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I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

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Re: I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

#191

Post by kderbyma »

willbw wrote: post #166
bitanarch wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Humans are inherently fragile beings with almost no redundant parts. If I fry your brain with long hours and politically hostile work environment and drive you to depression; vs. I fry your brain with long hours in physically exhausting environments. The results are the same - your brain is fried. One type of hostile work environment is not necessarily better or worse than another type of hostile work environ…

I would push back against "the results are the same". They are objectively not the same. Of course physical and mental exhaustion are both bad, but I think people would prefer to work in an office than a factory and trying to equate the two experiences is a little reductive.

not necessarily true. obviously you would, but I know many people who hate the idea of working indoors. They don't toil in a factory per se, but they work outside and enjoy it.

the same time, if you have a good support group and work hard strenuous hours (like rig workers) the physical isn't that bad because you have the bouyant comfort of comraderie. but if you are in an office stuck next to someone whose values you cannot stand and clash with yours, and whose boss demands and harasses you all the time but you are stuck working paycheck to paycheck because of medical bills or something.....that's a reason to want a factory job for some.

Re: I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

#192

Post by OldHand2018 »

GuB-42 wrote: post #172

How is it legal? I live in France, I know we have more worker protection laws than most countries, but I expected at least some from all first world countries. Factory work is typically among the most regulated kind of work, and often unionized too. Things tend to be very clear: there is a boss, there is punch clock, it is not like software development where it is not clear when you are working and when you are not.…

It's legal because the workers welcomed it. At first.

This is one single factory in the entire United States, and it is news because it is so far out of the ordinary.

I grew up around a lot of steel mills in the middle of America. What happens is this: Demand increases rapidly but nobody expects it to last. So they go to the union and work out a deal for increased working hours at a higher salary. Everybody, and I really mean everybody, is happy.

Because nobody expects the conditions to last long.

The workers see the opportunity to buy a boat or a truck with cash from all the extra work they put in, and the thought of it makes them excited to do all the extra shifts. But then towards the "end" the excitement wears off and they can't wait for the extra work to end. And it does.

Except for this factory.

Re: I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

#193

Post by boring_twenties »

astrange wrote: post #181
boring_twenties wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

June CPI is up 5.4% YoY and 4.5% ex food and energy, so this doesn't even come close to covering that.

That's reflation. Looking at YoY doesn't work when the previous year was an exceptional deflation.

What deflation? The previous year was +0.6% or +1.2%, excluding food and energy. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_07142020.htm

Re: I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

#194

Post by dredmorbius »

cj wrote: post #128
akudha wrote: post #16

Jeez! 59 year old guy with the same salary for the last 10 years. People working in 100 degree temperatures with no air conditioning. This is depressing to read :(

It’s these people I think about when reading the weekly threads here on developer burn out.

Playing traumas and injuries off against one another is a sociopath's divide-and-conquor tactic.

Don't go there.

Re: I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

#195

Post by fy20 »

abakker wrote: post #125
JackFr wrote: post #65

Off topic tidbit from the article - note only corn based snacks are made in Topeka. One presumes there are factories in Washington and Idaho for the potato chips. Shipping vegetables is shipping water.

Vegetables bought from contract farms (most of them) are bought by weight. This means the farmers have an incentive to over water right before harvest weigh in heavy. Even for stupid stuff like ketchup where more energy is then spent to dehydrate the water right back out.

Is there an alternative? By volume would lead to the same as well, for certain crops that may lead to waiting until crops are over ripe - less tasty - so they are bigger.

Re: I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

#196

Post by swman »

knuthsat wrote: post #2

Anyone knows why people decide to do this kind of time consuming work? Is the world getting hard enough that there is no alternative? Whenever I see people working really hard in other parts of the world, especially when the country is filled with other opportunities, I always wonder is it just everyone else that is raising the bar and now the standard is very time consuming work. For example, there's year long touri…

In America a lot of these positions are not full time. Employers like McDonald’s and frito will try to do their best to give “hours” (part time) so that they don’t need to give benefits.

So, imagine you’re making minimum wage and you have no benefits from your job and you have to remain in a certain income band in order to qualify for government aid. It’s very hard to take a vacation let alone to just take a Sabbatical and backpack around the world to “find themselves” because they can barely afford to survive. It’a a very hard life.

Re: I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

#197

Post by Spooky23 »

knuthsat wrote: post #2

Anyone knows why people decide to do this kind of time consuming work? Is the world getting hard enough that there is no alternative? Whenever I see people working really hard in other parts of the world, especially when the country is filled with other opportunities, I always wonder is it just everyone else that is raising the bar and now the standard is very time consuming work. For example, there's year long touri…

Because they pay marginally above minimum wage for unskilled work and offer consistent hours.

When I worked in the mall in college, our prep guy was an immigrant from Ireland who worked about 15-16 hours a day. He prepped vegetables and fruit at our place, did painting, did maintenance work and closed the day doing janitorial stuff.

You do it to support your family and because you’re too busy to find a better option.

Re: I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

#198

Post by bryan0 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #41
jbay808 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How did things get the way they became? Is it due to iron wrought natural laws, or historical decisions we could freely agree to change? Reminds me of Scott Alexander's Meditations on Moloch , which also ponders this question. I can't do it justice with just one excerpt, but here's one passage that always stays with me: The reason our current system isn’t a utopia is that it wasn’t designed by humans . Just as you…

Sorry, but this is BS. The course of a river is a direct result of several close-to-deterministic forces and influences. Caesar's Palace, along with "neurobiology, economics, and regulatory regimes" are manifestations of many different forces, a large number of which are subject to individual and social choice-making. The pretense that "neurobiology is destiny", "economics is as immutable as physics" and "regulatory…

But choice-making is a product of neurobiology and economics. We’re not going to solve problems like global warming by “choosing” our way out of them. We need to formulate economic solutions so that they’re the only rational alternative.

Re: I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

#199

Post by kcplate »

parafactual wrote: post #143
kcplate wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is always going to be a bit of a disconnect and lack of empathy about excessive work hours when an hourly worker gripes about forced overtime (where in the US they are legally required to be paid at least 1.5x their hourly rate for the overtime) is complaining to salaried management (that are generally working a similar number of hours…but unpaid beyond the 40). Kind of makes you wonder which side is be…

As far as I can tell - correct me if I'm wrong - management is just easier compared to (say) manual labor in a factory. They're also paid more per expected hour.

I’ve been both and can tell you with assurance that in my experience in a 35+ year career that management is not easier, you don’t make as much per hour worked, and as an exempt employee…you generally have much less legal job protections as compared to hourly employees.

I bet I haven’t worked less than a 55 hour week in the last 20 years except for weeks where I was on vacation. Those lovely weeks of vacation—-probably 20 on average.

Re: I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

#200

Post by mcculley »

Mxs2000 wrote: post #173
mcculley wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many, addictions are not dwarfed by rent or other housing costs. I recommend you meet some addicts and learn of what they are going through. The myth that pot is not addictive is contradicted by the physical withdrawal symptoms experienced and described by many. These are tools to keep siphoning labor from the working class. The system is working as designed.

Can you cite your sources on "pot" being addictive?

You can google them. I know many friends who complain about problems with anxiety and appetite. These are quite common.
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