Shot have been fired.
Earlier today, the official Facebook account of the NBA made some waves when a post criticizing the league’s employment standards hit the timeline.
According to the post, it was made by a former employee who no longer worked with the league but still had access to their official accounts and decided to make their qualms with their old employer publicly known.
Here’s what the post said.
“How do I log out of this?
Haven’t worked here in weeks. Anyway, the NBA overextends it’s social media employees greatly to the detriment of their health and social lives for a salary of less than $50k annually after taxes.
I worked 14 shifts without breaks at times. Shoutout Adam Silver.
We don’t get health insurance until 90 days on the job! That’s silly isn’t it?
Glad I resigned, no need for a job to get in the way of your happiness.
Donate to mental health causes.”
Obviously, there’s a lot to be said about that, but first off, how does the NBA not control access to their extremely public accounts with extremely large followings? That’s a huge red flag that perhaps their employment practices aren’t up to par.
Secondly, I don’t really know how I feel about some of the issues that were presented.
Obviously, 14 hour shifts with no break are outrageous and in fact illegal, so I completely understand the problem with that, and also this is the NBA, a league that brings in around $10 billion in revenue each year, so you would expect them to provide their employees with above average compensation and benefits, but some of the other problems raised weren’t that crazy, at least not compared to the market at large.
According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a social media manager is around $53,000 per year (pre-tax). This person was likely working with a base salary of around $60,000 per year for their after tax income to be just below $50k, which is above the generalized average for the position (although I do understand that additional compensation should be provided when managing accounts of this status).
Also, a 90 day waiting period for health insurance, albeit it annoying and potentially costly, is somewhat of a norm in the market. There has been a large shift in companies’ attitudes toward this and many are choosing to provide coverage immediately upon starting or with a shorter probationary period, but it is completely within their legal right to hold off.
Is it the best policy for hiring the best people? Not at all, but again, this person did sign on to work there and was provided this information up front, or at least during the onboarding process.
Regardless, it seems like both parties are going to be better suited having parted ways.
The power of social media and who you choose to manage it…
