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The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

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Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#171

Post by kjkjadksj »

Borg3 wrote: post #145
jader201 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if workers, at some point, will be able to start demanding compensation for commute to work, when there it is perfectly possible to work from home? E.g. these tech companies that are starting to require employees to return to office. On the other hand, we don’t get compensated (fully [1]) for the utilities cost from working from home. [1] Some reimburse things like internet, but that’s about it. We can’t eve…

Dude really? The cost of working from home is absolutly minimal. You gain much more than you loss. You do NOT waste time and money commuting. You can eat healtier food. You can take break when you really need it. People who say that they need to get compesation for WFH cant do basic math...

Work from home is literally an employee subsidized office. Who pays for the internet? You do. Who pays for the electicity? You do. Who pays for water? You do. Who pays for the ac during the heat of the day? You do. Who pays for square footage dedicated to a desk? You do. Who fixes networking it related issues? You do. Who is the custodian and building maintainer? Also you.

Companies save money hand over fist by shoveling all the above costs that they previously paid for onto your lap. If you think this is all free then you need to reevaluate what your employer is really asking of you in a work from home situation.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#172

Post by wonderwonder »

Nobody wants to work anymore [at terms that are only beneficial to me]. The worst jobs pay the lowest salary. Employment rate is low enough many don't have to put up with it. So we now have immigration, legal and otherwise. Jobs have to be done, so either raise pay, hire desperate immigrants or go out of business.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#173

Post by xeromal »

eggy wrote: post #170
bbarn wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard the argument that a negative effect of the post WW2 "feminist" movement (by that I mean women in the work force) has had the long term effect of causing prices to simply adjust to the dual income household, to the point that now it is a necessity. It is a privileged family today that can afford to live comfortably on only one salary.

Privileged? I worked very hard to get that point of "privileged" to have had two single-job families. In the beginning I worked at different jobs out of necessity and in part, to see what suited me and what suited the work. I learned many different skills that helped me in my personal life - construction, housebuilding, coding (since 1978), electronics, welding, machining, technical diving, industrial rope access, or…

I wouldn't take the word privileged personally.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#174

Post by whitexn--g28h »

arp242 wrote: post #85
dsr_ wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed the big one: If you can find reliable evidence across time, space and cultures that humans have complained about the same X, then complaining about X is part of human nature in, at least, cultures that leave durable evidence.

Two datapoints is hardly enough for that, and out of the billions of people who have lived in the last 2,500 years an infinitesimal small percentage have complained about roughly the same thing, so "any and all arguments that touch on this must be invalid" seems just as much of an invalid non-argument to me. You can pick almost any topic and find people unfairly whinging about it "across time, space, and cultures" be…

It’s specifically dismissing the idea that the problem is new. That this is the first time kids have been different, that workers wanted better conditions. Nobody wants to work “anymore”… The kids “these days”

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#175

Post by kjkjadksj »

pastacacioepepe wrote: post #168
justin_oaks wrote: post #6

To be honest, people generally don't want to work. In what way is this surprising?

Source? I don't find this true at all. People simply don't want to do meaningless, consuming or alienating work.

Unfortunately unless you are doing something like working on your property or helping a neighbor, thats most work in this country.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#176

Post by xeromal »

taneq wrote: post #83
miltondts wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_history "Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BC – AD 500."

Wait, you mean 'ancient history' doesn't cover all time between the invention of pottery and the invention of node.js?

I don't know why the invention of node.js tickled me so much but here we are. Thanks for writing this comment. Paired perfectly with my morning coughey.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#177

Post by tjr225 »

eggy wrote: post #170
bbarn wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard the argument that a negative effect of the post WW2 "feminist" movement (by that I mean women in the work force) has had the long term effect of causing prices to simply adjust to the dual income household, to the point that now it is a necessity. It is a privileged family today that can afford to live comfortably on only one salary.

Privileged? I worked very hard to get that point of "privileged" to have had two single-job families. In the beginning I worked at different jobs out of necessity and in part, to see what suited me and what suited the work. I learned many different skills that helped me in my personal life - construction, housebuilding, coding (since 1978), electronics, welding, machining, technical diving, industrial rope access, or…

[dead]

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#178

Post by gambiting »

mahogany wrote: post #150
gambiting wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said if there is no satisfaction then you need to find a different job. The misery part was added by you.

> I said if there is no satisfaction then you need to find a different job. In this is the implicit assumption that there are enough jobs to give everyone satisfaction - that is what people are taking issue with. Do you believe that assumption is true?

I think people are coming up with this assumption just to have an argument for no reason - I'm replying to an individual comment on HN, not giving advice to every single worker out there

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#179

Post by mercurialsolo »

Beyond the usual rationale of I don't want to work for pennies, I think hard work as a cultural vibe has fallen out of the times. It's also what we have designed our reward systems around.

Today's reward systems are tuned not around hard work, but around being smart. The disintermediation of media makes it feel like we are all in a celebrity lottery and we just need a lucky break. We don't need to compound our skills or put in the grind.

Re: The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

#180

Post by commonlisp94 »

Finding historical quotes seems like a gotcha, but stating the actual conclusion that's implied makes it appear much less plausible:

> The level or kind of work ethic in the population has been about the same over time.

Or

> Children have been about as well behaved over time.

Can anyone justify why these things should remain identical? That would suggest that environment is not an input into that equation.

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