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The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

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Re: The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

#181

Post by AFNobody »

vageli wrote: post #159
phkahler wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he sued with representation this illustrates another point. His lawyer took on a stupid frivolous case, probably because he also needed the money. I think the real problem is that people today are on an economic treadmill. That need to survive economically is what make people willing to put up with all the other things.

This is exactly it. The thirst for the dollar makes us more willing to swallow bullshit with a (feigned) smile. But what can we do about it? That's the worst part. To dismantle the machine requires the coordination of a significant number of cogs.

Or you simply avoid consumerism, do your best to improve your situation, and try to hit the $50k/year point where its practical (in much of the US) to retire early if you are willing to live on a living wage rather than an inflated middle class lifestyle.

Something like 27% of the country could retire by 45 if they were willing to make the sacrifices necessary.

Re: The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

#182

Post by throwaway84742 »

skookumchuck wrote: post #136
jriot wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything appears to be a liability these days - that is the problem.

I've heard the "MeToo" movement, with its guilt by accusation, is having unintended consequences. Male executives are starting to avoid women employees in any situation where there are not other people present. This means no going out for drinks to make a deal, no business lunch to brainstorm, no meeting on the golf course to pitch your plan. Not even a discussion of confidential matters in the private office of one…

That is very real, and I have observed this personally, especially with male managers who have female reports.

Re: The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

#183

Post by ryanmarsh »

osrec wrote: post #24

Work has become a strange thing. I see people foregoing their best years stuck in an office, in the hope they can enjoy their later years. What utter nonsense. I'm not sure what the right answer is, but society has got something very wrong, as our work culture seems to surgically remove the wonder and enjoyment from our days. Hardly surprising that it drives people to ill health. Glad I broke out of that cycle a long…

I feel like it’s been this way since we were cast out of eden (aka the agricultural revolution).

Re: The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

#184

Post by AFNobody »

sjg007 wrote: post #131
Thriptic wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This goes for firing too. I've seen people who were categorically under performing try to bring lawsuits claiming discrimination upon firing many times.

This is why they just have layoffs.

Correct in most cases but if they put an identical job title out at an identical location, they are still vulnerable so you have to pick someone a grade more junior or a grade more senior to replace them.

Re: The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

#185

Post by jjeaff »

mathgladiator wrote: post #177
vageli wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly it. The thirst for the dollar makes us more willing to swallow bullshit with a (feigned) smile. But what can we do about it? That's the worst part. To dismantle the machine requires the coordination of a significant number of cogs.

First, stop the thirst within. I am going to try an experiment and live in nature on land that I buy. Why do we need so much junk?

You don't have to be so extreme as to live off the land. If people would just love below their means and save, they wouldn't be in an absolute crisis the moment they lose their job.

Re: The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

#186

Post by mathgladiator »

jdtang13 wrote: post #86
DeusExMachina wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this idea bizarre. It's like humans enjoyed their time for millennia and only now we have to work. For all human history, the conditions of people were dire. Today people might be stuck in an office in their "best year", but people in the past had to toil all day to barely scrape by and didn't even have that many years to live. It's only now that we live these comfortable lives with houses, heating, electricit…

Yes, that's a very good point. Work has always been part of the human condition, and middle class people in the first world are enjoying much, much more comfortable working conditions than their ancestors did. I think we should all be very grateful for that. But it's also a very modern thing for people to suffer from alienating, despair-inducing work. I think this alienation, which Marx speaks of in much detail, is t…

You captured a core reason that I picked up wood working: projects finish.

An annoying aspect of software is that it takes a life of its own. It is never done, but there are feature requests, bugs, and updates.

You make a table, and that is it. It's done. Sure, you have to clean it, but mostly it will last a while until it breaks down.

Re: The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

#187

Post by oceanghost »

remar wrote: post #33

I've had the chance to see the toll that a stressful environment (big tech company) can have on physical and mental health - I've experienced it personally and noticed it in others that I work with. The part about a big tech company being a stressful environment isn't the thing that surprised me, but rather people's responses to how they react to either being on the receiving side of the stress, and management's fail…

At some point, you have to admit that the stress is intentional. That it is a part of a misguided strategy to extract maximum value from employees, while minimizing managements political exposure.

Re: The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

#188

Post by mathgladiator »

Trundle wrote: post #163
DeusExMachina wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this idea bizarre. It's like humans enjoyed their time for millennia and only now we have to work. For all human history, the conditions of people were dire. Today people might be stuck in an office in their "best year", but people in the past had to toil all day to barely scrape by and didn't even have that many years to live. It's only now that we live these comfortable lives with houses, heating, electricit…

Equivalent animals certainly don't spend all day toiling. We aren't ants. I don't see any reason to believe that was the case for us.

For many animals, every day is a fight to live. Constantly looking for food.

Re: The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

#189

Post by skookumchuck »

ghettoimp wrote: post #166
skookumchuck wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard the "MeToo" movement, with its guilt by accusation, is having unintended consequences. Male executives are starting to avoid women employees in any situation where there are not other people present. This means no going out for drinks to make a deal, no business lunch to brainstorm, no meeting on the golf course to pitch your plan. Not even a discussion of confidential matters in the private office of one…

Huh. Well, for my part, I haven’t changed my behavior one bit due to it, and I’m (still) not worried in the least about being sued or something for treating my women colleagues as ordinary people. Shrug.

That'll work great until you run into an unscrupulous woman or a grey area.

Re: The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees

#190

Post by Nomentatus »

phkahler wrote: post #158
bmpafa wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most any form of helping someone out carries risks. Part of what makes acts of kindness praiseworthy is the acceptance of those risks for the sake of another person.

>> Most any form of helping someone out carries risks. Really? I've never heard that. Can you give some examples? Preferably ones that seem harmless but could go wrong. I guess providing such examples is my job but I'm too tiered, so help me out.

Killing the messenger - it's true but they'll punish you for hearing it. You may remember that saying, if not: "No good deed goes unpunished."

All actions can backfire, I remember an old friend getting reamed out by his friend he'd given a computer to, when the hard drive failed, for not providing enough free maintainence. Given!

I had a friendship nearly end when I repaired a friend's computer. Something else went wrong a week later and he just assumed it must have been something I did.

A generous uncle of mine is forever finding that temporary favors like free rent are bitterly resented when withdrawn. People ain't all nice all the time.

Benefiting someone is not the same as pleasing them; psychopaths and narcissists please others, but the rest of us like to mix in a little benefiting-but-not-necessarily-pleasing now and then. Otherwise, the world just falls apart.

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