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The absolute worst scenario happened

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Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#231

Post by CydeWeys »

kolbe wrote: post #186
NewLogic wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exact same thing is happening in Australia in regards to farmers and fruit picking labour. With international borders shut they are unable to exploit foreign workers and complain that young adults are refusing to relocate for $5 an hour hard labour jobs.

Farming is low margin. Farmers don’t get to set the price of their products, and they aren’t handed billions in capital to burn through or 1000x multiples on their profit in the public markets. When most businesses say they can’t hire someone and the reason is because they don’t pay enough, the underlying cause of their low pay is usually because that’s what the company can afford. Sure, farmers could pay $10/hr, but…

People have to eat food. Food in aggregate has one of the most inelastic demand curves imaginable. If the price rises because the production costs increase, people will still buy food. They might buy different food, and you'll see a decrease in acreage given over to labor-intensive crops, but that's just the free market at work.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#232

Post by asdfman123 »

drclau wrote: post #132
tw04 wrote: post #88

I actually don't see any issue that isn't simply a matter of money. Everything they list that's an issue seems to revolve around the fact that the employees with domain knowledge for the system have left the company. Reach out to them and hire them on as contractors. If they left under bad terms because the business was a bunch of dicks, expect to pay 10x market rate. If this is truly "fix this or the business is out…

Not really related to the subject of the article, but your comment reminds me of employers in Romania complaining they can't find people to hire, while they offer small salaries and people just leave the country for better paying jobs abroad. The solution to their problem is really simple: make better offers.

Well, the problem is this: it might not make economic sense for those specific companies to hire people at a higher rate.

Companies aren't going to say "I guess we're inefficient and should just die." They're going to fight to survive and thrive, which is what you're seeing.

Then again, some companies ARE just cheap. You never know.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#233

Post by Verdex »

drclau wrote: post #132
tw04 wrote: post #88

I actually don't see any issue that isn't simply a matter of money. Everything they list that's an issue seems to revolve around the fact that the employees with domain knowledge for the system have left the company. Reach out to them and hire them on as contractors. If they left under bad terms because the business was a bunch of dicks, expect to pay 10x market rate. If this is truly "fix this or the business is out…

Not really related to the subject of the article, but your comment reminds me of employers in Romania complaining they can't find people to hire, while they offer small salaries and people just leave the country for better paying jobs abroad. The solution to their problem is really simple: make better offers.

At college I had a professor who I worked for who grew up in Romania. Apparently the song that kids had back in the day was: "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us."

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#234

Post by fishtacos »

yrgulation wrote: post #229
fishtacos wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's every poor country in existence. Not everyone has the same mindset as you, however. Provided with basic incentives, many, if not most, would not want to leave family, friends, common culture, etc, just for a wealthy life - they just want basic stability. Companies paying more (offering more at least) would begin to slow this domino effect, which raises standards of living and provides more funding for the gove…

Agreed - my statement is in regards to "simple solutions".

That was my point. The simplest solutions are sometimes the most effective, as well. Incentivizing brain power to remain the country via pay increases seems like the most basic approach one can take, considering the GP was talking about Romanian studios complaining they can't find/hold talent and they are competing with the rest of the EU.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#235

Post by joezydeco »

tw04 wrote: post #88

I actually don't see any issue that isn't simply a matter of money. Everything they list that's an issue seems to revolve around the fact that the employees with domain knowledge for the system have left the company. Reach out to them and hire them on as contractors. If they left under bad terms because the business was a bunch of dicks, expect to pay 10x market rate. If this is truly "fix this or the business is out…

then it shouldn't be a tough decision to make

You'll continually be amazed at the human tendency to double down instead of admitting a mistake.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#236

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

etripe wrote: post #230
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #153

One of the comments in the thread said, simply, "Prepare 3 envelopes." Being a 25-year sysadmin, immersed in thinking about the problem, it caught me totally off-guard. I don't think I've ever seen a more perfect response in a Reddit thread.

Which 3 envelopes would those be?

It's an older reference, which is why it was so funny to me. I hadn't seen it in a long time. GIYF.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#237

Post by michaelt »

danjac wrote: post #77
IgorPartola wrote: post #4

What exactly happens if you break a three month resignation period? I don’t advocate doing this in generally but as a hypothetical exercise if this person just stopped showing up for work, what exactly could the company do?

Not sure what country the person works in. In addition it could be a situation of a small town / tech backwater and word getting around, regardless of the legal question, so quitting out of contract could get you blacklisted. Ultimately though a person could not show up for any reason at all (e.g. hit by the proverbial bus) and you need to plan for that. Sounds like a company that just flies by the seat of its pants…

In terms of personal reputation, once you're in charge of backups at a company that went bankrupt due to the failure of their backups, I'm not sure it makes much difference to your reputation whether you diligently work your notice period or not...

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#238

Post by ghaff »

garmaine wrote: post #223
ghaff wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The military is sort of a special case however. (And, of course, private employment contracts can make it financially onerous to break.)

Interestingly the case can be made that the military is not exempt from the 13th amendment, which only makes one single exception for prisoners. It's just that the courts have ruled consistently that OBVIOUSLY the military wasn't meant to be included in the ban against involuntary servitude. Obviously. Just like they have also ruled that mandatory Jury duty is not in violation of the 13th amendment either. Funny how…

> Your contract has very generous severance clauses

That's pretty much what I meant although, as noted in another comment, I assume there are cases where they would try to claw back relocation or signing bonuses. Also, of course, things like RSU vesting.

>they can't go after your already earned wages, paid or still due to you.

Certainly, and depending on how paid time off accrues, anything earned there--which is one of the drivers with "unlimited" PTO because that's not owed when you leave.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#239

Post by noisy_boy »

artursapek wrote: post #174
arethuza wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Early in my career (>30 years) ago I nuked a companies salary database (a missing $ in a shell script moved everything to the file i) No problem they said - we have backups. They had three tapes. First tape failed. Second tape failed. Third tape worked. In retrospect that was a useful, if rather stressful, lesson.

>a missing $ in a shell script moved everything to the file i I've always had anxiety when running a shell script, this is a perfect example of why

I always wrap the actual cp/mv/rm etc in echo first before actually running it e.g. running echo "mv $src i" first would have immediately highlighted the problem visually.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#240

Post by solarkraft »

raffraffraff wrote: post #224
kolbe wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Farming is low margin. Farmers don’t get to set the price of their products, and they aren’t handed billions in capital to burn through or 1000x multiples on their profit in the public markets. When most businesses say they can’t hire someone and the reason is because they don’t pay enough, the underlying cause of their low pay is usually because that’s what the company can afford. Sure, farmers could pay $10/hr, but…

The reason I buy expensive eggs, milk and cheese is that I know that the supermarkets fuck over the farmers. I never buy the supermarket brand, unless it's the last one on the shelf. The price difference is sometimes 1.5x but unless you're really "broke" broke, you don't notice the difference. It's a few cents a week.

Good idea, but how do you know the extra money is properly passed on?
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