Why haven't these practices been stopped? In my opinion, former Yahoo!s are too afraid to talk for fear of losing their severance pay and current Yahoo!s are afraid of losing their jobs, so they won't talk and they won't stand as witnesses. This probably isn't peculiar to Yahoo!.
From what I heard in the group severance explanation meeting in February, perhaps the cause for greatest concern was health insurance. Aren't Americans all just one major injury away from poverty? That's probably why, without making any sort of limitation, Yahoo! was willing to offer two months worth of COBRA for meeting their deadlines.
I know that I was willing to tolerate certain things because I desperately wanted to keep my health insurance. I'm sure the desperation at Yahoo! is much worse now, particularly since one person they kept on took a manager's advice and didn't initially report her on-the-job injury. She mentioned she had even been told by a supervisor to quit complaining. Last I heard, she was paying for her own physical therapy.
Were there other red flags? Will we ever hear about them? Does Yahoo! have a reason to stop? Why should they when they can intimidate or buy off people so easily?
I wonder how it works in countries like Japan, Canada or Great Britain where there is socialized medicine or national health care systems. I don't know what kind of carrots they use when health care is guaranteed.
So in some ways, the lack of a national health insurance does influence free speech. Fear of losing health insurance, even for a month or two months puts a chill on free speech. Companies like Yahoo! take advantage of that in their non-disparagement agreements.
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