How I’d check it
I read the paper out loud with a pencil in my hand. I circle every number and every word I’d have to look up, and I ask where each one came from. Whatever I circled is what I ask the person who wrote it.
Leads Unit 2: Read the fine print
Arjun Doyle
he/him44
Investigator, city office for consumer and worker protection
The city’s office for consumer and worker protection. He looks into complaints about unpaid wages, confusing pay statements, misleading ads and internships that should have been paid jobs.
At work
Unit 2: Read the fine print
What I watch for
- The important line in the smallest type
- A number nobody explains
- A word like “intern,” “partner” or “sponsored” doing work the paper doesn’t describe
What I’d want you to remember
The paper says what it says. Read every line yourself, circle what you can’t explain, and ask the person who wrote it before you sign or decide.
Go to Unit 2What I won’t do
Decide for Rafa whether to take the internship, or tell Gia what to say to payroll. He shows where the rule is and who has to answer.
How I mentor
He asks before he explains. He hands the document back and has you find the line yourself, then asks who wrote it and who signed it. He never tells the crew what to do; he tells them where the rule is and who has to answer for it.
Lessons Arjun is called into
- Unit 2, Lesson 5Why is my deposit smaller than what I earned?Has Gia read her pay statement aloud line by line and match the hours to her shift log before anyone talks about the deposit. Gross pay, each deduction, then net pay.
- Unit 2, Lesson 8Is it a recommendation or an ad?Asks Gia one question, “Did you get anything for this post?”, then has Caio watch the first three seconds with the sound off to see whether a viewer would know.
- Unit 3, Lesson 11Why are Jordy and Gia paid different rates?Has Jordy line up both shifts, duties and rates side by side, and asks who sets event-crew pay. The question goes to Dana before it goes anywhere else.
- Unit 4, Lesson 15Is Rafa’s unpaid internship really a job?Walks Rafa through the internship test one factor at a time and asks who ran the studio’s inbox last year.
Outside the office
How I got this job
He worked the counter at a tax-prep office in college, kept noticing people who’d been shorted, and took the city’s investigator exam at 27.
Grew up
Woodside, Queens
Off the clock
- Hobby
- Coaches a Saturday youth soccer team in Fort Greene Park and keeps the roster on paper.
- Pet peeve
- The important part of a contract printed in tiny gray type at the bottom.
How I know the crew
Rafa’s family shop called his office’s help line when a supplier’s contract didn’t add up. He answered, helped them read it line by line, and has been Rafa’s first call about paperwork since. Open Rafa’s profile