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The absolute worst scenario happened

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Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#281

Post by zebnyc »

phkahler wrote: post #254
asdfman123 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I was at a hotel with crappy service and asked about the problems with house keeping. The manager told me everyone in town (Traverse City MI) was trying to bring in foreigners to do housekeeping because they couldn't get local labor. They said the standard is 30 minutes per room per day. I figure at a very generous $50 per hour (100k / year) it should run $25 to have my room taken care of. Now that doesnt cover the s…

The service industry might be labor intensive but is hardly the only cost for the owner(s). What about mortgage payments, marketing, integrating with third parties (expedia), gas & electricity, general maintenance / accounting / security etc. I am sure there are hundreds of other costs that I have no visibility into

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#282

Post by aaron-santos »

FireBeyond wrote: post #276
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in america farmers hire illegals to harvest crops, claiming that no american would do the work. This has always struck me as a really terrible excuse. I'm sorry, you can't simply break the law because you'd have to pay an american $20 / hr to do the work. Sure, it means that your tomatoes are more expensive, but also, now there's a hell of an incentive to apply automation to the problem yes? If you don't like th…

A couple of years ago, a serial offender food producer was raided, multiple times. 600+ undocumented workers were found, and all spoke of management knowing their status. The workers were detained, deported, and so on. After several raids, not so much as a misdemeanor was levied against a single person, nor a fine to the company in general.

Kind of makes me think, what's the point when these laws aren't actually enforced?

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#283

Post by gregmac »

viraptor wrote: post #108
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…

There's the possibility that those employees are happily retired and don't care. Or they're just not available in many ways. I know of a hospital which is still refusing to migrate off of a system which is not supported for a decade. Pay more money? 3 people worked on it: Adam had a stroke, Bob retired with enough money, Charlie left the country.

I knew someone who was a specialist in doing calibrations on some very specific industrial measurement equipment, much of which was out-of-date but massively expensive to replace.

He had retired, but took another 12 or 18 month contract flying around the country servicing these things. Apparently they asked, and not wanting to do it he quoted what he thought was an insane "go away and leave me alone" fee, but then they said yes. (I have no idea what that fee was or what multiplier he applied, though it definitely brings to mind patio11's standard advice [1]).

[1] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2006/08/14/you-can-probably-stand-...

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#284

Post by knightofmars »

solarkraft wrote: post #240
raffraffraff wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

While, like most things in life, it's not a guarantee, doing basic research about the farms and the cooperatives that produce the goods will provide some insight. Almost anything is better than a CAFO (Concentrated animal feeding operation).

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#285

Post by wiz21c »

notyourday wrote: post #202
beckingz wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hopefully you can skip most of those people and talk to the people who are in danger of being eliminated if your services are NOT engaged?

CEO: We are doing project X. We have engaged so and so to do it. You are to support this. : I'm uncomfortable sharing this information with the outside party. I will need to get the approvals for ... CEO: Yes, tell them to do this. ... Jack, head of IT in charge of backups: Ok, you can have this access. Consultant: Great. It says I'm not authorized to perform this operation. It is a blocker, could this be fixed so I…

Damn that's so true. We hired a network expert to figure latency somewhere between our app and the end user. Spent a month asking autorisations for each gdmn net boxes which were owned by several organizations which were working in the same building but not able to cooperate because they were not paid by the same institution.

The guy did very creative reporting though :-)

And the problem was not fixed, of course.

I tried to help him as much as I could, but at some point, the thing is so intricate that you basically give up.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#286

Post by greeneggs »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #262
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.

Here in america farmers hire illegals to harvest crops, claiming that no american would do the work. This has always struck me as a really terrible excuse. I'm sorry, you can't simply break the law because you'd have to pay an american $20 / hr to do the work. Sure, it means that your tomatoes are more expensive, but also, now there's a hell of an incentive to apply automation to the problem yes? If you don't like th…

Of course it isn't that simple. If your farm's tomatoes are more expensive than your neighbors' tomatoes, then nobody will buy them. You'll quickly go bankrupt.

It is also difficult because of the two tiers of labor. A farmer will try increasing wages by $1/hour, and still struggle to find enough workers. Wages would probably have to be doubled before new workers—Americans—would start to enter the industry.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#287

Post by ectopod »

dspillett wrote: post #177
alistairSH wrote: post #89

Tangent Alert! I have a 3 months resignation period, so I can't even leave... Maybe it's my (US) American experience, but being unable to quit a job strikes me as a terrible policy. This guy(gal?) is really required to submit 3 months notice or face some sort of repercussions (financial, I assume)? Does this 3 month period apply in reverse (employer can't fire employees without a full 3 month warning)? Not that the A…

UK here. Terminology may differ, I think what is being discussed is a notice period . Normally a resignation is either accepted or rejected pretty much on the spot and if accepted is officially seen as a more amicable departure. Handing in your notice to leave is something the employer cannot reject. Depending on circumstances you might try to resign first. Sometimes you may be "asked to resign"[0] and made a nice of…

At places I've worked in the UK it is asymmetrical. The employer has to give three months' notice but the employee only has to give one month's. It is intended as an employee benefit, and it is. I've never been asked for more than one month's notice from my side.

I don't know where the OP is located but he should double-check his contract. The first time I heard of the three month period I was reluctant, until I realised it didn't apply to me.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#288

Post by smnrchrds »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #266
smnrchrds wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, if farmers in Australia increase wages and thus their product becomes more expensive, the product on supermarket shelves will not become more expensive. Rather, supermarkets will import food from another country. Food is, with few exceptions, a commodity. The producer does not set the price of the commodity, the market does. I am telling this as an engineer working in the Canada's oil and gas sector. Si…

I consider food security a national security issue. Produce is one of the few areas where I would consider a tarif justified. Every country should be able to feed it's citizens with the food grown there, or they risk hunger when cut off by war or natural disaster.

And countries do that, but for a few strategic ones, not everything. Canada produces lots of wheat and dairy and maple syrup. It even has a strategic maple syrup reserve. But it does not produce a lot of citrus fruits or pistachios or dates. It may be possible for US to produce everything within the country—it is a gigantic country and has just about every climate there is. But it would be an ecological disaster if countries without those attributes do the same. Think of all the heating required to produce warm-climate fruits in Canada.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#289

Post by smnrchrds »

Symbiote wrote: post #279
smnrchrds wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, if farmers in Australia increase wages and thus their product becomes more expensive, the product on supermarket shelves will not become more expensive. Rather, supermarkets will import food from another country. Food is, with few exceptions, a commodity. The producer does not set the price of the commodity, the market does. I am telling this as an engineer working in the Canada's oil and gas sector. Si…

The EU sets fairly high tariffs on food imports, since food security means we must maintain local food production. Australia does not use this approach, and instead seems to have pushed other countries to eliminate their own tariffs for the TPP.

What tariff does is that it moves the price point at which the retailers switch to imports a bit higher. Tariff does not eliminate the ceiling. There still would be a ceiling on price, determined by international commodity price + X% tariff.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#290

Post by megous »

K2L8M11N2 wrote: post #207
tadzik_ wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Poland it scales over time: you start off with 2 weeks notice (for both sides), after a year or so this jumps to one month, and after 3 years it jumps to 3 months, or something like that. I've seen people quit right before their 3 year anniversary just so that they don't fall into the 3-months-notice period. I haven't worked much on regular job agreements (been contracting or "contracting" most of my life), but ge…

What do you mean by “contracting” in quotes?

When you're mostly indistinguishable from an employee, except for the legal relationship.
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