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As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

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Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#221

Post by Agenttin »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #214
fullstackchris wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hearing stuff like this a lot recently, I always think about the often repeated vision that Keynes had, saying that we (his grandchildren) would be working 15 hour work weeks. I think our economy is so rich and efficient now, that scenario could actually exist, but everyone is still duped by the workaday culture infinitely persisting the 40 hour work week idea. Before I'm barraged with "what about people in the servi…

> I think our economy is so rich and efficient now, that scenario could actually exist, but everyone is still duped by the workaday culture infinitely persisting the 40 hour work week idea. Not sure we're duped by the 40 hr / week idea so much as we're slaves to our desire for consumer goods. That and housing is very expensive now which means more work to pay for it.

The issue is that pay hasn't kept up with productivity. As things become more efficient employers are having to pay far less for the same amount of work.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#223

Post by praxulus »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #91
wreath wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Jobs are handing out more money with more flexibility than ever seen before. I may be naive, but I guess this office-work-exodus would result to improvements in office spaces in general to attract devs (or other employees in tech). This would also make it easier for people who are looking to move to the US to find office jobs, since the competition is less fierce. Am I off mark here and too naive?

It seems like every year there’s a new study showing how cubicle farms are bad for productivity and health. Everyone hates them. Same thing for long commutes, they’re terrible. But still companies keep building new cubicle farms in downtown cores. Maybe office workers are just done with this stupid shit.

Downtown cores have the highest population density, and thus the lowest average commute for a typical set of workers distributed around a metro area.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#224

Post by Agenttin »

Terretta wrote: post #105
dougmwne wrote: post #11

5 years ago I hit a burnout point and took a year off work. It was a huge perspective shift. I realized that my day-to-day of a rushed commute to work, a stressful and distracting office, thimble-deep coworker relationships and a life completely orientated around doing the above was an insane waste of my short time on Planet Earth. I reoriented my life around family, remote work, flexibility and balance. My quality o…

> Everyone As we subconsciously blend anecdata from HN into our mental models, remember that we self-selecting to visit here commenting are already extreme outliers. Weight our in(group)sights accordingly.

We are probably the people this article applies best to. I know I'm reading it in my boxers.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#225

Post by Aboh33 »

dougmwne wrote: post #11

5 years ago I hit a burnout point and took a year off work. It was a huge perspective shift. I realized that my day-to-day of a rushed commute to work, a stressful and distracting office, thimble-deep coworker relationships and a life completely orientated around doing the above was an insane waste of my short time on Planet Earth. I reoriented my life around family, remote work, flexibility and balance. My quality o…

Similar story. I left tech for about 5 months back in early Spring to refocus after delivery of a huge project (contract). Now looking at re-entering with a product/company I actually want to contribute to.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#226

Post by Agenttin »

rpmisms wrote: post #172
foobarian wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll wager a guess that a lot of those other "under 30" cases were people living with 3 other jerk roommates who used to just come home to sleep but now had to put up with each other for a whole year.

Yeah, if I were single and living in a Big City™, I'd be desperate to be in an office again, too.

Oddly, this has become an environment where something like WeWork could actually make sense. I might like to have a workspace without any coworkers.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#227

Post by TheCoelacanth »

willis936 wrote: post #92
mehphp wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There’s swaths of competent people abroad that are happy to take your (overpaid) place How is it overpaid? Engineers provide a lot more value than they are getting paid. If anything, people abroad are underpaid.

The answer is bigger than the question. Almost everyone in the West is overpaid because Western Society reaps the benefits of an underpaid working class on another continent. Out of sight, out of mind.

I think it's less that some people are overpaid and more that some goods are too cheap (mostly the goods that the West has stopped producing in favor of outsourcing to underpaid working class on another continent).

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#228

Post by Gene5ive »

Robotbeat wrote: post #157
HarryHirsch wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's baffling, haven't people got friends?

It’s hard to make friends as an adult. Especially: 1) If you don’t have kids (socializing with other parents). 2) Don’t go to church/synagogue/etc (church attendance in decline) 3) Do not live where you grew up. (People chase opportunities in other cities.) 4) Aren’t in school any more. Neighbor friends are also possible, but it can take many years for people to become comfortable enough to be friends, and due to #3,…

I find this perspective interesting. I'm 36, have no kids, don't go to church, don't live anywhere near where I grew up or my biological family, and haven't been in school for a very long time but have no shortage of friends or even deep friendships. I think culture is a huge reason. I live in close-in Portland, Oregon and I think the main thing we all have in common is that we all enjoy going to see live music and DJs together. Urban living and music can have a huge ability to replace everything on that list. In fact, my partner and I will be throwing a vaccinated-only music festival this summer and we have about 100 people invited, the vast majority personal friends and only a handful have kids. However, I think working in tech helps. Most of my old friends who never made the jump from the service industry into tech by going to code school or something like that had to move away because the city got too expensive. In short, music + tech + urban makes finding and keeping friends easy, at least in Portland.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#229

Post by wing-_-nuts »

aoifjaslfivjcam wrote: post #201
HarryHirsch wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's baffling, haven't people got friends?

Not since covid, no. Some of us have been stuck in single rooms with no family or social contact for over a year. Exercise groups - Illegal meeting up with other people - Illegal dating - Illegal going outside without a valid reason - Illegal Former friends with established families and large properties with gardens berate you for complaining, as its selfish, "people are dying!", but they travel for holidays, take th…

>Also lots of people do not like the fact that I questioned the rationale for the lockdown measures, questioned the data ( as in wanted to know what the actual data was), etc. They did not like it AT ALL.

>As far as I am concerned I might as well be a secret Jew in 1944 Berlin for the level of trust I have for other people now.

Holy persecution complex, batman!

Millions were dying and being asked to wear a mask, social distance and wash your hands was too much of a sacrifice for you? You may want to take a hard look at yourself.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#230

Post by kd0amg »

mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #209
jandrewrogers wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per the US government (BLS), the median household has the ability to save about $1,000 per month without changing how much they spend on ordinary costs of living. So not everyone can but most people can if they choose to. Of course, Americans are notoriously poor savers, which is the bigger culprit.

If I have monthly income of 3000 and spend it all, how am I to save 1000 monthly without lowering my costs? This sounds impossible, unless maybe you’re not counting all spending as “ordinary costs”?

It's not counting all spending as costs of living.
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