least some of these stories get through to the tiny percentage of targets who have some remaining bits of heart and soul somewhere in their being.

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  3. Love your new site. Very classy! And I like the various things you're writing about. it's where I hope to go as I move on! Great work, Deborah.

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  4. Thanks, Laura. As much as I adore color in art, food, and (of course) shoes, I find myself wanting cool, soothing tones for my general surroundings, so after playing around with the infinite options for backgrounds, fonts, etc. on the new(er) Blogger, I wound up choosing the simplest, plainest tones. I am getting boring in my semi-old age.

    I think you made the right decision re: The Perils of Palin. You wrote what you had to add to the years-long story, and you pushed the truth-seeking forward in a significant way. Absent the iron-clad evidence we've all come to doubt will ever emerge (i.e. witnesses, BC's), anything further would be akin to gilding the lily (and I admit I am probably using that phrase incorrectly, but so be it). Anyway, well-done, L.

    I look forward to reading your new explorations and I hope you'll visit here, too!

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  5. If we don't get MSM acknowledgment of the non-pregnancy of Palin (and I guess that will require proof beyond the photo proof we already have), the baby logistics and bioMom shenanigans will have no importance or impact. Ears assessed by nonspecialists? I don't think so. Maybe "Fred" will have something, but his long silence until now, when it seems too late, makes me doubt it.

    So yes, SP (and McCain, the Kochs, Murdoch, etc.) WILL get away with it.

    However, the new branch of the Occupy movement that you posted here, plus others (like the "Occupy a Pasture" I just heard about on PBS) will surely make a difference in the next elections.

    As will photos like Marie Antoinette and her pals.

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  6. Deborah-- the strategy of Operation Boardroom is brilliant. I'm in.

    And so glad to see your, even if momentary, presence at Cogblog. They did miss you and Lisa, even if you didn't see the threads alluding to your absence. Sometime in April, I believe. Keep up your forceful writing please.

    This photo is something else, isn't it?

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  7. D: I read one of your early stories, about waitressing in that expensive place. Did you ever go back? Did you ever reconnect with those folks? Like did you ever need to contact Alberto, the one who gave you his card? I could think of some investigative favors I'd like to ask him to research.

    The new blue links are perfect!

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  9. guess that link didn't work. sorry. maybe best, anyway.

    oh, well. go, deb. go lisa.

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  10. Amy and Nancy, I didn't work there again, as the club was in Miami, and my family moved to New York while I was in my senior year at UF, before eventually moving back to Florida, but on the Gulf coast (Tampa/St. Petersburg). I did, however, recently find a website where some of the club's employees and managers were reconnecting. What fun it was to read about the different paths people took over the past couple of decades.

    I never needed to contact "Alberto"--although to be honest, there were a couple of times I was sorely tempted. I don't know if I made it easy enough to read between the lines, but given his, ah, position at the time (not a private investigator!) and the people with whom he did business, it's very likely he is either living abroad, or else living here but under a different name (not very likely). Or simply not with us any more (extremely likely). This was a guy who didn't go out of the house without two bodyguards in tow, despite being of considerable stature and brawn himself. At the website I mentioned, no-one has brought up his name, which saddens me and makes me wonder.

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  11. Oh, yes, your story was very clear. There are two or three questions that "Alberto" or one of his pals could prob answer after only a couple of phone calls. Re our dear SP. But I suppose I cannot afford him, either moneywise or "eternally indebted"-wise, either. If he's even alive. If he is, I wonder if he does any pro-bono work? Our mission might amuse him, esp now, in his old age. If he has one.

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  12. Deb, Just curious. When you throw something as terrific as your waitressing memoir online, do you worry about someone copying and claiming your work? I'm sure this tale would get published, so how do you protect your work? In our current climate of generalized theft and sleazy ethics?

    btw -- The photo above needs a counterpart now--the Wharton School students booing the demonstrators with taunts of "get a job." I'll say this, the class warfare warriors are certainly showing themselves with no apology. That's new. How old is the female on the balcony? I'd guess 33 -- a young Ms. Gecko.

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  13. I'm glad to see you're back, D.

    Fla-duh needs all the eloquence it can manage, and it's sorely lacking at the mo', IMHO.

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  14. nancydrew: I have just become aware of how the anti-plagiarizing software works -- I would think any publisher would do a quick check before buying a piece. I too think this is a piece I'd love to see in any of the pubs I read.

    D: I sure would like to know what those alums who are reconnecting have to say about their later lives -- as digested and reported by you. If you ever felt like giving that a whack.

    Remember in "Scarface" (I think) where Michelle Pfeiffer says "Honey, I needs some money," and S asks how much, and Michelle shows him a 2" measure with her fingers and says "This much." I told this joke to what turned out to be a dear friend of mine, and she revealed that that was her background, too. What great stories she had.

    I also loved the "Miss crazy vomit lady" piece, and I swear I will start exercising again tomorrow.

    Sorry to go so far OT. But you have such gems tucked away on this great site.

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  15. 1. How can people sit in meetings, plan to do devious things like this and not want to commit suicide?

    2. All of those people on the balcony look like they could use a punch in the face. I'm not one for violent reactions normally (unlike my fiery husband), but they just look like smug assholes.

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  16. Nice article, thanks for sharing.

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  17. http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/22-deaths-at-occupy-1222623.html

    scum of the earth at occupy. death, violence, sexual abuse and desease. all nobama scum.

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  18. Dead man in Salt Lake City...
    Tuberculosis in Atlanta...
    'Zuccotti Lung' on Wall Street...
    Suicide in Vermont...
    Murder in Oakland...
    the wonderful people of occupy. try to occupy a job scumbags.

    some of the headlines not seen or heard on the commie media, nbc, cbs, cnn etc...

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