This bakery will hire anyone • Hacker News Board

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#151

Post by VLM » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 12:44 PM UTC

jim_greco wrote: post #52

Varcht wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't get too excited about that unemployment number. Only ~63% of Americans are even trying to work and a lot of those that are, are under employed. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/628-labor-force-pa... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-06/americans-not-labor...

1) Underemployment is counted in the U-6 measure which has also trended down significantly this year. 2) The workforce participation rate number is meaningless unless you put it into context. How many people would be in the labor force that aren't currently? Is the drop because there was a lot of people retired early after losing their jobs or is it because a lot of young people gave up looking for work? The economic…

U-6 is meaningless in context. Its the number of people working part time who would theoretically like full time, plus folks who claim to want a job but haven't actually applied for a job (which includes jobs for which there are simply no more openings in the field, like the stereotypical "factory moved to china" company town).

It has absolutely nothing to do with the modern definition of underemployment as education majors working as waitresses or CS majors working helpdesks or similar examples of "I was trained for a totally different field paying four times as much, or I was trained to be my bosses bosses boss, but here I am instead with a paycheck lower than some current high school students"

"The economic improvement is undeniable."

Where? Everyone seems agreed its the case for propaganda reasons, although its invariably described as "far away from here" for all personal values of "here". With the usual meaningless weird exceptions for ivy league grads of CS programs in Manhattan and SV that we all know about etc etc.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#152

Post by rsanek » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 1:08 PM UTC

cubano wrote: post #15

As someone with several drug related felonies on my record, I can do nothing but applaud the efforts of this CEO, although on a different level I wonder if any adult working a minimum wage job isn't living a very bleak existence anyway, and in fact isn't being exploited for having a brain disorder we currently call "addiction" The problem with people who let drugs seriously affect their life is that...they let drugs…

This article is garbage. As others have pointed out, the author is a repeat plagiarist [1], and the point that he makes in the article is heavily based around the Rat Park study - one that has struggled to be replicated [2]. The clickbait title doesn't help things either.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Hari [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#153

Post by jlarocco » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 2:25 PM UTC

Did anybody else find the third to last paragraph a little odd?

> As I never tire of pointing out, environmental progress depends on social progress. When people are desperately poor they have no choice but to pillage the commons — to cut down forests, or turn to crime. When those people find the means to support themselves with dignity, forests are protected and high-crime areas turn into healthy, walkable neighborhoods.

They cut down forests? Is that really a thing people do when they can't support themselves?

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#154

Post by patrickaljord » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 2:33 PM UTC

jlarocco wrote: post #153

Did anybody else find the third to last paragraph a little odd? > As I never tire of pointing out, environmental progress depends on social progress. When people are desperately poor they have no choice but to pillage the commons — to cut down forests, or turn to crime. When those people find the means to support themselves with dignity, forests are protected and high-crime areas turn into healthy, walkable neighborh…

> They cut down forests? Is that really a thing people do when they can't support themselves?

In region like Brazil and Indonesia I guess.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#155

Post by DanBC » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 2:36 PM UTC

jlarocco wrote: post #153

Did anybody else find the third to last paragraph a little odd? > As I never tire of pointing out, environmental progress depends on social progress. When people are desperately poor they have no choice but to pillage the commons — to cut down forests, or turn to crime. When those people find the means to support themselves with dignity, forests are protected and high-crime areas turn into healthy, walkable neighborh…

Grist is an environmental site. Cutting down forests is talking about deforestation, especially of the rain forest.

In that context yes, poor farmers deforest an area; they sell the timber and try to use the land for farming.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#156

Post by Klathmon » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 3:22 PM UTC

sgift wrote: post #62

tzs wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The government could disallow access to all felony records (probably with an exemption for police) So instead of searching government records to find out if you have been convicted of a felony when you apply to work for me, I use Google to find a newspaper report of your conviction. Not as reliable, but will still probably turn up most applicants with serious felony convictions. If we are in one of the 40 state tha…

I give you that with very high motivation you can find out anything about anyone, more or less. I still think that the count of employers who would use such measures is miniscule compared to the count of employers who check felony records (because it's easy). Additionally, according to this paper(1) around 8.6% of people have a felony conviction in the US. I have a hard time believing that all - or even most - of thi…

Each company might not go through that on their own, but it will only be a matter of time until companies are started up whose business model is doing just that.

For $49.95 we will find any past convictions that any of your new hires might have!

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#157

Post by cubano » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 3:31 PM UTC

rsanek wrote: post #152

cubano wrote: post #15

As someone with several drug related felonies on my record, I can do nothing but applaud the efforts of this CEO, although on a different level I wonder if any adult working a minimum wage job isn't living a very bleak existence anyway, and in fact isn't being exploited for having a brain disorder we currently call "addiction" The problem with people who let drugs seriously affect their life is that...they let drugs…

This article is garbage. As others have pointed out, the author is a repeat plagiarist [1], and the point that he makes in the article is heavily based around the Rat Park study - one that has struggled to be replicated [2]. The clickbait title doesn't help things either. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Hari [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

Garbage is probably somewhat strong, but I agree about the title.

I suppose, like so much these days, it all depends on your POV and ingrained confirmation biases whether you believe research about the incorrigibility of addicts or the hope of rescue.

My thoughts on this whole "Shoot the messenger, he's a plagiarist" line of thinking is that we live in a remix society, and certainly in music, producers and artists are given wide leeway to come up with new ways to use old sounds with no repercussions.

I wonder if the ability to take old written content and present it in a fresh, persuasive way shouldn't be given the same respect.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#158

Post by yoshizar » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 4:10 PM UTC

I was hoping for interviews with some of the workers that were photographed. It'd be interesting to hear their opinions about their job and employer, and learn more about their experience going through the apprenticeship program.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#159

Post by codyZ » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 4:24 PM UTC

I visited this Bakery twice - once to potentially buy bulk, another time as part of a business case study. All the employees, atleast the ones I observed working the floor, were all happy and smiling. Good for them.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#160

Post by DanielBMarkham » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 4:47 PM UTC

I have long suspected that for software developers, not bakers, you could hire off the street after a very brief interview and then do a combination of training and auditioning for the work. My belief is this would be both cheaper and more effective than all the money spent in the traditional process. The one caveat is that teams would have to be willing to work at 2 or 3 times their optimal size until the culling was done.

This is an experiment that really needs to be done. Google and the rest of the gang are beating the living hell out of "tell me everybody else you know that's cool" -- there's got to be some opportunities at the other end of the spectrum.