We heard through the grapevine that there was a myspace page with someone’s very negative thoughts about SNL Financial. We couldn’t find the page and after a long Google search, we realized that it probably had either already been taken down or hadn’t been indexed yet. After browsing the local twitter feeds, Jim Duncan had linked to the page (thanks, Jim).
If you go to the MySpace titled “Boycott SNL Financial,” you will find what sounds like a former employee’s attack against SNL. The main message reads:
BOYCOTT SNL FINANCIAL!!! SNL Financial is a glorified sweatshop located in Charlottesville that preys on Charlottesville residents and UVA Students. Show SNL Financial that there is accountability for them in this world.
SNL Financial is one of Charlottesville’s largest Companies and puts plenty of meals on Charlottesville tables. We’ve met the owners and plenty of the employees and no one ever told us they “preyed” on human beings and Charlottesville. In fact, I’m pretty sure we’ll get to hear, in the near future, about how SNL actually does do some good stuff in the community, like sponsor fundraisers and other stuff.
Like any large company, you will find people who love and hate their jobs, but this tirade on MySpace sounds like trouble for whomever posted it. We know you probably didn’t have a good experience at SNL, but does it really warrant this MySpace page? Is this over the top?
Lawsuit anyone? We contacted the MySpace page owner with questions a little bit ago, but haven’t gotten a response. We will post the responses if we get them.
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Tagged as: boycott, Charlottesville, employee, financial, former, snl, snl financial
Welcome to the internet?
welcome to the united states where you’re allowed to boycott a business if you feel like it, even for crazy reasons?
Are those little Reid Nagles on the T-shirts
It looks like the building list of SNL’s customers/clients on that blog is shaping up as every major financial institution in the US.
Not that that’s necessarily good or bad.
I know people who work there and they have to work reaaaaaaallllllly long hours. Wouldn’t call it a sweatshop but they do have a rep for getting young people in and taking advantage of them.
@5: I agree. But they pay pretty well, compared with people I know who work similar jobs and have similar hours. Plus, they have foosball in the basement and televisions in the elevators.
@6: True dat. The SPCA is more of a sweatshop.
scowley,
you’re too nice. you’re afraid poor widdy-biddy SNL’s little feelers are gonna git hurt.
grow the F up.
i think snl has sucked pretty bad since the mid-nineties. although the digital shorts of the past couple of seasons have been fucking hilarious!
The compensation is fair for the location and requirements of the job. Nice people, good benefits. However, I feel that they fail to accurately explain the company to applicants. You are essentially working for a software / tech company, so get ready to learn SQL programming. Your title might be Analyst, but you are a customer service rep. It does feel a bit like a manufacturing plant, a bit robotic. But, if you love data, spreadsheets, and complete transparency, it is the place for you!
I would think that the merger of SNL and a financial company is a bad idea but NBC is owned by GE so that might make a difference. They couldn’t do much worse then the other clowns on wall street.
Its a brilliant idea to hide your white collar sweatshop behind a friendly, late night sketch comedy name. I think I am going to start a Boiler Room type trading company and call it MadTV Investments.
@12 no go new school- The Daily Show Financial would do HUGE business
I discovered very quickly that you have to sell your soul to the company to get ahead there. Long hours? Yep. Weekends? Yep. I wouldn’t necessarily warn people away from working there, but I wouldn’t stick around more than a year or two. Otherwise, as someone else posted, you’ll end up burned out and jaded.
As for the TVs in the elevators, at least one of them is always broken, and they turn them off entirely during March Madness
Please. I work 40 to 50 hours a week at SNL and am compensated fairly for it.
It’s fine. Good, even.
There’s like 500 people here, though. No doubt some are sour on it.
@14 well tell us, how is Lorne Michaels to work for?
@16 He’s quite a pill, let me tell you.
Valium or Viagra?
HI! i’M NOT SMART ENOUGHT TO
wowie zowie!
I’m not smart enought to use and/or even boycott that place. Do they have nachos? I like nacho’s that taste like burning!
elevator tvs and fussball don’t sound like perks to me. From what I have heard they suck young childless people dry, working them with a pyramid scheme like incentive. While it is dandy to be allowed to wear casual clothes to work, the respect for the individual, is much higher on the scale of things on the checklist for picking an employer. Werther or not you think it is great to work 60 hour weeks, doesn’t make it a good general standard.
Human beings are essential not going to rebel as long as they are told they are working for a great organization, over and over again, as long as they are offered small trinkets of what may be considered perks. We may all be brain washed and suckers for something, but what would happen if everyone walked out, demanding NOT what they were told was reasonable, but WHAT historically has been universally accepted as reasonable from their employer.
Nice post Scowly/Cecil
there’s a shared sentiment where i work (also a financial company) that SNL provides a better career trajectory for its employees that our employer does. we have a number (+/- 20) former SNL’ers who sometimes-to-frequently lament their career path effectively ended when they made the transition to our company.
but my company does list 25-cent soft drinks as an actual benefit. right next to the shared (401)k contribution.
sigh.
**’than** our employer. not ‘that.’
I’m at SNL these days and I am more than impressed… sure, the hours are long but I’m paid more than fairly and the job security sure beats my previous corporate life. I could see not liking it here if you are much more of the work to live vs. live to work personality, but most of the people that I encounter on a daily basis here generally seem to like their jobs and honestly do make an impact on the success of the company. That’s pretty damn satisfying, especially as I’m under 30 and anywhere else I’d still be getting coffee for some guy who got his MBA 15 years ago instead of having a seat at the table for strategic planning. Can it suck to be an analyst - yes. But you don’t take a job as an analyst with the goal of staying an analyst for more than two years. Stagnation is your own fault, just like it would be at any company.
I love the fact that I work at a place where the CEO isn’t someone from the C-level circuit who bops around from company to company talking about best practices and restructuring organizations and only sticking around long enough to add another title to his resume and move on to the next rung of the ladder. Instead our CEO worked his way up at SNL, as it was his first job out of college. And he knows this business inside and out and is still incredibly approachable. I think it’s the most impressive thing about this place - how easy it is to grow based on merit alone.
Plus, I get to stay in Charlottesville - to have the job I do and not be based in NYC is nothing short of amazing.
SNL is a great place to work…I find very few people who would say otherwise. If you’re disgruntled, its probably because you couldn’t cut it and are bitter about that. SNL is the perfect place to get a job out of college…great laid-back atmosphere, friendly employees who are mostly your age, and unlimited potential to move up (if you show even the slightest interest in your job). Anyone who would start an Anti-SNL myspace page needs to get a life before they’re eventually committed to a room with padded walls.
“If you’re disgruntled, its probably because you couldn’t cut it and are bitter about that…..If you’re disgruntled, its probably because you couldn’t cut it and are bitter about that.”
the tone of your comment makes me really glad I don’t work with you at SNL.
“If you’re disgruntled, its probably because you couldn’t cut it and are bitter about that…..Anyone who would start an Anti-SNL myspace page needs to get a life before they’re eventually committed to a room with padded walls.”
/correction
@28 that thing reminds me of this thing:
run for your motherfuckin life!
@26 - unlimited potential to move up (if you show even the slightest interest in your job)
Sure, there’s plenty of potential. But actually achieving that potential requires a lot more than a cursory interest in your job. The “unlimited potential” line in their commercials still makes me chuckle to this day.
i have unlimited potential as an internet clown. just look at me today, i’m practically wearing a green wig and riding a unicycle with a tiger on my head.
I know several people that worked there for a little while and can understand both sides. It sounds like it is a decent place to work at just after college as they will provide you with some decent entry level training and allow you to get some hands on experience. All of the complaints I heard were from people that had been there for several years and got bored. Sounds like you just want to put in a couple of years and move on. I do always laugh at all the young cville kids who work there that pretend and tell everyone they work in financial services though (it is a technology and media company).
The more I think about my tenure there, the more I start to sympathize with Mr. MySpace. I think I need to go make a tinfoil hat before it’s too late!
i have nothing to say, i’m just commenting so late that I get to fill up all the “most recent comments” slot, if only for overnight
/sooooo middle school
“i have nothing to say”
no fucking way.
ooh, orchid, nice to see you!
@36 - whatever do you mean???
@35 - whatever do you mean???
wow, i just got a wordpress message - “you’re posting comments too quickly”. Is that the equivalent (sp?) of a speeding ticket?
let’s just say, for the moment, that I win…
ok, fine, so now i can go to bed, like all ya’ll other non-latenighters out there.
Love ya!
@30
Wait, so you’re saying it’s a bad thing that it takes more than a cursory interest in your job to advance? Really?
@41 - No. ‘Confused’ said SNL offers “unlimited potential to move up (if you show even the slightest interest in your job)”. Which I think is true. There’s always potential to do anything. However, I was merely pointing out that to realize that potential takes more than a “slight interest” in what you’re doing. I never said it was a good thing or a bad thing. Confused’s post made it sound like moving up the ladder at SNL was a simple matter of showing up, doing your job and waiting for someone to notice you. I think (hell, I know) that if you go into a job there thinking that, you’re in for a rude awakening.
Of course, I also know that you can go the extra mile, bust your hump to get ahead there and still get shit on, but that’s another story.
[…] received a tip that this suspect was the same person who put up the Boycott SNL MySpace page. According to a letter distributed to all SNL employees, this person was being investigated […]