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American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

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Re: American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

#71

Post by walshemj »

petre wrote: post #60
linkregister wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel it's a cycle of mistrust. Companies don't want to spend as much time training junior workers or apprentices because they often leave shortly after achieving proficiency. But this lack of perceived loyalty comes from a rational viewpoint. After the shift in business culture in the 80s, where workers were laid off in bulk even if the company was in good financial health, workers woke up to the new reality. (To b…

Cycle of mistrust or not, this would likely work better than gradually increasing the retirement age as it happens in Europe. The free market always provides better solutions than state or superstate bureaucrats. In the EU they just throw regulation at any problem.

Id like to see the figures on the cost of ss and medicade given the aging population

Re: American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

#72

Post by infinite8s »

Spooky23 wrote: post #48
monkmartinez wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting take. Most government positions are pretty flat as well, but come with decent incentive packages to make up for the perceived lower pay. For example; insurance, civil service rules, unions, pensions, stable working hours, etc. Now let's talk about railroads, utility companies, and other "blue collar" work that requires an apprenticeship. First of all, layoffs happen quite often and seniority determines wh…

In many places, total value of compensation of a civil service gigs is way higher than you think. A senior IT guy makes like $110k where I live. Sounds shitty, but then again you get primo healthcare that costs $100/mo for family, retiree health coverage, 60% pension at 55 in many cases, high PTO accumulation, etc. I helped a friend calculate total compensation when he was looking for a job. The pension present value…

Except government pensions are continually being cut back, so you have to factor that in (especially if you are looking 30 years out).

Re: American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

#73

Post by [deleted] »

Spooky23 wrote: post #48
monkmartinez wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting take. Most government positions are pretty flat as well, but come with decent incentive packages to make up for the perceived lower pay. For example; insurance, civil service rules, unions, pensions, stable working hours, etc. Now let's talk about railroads, utility companies, and other "blue collar" work that requires an apprenticeship. First of all, layoffs happen quite often and seniority determines wh…

In many places, total value of compensation of a civil service gigs is way higher than you think. A senior IT guy makes like $110k where I live. Sounds shitty, but then again you get primo healthcare that costs $100/mo for family, retiree health coverage, 60% pension at 55 in many cases, high PTO accumulation, etc. I helped a friend calculate total compensation when he was looking for a job. The pension present value…

[deleted]

Re: American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

#74

Post by owengriffiths »

vacri wrote: post #61
ryandrake wrote: post #2

> With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 each day, businesses are scrambling to find ways to slow an exodus of the most experienced employees and ensure that they pass along their knowledge before they leave. Knowledge transfer should be baked into the day-to-day culture of work, not something desperately scrambled for during someone's last week. Those few companies with meaningful training and mentoring programs know t…

> Here we go again with the "shortage of workers". In one article it's tech workers. Here it's GenX workers. A "shortage" of a good is pretty meaningless if you don't mention the price you're offering to pay for that good. Unless they're saying they literally can't find qualified GenX workers at any price--That would be a real shortage. Otherwise, maybe you need to just offer a little more money to find skilled mid-c…

Actually yes. The food shortage is because the government is preventing people offering more money to bring the market into balance.

Re: American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

#75

Post by greenhatman »

JoeDaDude wrote: post #31

I've often thought that after a certain age, instead of getting some percent increase in salary, it would be preferable instead to work some percentage fewer days or hours. Seems like the idea is finally catching on. I hope I get to enjoy it when the time comes.

This makes a lot of sense. Or take some kind of consulting position, where you just advise and help the newer people grow into more senior positions.

Re: American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

#76

Post by cauterized »

randomdata wrote: post #69
jwatte wrote: post #39

If salaries go up, shortages go down (both on silly and demand side)

Shortage is defined as a situation where price cannot rise, such as the government setting a price ceiling. If price can rise then a shortage is impossible.

So if right at this moment the world had only enough doctors to care for half the population, regardless of the price, that wouldn't be a shortage of doctors?

If there were a severe drought and only enough food to keep half of us alive, but prices weren't capped... That wouldn't be a food shortage?

If there are only 10,000 people in a field who are under the age of 70 but have at least 20 years of experience, and the industry needs 50,000 of them to function efficiently - that's not a shortage of experienced skilled workers?

Not everything is a commodity. Not every commodity experiences a drop in demand as the price rises. Some things are needs that people continue to have demand for even if they can't afford them due to shortages. Even commodities have limits to their production. And some things can't be produced quickly enough to address a short or medium term shortage.

Markets aren't magic. They have inefficiencies and externalities and logic limits. Econ 101 deals only in simplifications and spherical cows. And people with specific skill sets aren't spherical cows.

Re: American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

#77

Post by humanrebar »

cmdrfred wrote: post #64
ArkyBeagle wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies don't make bank burning people out. Burning people out is a sign of organizational... corruption. There are more incompetent managers than competent ones, so you get things like this due to that. In some, end-of-life organizations, burning people out can be a ... semi-rational decision, but .. it's an end-of-life company...

Some industries appear to operate on the "burn out model", take game dev or managed IT services firms for example.

Even in creative fields. All those young actors spending years on underpaid bit parts on off-Broadway and low budget Hollywood productions. Most of them make less than an average blue collar job.

See also college athletes. A lineman at a top-tier football school in the U.S. ends up with all sorts of chronic injuries, possibly including brain damage. Very few of them make it to the pros. None are supposed to be paid at all except in kind for degrees, room, and board.

Re: American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

#78

Post by jstanley »

petre wrote: post #56
citruspi wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apparently, there would be approximately 5 people to stamp your visa. I'd say that this is still the case. Last time I visited India, when I was exiting the parking garage at the airport, there was an automated machine to let you out. Give them the ticket, put money in, the barrier opens, and you drive out. But there were also five people by this machine. One to take the ticket, another to take the money, and then…

What did you expect? India has a huge population. They all need jobs to support their families. So the local gov't has it covered. Would you prefer three of those five people being engaged in a riot and the other two, on gov't payroll, beating the shit out of them? I guess this pretty much ilustrates the difference between East and West. Mr. Rushdie has a book with short stories on that.

> Would you prefer three of those five people being engaged in a riot and the other two, on gov't payroll, beating the shit out of them?

I'd prefer them doing something productive instead of standing around wasting tax money.

Re: American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

#79

Post by analog31 »

NegativeLatency wrote: post #66
analog31 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oddly enough, in my industry, we've been making technology easy to use, that once required understanding the nuts and bolts. As a result, we can't hire people who understand the nuts and bolts any more.

What industry is that?

We make electronic measurement instruments. "Back in the day," sophisticated instruments evolved from laboratory curiosities to industrial products, but still required experts to set up, operate, and in some cases program.

Re: American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

#80

Post by pix64 »

Spooky23 wrote: post #48
monkmartinez wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting take. Most government positions are pretty flat as well, but come with decent incentive packages to make up for the perceived lower pay. For example; insurance, civil service rules, unions, pensions, stable working hours, etc. Now let's talk about railroads, utility companies, and other "blue collar" work that requires an apprenticeship. First of all, layoffs happen quite often and seniority determines wh…

In many places, total value of compensation of a civil service gigs is way higher than you think. A senior IT guy makes like $110k where I live. Sounds shitty, but then again you get primo healthcare that costs $100/mo for family, retiree health coverage, 60% pension at 55 in many cases, high PTO accumulation, etc. I helped a friend calculate total compensation when he was looking for a job. The pension present value…

I would live like a king on $110 here.
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