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Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

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Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#81

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

JackPoach wrote: post #47
dudul wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is compensation really meant to derive from productivity? In practice, your compensation is a factor of how difficult it is to find someone else to do your job.

Yep. If compensation was a function of productivity, farmers would be the richest people in the world, because their productivity is something like 50-100 times than it was pre-mechanization and pre-green revolution.

You're not wrong about farmers, but it's in a tons of different professions. I mean, think how much more productive software devs are right now than the age of punch cards.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#82

Post by whatever1 »

Oh well in the US they actively abolished their right to organize and have a democratically formed representation against the autocratic corporate hierarchy. Ceos could not care less about the company or its employees. What is the worst case scenario for them? A golden parachute on top of platinum compensation that is 100’s of times higher than their average employee. The employees and the local community will have to eat the s** from the management decisions. There is no social accountability for mismanaging companies, despite its wide social repercussions.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#83

Post by PragmaticPulp »

granshaw wrote: post #67
barrkel wrote: post #57

Wellbeing, even when it's sincere, is a top-down effort - as in way up the tree-tops - and usually raining down diagonally from a different org. Meanwhile, down on the leaves of the org tree, you have delivery pressure from users, peers, and so on. If the pressure is high, no amount of messaging about wellbeing will make any difference. Taking time off, whether it's some kind of leave or for some wellbeing meetings o…

Let me tell you, delivery pressure exists even right at the very top. You think there’s no pressure as a CEO/COO beholden to 30% top line growth this quarter? I sometimes think about being in that position and it seems pretty scary too

Delivery pressure increases as you go higher in the management structure.

The most stressful part is that as you transition from IC to manager and work your way up the org chart, you become more abstracted away from actual being able to do the work and influence the outcome yourself. More responsibility, less direct influence.

Some managers struggle with this pressure and resort to trying to make their teams feel as much of the pressure as possible. Good managers learn how to set a healthy cadence, manage expectations upward, and keep a healthy but reasonable amount of delivery pressure on the team.

There is no realistic scenario where teams have zero delivery pressure, but it needs to be kept in balance. Burning everyone out all the time only works if you have a constant stream of replacement employees as everyone leaves, but then you lose institutional knowledge and reputation tanks. Managers who use these tactics need to be coached or removed from the company.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#84

Post by AussieWog93 »

throwamon wrote: post #51
mtberatwork wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Workplace is a family This one is the biggest eye roll for me. Family and friends don't give performance reviews and push other such metrics down your throat.

> Family and friends don't give performance reviews and push other such metrics down your throat Oh, but society sure is hard at work moving towards this. Edit: I'm short of time, but as someone asked me to elaborate, I'll briefly give a few examples: - "Networking" replacing genuine friendships; related things such as "cut out friends who don't let you grow" which may be valid but usually translates to "replace them…

I think middle class society in the West has already reached this stage. I was talking about this the other day with my wife, after stewing about it bitterly for hours into the night.

The most common form of interpersonal interaction has changed from genuine offers of assistance to displays of status and evaluations of said displays.

It's unthinkable to do something as basic as ask your neighbour to "borrow" an egg or bring them some cake just because you have too much. On the other hand, you can sure as hell expect them to let you know that what you own isn't good enough.

The obvious conclusion to this shift, which is already playing out, is that people minimise the amount of interaction with others and we all become lonelier.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#85

Post by tempodox »

kumarvvr wrote: post #23

Workplace wellbeing Wholesome workplace Workplace is a family and a myriad of other touchy-feely terms are just plain bullshit. Whole industries have cropped up to support the efforts of managements to keep workforces in control and deflect resentment (people don't leave companies, they leave managers ! and other crap) The ground reality is when the company feels you are not needed, all that touch-feely stuff goes do…

Side rule: If you work in a place that has motivational posters on the walls, run like hell!

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#86

Post by SyzygistSix »

mathattack wrote: post #8
craig_asp wrote: post #5

Every time someone (usually someone from HR) tries to point out how great a company is because of its great perks like awesome couching sessions (not actual training), great team-building events, the best coffee machine ever, table tennis, etc. and how these somehow compensate for a subpar salary offer, I tell them: you just pay me well, give me more time off, and I'll handle all that myself.

It’s amazing how many people don’t realize that the Beyoncé concert in the office comes from the same pool of money as compensation. (The company only does it because it’s cheaper than bonuses) And everyone showers Instagram with photos of the show.

Was that a real thing or was the Beyonce concert hyperbole?

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#87

Post by danaris »

granshaw wrote: post #67
barrkel wrote: post #57

Wellbeing, even when it's sincere, is a top-down effort - as in way up the tree-tops - and usually raining down diagonally from a different org. Meanwhile, down on the leaves of the org tree, you have delivery pressure from users, peers, and so on. If the pressure is high, no amount of messaging about wellbeing will make any difference. Taking time off, whether it's some kind of leave or for some wellbeing meetings o…

Let me tell you, delivery pressure exists even right at the very top. You think there’s no pressure as a CEO/COO beholden to 30% top line growth this quarter? I sometimes think about being in that position and it seems pretty scary too

Ah, yes. The pressure to deliver on specific growth targets in a nearly-completely arbitrary marketplace, which, if met, will result in massive compensation here, and if missed, will result in....massive compensation, then a shift to doing the same thing somewhere else for also-massive compensation.

Truly, my heart bleeds for the plight of the beleaguered CEO.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#88

Post by lotsofpulp »

svenghopeful wrote: post #58

As a somewhat outside observer (socially liberal/democrat country, in SWE but outside of VC/Silicon Valley/FAANG - for now!), I wonder if the community think the rise in "F** you, pay me"[1][2] sentiment will be mediated in any way? I can definitely see the rise of this feeling with record profits, sky high stock prices, big Venture Funding rounds paired with rising income inequality it makes sense. If a group of wor…

> However if this new mercenary attitude is to just move at will because you can[3], I don't know how that endgame plays out.

It is a business, moving at will is how resources get allocated and how it is supposed to play out.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#89

Post by mrweasel »

beforeolives wrote: post #17
varispeed wrote: post #3

This is so true. If a company has any wellbeing programs or even "free lunch" or "pizza Fridays" it's a big red flag. It basically means they don't pay enough for you to afford a pizza or lunch, not to mention a private therapy if stress gets onto you. Probably some managers are feeling guilty they pay so little, so they come up with these virtue signalling schemes. It doesn't bother them that they take private jets…

> If a company has any wellbeing programs or even "free lunch" or "pizza Fridays" it's a big red flag. It basically means they don't pay enough for you to afford a pizza or lunch No, and there are many companies that serve as counterexamples. Companies can offer both high compensation and small office perks, food and other gimmicks.

Exactly, every time workplace conditions comes up on HN, it seems like the vast majority of people just work at companies that absolutely suck. They then come to the conclusion that all companies suck.

It is actually possible to have a well paying job, at a company that also try to care about your well-being.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#90

Post by kayodelycaon »

joncrane wrote: post #46
JackPoach wrote: post #7

Did working conditions really got much worse over the past 20 years? Or are people just becoming more entitled? I agree with the premise that workplace wellbeing is a bunch of BS (and just a small part of much large corporate BS universe), but is 2021 much different from 2001? I understand blue collar complaints and unfortunate situation workers found themselves in after union busting or outsourcing. But what's gotte…

Benefits have indeed gotten worse on average in my experience, and here are two hard examples. Leave and healthcare. Leave: It used to be that most companies had a formula for accruing leave, and that vacation and sick were separate buckets and you could accumulate quite a bit. You earn X hours of vacation and Y hours of sick leave per 40 hours worked. This was nice because it was an asset that belonged to the employ…

> 30 days

Where can I find a job with 30 days of leave? A lot of places seem to think 15 days is beyond generous because they treat all PTO as vacation time and ignore that sick time used to exist. Meanwhile, my health issues make it extremely difficult to bank any amount of PTO.

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