[TRENCHES] Thursday, January 10, 2013 - Disclosure
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
Disclosure
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/disclosure
“Temps.”
AnonymousI had no working experience and was an IT university dropout. Literally begging for work at the job center got me a contract with a temporary employment agency, and I was promptly allocated to software and IT environment testing.
In the first month, we assembled a team of five people without a clue, got a vague assignment for a flash game, close to no resources, and an ever-absent boss who dropped us a mail once a week.
I got my first paycheck, except it wasn’t a real paycheck but instead “unemployment benefits” with another name to it, even signed by the job center. I began to inquire the job center about this “job” I had and got nothing but legal threats.
After another 2 months, we somehow got a crappy little game done - which was never released.
We were used by a bogus company to rake in funding by the state. It’s like a full blown industry here to pass around jobless people and keep them from getting real jobs. On top of that, the job center forced us to shut up under threat of prosecution (false testimony) and continue “working” a full 12 months in that joke of a company.
You may argue now that at least I had a job and wasn’t camping under a bridge…
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Yea, that's kind of the impression I got too.
I'm classify the author as... 65% victim, at least, from his story. Threatening people with prosecution like that smacks of many, many scams.
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Someone needs to straighten this kid out
On the black screen
ah well at least cora being the mole is out there now
Changing one line in the tale to "We were used by a bogus company to rake in funding by the taxpayers." should spark a new perspective (and outrage) of the author's actions.
I vote guilt by consent - if you are aware of a problem and do nothing to stop it or distance yourself from it, you bear the responsibility just as well.
My sympathy kind of fades when he notes that he was involved in this apparently fraudulent activity for a year. Maybe he didn't know about whistleblower hotlines that are made to protect employees or something? Doesn't even seem like he attempted to find another job while he was there either, so if they were doing what he said, that would mean he'd lose that money from the "job." So... yeah.
If I were in the jury for his criminal case, he'd get a guilty vote from me too.
I think what many/most of you are forgetting is that there is a big difference between knowing now and knowing then. He has already been through the experience so he NOW knows what they were doing, at the time he was just an unemployed kid excited about getting a job opportunity.
1) He's getting an unemployment check for doing work.
2) He's getting someone else's money.
Apparently at least one of these alarm bells went off for the author, since he did call the job center about the check, to be threatened with legal action (the threat of legal action should've been alarm bell #3, especially for "false testimony").
Now, I understand that it's hard to walk away from a job, and legal threats can be intimidating, but if he was cashing those checks for himself, that makes him complicit in the fraud.
Saying it seems like he was complicit in the activity isn't the same as saying he was directly responsible for the activity that he claimed occurred.
In the tale he states that he asked about his first paycheck and their response was legal threats. He states this was the case for 12 months. We don't know how he got out of it, we just know that he did. Maybe they let them go? Maybe he found another job? Who knows... from what's there I wouldn't exactly classify him as a victim. Desperate? Perhaps. Completely innocent? Nah.
I don't get how you can take it as him being an unemployed kid excited about a job from that story myself.
edit: added quote.
No no, I think what he means is that what he received could be called an unemployment benefit by another name.
Reading the tale, he seems to be saying that it's the job centre who put him up for this - basically, instead of actually helping him look for work, which is what they're supposed to do, they gave him a fake job and still kept paying him the same benefits - the only difference being the job centre can now report "we've got him into work!" and the country's overall unemployment figure goes down. Be interesting to know what country he's from.
You really do appear to be reading it wrong. First off, he's not receiving a check in someone else's name, he's getting what is effectively an unemployment check that's probably named after whatever 'program' they have him on(there are lots of these, you get your benefits plus a little extra). Point two, he's not actually doing work, it's just a government scheme that reduces the number of people on Unemployment benefits at any time, and whatever company 'employed' him got money for doing so whether he produced anything or not. As for fraud, it's doubtful it could be called that, and as for walking away, he'd have probably lost all his previous benefits for doing so(is that something you would do if in his place?)...
We got just a slice of a very sad story about a dude who had to do a crappy thing to get a meager paycheck while being manipulated. Give the dude a break, sheesh.
What we got was a story about a "dude" who had to do an illegal thing to get a fraudulent paycheck. The fact that he went along with it for a year reduces the sympathy for his position.
The fact that the money for his paycheck came from the taxes taken from other people's paychecks instead of the "company" he was working for essentially amounts to theft. Failing to report this and instead just quietly accepting it definitely makes him complicit in the whole affair.
Yeah, maybe a little. On the other hand, Gwen does not exactly seem like the friendly type and got introduced to an office with a lot of pre-existing drama, and Isaac is kind of a spaz.
I'm sure if he hadn't "shown up" he would have just been kicked off his job placement scheme, and lost his benefits...
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