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Why Work Marriages Make Sense

blog.joelx.com

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Re: Why Work Marriages Make Sense

#31

Post by p1esk »

nostrademons wrote: post #5

The view of romantic relationships underlying this piece is not one shared by most of my friends who are in stable relationships, and is IMHO rather unhealthy. People do not stay in romantic relationships to avoid "the trauma of getting dumped". They stay because their partner is who they are looking for, someone who enriches their life. Healthy people sting for a bit when dumped, but they get over it and find someon…

>>>as long as you are happy, you are unlikely to be more happy with someone else.

'happy' is a multidimensional concept. There are many 'shades of grey'.

Re: Why Work Marriages Make Sense

#32

Post by joelx »

dnissley wrote: post #2

This is the "Loser" deal according to the Gervais Principle[1]: "[The Losers have] given up some potential for long-term economic liberty (as capitalists) for short-term economic stability." It makes a certain amount of sense, but so do the other positions of the "Clueless" or "Sociopaths". If you are ambitious, then the "Loser" deal is clearly a bad one. [1] - http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-princip…

Wow, this is a really interesting article! I have to say it is a much darker view of the interaction between companies and employees than what I had put forth, but I do agree that it is more accurate for the majority of companies. I do think that an enlightened ownership (hopefully like mine) can treat people better.

Re: Why Work Marriages Make Sense

#33

Post by beachstartup »

nostrademons wrote: post #5

The view of romantic relationships underlying this piece is not one shared by most of my friends who are in stable relationships, and is IMHO rather unhealthy. People do not stay in romantic relationships to avoid "the trauma of getting dumped". They stay because their partner is who they are looking for, someone who enriches their life. Healthy people sting for a bit when dumped, but they get over it and find someon…

> People do not stay in romantic relationships to avoid "the trauma of getting dumped".

plenty of people do, in fact, stay in relationships for this reason. also to avoid being alone in general. not everyone has noble motives for the relationships they maintain. to think otherwise is quite frankly a bit naive.

i do agree with your larger point though.

Re: Why Work Marriages Make Sense

#34

Post by joelx »

GeneralMayhem wrote: post #7

Even if it were better for the employee to be married to their job (which is doubtful - see: the many articles telling us that the best way to get a raise is to negotiate your new starting salary), I worry that this post could be taken to mean that you should be loyal to your company in the current real world. Your employer does not want to marry you, and will in fact drop you as soon as something better comes along.…

Agreed... you would need to strike some sort of a deal directly with ownership, which is impossible for most public companies. Good point!

Re: Why Work Marriages Make Sense

#35

Post by joelx »

sebastianconcpt wrote: post #19

That's really a confusing thing in many ways. "The company can be sure that that person will show up each day and do their best to do good work." Sorry I'm too tired to refute the rest of the confusion but to leave something of value to think about: the way our brains operate have optimised us to think about people. Disney make some objects like creatures because is easy for kids to pick up on anthropomorphised objec…

I agree; this concept if applied to a company that did not (or legally could not) operate this way would lead to the detriment of the employee. By the same token, the concept if misapplied by a company to employees would lead the company to fail. It needs a bit of an enlightened team to work properly.

Re: Why Work Marriages Make Sense

#37

Post by opendais »

joelx wrote: post #30
opendais wrote: post #8

This article is terrible. Companies are not loyal to their employees and pretending otherwise is truly deluding yourselves. People in a marriage, in theory, should remain loyal for life.

I agree most companies are not loyal. It would need to be a 2 way relationship led by ownership (not really possible for publicly held companies, but can work for small wholly owned companies like mine). Perhaps it should even include some sort of legal contract... Good point though for most large companies.

Joel,

I think that sort of relationship should really only existing for a few types of government jobs to block regulatory capture [if you have a job for life with good pay and retirement...the only way to lose it is to be caught being bribed] and teaching [which politics might meddle with].

Please don't take my comment personally. I watched people who were loyal for 10+ years get laid off recently and it kind of has made me angry about the idea of that kind of loyalty to a legal fiction.

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