The health care toll today’s work culture exacts on employees • Hacker News Board

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

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Post by def_true_false » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 8:53 PM UTC

FranzFerdiNaN wrote: post #279

pascalxus wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the right financial planning, it can be done. But, if you've already taken on 20K in student loans and 5 year cell phone contract, it's gonna be much much harder. That's why we need to start teach financial education really early: like K-12. Food and water can be quite cheap: the grocery stores are filled with healthy foods you can get for less than 1$ per lb in most of the US: corn, whole wheat flour, bananas,…

Everything you say proves your privilege. If you work a minimum wage job there is no way you can put aside 20k in a few years. Taking on student loans is necessary for many to even get a degree to have a chance at a decent job. And poor people usually are excellent at managing resources, yet you go "poor people just lack character", while what they lack is money, which is stolen by a small group of people at the top…

Funny that you mention privilege. Most people in the US don't have a degree [1]. Are you saying none of those people have decent jobs? Never mind the people on this very website that work in tech without a degree, there are plenty of other jobs that require no degrees and are compensated quite well. [2] is a good read, despite the fact that it's a little out of date.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_...

[2] http://www.er-doctor.com/doctor_income.html

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

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Post by Asooka » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 9:00 PM UTC

derrekl wrote: post #179

I'm a CTO at a YC grad Care Revolutions. There's a lot of comments on what kind of work environment is bad. What do y'all suggest a startup with limited resources do to be an incredible place to work for while also being a highly productive environment? I'm especially interested in suggestions as it relates to your health both physically and mentally!

For me the answer would be to leave me alone. Think of it like this - every company has some slogan like "be a part of such and such amazing this and that". To me, this is the opposite of the relationship I want. I don't want my life to be part of your company. I want your company to be a medium-sized part of my life. Some of my colleagues might end up being my friends. That's fine. In general though, I expect to give you 8 hours of my life per day and receive money and associated benefits of being an employee. Some colleagues might be friends, but the company is not my friend. I don't want the company to care for me personally or stick its nose in my personal life. My work and my personal life are separate. The best thing you can do is respect my boundaries.

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

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Post by CaptSpify » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 9:03 PM UTC

ghettoimp wrote: post #396

mrguyorama wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>" I already have plans tonight, and it's not reasonable to make me change them with no notice." I find the fact that you even feel you need to include this part disgusting. I'm paid for 40 hours a week. You are not required to pay me overtime. You do not get a second extra of my time

Well, yes. I am salaried, and they do pay me well, so I'm willing to work more than 40 hours from time to time, when schedules are tight. I think that for me, my criteria for being OK with more-than-40 are probably something like: (0) it had better not be that much more than 40, (1) it had better not be an exception, not the rule, and (2) it had better be something I can plan for, so I'm not jerking around my family/…

Additionally, if the company gives you other perks, it's often worth it.

If I can generally set my own hours, and you give me a ton of vacation time, pay me well, and give me other good incentives just for working there, I'm much more likely to put in a few extra hours every now and then if something comes up.

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

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Post by toasterlovin » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 9:24 PM UTC

xyzzyz wrote: post #403

toasterlovin wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just an FYI: hunter gatherers haven't been a significant portion of the overall human population for thousands of years. Like it or not, humans uncovered an ecological niche in the form of agriculture that was vastly more successful than hunting and foraging. The cost of occupying this new ecological niche is that we started working all day, every day. And it's nice that 14th century peasants didn't work much, but as…

> The cost of occupying this new ecological niche is that we started working all day, every day. That's not quite true. Farming is heavy, all day long work during sowing and harvest seasons, but other than these, which take a few weeks out of a year, it's not all that much work really. Keeping animals on the other hand requires some work every day (taking them in and out of the pasture, milking, cleaning sheds etc),…

Great reply, thanks.

My father-in-law grew up on a very small farm in Poland. I know from my wife that when she would visit her uncle (who inherited the farm) in the summer, they would work long, hard days. I'll ask my father-in-law about winters. Something tells me there was plenty of work to be done in the winter as well.

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

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Post by refurb » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 9:35 PM UTC

badpun wrote: post #327

cr1895 wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>20 years ago, there was an expectation that when you left the office, you were unreachable except in an emergency. I don't see any hint of that expectation anymore. This is commonplace in Europe. Vacation is vacation, and largely this is respected.

Yup, can confirm. As far as I can tell, only some managers do some work during their vacation, but I'm sure it's because they want to (i.e. they feel that the world would fall apart without them).

Not all Europeans. I work with a number of Swiss folks from my company and I remember thinking "jesus! I thought they had better work/life balance in Europe!".

Getting on calls at 8pm (due to time zone different), emails on the weekend, work travel on bank holidays, etc.

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

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Post by refurb » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 9:37 PM UTC

nemothekid wrote: post #123

ag_camel wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And other paces dont? Almost every country has severe issues related to all the above. In the US, we have litigation everywhere, you fall and slip in a supermarket? Lawsuit! You tripped over a pothole? Lawsuit! Heck, lawyers advertise to do this...

Part of this is we don't have a social safety net, like universal health insurance. > you fall and slip in a supermarket? Lawsuit! You fall and slip in a supermarket, due to a careless employee and now you owe hundred of thousands in medical bills. Some executive somewhere realized it was easier to extract that cash from a corporation than putting some person deep in debt. Secondly, I believe America's relationship w…

We don't have a social safety net? That's a surprise since 2/3rd of my federal taxes go to social programs!

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

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Post by deathanatos » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 9:42 PM UTC

internetman55 wrote: post #256

reality_czech wrote: post #94

The part which really makes me angry is that this guy probably also employs graduate students who make minimum wage, have terrible health care, and no job security. But he doesn't feel like that's important enough to mention.

My wage at some random school is roughly 2k/month for 20 hours work, ignoring free tuition.

And mine was $10/hr, for computer science. Peanuts. My last year there they dropped that to $0/hr, and then complained that they couldn't find enough TAs.

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

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Post by andrei_says_ » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 9:56 PM UTC

terryf wrote: post #319

JDiculous wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually false. The average American worker today works more hours per year than a 14th century peasant ( http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/08/29/why-a-medie... ). Hunter-gatherers only worked 2-3 hours per day. Despite technology allowing us to work less, we work more. Yes we should be grateful of technological advancement, but too many people are unnecessarily depressed and suicidal, and it doesn't…

I work my ass off. Lot more hours than would be technically necessary. High tech as well. I've also gone hiking in the mountains in California. Been on the beach in Italy. Walked around in the center of Munich. As a 14th century peasant I probably never even knew those places existed. I can also get pain medication if I have a headache. I can go to a doctor to fix my broken bones if I happen to get one. Oh, and the l…

I am not sure how the two are related. Are you implying that your view of quality of life (“work hard / travel the world”) is universal?

Or, that everyone who works hard reaps the rewards, ignoring the ever-increasing disparity in compensation?

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

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Post by crawfordcomeaux » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 10:02 PM UTC

crawfordcomeaux wrote: post #251

vageli wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, it sounds like you chose to believe, if only by accident, that money is a human need. This is false...we simply have cultures around the world where asking our community for support is not considered acceptable. Again, this is a lie. If you ask enough people for help, you'll eventually find someone willing. There's more than enough of everything to go around, especially money. But ultimately, it all comes bac…

Yes, for now. Capitalism won't be dismantled instantly and will need to be phased out. It'll happen as people around the world relearn it's ok to ask for what we need.

I'm curious why people might be downvoting messages like these.

Could it be because it's harder for some to imagine the end of the species than the end/evolution of capitalism?

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

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Post by CalRobert » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 10:07 PM UTC

some_account wrote: post #277

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…

The article criticizes American work culture for very good reasons. Of course we should work and have jobs, but that doesn't mean work needs to be like it is in America. Do you guys in America even know how it is in Sweden for example? We don't have this competitive culture, and companies are trying hard to make their employees feel good at work. Nobody really works full 8 hours at big companies and nobody is stresse…

To be fair, there are a lot of Americans who would prefer the Swedish approach, but are stuck. When I last checked Sweden was not as easy to get a visa for as some other countries.

Sounds lovely, though.