• HughJanus
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    1 year ago

    TIL paying your employees for work is “using them”…

    • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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      1 year ago

      Yeah I’m firmly on the anti-linus train at this point… But this one I don’t get. If I hire you… and the whole point is we make videos… If the best video idea we have at the moment is to upgrade the wifi in my house… You bet that’s going on the list as it has direct appeal to the community because every one of us will be thinking about upgrading at wifi at some point. The fact that it’s in my house has no real bearing on any of it except as an excuse to do it at an actual location that actually needs it… Unless the dude is writing it all off 100% as business expenses… Then that’s a bit shady. But considering they do the $5k rig reboots for their people it doesn’t seem like he’s wholesale limiting videos to just his own property/assets. I’m sure if/when his employees have ideas on their personal stuff it comes up to. One video in particular I remember is the guy that did wedding camera work.

      • scemmy@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s written off as a business expense. Part of the house is used for business (so write off mortgage, home improvement costs), part of the employee time is used for home improvement (so labor is free for your own home).

        Replace “CEO” with “employee”. Can an employee get his colleagues to improve their own home at the expense of the company? Can an employee independently take that decision without anyone being able to question it?

        That’s the ethical quandary here.

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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          1 year ago

          It’s written off as a business expense. Part of the house is used for business (so write off mortgage, home improvement costs), part of the employee time is used for home improvement (so labor is free for your own home).

          You cannot say this with ANY degree of certainty. You don’t know what he’s attempting to write off. And it’s Canada… what is he even allowed to write off. But he certainly cannot write off 100% of the equipment he’s buying, as it’s going to live long lives outside of the video as non-company assets in his home for personal use. I cannot write off 100% of my cell service unless I show that it was ONLY used for business purposes.

          I’m not sure I agree with your premise anyway. It’s up to the ownership what to do with the money that the company makes. It’s not the employee’s decision at all… period. In this case those decisions were made by the CEO who happens to be the owner. CFO’s garner their power for handling the money through delegation from the owner(s).

          But in this case… it’s actually true.

          Can an employee get his colleagues to improve their own home at the expense of the company?

          Yes… They can choose to participate in the $5k upgrades that LMG does. At this point I doubt Linus has any real direct interaction with the planning of these videos and just shows up at the personality on screen for shoot time.