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How work kills us

economist.com

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Re: How work kills us

#21

Post by mario0b1 »

some_account wrote: post #10

>> In the US, employment status and your employer determine your access to health-care I have spotted the problem. As usual, America wins the absurdity trophy.

This passage made me appreciate germanys health care. You can think of germany whatever you want, but the easy access to health care is super glorious. I think a lot of people that live here are not aware of it, because it just happens to be there and they don't have to think about it. The past 2 1/2 years i had to go to so many doctors and I was just happy to live in a country with absolutely beautiful healthcare. But maybe it is bad how the german health system works and I just have been lucky. It's possible, but I don't think so.

Re: How work kills us

#22

Post by mrweasel »

expertentipp wrote: post #16
some_account wrote: post #10

>> In the US, employment status and your employer determine your access to health-care I have spotted the problem. As usual, America wins the absurdity trophy.

Isn’t it case in most of the world, including many EU countries? Please don’t bring up the “free” healthcare, unviersal healthcare can really mistreat one for whom contributions are not paid.

>unviersal healthcare can really mistreat one for whom contributions are not paid

The point is that there are no contributions, well taxes, but that doesn't go towards the individual but the health services as a whole.

Stil, your employer can buy you "better" (or at least quicker) access to private alternatives, but I don't think that's what you meant.

Re: How work kills us

#24

Post by jmngomes »

expertentipp wrote: post #16
some_account wrote: post #10

>> In the US, employment status and your employer determine your access to health-care I have spotted the problem. As usual, America wins the absurdity trophy.

Isn’t it case in most of the world, including many EU countries? Please don’t bring up the “free” healthcare, unviersal healthcare can really mistreat one for whom contributions are not paid.

It's not the case at all in most, if not all, EU countries.

You have access to healthcare for small fees, and you'll generally get better care than in the private sector; you'll just have to wait longer if it's not urgent.

I know for a fact that in at least two EU capitals private hospitals often forward patients they are unable to handle (e.g. complicated births) to public hospitals, who are more skilled and experienced.

Re: How work kills us

#25

Post by ryanmercer »

mrweasel wrote: post #19
ryanmercer wrote: post #15

>Second, employers affect the stress-inducing conditions of work: work-family conflict, long work hours, absence of control over one’s work environment, and economic insecurity. Stress makes people sick both directly and by inducing unhealthy individual behaviours such as smoking, drinking, and overeating. Not just stress, I simply hate my job. I'm stuck here, for 12 years now. "so get another job Ryan" bahahahaha yo…

Do you know why a personal bankruptcy prevents you from being hired? That seems very weird, it should be completely separate from your work and can't in anyway harm your employer.

In the case of that company, they worked with finances and it makes me a 'risk'. Apparently exercising protection that dates back to antiquity makes you undesirable.

My bankruptcy also prevents me from ever having a security clearance again as I'm considered a security risk (blackmail, my mom worked at DoD before she had to retire via disability and one of her co-workers got fired when her debt shot up post divorce and it caused her clearance to get yanked).

Nolo has an ok article about it covering both the security clearance and the issue I had https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/will-bankruptcy-affe...

>Private employers, however, aren’t constrained by a similar rule, and some people find that having a bankruptcy in their past comes back to haunt them—mainly when applying for jobs that require them to deal with money (bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, and so on).

If you go look at a lot of traditional job applications when they are asking about prior military experience and criminal history they also usually ask something along the lines of "have you ever declared bankruptcy". A bankruptcy effectively makes you a 2nd class citizen in the eyes of many companies... which is funny because a quick google search shows me a little less than 1% of the US population files bankruptcy annually which means you have a statistically significant percentage of the population walking around with bankruptcies on their record, the only people that have it worse are those with criminal convictions (about 1 in 3 adults, shockingly) so I guess I'm somewhat lucky anyway.

Re: How work kills us

#26

Post by garganzol »

ryanmercer wrote: post #15

>Second, employers affect the stress-inducing conditions of work: work-family conflict, long work hours, absence of control over one’s work environment, and economic insecurity. Stress makes people sick both directly and by inducing unhealthy individual behaviours such as smoking, drinking, and overeating. Not just stress, I simply hate my job. I'm stuck here, for 12 years now. "so get another job Ryan" bahahahaha yo…

I feel you mate. Don't get too distracted on self-imposed limitations. You can always try to do your own thing (e.g. a digital product, whatever). There is no need for a stellar credit report to sell your offering worldwide.

Re: How work kills us

#27

Post by maxerickson »

cjohansson wrote: post #6

Being unemployed might kill us even more. I'm not sure I understand the argument here. In Finnish there is a idiom_ "People have died at home as well" that captures this idea that doing stuff away from home is not necessary less safe than being at home - you can die at home as well.

The argument is that companies do arbitrary things that are both harmful to the health of employees and also harmful to the profitability of the companies.

So the idea is that companies (and society) can actually make more money by doing things that are less impactful on employee health and that they should do them.

Re: How work kills us

#29

Post by NeedMoreTea »

js8 wrote: post #8

"The 19th-century liberals reformed the workplace and changed capitalism to save it." This made me laugh. Which liberals? Karl Marx?

Many of the famous 19th century liberal industrialists that dramatically improved worker conditions for the period. Remarkably different to the attitudes of companies and directors today. For instance...

William Lever, founder of Lever Brothers (now Unilever) famously created Port Sunlight village to house workers and ensure a healthy and happy workforce.

He personally led the planning and building of the village. Hundreds of houses (beautiful houses in a lovely setting, even today) were built. Along with those the village had a free hospital, schools, a concert hall, open air swimming pool, church, and an art gallery (and bought art to put in it). He also introduced welfare and free education for workers and their families.

There were many others. Modern day executives could learn a lot.

Re: How work kills us

#30

Post by the-dude »

ryanmercer wrote: post #15

>Second, employers affect the stress-inducing conditions of work: work-family conflict, long work hours, absence of control over one’s work environment, and economic insecurity. Stress makes people sick both directly and by inducing unhealthy individual behaviours such as smoking, drinking, and overeating. Not just stress, I simply hate my job. I'm stuck here, for 12 years now. "so get another job Ryan" bahahahaha yo…

Have you considered switching fields? For example, a good plasterer could make more money than an average software dev in NL.
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