Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Can we have the day off?

mlsu.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 823 posts

Re: Can we have the day off?

#181

Post by nlawalker »

Cakez0r wrote: post #68
cattown wrote: post #33

This article is kind of playful, but I think there’s a serious point here that’s not discussed enough. We’re being asked to usher in huge productivity gains by introducing AI to our workflows, but we’re not asking how does it help us? Not a lot of us stand to directly gain from our employers becoming more productive. I know everybody is afraid of getting fired and replaced with AI or whatever right now. But we should…

The reality is that most people are paid for their time, not for their output. I think most contracts for salaried employees are along the lines of "work n hours a week". If you want to get paid for output, you can't be a salaried employee.

Salaried employees aren't paid for their time, they're paid for a combination of their output and their availability. Availability used to be strongly coupled with time but technology has introduced some flexibility there.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#183

Post by codebje »

rootusrootus wrote: post #121
arjvik wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

something something you're paid the amount the market values your work, which in today's job market is an order of magnitude less than the profit you bring the company

> in today's job market is an order of magnitude less than the profit you bring the company Then why have we not all been fired already? Sounds like an instant win.

Wouldn't the parent's post mean that you bring profit to the company, but you're worth less than the full amount of that profit because, should you demand to be paid more, you can be replaced by someone who won't demand more.

(Has there actually been a lot of terminations in the US tech industry, or is that an odd biasing mechanism causing me to see such things as bigger than they are?)

Re: Can we have the day off?

#184

Post by bigmadshoe »

Cakez0r wrote: post #68
cattown wrote: post #33

This article is kind of playful, but I think there’s a serious point here that’s not discussed enough. We’re being asked to usher in huge productivity gains by introducing AI to our workflows, but we’re not asking how does it help us? Not a lot of us stand to directly gain from our employers becoming more productive. I know everybody is afraid of getting fired and replaced with AI or whatever right now. But we should…

The reality is that most people are paid for their time, not for their output. I think most contracts for salaried employees are along the lines of "work n hours a week". If you want to get paid for output, you can't be a salaried employee.

Yes but you are missing the point: our time can now make the company way more money. Can’t we demand a piece of this?

Re: Can we have the day off?

#185

Post by twbarr »

ux266478 wrote: post #70
cattown wrote: post #33

This article is kind of playful, but I think there’s a serious point here that’s not discussed enough. We’re being asked to usher in huge productivity gains by introducing AI to our workflows, but we’re not asking how does it help us? Not a lot of us stand to directly gain from our employers becoming more productive. I know everybody is afraid of getting fired and replaced with AI or whatever right now. But we should…

> Or when our paycheck is going to be multiplied accordingly. That doesn't increase shareholder value, so it would be a violation of the c-suite's fiduciary responsibility. Sorry, the extra capital will instead be used on stock buybacks.

Fiduciary responsibility also requires long-term thinking. If AI is writing the code, I need the smartest, most well-rested supervisors I can get.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#186

Post by codebje »

r-w wrote: post #105
arjvik wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

something something you're paid the amount the market values your work, which in today's job market is an order of magnitude less than the profit you bring the company

Well then why make it easy for my work to get devalued? It's not like workers are sitting on the sidelines here, they (I'm aggregate, at least) hold all the power.

Sounds like an argument for organised labour to me!

Re: Can we have the day off?

#188

Post by Wobbles42 »

lostlogin wrote: post #124
calvinmorrison wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my dad grew up in a house without running water in a town where everyone worked in a mine and the lead was everywhere. he hitchiked to alaska for seasonal work in a fish cannery. Yeah I don't know... i think things are better than they were 40 years ago.

> i think things are better than they were 40 years ago. In relative terms, they seem much worse, Americans standing isn’t what it was. In absolute terms, I don’t know. What’s the measure?

The measure was clearly stated: the life style of that one guy's dad. He's the official consumer well being canary.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#189

Post by adamtaylor_13 »

dozerly wrote: post #146
chipsrafferty wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I am able to do 10x work with a tool that costs you Y, then my wages should rise by 10x - Y. Then, let's do a 3 day work week and multiply it by 0.6. Pretty simple math

Sure, unless others are willing to do your job for less than that.

Others are willing to do my job for less. And yet... here I am making what I make.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#190

Post by winterbourne »

cattown wrote: post #33

This article is kind of playful, but I think there’s a serious point here that’s not discussed enough. We’re being asked to usher in huge productivity gains by introducing AI to our workflows, but we’re not asking how does it help us? Not a lot of us stand to directly gain from our employers becoming more productive. I know everybody is afraid of getting fired and replaced with AI or whatever right now. But we should…

It's a modern version of: "we're firing you, but your last task will be to train your lower-cost replacement".
Post reply on HN