the messed-up world of "online tutoring" 🎓

[@Jay_T62]

the fact that they're a tech startup yet they resisted the urge to spell their name as Paprr is a miracle in my eyes

[@chika2724]

LMFAO

[@litlnemo]

And calling themselves Paper made them harder to google. Like Apple's Pages and Numbers apps -- really stupid branding.

[@karcavida3250]

😂😂😂

[@complimentary_piss]

@@litlnemoi mean if you know you’re a shady company, your company’s controversies being buried by other search results seems pretty good

[@1000huzzahs]

yeah, was gonna say... I expected it to be something like "Pāpr"

[@666kittycat666]

Real BetterHelp energy

[@diarawisteria2218]

Only thing we don't have is selling patients' private information to Facebook...probably.

[@phthaloenigma]

Fr. So disappointing every time I still see them getting sponsors

[@NathalieCwiekSwiercz]

​@@phthaloenigmasame, BUT then I see people spreading the word on how disgusting and dangerous they are for people needing help and then I get hope again haha

[@jasontoddsgf]

​@@phthaloenigma fr im so disappointed when i see a betterhelp / hellofresh sponsor

[@blackberrywinter4020]

put a tw next time omg 😭😭😭

[@stellacide]

But D’Angelo, you are my online tutor.

[@karendarrenmclaren]

In paleontological modernity😂

[@yunnuc]

​@@karendarrenmclarenbeat me to it lmao

[@azumangaconnoisseur]

lain pfp omg

[@Mandavee]

Professor Pagliacci

[@sasha7650]

lain pfp WWWWW !!!

[@luellai1966]

Former PAPER employee here 👋when I worked there, I was an essay reviewer. Our turnover time for all papers was often 30 minutes or less, regardless of length; we had one employee who fought to extend the timing expectations. She wrote a 40 page document about why the current timing system was abusive and unrealistic. She was extremely vocal. Do you know what she happened to her? she got fired. Corporate went on about how these tutors that were initially let go without warning or let go for performance reasons, but I’m here to tell you that they let them go for speaking out against the company plain and simple. this company is trash.

[@coricognitions]

So many stories in the comments section about tutors being fired for trying to improve conditions for the students :( what a pathetic company

[@gabierivas9833]

The turnover time is 15 mins now lol it keeps getting worse.

[@opheliaw2576]

THANK YOU. As a Paper tutor for 3+ years (American, so I'm still around), sincerely: thank you. The one thing I'd say you didn't catch is their current push for us to rely on AI -- we're not even tutors anymore; we're glorified AI babysitters. In the Review Center, for example, we're expected to "accept or reject" the AI's "suggested comments" (which are often dead wrong, incomprehensible, or full of insulting baby-talk), making our reviews even less personalized. The extra work of helping the company train our robot replacements is, of course, not being compensated. To any students reading this: we care about y'all SO much. I can't tell you the number of times I've read a student's essay or poem or short story (or even parts of novels!) and been totally blown away, and honored by the opportunity you've given me to help you refine your work and more effectively share your voice. YOU are the reason I and many others have tried to stay, in spite of how the company mistreats us. Y'all are brilliant. You deserve so much better. Know that your tutors care about you A LOT -- AND don't let Paper use that fact to win back any support; they'll just continue to exploit you and abuse us. Thank you again D'Angelo (and those student journalists! great job!!) for exposing what's going on. From the bottom of my heart: thank you.

[@bath_foam4576]

❤❤

[@vvitch-mist20]

The students are doing a great job. The kids aren't gonna be as easily manipulated as previous generations.

[@Soulcrash3]

When I read this I immediately worried they might be using the kids essays to train the AI. Especially because they are minors.

[@bwicket]

What keeps you there? Truly honest question. You seem very aware of what is happening, so what makes you stay?

[@TakenTook]

Hopefully our fellow citizens will vote for the DA and the teacher this November. I could see going after companies like this being a project absolutely made for that administration to tackle.

[@emitouzumaki2822]

Children's education should not be about profit

[@LDNisYourCorndogs]

Neither should healthcare, prisons or food, but we live in hell.

[@rluciano287]

​@@LDNisYourCorndogs couldn't have said it better

[@ImNotACatLawyerButIPlayOneOnTV]

You would think this was a given.. Sadly, America hasn't been interested in helping children in.. probably never, actually.

[@seanothepop4638]

What should be about profit at that end? Nothing really. Profit IS at the expense of others, definitionally I'd say.

[@abbeymarie2491]

You’d be shocked at how many big corporations are involved in lobbying for education reforms. If there’s a push for standardized tests, we should be asking which of the big ed companies is making that test (and charging districts for the training on how to administer it, and for marking it, etc…)

[@QUINADEN]

i used to work there and have been following the saga ever since my wrongful termination back last year, this is SURREAL hearing it on a more mainstream platform

[@stellacide]

I hope this picks up more, I literally had a bad feeling about the things id seen on there since 6th grade when they made us use it

[@iCOOKIEmischief]

How could anyone fire Hatsune Miku 😔

[@Monocultured01]

I work with an (undisclosed) company that has Paper as a partner, so hearing it mentioned by D'Angelo is WILD

[@QUINADEN]

@iCOOKIEmischief that's what i said at my unemployment hearing 😭(which paper did not show up to after denying the need to pay me for MONTHS btw)

[@alexandrawilson-hodge2974]

Hey fellow Paperite 😂

[@Reane]

So, I work here. The funniest part of the "meet paper tutors" videos is that a lot of the people featured there were in a position of management. I.e Tutor Managers.

[@calebnnate2342]

Wow.

[@AV-we6wo]

I was wondering if they had hired actors, but managers pretending to be employees was probably the cheaper option.

[@Weeniehutnurse]

As an afterschool teacher and tutor, fuck Paper and fuck these shitty e tutor sites. They pay so fucking little for all the experience that require and need.

[@LilithsCosmicLounge]

But a lot of the e-tutoring sites charge the parents a lot of money just for the money not to go to the tutor’s!!! Then another issue is a lot of e-tutoring sites claim they have “licensed” teacher’s when anyone can do the job all they have to do is watch a few video’s at orientation and that is them being “licensed”!!! It’s ridiculous!!

[@milodoesntknow2090]

as a kid who is being tutored - youre helping alot of kids and youre doing great!! thanks!

[@knightingfall6232]

wow yesterday was ice spice and today is some actual investigative journalism, this university does it all

[@grace-4072]

If anyone is genuinely looking for tutoring, call your local library! There’s a strong chance they’ll be able to connect you with local tutors or even have their own tutoring services.

[@th1nkcr1tical]

This one

[@Ruth-os4mi]

In the UK, tutors advertise on noticeboards. Why can't American/Canadian tutors?

[@splitintwo_5432]

​@Ruth-os4mi Some do! It just really varies. Honestly there's a lot of places that tutors can advertise, but on the same token finding one that is actually local to you and will do a good job is really rough. Hence why a tutoring company could be really useful if said company wasn't so unethical

[@bd12544]

In person tutors in my area charge around 250 dollars an hour. If you can even find one. The school district has a great reputation but offers no extra help, even with the pandemic, for kids who are struggling. There are student volunteer tutors and online classes. That’s it. Or tutoring that could cost as much as private school if your kid is struggling multiple subjects.

[@Dee912]

@@bd12544that’s CRAZY. I’m a tutor and the highest price I’ve heard is 75€ or $83USD per hour. I charge $27 usd p/h or down to $16 if the family doesn’t have the funds

[@justayoutubechannelforme]

As a current employee, spot on. It's getting worse. They're denying PTO with no reason given, tutor managers now have 250 people to respond to rather than 20-30, and there's still no suggestion that we'll ever see a pay raise or more consistent scheduling. Thanks so much. I actually shared this in the Slack idgaf at this point 😭

[@Reane]

@@justayoutubechannelforme I'm honestly glad you did! Others need to see it. They did you 100% wrong. We work too hard to be denied leave.

[@mccolk]

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. I've worked for many startups and there's nothing worse than being on a sinking ship with C Suite execs that openly exploit your labor and would fire you at the drop of a dime.

[@samjensen6187]

Oh yeah, they kept cutting more and more of the middle managers. Their only plan to turn a profit is to fire more and more people, so the same workload can be done by fewer and fewer employees for the same wages.

[@WobblesandBean]

​@@mccolk Welcome to capitalism.

[@mccolk]

@@samjensen6187 YUP! They will have a skeleton crew and then hire contractors to clean up the backlog of work a couple of times a year.

[@me0101001000]

I've been a K-12 tutor for the past 10 years, and an undergrad tutor for the past 4 years, mostly teaching STEM subjects in the languages I'm fluent in. My end goal is to become a professor, and my belief is that if I can't teach kids the most complicated subjects to literal kids, I don't understand the subject well enough. So this is basically me self-training myself to become a good teacher. When I saw what these EdTech companies do, it made my heart sink. Teaching is something you do because you love your subject, and you wish to impress that passion and curiosity onto your students. You can't just treat it as an empty cash grab. It makes teaching more soul-sucking than it can already get, and it makes learning even more of a painful chore than a lot of kids already think it is.

[@sunnysilica]

Thank you for all that you do! I help tutor English at my community college and I really love seeing the moment where it 'clicks' in people's heads. It gets pretty difficult sometimes, but I enjoy it and I couldn't imagine having all the fun and positivity taken out of it.

[@zaria_time1]

Would you be interested in tutoring me in STEM subjects? I really need help with those, sociology and the UCAT. Also, is anyone willing to answer my questions about the UCAT and MCAT? Along with questions I have about universities that teach medicine

[@samjensen6187]

I was just laid off from Paper. Like so many other employees, I really worked hard, and I am passionate about at least some of the topics I was helping students with. I wish that the company had been better, because sometimes, we really did help students! It felt so rewarding to really make a positive difference in a student's education, but due to many issues D'Angelo mentioned, those moments were far fewer than they should have been. We were over-worked. I tried hard, and I did help some students, but I also failed to help a lot of others. If the system had been better... what a shame the leadership was so inept.

[@eevesjunkyard]

@@samjensen6187I'm so sorry you guys had to go through that, and especially sorry you were recently laid off. I hope D'Angelo's video gains traction in main stream media so you guys can see some retribution. None of you deserved what they did to you.

[@siymamumtaz4769]

@@zaria_time1I can help, im not a tutor but a medical student i did my UCAT last year when i applied to med school. I think u would have to find a British tutor, America does the MCAT not ucat

[@jojoslameerrand9305]

It's kinda bittersweet how many student newspapers/publications were primary sources for this video. Really disappointing that major publications haven't picked up on this yet but incredible that the kids are doing the interviews and writing the articles about something that impacts them and their peers

[@runninggeese]

i know its so disheartening to see how complicit mainstream media outlets are in this, but on the bright side hopefully videos like this one will inspire those kids to continue pursuing investigative journalism when they get older

[@Andrewnui]

Hey, former paper tutor here. You did a great job touching on the tip of the iceberg! I feel like their shitty AI is also something that also absolutely needs to be talked about, because it's something they also try to hide from students and schools though dishonest phrasing. That, and they were using our reviews to train their shitty AI without compensating us more, just using it as an excuse to push us to pump out lower quality feedback faster. That, and the fact that they blew a bunch of money on a Vegas party. While the whole fight for Canadian tutors to get paid fairly was going on... It was so, so bad. I loved the concept paper pretended to be, but I hope the company shrivels up and goes bankrupt soon (which, looking at things, they probably will next year lol)

[@QUINADEN]

okay but earnestly thank you for covering this, it has been so hard having none of this getting attention by the people who need to know about their fradulent activities. if you wanted to do a follow-up, id legit be up for providing more info, there is so much crap that hasn't been published (convos i had with robert for example, legit broke down in front of that man after they had me pay for my own lodging to get to a meet up with coporate) that really needs to be out there for the whole scope to be rlly understood

[@lucamara6424]

Boost

[@iriedesu8955]

Boost indeed

[@bath_foam4576]

boosting!!

[@penxen]

Yes, please, let it be widely known!

[@aitzepe]

I agree. Let's make all the chit hit the fan.

[@CosmykTheDolfyn]

There's an even bigger issue with getting rid of all Canadian tutors that wasn't mentioned. Large sections of Canadian tutors successfully unionized right before Summer. So, none of the newly unionized workers actually got to negotiate for labor standards Paper let go all of their Canadian tutors without any contact to the Unions beforehand. ....So, yeah, Paper workers unionize, Paper makes sure at first they can't work, doesn't negotiate with them and then fires them all without negotiations. As soon as they do that, they put up tons of ads for full time legal advice for hire. Worst treatment I can think you can give union workers, period. 100x worse than management trying to sneak into union meetings.

[@SapphicSans-oi7sy]

I was one of the unionized Canadian workers two weeks ago and our union literally learned about the mass firing as we did. Paper has been uncooperative with the unions following the firing, which is not surprising considering how terrible they were at communicating for the two years I was there.

[@jeannie7987]

Pls do “the messed up world of online therapists”

[@stellacide]

i second this

[@RolandReaves]

Yeah, BetterHelp is a terrible company. No hate to the therapists, it's not their fault, it's the corporations.

[@sadiejane610]

This has been done a hundred times already. There are so many videos about betterhelp. I havent seen anyone else cover this yet.

[@TheyCantC]

No ones talking about bettehelp bc they don't wanna lose their sponsorship 😂😂​@@RolandReaves

[@jeannie7987]

@@sadiejane610 I edited my comment to include “telehealth therapists” which i believe is a worse problem

[@lexbro95]

This is insane! I used to work at Paper, not as a tutor but at the office with the CEOs and everything, and it was one of the most awful experiences ever and i was actually so happy when i was laid off (but this was during the height of the pandemic, not recently) I always felt like the worst for hating them when their goal always seemed so good (helping children) but now i am happy to see my feelings about them were valid

[@thelastrealcowboy]

Sorry, I keep adding more feedback as I remember how awful it was. Oh my god, I worked there for a year during the beginning of pandemic when I was unemployed, and it was HORRIBLE. They stole ~$350 of wages from me (I'm in Ontario, Canada) and didn't pay it until about a year later, they set completely unreasonable standards for tutoring (i.e. they wanted us to tutor 5+ students at once which was absolutely impossible), and we weren't treated like people. (There weren't any designated breaks, the workload was ridiculous, there were little protections against being harassed by students, we were pushed to accept subjects we weren't familiar with so that we could get more shifts, and even the wage itself wasn't comparable AT ALL to normal tutoring rates) I absolutely loved tutoring before, but this experience really burnt me out and haven't tutored since.

[@calebnnate2342]

I literally feel so bad for you and all off the other tutors I've encountered as a student. They always seemed to be so occupied with other things that they took pretty long to respond. I cannot imagine the pressure of having to work so much while getting so littl.e

[@batwingsoda]

Tysm for talking about this, it feels like this country has 0 appreciation or respect for education workers despite always complaining about how behind our kids are :(

[@mr.bingusthecat]

i swear i see people blame the individuals who work in the education system more often than the system itself. like i get why people are upset with our schools but teachers are not the ones in control of the system. and it’s not just teachers, it’s like the entire school staff

[@alexandrawilson-hodge2974]

Holy cow, I worked there for almost 3 years up until the mass Canadian layoff the other week. We knew it was coming, but it still stung. Thanks for covering this.

[@Cm__]

Former Paper tutor here. The management was always comically evil, conniving and out of touch. I was always surprised by how no one seemed to talk about taxpayer money being funneled into this company while underpaying us tutors and portraying themselves as the saviors of children education.

[@Morgan-ug2rt]

I'm so sorry. I worked for a less evil (still pretty awful) Tutoring company. But I cannot imagine the amount of stress the additional bullshit put on you.

[@Monocultured01]

@@Cm__ it's so weird to think about tax payer money going to them when districts could cut out the middle man and directly hire tutors or *gasp* increase teacher salaries. I also wonder if similar companies are going to struggle since covid funding has been tapering off.

[@cjboyo]

How much did you make? I’m curious

[@Cm__]

@@cjboyo they had different levels of tutors. Lowest made 18/hr and highest made around 24/hr iirc. They didn’t change the amount by country, so if you were in Canada you would make 24 CAD at best, if you were in the US you made 24 USD at best

[@cjboyo]

@@Cm__ Wow that is impressively shit pay

[@jesann6051]

Student rep here! I really do recommend enrolling in this totally real and legit Academy! I've never seen a professor handle a 1 to 426k ratio of students as well as D'Angelo!!

[@Joey245]

Oh my god...they really tried to take the Uber model of "We're a taxi company that doesn't own any cars, outsourcing that cost to the worker" and applied that to online teaching. It's horrific, but considering the business model...how could it be anything but?

[@TakenTook]

I hope there are class action lawsuits in both the US and Canada, brought against this company by the school districts who were essentially scammed by them. And I hope that the tutors who were underpaid and mistreated can join that lawsuit also.

[@fleuried]

Thank you so much for covering this. I worked here for two years and quit after they started making us use AI to review essays and consistently having 7-12 students at a time in my classroom. It's validating to see one of my favorite KZbinrs shed some light on this company and its diabolical practices.

[@Sunny-kx7ut]

I'm a former paper tutor also, and I left for these two exact reasons!!! Absolutely absurd!

[@samjensen6187]

Thank you for this video! I was a Canadian tutor at Paper until I was laid off, along with all their other Canadian tutors. You've done a good job highlighting many of the problems, but let me add one more: the company raced to embrace AI. Their AI system made my job much harder and more frustrating. It's also dehumanizing. Basically, when providing feedback on a student's writing, a terrible ChatGPT clone would try to do my job for me, and it would get nearly everything wrong. Tutors are not able to turn off the AI "assistant" - we had to correct its mistakes one at a time. So basically, I had to do all the same work as before, with the additional annoyance of telling a moronic chatbot that everything it said was wrong. It would spew out a bunch of suggestions over the page, and I would have to click on each one, click delete, click confirm, and wait for the weirdly slow page to actually remove it (remember that we were on a tight timeframe and there was often a huge backlog of student writing submissions). I asked for an option to delete all of the AI comments at once. Instead, the higher-ups pushed an update that required us to say WHY we were deleting each comment. So the AI was making me work harder and slower. They claimed that they weren't planning on replacing us with the AI, but I bet they would have done so if the damn thing had worked.

[@hockeygrrlmuse]

This makes me want to put my head through a wall. I'm sorry and I'm glad you're out of there.

[@SarahSwift-sc7hk]

Oh my God, you must have wanted to pull your hair out! To introduce a tool that not only impedes your workflow but, if used CORRECTLY ultimately enshittifies results? Almost comically villainous.

[@Pharphette]

Great video. My husband was just fired by them in the Canadian firings. Thankfully he has other jobs but I feel bad for those that depended on it. They barely gave hours to him anyways. He was an amazing asset to them and it’s their loss. We basically just stuck around to see the place burn and saw the firings coming…Paper sucks.

[@EmpressCirce]

I would genuinely love for @LegalEagle to have a look at this situation too

[@kehendrix]

Public school educator here ✋ This video made me SO GLAD we have very detailed contracts and a union that supports us…I couldn’t IMAGINE working for a company like Paper. Capitalism at its least finest.

[@sarahforreal4073]

I used to tutor for Princeton Review, and I had a student who came to me with a plagiarized essay. They were caught plagiarizing the first time, but planned to use their second chance by lifting from a more obscure paper this time. I spent 45 minutes trying to convince them to write the paper themself, but they got angry and left me a really bad review. Princeton Review fired me lol e-tutoring is about making money, not improving education, all across the board. Can't trust it as far as you can throw it

[@clarkhoward1761]

Too bad, I was thinking about applying there. I already work as a tutor, just for a different EdTech company that (so far) seems less crappy than Paper, at least.

[@LoveYou-hd7to]

@@clarkhoward1761 they're pretty much the same; at least all the labor law violations are the same or worst. the only good part is every so often you get settlement payouts because of that, lol. the only thing that's a little better is that, at least when i worked there, it was easy to deny concurrent sessions (even if you weren't supposed to), and I think you could only have 2 concurrent sessions at a time. I ended up leaving when they retaliated against me for a disability

[@tirmel]

24:42 oh, hey, it's me. But in all seriousness, thanks for covering this. I've long since quit Paper and left that chapter of my life behind me, but the business was truly taking a turn for the worse. It's heart breaking to see just how bad conditions became.

[@FunTimeWithLeo]

I’m a student and I’ve been using paper consistently for around 3 years. I’ve had almost all the tutors for all the subjects and I’m really familiar with how the site works (sometimes I help the tutors discover features like recording whiteboard). Should I stop using it so I stop supporting the company?

[@tirmel]

As I mentioned, I'm not a tutor there any more so I'm not really the best person to ask this. That being said, the tutors do genuinely want to help. They joined because the mission presented by Paper was to be able to help students. If you're finding the platform helpful, then I don't think the remaining tutors would be upset with you using the platform.

[@Megan_Perry96]

I am so glad that the school district I work for took that COVID money and developed an internal tutoring program where we hired tutors or paid internal staff members for their time to tutor after school. Kept that money in the community and gave opportunities to make more money to the people already invested in our kids

[@alil8474]

This video was posted in our offical chats for Paper. 😂😂😂 As a tutor I just want to help the students. I love working with them. I have to see what comes next for me.

[@dulce_dragonesa2966]

i used paper once for calculus, and I got thrown around between 5 different tutors because it "wasn't their specialty" only to be told "huh idk" by the fifth person, and then being handed an answer that was like LITERALLY WRONG??? and then I ended up figuring it out for myself. so. yeah.

[@litlnemo]

Hi! I was a Humanities tutor at Paper and I have NO business tutoring anyone at math -- but at one point they decided to make us at least attempt to help kids in topics that we just didn't know, rather than pass them on to someone else. They literally told us to Google answers for things like that. One of the things that was my last straw at paper was when I tried to help a math student and my answer was completely, predictably wrong. (I have a Masters in the Humanities but never got very far in even high school math.) The student was angry and hung up on me and I cried. Maybe you were that student. :/ Anyway, I quit shortly after that. I'm so sorry you weren't helped there -- the tutors at Paper really cared about the students and wanted to do their best for you, but Paper just didn't allow it.

[@APerson-qw8yy]

Its due to understaffing unfortunately.

[@dulce_dragonesa2966]

@@litlnemo oh dont worry i am NOT blaming the tutors here. I just remember that experience because i had wanted to become a tutor at paper until that point, but thats what ultimately just made me forget about the app. Also the tutor who helped me was definitely qualified in math so honestly im wondering if it was just my problem was too niche? Unsure. It was a weird experience

[@PogiAmiga_Sesshomaru]

​@@dulce_dragonesa2966 Part of it is also due to working with multiple students. Imagine having to answer that math question for 5 different students at the same time while also having to reply to every message in 30 seconds or less. You'll see why we would sometimes get things wrong.

[@dulce_dragonesa2966]

@@PogiAmiga_Sesshomaru again, please understand that I am not blaming the tutors. It makes sense why this happened to me based on the facts in the video and what other tutors under this comment have shared. No hate on your end. I was just sharing an experience I found relevant to this video. The company is 100% to blame for making you guys do all of that work, and its a bummer that what had potential to be a real great help was squandered by the company trying to get as little people on their payroll as possible, while also trying to get as many contracts with districts as possible.

[@brídeann]

0:14 thats just university sorry 😭

[@Snaggle-ToothedDog]

So true In the US anyway

[@cottagebirder]

​@@Snaggle-ToothedDogUK too unfortunately

[@amesea_]

working at paper was one of the worst years of my life. i made two posts in the reddit back when i worked there-- one venting about how the job was making me actively suicidal, and the other after i quit due to abuse from an HQ member. it was insane the collective grieving tutors experienced at all times. i was a student in uni and thought the flexible hours would be a big plus, and then they just... scheduled us for 4hrs a week if that, and made us fight each other to pick up backup calls. it was ridiculous, and im not surprised theyre trying to rebrand it into contract work. something to note about the job is also that tutors were not allowed to teach content. the notes from students about not getting good advice or just being asked "what do you think you can do" is because *that* is what paper wanted us to do. ask questions to "guide their logic", regardless of if the student was lacking in fundamental knowledge. i guess since it would be easier than actually trying to dive deep into the problem w them when you have ten other kids in your class also waiting for you. we also had 30sec response deadlines, so your performance was literally based on how fast you could send a message back to a kid. cant think, cant teach, cant actually help. it was so fucking frustrating. (at least, until they fired my team manager three times in a row and stopped giving performance reviews that werent generated pdfs, at which point I stopped caring abt my metrics entirely.) i took up the job to help kids understand concepts. i cant do that if im not able to help them fill in gaps in their knowledge. i was also a part of a voice notes beta testing group, because it guaranteed more hours and i thought it'd be nice to be able to help kids who struggle with reading! but holy shit the surges we got in there... at multiple points i had upwards of forty kids testing voice notes with me. i couldnt even see what was going on on my screen. and they would still have regular kids looking for help come into my classroom, at which point they'd literally be drowned in a sea of other kids and not get any help. around the time i quit last september, there was a form we were given that was mandatory to sign to continue employment, and we were given only a few days to sign it. the form was literally just "u accept that paper is integrating ai and will use it at work" with no elaboration or explanation of what it means or how ai was supposed to be implemented or utilized. so many people had questions and were given goofy ass "you'll just have to accept and find out bc nobody else knows either ✨✨" answers. (my asking for answers and explaining concerns with the form + ai implementation were actually what caused the abuse from HQ and my quitting LOL) it was miserable and quitting was one of the best choices ive ever made. i hope everyone still trying to work, still trying to unionize, n just trying to get by are having a great day. i also hope they quit and find something better soon.

[@S_iswatchingyou]

I USED TO WORK HERE and it was a nightmare. I had to quit after a few years because it is so shady. They broke labour laws in my country by underpaying me, and I had to fight so hard to get paid. They broke federal covid time off laws and I had to fight to get paid for my sick days. I was in the initial unionizing push and they literally sent internal spies to our meetings. They FIRED everyone who tried to unionize the first two times. Im so glad you’re speaking about this because I’ve been speaking on this for a few years now.

[@eshna2012]

This was SO SURREAL!!!! I’m one of the tutors let go unceremoniously. Your analysis is SPOT ON D’Angelo. Education’s role within capitalist systems needs to be critically examined more and on a grand stage, thank you for shining a much needed light on this.

[@VieDeBle]

Education, like healthcare, should never be privatized. Period.

[@litlnemo]

THIS. Seriously. I don't believe that for-profit education or healthcare are ethical.

[@jeffrenjr]

0:52 As an Elastic Polymer-Mates student I can confirm it is a real (and definitely not made up) degree

[@Decentlysizedeyes]

As a student of polymer chemistry I jumped at the intro

[@dianabernier3543]

Neo Victorian cybernetics here, also super real

[@lycheens]

What happened during the pandemic was many for profit companies thriving while smaller educational KZbinrs had their content legally stolen. Some of the online platforms use KZbin videos with cookies stripped which not only gets rid of ads, but doesn't even give the creator a view. The KZbinrs are providing free content and these platforms charge schools. Varsity Tutors was contracted by Arizona for all students at Title One schools. They pay tutors $15 per contact hour, which when factoring in paperwork, preparation and contact with parents the actual pay is below Arizona's minimum wage. I am so tired of for profit education companies and people believing they care at all.

[@charlisebar-shai2613]

I'm an online TA and work at my college's tutoring center, and this horrifies me. These students are often already hesitant to ask for help and feel embarrassed about needing tutoring. An overwhelmed, frustrated, and overworked tutor is not going to make a student feel more at ease, and less comfortable. Students need a relaxed environment to truly learn and observe information. Our tutoring center only allows tutors to handle 4-5 students at a time, and that's ONLY for math/science/econ/etc. That is NOT for writing tutoring, which is always one on one. I can't even imagine juggling 10 students at once, then getting shit pay on top of that. What a fucking joke of a company.

[@coricognitions]

Yes yes yes. I tutor at mathnasium and even 3-4 IN PERSON students is a lot. Can't imaging having to juggle muting/unmuting on like 12 different tabs and attempting to help with any long-form assignment.

[@amesea_]

d'angelo doing a video abt my old job is crazy

[@laynicorns]

Ikr lmao I'm seeing this as I consider quitting

[@litlnemo]

THANK YOU so much for posting this. I was a Paper tutor (I was quoted in one of the Chalkbeat articles) and you are 100% correct -- except for saying that a certain management representative understood the need for more pay. Let's just say that Paper did the best they could to keep people from getting surge pay, and the management representative in question was not on the tutors' side. When I started at Paper it was still a pretty good place to be but it crashed hard and fast. I was there for about a year and a quarter IIRC, and in that time it went from pretty good to Hell. I didn't have another job lined up when I left, but I was SO happy to be out of there. My mental health improved 100%.

[@curiosityunraveled1186]

Thank you for covering this topic. I've had prior experience with Paper and it is disheartening to hear about the current state of the company. This online tutoring format can be significantly beneficial for students, but only when used by those who wish to propel the beauty of learning. I'm hoping the company begins operating with this idea at the forefront, so all students and tutors alike can flourish.

[@TeeklGrey]

13:45 "Now with 100% more learning" is even worse when you realize that 100% of zero is still zero

[@cjam9457]

YOU ARE ON FIRE. I don't have many reasons to be grateful to be experiencing this current timeline, but you are among them.

[@user-td3ot7xq8p]

Imagine if they used that money to like… hire people in the district or reduce class sizes so your kids aren’t lost in massive classes that teachers cannot actually teach. On that note, imagine if we didn’t spend about 80% of the school lunch money on middle managers whose whole job is to keep kids who are even a little above the poverty line from getting some free chicken nuggets. (I was a teacher for years. I worked on school audits. This overhead and outsourcing is seriously a problem. It’s like the idea that the money go to the classrooms scares the admin and state management.)

[@jamaicareed5542]

this is so intrestring can u explain more about the money mismanagement

[@kone_of_LU_BU]

I JUST FINISHED A VIDEO. I thought I was crazy seeing a notification for a 2 mins ago post. Thank you. It’s my lunch break.

[@SapphicSans-oi7sy]

I was one of the 400+ tutors fired in the mass firing a couple of weeks ago. I'm so, so happy you decided to talk about this because it feels like no one else will. As a couple of other Paper tutors mentioned, Paper was also aggressively leaning into AI. They wanted us to basically train it so that it could replace us, something the Paper HQ was not at all interested in compensating. They gave us 20 minutes (now down to 15) to go over essays because they didn't want us to actually read the essays. Rather, they wanted us to skim parts and correct the AI instead. If tutors took longer by actually doing their job, they were placed in "coaching" where we were told to skim, correct the AI, and do less than the bare minimum so that we could stay within the time limit. Every shift at work was miserable and stressful. I and many other tutors wanted to help the kids to the best of our ability, but we were constantly overburdened and pressured to complete our work quickly, no matter how sloppy the results were. I'm partly glad to have been let go, though now I have to look for a new job now.

[@otsws]

Yeah the tutoring at Paper works when the students are actually connected/motivated/wanting the help. But Jesus , the corporate changes over the last three years have been DETRIMENTAL to true learning

[@lemoncherrypen]

25:58 lol Paper 2: Catching Fire is great

[@Novaurawr]

Saw the title and immediately got a bad feeling tbh 😭

[@inablinkpoetry]

Same

[@wordsfail793]

i submitted multiple different assignments and resumes to paper just two years ago and all the tutors who helped me gave amazing feedback. it’s so sad where they are now…

[@zelda2135]

My high school used paper last year, and hearing all of this makes my experience make soooo much more sense. As a student I was often confused by why it took my tutor so long to respond to me TT

[@haileymurphy4829]

Genuinely this is my favorite part of the day :)

[@zizojaezekeom3565]

Let's not get used to it, I'm scared he'll be gone, again 😂

[@haileymurphy4829]

@@zizojaezekeom3565that’s so real but now I’m in college and this is one of the few things I can rely on 😭

[@pock3t.s1zed.f1nn]

I was a high school student in NM last year and LET ME TELL YOU. this shit was hell. The poor tutors would get like verbally abused by some of the students and most of the teachers were just burdened by being forced to use this thing that NO ONE liked :/

[@WhyseWytch]

I love that you took the time to pull from student newsletters. Extremely eye-opening.

[@glswain]

Techbro innovation is always take existing job, add an app, strip out all the required training & employee benefits, provide a shittier service with techbro veneer, then blame the workers when the company underdelivers.

[@mccolk]

EXACTLY!

[@getdembeats1610]

Lol! I currently still work there and I agree 100% with what was said here. One thing that wasn't mentioned was Papers increased use of AI while still claiming to have human interactions. Was a great source of income for me as a Freshman in College, but now that I'm in my Senior year, it's clear that Paper is on it's last legs and I'm preparing to jump ship

[@MeganRobbins-e1u]

You should look into how much the company spent on Homecoming for their HQ employees. I went to two when I worked there and extravagant is an understatement.

[@STBwithCoachJasmine]

What’s up, girl! If he wanted it, he could have endless content by interviewing ex employees. A series of three seasons, at least.

[@MeganRobbins-e1u]

Seriously, Jasmine! I’ve been waiting for the day to be interviewed!!!

[@bath_foam4576]

"we offer one-on-one tutoring!" and then one of their MAIN issues is that they don't

[@sawyerk641]

Ngl as a teacher this really made me smile. Looks like neither AI nor big tech will be coming for my job anytime soon, despite what some people may think.

[@Manicandpanicking]

I'm so happy I found this channel after the Cody Ko video bc this is now my new favorite channel to get content from.

[@pandemicpagan]

NOT "PAPER TWO: CATCHING FIRE" SHZHJEBEHX

[@meganagain]

Was just binging you previously broadcasted lectures. Perfect timing.

[@ginamills1729]

I am loving your constant uploads, they make my morning ! (NZ) Thank you :)

[@HerbOlTea]

NZ too and watching the latest D'angelo video has become a part of my morning routine lol gonna be weird when it stops :')

[@heeding.the.huldra]

As someone who worked as an online tutor for a genuinely incredible company, I can't imagine how disheartening it would be to work for someone who keeps you from actually helping students.

[@minusp895]

Wake up guys D'Angelo posted his lecture of the day!!!!!

[@rhinestxne]

Betterhelp final boss

[@demigreen6495]

I can’t wait til that video 🤣

[@paigehannan8642]

As someone who used to work for several similar companies/nonprofits, there are actually a LOT of places like Paper

[@eevesjunkyard]

I hope this gets traction in main stream media. I feel so bad for the people losing their jobs and for the kids who aren't getting the help they need. I hope there are repercussions sooner than later.

[@thesymphonyset]

I have so much to say about this that I am actually feeling a traffic jam happening in my throat right now 😂. Like always, you broke this down perfectly.

[@chronicAngel]

Was terrified clicking into this video because I'm literally starting a new online tutoring job (with Amplify!) next week. (I was a more traditional tutor in a college writing center before this and am in school to become a teacher!)

[@laurensimendinger8887]

Yo I just started at my college's writing center

[@chronicAngel]

@@laurensimendinger8887 It was such a rewarding job! If I could have stayed, I absolutely would have, but I moved halfway across the country at the end of July.

[@AddiRockART]

How to ruin anything: bring in the tech bro entrepreneur who’s gonna 10x whatever it is and make millions

[@jeltje50]

With the emphasis of them making 10x. Only they're able to get the bag. Everybody else is left with a enshitified garbage product/company.

[@AddiRockART]

@@jeltje50 exactly. They show up and essentially either find a way to turn something into a scam or pyramid, or they come in and exploit labour to the maximum extent possible (or both), and they walk with the bag. 🙄 then they get those severance packages, paid to leave lol

[@LoveEachDay94]

Haven't watched you in years but the differential between our ages made it hard for me to watch you what with you still figuring out life. It's nice to listen to you again. You've always been extremely bright.

[@straberymelo]

being so well fed by our content king these days everyone day thank you D'Angelo

[@XMelaliX]

Also been at Paper for a few years and it's SO interesting to see this evaluated from an outside source. It's really awful to have a company that claims such an awesome goal while... not actually acting like they even remember that 'goal' sometimes? I really LOVE working with kids and reviewing their essays but it does truly feel like I"ve only been able to help a handful of kids in 3 years. This well does truly just keep going deeper the more you look into it. :') Covering everything would definitely double or triple video length.

[@mostsplendiferous]

thank you for covering this! i wish there was a way to let parents and other organizations at large know that paying these companies so much money instead of finding tutors directly is just hurting everyone (except the company). i was a teacher before i transitioned to editing (writing, not video) full-time and from experience i can say that paper isn't the only one-very few edtech agencies pay a fair wage to teachers, let alone tutors. the only time i made a fair wage for my work was when i worked for a startup agency by a former colleague; they didn't take a cut or finder's fee at all, so the amount they requested from the parent went entirely to me. and the thing is, it's understandable for an agency to charge more than they pay their workers; that's how life works if you want to make a profit. i currently work for an editing agency who, until recently, paid editors rather fairly while still charging enough to make a profit as a company. but companies like paper will pay their workers absolutely nothing to maximize profit rather than make a fair and reasonable one. (also, the AI thing has made companies froth at the mouth to start implementing poorly trained models to do the "work" and then pay proofreaders/reviewers far less than they would without the AI, but because the AI is inadequately trained and overall still not at a stage where it can be trusted the workload is essentially the same as non-AI work.)

[@poppyy0957]

d'angelo out here talking coherently about things that infuriate me too much to think about... kudos fr how does he do it

[@limarba9062]

Paper: Continuing the long tradition of undervaluing educators.

[@Raddiebaddie]

@9:55 not to mention most school years are 9 months total so 3 months is a third of the entire school year

[@antichrist4449]

Thank you for talking about this, I didn't use paper, but I finished high school through a third-party online site. It's BAD! The tests haven't been updated since the dawn of the internet, so the answers are the first result on google. The teachers are very nice, but have 500 students and barely interact with your work. Everything other than essays is graded instantly by ai or some other computer. 35% of my grade was short answer questions that were graded (pass/fail grading, by the way) on how many keywords you used. Sometimes, my browser would auto-fill the answer boxes. I passed geometry and calc without ever having to use a calculator. I fear for our future, truly.

[@antichrist4449]

I can not stress enough that the only time a real human being checked my work was occasionally grading an essay. Teachers would check your grade on the website and email you if you got behind, but that was all. In some ways, it was great because I wouldn't have been able to finish normal highschool (my dad was actively dying at the time and I was sick) but also I can NOT do math and they let me graduate.

[@duckimpala]

i hope more youtubers end up talking about this, d’angelo you’re a real one

[@dziwne13]

currently sick so OBVIOUSLY i must rewatch every video on this channel while i die in my bed

[@Dragon_Baby-Sudan]

Dave is great, but we should talk more about the rabbit plushie in the background. It's dressed just like D'Angelo! 🐰🐇

[@marthahealy3941]

B'Ungelo

[@thegoogs]

ed tech is a brutal space! glad you touched on one of the many players in it

[@AWMdiva499]

i used to work here and was just laid off like a week ago. everything said in this video is real and it is SO WEIRD to see it on a mainstream yt channel. ask me anything if u want

[@chelscara]

You know, it's wild. My mom works at a public high school and this year they hired out tutors on top of the tutors that already exist at the school plus the teachers that are required to hold tutoring sessions plus plus the peer tutoring programs. Everyone is mad at them for it because it's just a waste of money. I'm surprised they didn't just hire these people out, that's about the type of people they'd hire and they just loooooove internet "solutions".

[@treytrey31]

D’Angelo you’ve been blessing my timeline and days with your endless videos. Keep it up ❤🎉

[@PogiAmiga_Sesshomaru]

Former Paper tutor here! I left after watching a manager degrade and belittle an employee who was raising very fair concerns over very valid things. That manager was still kept on for a while after that. That's not to mention the giant push for AI to take over all essay reviews to speed things up. Oh! They also took away the management for night time/early morning staff and just had other tutors help you out.

[@infinitivez]

LOL, during the pandemic I asked on the tutoring group in our district if anyone needed help, and had someone suggest I register on Paper, followed by a good 30 people screaming NOOOO DON'T DO THAT. Now I know why!

[@fiftran]

They’re gonna outsource or use their students and tutors to train some ai. Also if i were the students who wrote about Paper in my school paper I would feel like an investigative journalist. Well done!

[@pikkoblank7123]

omg i havent notice but you have been adding captions to the videos, extra kudos for that!

[@TrulyToriYouTube]

Horrific. But the most upsetting thing about this video was the Paper Man’s eyebrows. Lordt.

[@meij_musicenthusiast]

Yeah. I appreciate you covering a topic that realistically affects so many people. These students and tutors deserve fairness and the people who run/own the company need to learn from this public failure

[@kendallnorton2017]

Man, I am SO good at completing the last few homework assignments D’Angelo has given us! I love this class!

[@SemiIocon]

Tutoring should not be privatised, it should be subsidised and happening either in school or from the school. Way more funds need to go to schools.

[@sunnelion4556]

loving the daily content era super fun to come back from class in the afternoon to a new vid