◼ TECHNOLOGY Bloomberg Businessweek June 29, 202020
KUMAR: PHOTOGRAPH BY RYAN YOUNG FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK. HAFNER: COURTESY OPENTABLEAnywhere,”andit’smadeprominentdonations
to the Black Lives Matter movement. After George
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Airbnb sent a mes-
sage to its U.S.-based hosts and guests urging them
to watch the video of the killing even if it made
them uncomfortable. The overall message: Be an
active ally.
The San Francisco-based company isn’t a
stranger to issues of racial discrimination. White
hosts have been called out for not renting proper-
ties to people with Black-sounding names. Airbnb
has even been taken to court by users claiming
they were denied stays because of the color of their
skin. Until now, the criticism has centered mainly
around Airbnb’s rental platform rather than the
company itself. Airbnb’s cuts to its full-time staff got
a remarkable amount of positive coverage as layoffs
go, thanks to measures that included generous sev-
erance packages and the creation of an online tal-
ent directory for prospective employers to browse.
Former contract workers have had a very dif-
ferent experience. Shiva Kumar was one of those
who lost a job. The 45-year-old had been helping
Airbnb expand its business travel listings for about
12 months. While he says the company is more
diverse than other tech companies he’s worked for,
he noticed a huge proportion of the minority staff
he encountered were contract hires. “Technology
is primarily a male-dominated field and, within
that, White male-dominated,” Kumar says. “Men
of color like me, or other Indians, Pakistanis,
Filipinos, Chinese, while being a good majority of
the workforce in any tech company, are very com-
monly underpaid and exploited.”
A woman of color who was hired as a contractor
recalls pulling aside a fellow woman of color on her
second day. “Gut-check me here,” she remembers
saying. “I’m noticing that all the contractors are
people of color, and most of the full-time employ-
ees are White.” Her colleague whispered agree-
ment. “The branding is all about belonging, but
that’s not how you feel. Airbnb is the most hypo-
critical company I’ve ever worked for,” the contrac-
tor says. Like several of the more than 20 formerAirbnb contractors Bloomberg Businessweek
interviewed, she declined to be identified publicly
to avoid jeopardizing future job prospects.
Partoftheproblemis thewaytechnologycom-
paniesstructuretheirworkforces.Contractlabor
is commoninSiliconValleyandatmultinationals
the world over. It gives companies greater con-
trol over their cost base, allowing them to scale
up quickly in good times and scale down fast in
bad. Contractors aren’t actually employed by the
tech companies themselves—and don’t qualify for
the cushy benefits. Instead, they’re hired and fired
by third-party companies whose names the gen-
eral public wouldn’t recognize. Contractors may
work in the same offices as their full-time counter-
parts, but they’re often distinguishable in some
way, either through differently colored lanyards
or security badges. They may not have the same
level of access to computer systems and are some-
times excluded from internal meetings, depending
on what’s being discussed. Other tech titans such
as Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have faced ▼ KumarDATA:CHRISBENNER,UNIVERSITYOFCALIFORNIAATSANTACRUZSilicon Valley Employees
Shareofpopulationin eachhigh-techworkforce
◼Directhires ContractorsAsian
47 22White
40 37Hispanic
8 35Black
2% 4%