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

Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

annehelen.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 318 posts

Re: Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

#31

Post by potato3732842 »

Uzmanali wrote: post #9

I’ve had similar frustrations with gig economy services. A while ago, i hired someone from TaskRabbit to set up a standing desk. i thought it would be an easy process, but the assembler showed up late. then he had a hard time following basic instructions, and he also left halfway through, saying he had another job to go to. I finished the assembly myself at the end. then i realize these platforms don’t support skille…

>Now I hire local professionals, even if they cost more. Their experience and trustworthiness save me time and frustration.

I've found the exact opposite. The deeper the moat the bigger the jerks. I can pick up a guy at home depot who'll bust ass as hard as I will at a very reasonable price. Can't say that (especially the first part) about most professionals. Anything with a license or high capital investment keeping upstarts out is like pulling teeth to work with. Even for brick and mortar this holds. My local upholsterer is a pleasure to work with compared to any tire and alignment shop.

That said, I'm also not hiring people to put together Ikea beds for me or bringing piles of gravy work to any given professional.

Edit: I will add, I have consistently been amazed with what concrete truck drivers will do above and beyond the bare minimum and the consistent "get it done or tear shit up trying" attitude they bring. But this might be a regional thing.

Re: Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

#32

Post by 5w3llth3n »

The solution is simple; quit jobs, assemble our own shit. In the US, lean in to the 2A and tell the We peacefully assemble around jobs. Just peacefully assemble around a new meme of telling the walking dead to pound sand.

Education worked to an extent; most will not devolve into dumb fucks. Pretty pathetic seeing the adults kowtowed by the ossified establishment.

Re: Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

#33

Post by Sparkyte »

rqtwteye wrote: post #3

I have been in the workforce for almost 30 years now and I believe that everybody is getting more squeezed so they don’t have the time or energy to do a proper job. The expectation is to get it done as quickly as possible and not do more unless told so. In SW development in the 90s I had much more time for experimentation to figure things out. In the last years you often have some manager where you basically have to…

Definitely squeezed.

They say AI, but AI isn't eliminating programming. I've wrote a few applications with AI assistance. It probably would've been faster if I wrote it myself. The problem is that it doesn't have context and wildly assumes what your intentions are and cheats outcomes.

It will replace juniors for that one liner, it won't replace a senior developer who knows how to write code.

Re: Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

#34

Post by zeroCalories »

tmpz22 wrote: post #17
zw123456 wrote: post #8

I recently retired after 45 years in tech. I started out in 1978 at Bell Labs. I have had great jobs and terrible jobs. Great bosses and horrific bosses. And all the things in between. I did not just survive, I thrived and beyond and worked at 3 start ups and a bunch of other companies large and small. What I learned is to not to be afraid. Regardless of what is happening around you. Fear is the enemy. Don't be afrai…

> What I learned is to not to be afraid. Regardless of what is happening around you. Were you perhaps financially secure enough not to have to fear anything? Or tenured (Bell Labs!) that unemployment wasn't actually a threat to you? YMMV.

People acclimate to their circumstances. Do you think people in developing countries live in a constant state of panic because they don't have a seven figure retirement account?

Re: Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

#35

Post by dartos »

tmpz22 wrote: post #17
zw123456 wrote: post #8

I recently retired after 45 years in tech. I started out in 1978 at Bell Labs. I have had great jobs and terrible jobs. Great bosses and horrific bosses. And all the things in between. I did not just survive, I thrived and beyond and worked at 3 start ups and a bunch of other companies large and small. What I learned is to not to be afraid. Regardless of what is happening around you. Fear is the enemy. Don't be afrai…

> What I learned is to not to be afraid. Regardless of what is happening around you. Were you perhaps financially secure enough not to have to fear anything? Or tenured (Bell Labs!) that unemployment wasn't actually a threat to you? YMMV.

I long for the day when someone can give advice based on their own personal experience without someone else being like “well that won’t work for literally everyone”

Yeah obviously. It’s a personal anecdote.

Re: Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

#36

Post by adultcool »

zw123456 wrote: post #8

I recently retired after 45 years in tech. I started out in 1978 at Bell Labs. I have had great jobs and terrible jobs. Great bosses and horrific bosses. And all the things in between. I did not just survive, I thrived and beyond and worked at 3 start ups and a bunch of other companies large and small. What I learned is to not to be afraid. Regardless of what is happening around you. Fear is the enemy. Don't be afrai…

Fear is the mind killer.

Re: Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

#37

Post by luhsprwhk »

dartos wrote: post #35
tmpz22 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I learned is to not to be afraid. Regardless of what is happening around you. Were you perhaps financially secure enough not to have to fear anything? Or tenured (Bell Labs!) that unemployment wasn't actually a threat to you? YMMV.

I long for the day when someone can give advice based on their own personal experience without someone else being like “well that won’t work for literally everyone” Yeah obviously. It’s a personal anecdote.

I long for the day when people don't try to pass off vapid generic advice for likes. Waste of bandwidth.

Re: Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

#38

Post by KennyBlanken »

Uzmanali wrote: post #9

I’ve had similar frustrations with gig economy services. A while ago, i hired someone from TaskRabbit to set up a standing desk. i thought it would be an easy process, but the assembler showed up late. then he had a hard time following basic instructions, and he also left halfway through, saying he had another job to go to. I finished the assembly myself at the end. then i realize these platforms don’t support skille…

They don't focus on cheap convenience. They focus on milking as much money as they can from the customer and the restaurant, and then squeeze the worker to death by transferring as many expenses and risks as possible to the worker. Then they force them to engage in race to the bottom compensation-wise.

Result? Only the desperate do it, and get out of it as soon as possible. But the pay is so bad, people are increasingly trapped in it.

Re: Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

#39

Post by potato3732842 »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #15

Huh? Productivity per worker in the US is at an all-time high and is, I believe, the highest in the world? Can we please shit-can this notion that US workers are lazy/bad/whatever? That's not the problem. US workers are being squeezed to death. Corporations have gone from 50% tax burden to paying little taxes, the money is flowing almost entirely to the top 1% earners, C-suites, investors, private equity, etc and we'…

>Huh? Productivity per worker in the US is at an all-time high and is, I believe, the highest in the world?

Yeah, that's what happens when the latent cost of employing anyone for anything is so high all the menial stuff get shipped overseas or replaced with fewer expensive employees working with much more expensive labor saving technology/materials.

Also, I'm not sure how much I trust the numbers themselves, metrics and targets and all that.

Re: Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

#40

Post by zeroCalories »

brudgers wrote: post #13

The gig economy is way worse than the author describes. Gig workers can't advance with the companies they work for. Gig workers can't build a network with their coworkers because they don't have coworkers...and there's a good chance that they are competing for work with other people working for the same company. There are dead end day jobs, and then there is gig work.

This isn't too different from most low-skill jobs. Most people don't aspire to be assistant manager at McDonalds, they do it for a while, build a resume, then move.
Post reply on HN