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The future of work is not threatening your employees

warzel.substack.com

11–20 of 71 posts

Re: The future of work is not threatening your employees

#11
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"during what has undoubtedly been one of the most difficult years of the previous century" That seems a bit hyperbolic.

Lol, really? A pandemic doesn't count?

"The previous century" includes the Great Depression, WWII, the Cold War, a bunch of nuclear war close calls, and 9/11. Also if you include the whole 20th century, WWI and the Spanish Flu.

And those are just of the top of my head, I'm sure I've missed some.

Personally, I'm not sure this pandemic qualifies as "one of the most difficult"...

Re: The future of work is not threatening your employees

#12

Wow, using an op-ed in the Washington Post to threaten her employees' careers? Where is this one in the How To Be A Great Leader manual? Wouldn't a private internal memo be at least marginally better than picking a fight publicly? Why are executives, regardless of industry, digging in and going to such great lengths to insist that physical presence in a purpose-built office building is the only possible way to work?

My guess is that they are by-and-large older and not digital natives

Re: The future of work is not threatening your employees

#13
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"during what has undoubtedly been one of the most difficult years of the previous century" That seems a bit hyperbolic.

Lol, really? A pandemic doesn't count?

One could argue that being shut off from in-person interaction is not as big of a challenge, as escaping a genocide or being drafted into an army to fight $ideology on the other side of the globe.

Pandemic is sure bad, but not "half of all men in your country being killed in war" bad.

Re: The future of work is not threatening your employees

#14
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, really? A pandemic doesn't count?

Perhaps that should say "this century" because the 21st century has got nothing on the 20th.

Sorry, but I think I can objectively say that a year in which a global pandemic occurred that took millions of lives and completely upended normal life for the majority of people counts as one of the worst years since 1920. The fact that anyone would question that in this forum is, I think, extremely telling.

Re: The future of work is not threatening your employees

#15
post #2

The future of work will be whatever is easier for the CEO. So easy for CEO, hard for everybody else is what we will get.

The future of work is whatever employees will tolerate. CEO’s are less than worthless without competent people to boss around.

Re: The future of work is not threatening your employees

#16
post #5

Seems like there are a lot of ways that employers are effectively blaming their employees for COVID. Some of the anecdotes in this article really resonated with me. It does feel "super shitty" when you feel as though you've been barely holding it together during what has undoubtedly been one of the most difficult years of the previous century and yet your employer seems to feel entitled to hold you to the usual stand…

"during what has undoubtedly been one of the most difficult years of the previous century" That seems a bit hyperbolic.

I think that would vary by person and location. Some people have had a terrible time losing friends and family without the option to even say goodbye, which is genuinely awful. Then people who have lost their livelihood and even become homeless.

On the other hand, I got the best job I've ever had and I don't even know a single person who got covid. Restricted travel has only been a minor inconvenience because I live in such an incredibly beautiful and temperate place. In the most selfish perspective, this seems like a great year for me. There are probably many like me, and also in between.

All that is to say I don't think we can truly evaluate how difficult this has really been until we see the full consequence revealed in several years. Some people speculate that we will collectively bounce back in a roaring 20s kind of way, others suspect this has kneecapped our global economy and we haven't seen the worst yet.

Re: The future of work is not threatening your employees

#17

Wow, using an op-ed in the Washington Post to threaten her employees' careers? Where is this one in the How To Be A Great Leader manual? Wouldn't a private internal memo be at least marginally better than picking a fight publicly? Why are executives, regardless of industry, digging in and going to such great lengths to insist that physical presence in a purpose-built office building is the only possible way to work?

Well one thing -- it's much easier to sexually harass your employees and abuse whatever power you derive purpose-built hierarchy when you are all in the same building.

Re: The future of work is not threatening your employees

#19
post #11
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, really? A pandemic doesn't count?

"The previous century" includes the Great Depression, WWII, the Cold War, a bunch of nuclear war close calls, and 9/11. Also if you include the whole 20th century, WWI and the Spanish Flu. And those are just of the top of my head, I'm sure I've missed some. Personally, I'm not sure this pandemic qualifies as "one of the most difficult"...

It's almost as though you're responding to a different statement than the one that I made. What about what I said would have denied that any of those things you mentioned were not also terrible things that are among the worst things in the past century?

Re: The future of work is not threatening your employees

#20
post #5

Seems like there are a lot of ways that employers are effectively blaming their employees for COVID. Some of the anecdotes in this article really resonated with me. It does feel "super shitty" when you feel as though you've been barely holding it together during what has undoubtedly been one of the most difficult years of the previous century and yet your employer seems to feel entitled to hold you to the usual stand…

> so utterly inhuman t I worked for a company once that moved offices-- literally, there was no workplace to go to for 2 weeks (keep in mind this company made hardware).

The C level management sends out a company wide e-mail saying "the move will not be tolerated as an excuse for missing deadlines."

God I wish I had a copy of that e-mail.

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