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I might be misunderstanding what you're saying but are you implying that journalists are somehow responsible for fixing the issues they report on?
No, OP is saying they’re hypocrites
The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
751–760 of 915 posts
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#752A lot of these threads devolve into "have you tried paying more" but I'd also like to highlight "have you actually tried telling Gen Z that". I'm 35, from basically as early as I can remember until sophmore year of college I was told constantly by every adult (and I mean every adult not just the ones that had degrees) in my life to go to college, get a degree, any degree. So yeah I went to college. It was aggressivel…
If we have a free market, or any functioning market for labor, pay more is the answer right?
Information is a key part of the rationality assumption of a free market, so having people systematically distort what jobs are available causes problems.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#753Earlier quoted context omitted.
welder. learn to weld. take a community college class to get certified. somewhere in there get a job at an abusive shop making $30 migging tube fences and grinding all day. try to find any lifeline to a higher paying less brutal work environment hopefully without assholes constantly doing hinky shit for a laugh
Isn't welding especially nasty? You're essentially breathing toxic gases and dust all day long.
Wear a respirator and invest in good fume collection
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#754Earlier quoted context omitted.
And you have to go do it. I love working behind a computer. I sit in a chair. Waking up at 5am to go to a client site to do some physical labor 40+ hours a week for my entire life sounds like hell. Even if the money was incredible it would suck.
Perhaps it's a case of "the grass is always greener", but before I became a software engineer, I felt much healthier doing a physical job.
As a >20y software engineer who feels a lot of my age and several years of very physical burnout symptoms, I get a lot of relief from the more active parts of my life (mostly having fun with my pup, but I feel similarly about just physical chores and whatever manual labor comes along).
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#755Earlier quoted context omitted.
It may feel better at the time but repetitive motions in most physical jobs will eventually catch up with your body. In an office job you can exercise on your own terms and without long term chronic pain.
I don't know, when I used to work on farms, the old guys were a lot healthier than most of the people I see in tech nowadays. Although, most of that work isn't unhealthily repetitive, like jack-hammering or something, so perhaps not a great example. But, use-it-or-lose-it is a real thing.
Nah you've got it right and there are a shitload of studies that prove it: the most effective way for a human being to wreck their health is sitting on their ass all day.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#756Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah same here. My dryer stopped working. Had someone come out and tell me the heating element and thermostat needed replacing. $275 for the part, $250 for the labor. That’s a $525 for a $650 dryer. Not worth it. I bought a complete heating element and thermostat kit on Amazon for $29. After a few YouTube videos and about an hour and a half, I had it fixed.
Did they charge to diagnose the issue?
Diagnosing a busted heating element and/or thermostat and/or fuse requires the answer to like two questions. Does it produce heat while it's running? Is it a Samsung? Okay maybe just one question. The $29 heating element comes with a new thermostat and fuse so you just replace them all regardless.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#757Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but the wear-and-tear on your brain from an office job will always be significantly lower (and thus remain a viable job for much longer) than a job in the figurative or literal trenches.
Being a programmer at 50 is much harder than at 25, a bigger difference than plumber at 25 and 50.
How is that true?
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#758Earlier quoted context omitted.
The company sending you a high bill doesn't automatically mean the guy who fixed your house gets paid well though, does it?
They were one man shops. 20 years ago, the going rate for installing a socket in an existing wired and ready to go junction box was $50. It's about a 5 minute job. I know it's about 5 minutes because I've done a lot of them myself. I'm sure prices have gone up a lot in the last couple decades.
Having done one myself, I blew off the fuses and burned some wires, because I bought a wrong thing,so yeah, it's a 5 min job but you still need to know what to do.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#759Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Cumulative load wrecks you in the long run. Consider how many weightlifters end up with multiple back surgeries. They got stronger for awhile, then they couldn’t walk.
I've been running for 40 years, and lifting for 15. Lifting has virtually eliminated my back pain. Strengthening the muscles helps a lot in preventing injury. No, I'm not lifting 400 lbs. Weightlifters lift insane weights, does that compare to what physical laborers lift?
But do you run and lift for 40-60hrs a week for 40 years? If I did an hour or two of electrical work a day instead of 8 to 10 my knees would probably have lasted longer than 17 years.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#760Earlier quoted context omitted.
Definitely don’t want to cheapen the toll that trade work takes on the body, but do want to note that we all do sell our bodies and health one way or another. Heart disease is one of the main killers of Americans and all the office workers sitting in chairs for ~8 hours a day aren’t doing ourselves any favors there… I mean, yeah, on balance I’d rather be an API plumber than an actual physical plumber — code smells ar…
Not to mention RSI, eye problems, and other issues from performance-enhancing drugs lots of tech workers take to stay focused
Is that a thing? I don't think taking "performance enhancing drugs" is safe or allowed in my country, and I would definitely report coworkers to HR if I would find out they did. It's not fair to compete against someone like that.