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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

#431

Post by dancek »

nybble41 wrote: post #406
dancek wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. If raising a child were to cost $1M in 20 years, that would average $50k/year. I earn about as much and have two kids, so I imagine I would have noticed if it was that expensive.

Factoring in 5-7% annual return on investment, it's only about 25-30k per year, not 50k. (Given P(0) = 0 and P(n) = P(n-1) * 1.07 + $25,000, P(20) would be $1,024,887.31.) Perhaps still a bit high, but not too far off, especially considering that the second child probably has a lower marginal cost than the first.

Fair point, although most people don't get that kind of ROI for their extra money in practice (instead most of the money is "lost" in all kinds of fun things).

I could argue that $25k/year is still very high compared to my experience, but I have no idea how much daycare, healthcare and education cost in the US. It probably makes no sense to compare costs to a country where I would earn over double my current income...

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

#432

Post by golemiprague »

throwa9b8c7d6 wrote: post #318
jasonkester wrote: post #278

There is no downtime anymore. You can never truly get away from work in an age of 4g connectivity everywhere. I'm doing a bit of consulting with a startup at the moment, and one of our team members recently disappeared off on vacation. Good for him, I thought. Two days later, he popped back up on the company slack, working away from his tropical beach. To be clear, this is not a case of digital nomadding. This is 10…

I had to cancel my honeymoon and my brother's honeymoon because of work. I am an H1B from India working for the American subsidiary of an India company. For a short period of time, I was put on a project that was created by some other team and finally abandoned by the customer. Then, 1-2 years later, new customer management decided to bring the project back to life. Only thing was the new management didn't know it wa…

Why Indians are such slaves? I had a chance to work for an Indian company for couple of months, people there are like worms, they let their bosses ride them and never object anything the boss says. I hate the fact that Indians are coming to the west and bring this culture with them, it affects us the locals that we suddenly have to compete with people who got no life and don't care about their work condition. I am so happy Trump is stopping those visas.

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

#433

Post by bambataa »

FlyingSideKick wrote: post #96

How can workers change corporate culture from within to demand work-life balance? I asked an executive VP this at a one of the worlds largest company’s here in Seattle and she said “If the young talent we need coming out of school across the board demanded shorter days and more vacation we would have to comply. But they don’t instead they are awed by an extra $10k on a hiring bonus they might or might not get after t…

That VP’s logic seems sort of circular to me. Young grads take the sign on bonus because that’s what the companies are offering. It would be interesting to see what would happen if a major tech firm (for example) started making offers with a range of specified working hours at different salary levels.

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

#434

Post by tylerjwilk00 »

DeusExMachina wrote: post #62
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 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…

I don't think work in and of itself is the problem. The problem with modern day work is that it's become so homogenous regardless of desired outcome.

For example:

- If I want meat, I perform task X

- If I want heat, I perform task X

- If I want cothes, I perform task X

In previous generations (more recent than you might assume) many of these desired outcomes had totally different tasks.

Its also a false dichotomy that things are work _OR_ play. Many things are a blend of Work/Play/Hobby or more simply just "living".

It would have been an evolutionary advantage to be interested in and inclined to perform various types of tasks for early humans. Modern work suppresses this human need. This is why we have hobbies and people are depressed.

More "free" time to watch Netflix may not be the pinnacle happiness and fulfillment. This is not to suggest that life was "easy" in the past.

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

#435

Post by pwm »

fyfy18 wrote: post #264
ghettoimp wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Only” work 9 to 5? Don’t forget your commute. And you’ll still need your wife to get the kids to school and pick them up. Hope you earn enough for that and she’s happy st home. And you should help out with dinner and the lunches and homework. And when you get the kids to bed it’s 8 and you’re exhausted. Enjoy your weekend.

Last month I moved back to London for a contract job. Yes it pays well, but because of the hours I basically have no life. I leave at 7:30, get to the office just before 9, work until 7, then head home and arrive around 8:30. I really wish part time work was more of a thing in this industry...

I’ve been contracting in London for about 8 years now. In the last 2-3 years one of my primary criteria is that i only work till 5 and at least one day from home. Some of my best contracts, both professionally and financially came after implementing this filter. There’s hope.

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

#436

Post by mancerayder »

delecti wrote: post #368
throwa9b8c7d6 wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to cancel my honeymoon and my brother's honeymoon because of work. I am an H1B from India working for the American subsidiary of an India company. For a short period of time, I was put on a project that was created by some other team and finally abandoned by the customer. Then, 1-2 years later, new customer management decided to bring the project back to life. Only thing was the new management didn't know it wa…

I want to start off by saying that it was wrong of them to ask you to cancel your vacation, but in the end you threw away your vacation on the hypothetical that they would fire you, only to leave the company voluntarily. It seems like you ended up with the worst of both worlds. If you would have said no, then you'd be no worse off than you are now.

He's a human, not a robot. I'm sure he agonized over BOTH decisions. I'm glad it was fully rational and clear cut for you, though.

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

#437

Post by mancerayder »

cr1895 wrote: post #317
jasonkester wrote: post #278

There is no downtime anymore. You can never truly get away from work in an age of 4g connectivity everywhere. I'm doing a bit of consulting with a startup at the moment, and one of our team members recently disappeared off on vacation. Good for him, I thought. Two days later, he popped back up on the company slack, working away from his tropical beach. To be clear, this is not a case of digital nomadding. This is 10…

>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.

Ehh. I used to think that too. In the UK the culture (at least in London) is pretty damn close to NYC or Silicon Valley in terms of evening and weekend work in tech. At least in better paying jobs.

For full time roles, they DO have 23 to 25 days vacation minimum, unlike that evil PTO of 15 days (or worse, unlimited vacation) where you have to cancel your honeymoon if you get the flu that year.

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

#438

Post by dwaltrip »

amyjess wrote: post #373
dancek wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment elegantly displays what's wrong with modern society. Yes, kids require a lot of things that cost money and a lot of time from the parents. Yes, they make you significantly less productive at work when something is wrong. Yes, life is much easier without kids. But having and raising children is literally one of the most natural things to want to do with your life. A culture that views children mostly as i…

> But having and raising children is literally one of the most natural things to want to do with your life. "Natural" is not good. Life in nature is nasty, brutish, and short. Some other things that aren't natural include eyeglasses, prosthetic limbs, vaccines, antibiotics, air conditioning, cooked food, and electronics. I worship artifice, and I find the idea that natural things are laudable to be repugnant in every…

We are kind of puny in the grand scheme of the entire natural universe, and we have a lot to learn from it.

All of those artificial things you praise came about through the intense study of nature.

We can learn from nature and appreciate its great beauty without being a slave to it.

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

#439

Post by Daishiman »

watwut wrote: post #401
pharke wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, it wasn't either but it was a bit of both. Our perspective often misses many aspects of home life in the past because we are living in such a radically different environment than even our grand parents and great grand parents. When we think of "spare time" we imagine the few hours we can snatch before bed when we zone out and watch netflix or browse social media. Spare time for people living a subsisten…

> You're right, it wasn't either but it was a bit of both. It was not a bit of both. It was work. Yes, they could chat while doing some easy repetitive tasks, the same way as worker in work now chat while doing repetitive tasks. However, this was not low effort hobby you do whenever you feel like and can take random amount of time. It was work that needed to be done whether you feel like it or not. And preferably fas…

Yes, and that physical exhaustion is what we were made for. Not sitting in a chair 10 hours a day. Your body is far healthier doing a few hours of demanding physical activity every day. It follows that our minds are adapted to that rhythm as well.

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

#440

Post by technion »

verylittlemeat wrote: post #304
mieseratte wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no downtime anymore. You can never truly get away from work in an age of 4g connectivity everywhere. You can. Get rid of your phone. Most of us don't have a job that actually requires a phone, and it's really as matter of your work willing to take advantage of the fact that most of you won't push back when pressed. You can take advantage of the fact that they won't pay for you to carry a phone. I finally g…

No phone? We need team players at this company. /s

You joke, but I've never worked in a place I didn't hear this literal sentence.
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