Former NBA Employee Posts Grievances About Being Overworked & Underpaid, Showing Even Dream Jobs Take Advantage Of Employees
He reported being wildly overworked and underpaid, and name-checked NBA commissioner Adam Silver while he did it.
Facebook; sirtravelalot / Shutterstock.com There seems to be a profound disgruntlement brewing in a wide swathe of the American workforce. As everything seems to become ever more expensive by the day, people's patience for employer's expectations, and the low wages and job insecurity that all too often to come with them, seems to be waning — and fast.
But a recent viral moment from a disgruntled NBA employee adds another layer to this ongoing debate — even elite jobs that many of us can only dream of getting are taking egregious advantage of their employees too.
A former NBA employee posted his grievances about being overworked and underpaid after commandeering the company's Facebook page.
It's the kind of revenge most of us have only ever dreamed of getting on an employer, and it instantly went viral this week when screenshots of the Facebook post hit platforms like Twitter and TikTok.
The post, made by a former NBA employee who was part of the basketball league's social media team, gives not only a scathing kiss-off to the league and its CEO and commissioner Adam Silver, but provides a glimpse behind the curtain of one of the country's most lucrative organizations — the NBA raked in more than $10 billion in the 2021 and 2022 season.
That extraordinary wealth is of course apparent in the pay of all NBA players, the lowest paid of which is still making more than $1 million dollars this season. Where it's apparently not at all apparent is the inexcusable working conditions of the corporate professionals running the League's social media presences.
The former NBA employee's Facebook post alleges extremely low pay, punishing working hours and inadequate benefits.
"How do I log out of this? Haven’t worked here in weeks," the disgruntled worker's since-deleted post began. "Anyway, the NBA overextends its 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 hour shifts without breaks at times," the former staffer went on to write before calling out the NBA's top boss. "Shoutout Adam Silver.”
The post then called out the NBA's use of the typical policy of denying employees healthcare for a 90-day probationary period, a standard but nonetheless unfair practice that forces many employees to be uninsured for three months due to skyrocketing health insurance premiums. In the NBA employee's words, "isn't that silly?"
He finished by saying he is "glad I resigned" because there's "no need for a job to get in the way of your happiness," before urging readers to "donate to mental health causes" — since even many high-grade health insurance plans don't adequately cover mental health coverage in America. In fact, many mental healthcare providers don't even accept insurance because of the ways insurance carriers limit the care they're allowed to give and force them to spend inordinate amounts of time haggling to get paid for the services they provide.
The fact that an NBA employee posted his grievances shows just how deep the problem of American employers taking advantage of workers goes.
The NBA is not a place you can just apply to on Indeed and get hired. Like many iconic media and entertainment companies, from magazines to Hollywood entertainment companies and everything in between, getting a foot in the door of the NBA is all about networking according to people who work there, which usually means attending an elite school, coming from a well-connected family and other mechanisms of privilege.
If you're not the type of person who comes from that background — or even if you are — you probably assume that getting a job at one of the most iconic sports and entertainment brands in American culture is a shot at the big time. Instead, it seems it's like many other jobs — paying salaries that are unlivable in most of America, let alone New York City where the NBA's headquarters are located, in exchange for a punishing 14-hour day, in service of a commissioner making $10 million a year.
It's enough to make you bang your head on the wall and wonder when things will change. But there are indicators that change may come sooner than anyone — employers especially — might think. Even the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, frequently and erroneously dismissed as elite millionaires whining for more money, was recently found to be supported by a staggering 67% of people surveyed.
People have simply had enough, and employers would do well to take notice and take it to heart. You can only crush workers for so long before they stop tolerating it — even in a work-obsessed, capitalism-worshipping country like America.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.