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

What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

residentcontrarian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 458 posts

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#41

Post by dazc »

sandworm101 wrote: post #2

>> A meatgrinder job is a job that pays more not because there are fewer people who can do it, but because there are fewer people that will. They have insanely high turnover, because some aspect of the job is so bad that the vast majority of people who try it don’t stay. Maybe it’s long hours that never stop or maybe it’s constant on-call work. Maybe it’s an insane, stress-intensive workload you can’t begin to keep u…

> Pediatric oncology. ... Or criminal defense attorneys/prosecutors.

Not detracting from the point but, in either case, this person is not going to be on the breadline as a consequence of quitting his/her job. They will get a similalrly high paying and high prestige job the next day.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#42

Post by halfmatthalfcat »

brokenodometer wrote: post #37
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of criminal prosecutors, I'm binging Law and Order (the OG). I completely understand it's a dramatization of real life but I never understood how complex the process is and how much they actually lose . You'd think the State/People have the upper hand at every turn and most of the time they do, but the amount of process, discovery and overcoming the reasonable doubt burden on their (relatively) limited budge…

Prosecutors do a lot of work, but the idea that they lose a lot is questionable. In the federal system, more than 90% of defendants plead guilty, and only around 1% of defendants take a case to trial and ultimately win. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/11/only-2-of-f... The numbers in state courts may vary, but in NY they are similar to the federal system. https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Do…

Yes true, I was more thinking when things went to trial. Pleas make up a large share of outcomes. I was just more surprised at how badly things can go wrong in the process which ends up with a dismissal or acquittal; whether that's police process, evidentiary, testimony, etc.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#43

Post by analog31 »

k__ wrote: post #4

I always have to think about this when people say "buy more at small businesses!" Most small businesse owners I met were just as shitty as the ones of big businesses, they just weren't as smart as them.

This is something people don't think about when they claim that the skilled trades should be a viable alternative to college education. Most employment in the trades is with small or family owned businesses, where labor laws are rarely enforced. And with family businesses, your prospects hinge on whether you belong to the family or not.

It also means people might be more willing to go into those trades if they were ensured of better labor law enforcement, health care, safety net, and so forth.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#44

Post by throw1234651234 »

alexfromapex wrote: post #31

I think this article starts to touch on a topic area I don't hear much about but am extremely frustrated by: how modern work for a lot of jobs has become de facto indentured servitude. In the "When They Know They've Got You" section, they mention the real challenges of not being able to obtain a lawyer if things truly aren't fair. The average worker can't afford anything without taking on debt. Insurance is a scam in…

This is the best post in this thread. This is all very much true. One more thing that most Americans don't admit is that people mostly work jobs they have started out in. When I was in shitty jobs, people started out and stayed there. As I move up, I notice that people also started out and stayed there. Anecdotally, the US has much less mobility than what is commonly believed.

Anyway, I went off topic - don't want to detract from the parent point - you can work 10 hrs a day and not be able to afford anything and barely have a chance to progress because you are ground down by "real life^tm". Tech and MDs are definitely a special little island.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#45

Post by bryanrasmussen »

ModernMech wrote: post #20
sandworm101 wrote: post #2

>> A meatgrinder job is a job that pays more not because there are fewer people who can do it, but because there are fewer people that will. They have insanely high turnover, because some aspect of the job is so bad that the vast majority of people who try it don’t stay. Maybe it’s long hours that never stop or maybe it’s constant on-call work. Maybe it’s an insane, stress-intensive workload you can’t begin to keep u…

> A working day surrounded by kids undergoing painful treatments, particularly when you are the person prescribing those treatments, grinds down one's soul. This is why psychopaths are overrepresented in such professions. I guess it makes it easier to cut into people, and to make dispassionate decisions. edit: are the downvotes because you think I'm implying this is a bad thing? Am I wrong?

didn't downvote, but I wonder if you have a study showing the stats. Before I've heard that psychopaths are over-represented in politics, as CEOs, as lawyers, as law enforcement, and as criminals. Now also, evidently, in pediatric oncology?

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#46

Post by permalac »

woodruffw wrote: post #30

This was a great read. I think the true value of money is one of HN's biggest bubbles: the average person on here (but not all of us!) jumped right from their undergraduate career to making a six-figure salary in a city with lavish public amenities (by American standards). It's very easy to forget that the average American salary is less than half of that, and even that hides the number of people living well below th…

Sometimes I forget that those 6 figure jobs require one living in US, then I remember and I'm a bit happier with my not 6 figures job.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#47

Post by JaimeThompson »

crate_barre wrote: post #17
JaimeThompson wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It’s better to get paid $0 being in the right field for a bit than actually being paid in the wrong path. I am going to make the guess that you either have a lot of money right now or have an amazing support system to help you because such options aren't available to everyone who is making sure their food budget is correct down to the penny.

Your guess is wrong then. I’m more of a person that has been at the upside and downside of things. I know what it’s like to just need the paycheck. But I never looked at it like that, it was mostly a paycheck to create the opportunity via stability to evolve another path. In that case, holistically, that dead-end job had a purpose for creating financial groundwork (once upon a time for me it was literally to buy some…

You not being able to pay for hosting is a bit difference in scope then not bring able to feed yourself the correct number of calories for multiple days at a time.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#48

Post by Avshalom »

formerkrogemp wrote: post #26
TrackerFF wrote: post #16

Worked a wide variety of low-skill, low-pay temp jobs during college. Lots of the people I worked with there were juggling multiple gigs, and were sort of locked into that system of work. By the time I graduated, it was mostly temp firms that handled the recruitment - and FYI, they absolutely follow the "hire fast, fire fast" mantra. So while you could land work the next day, you could just as easily get fired from t…

You just described my first 5 years out of college until I went back to school. You take that "temporary" job to pay the bills, and then you never get that entry level position to break into your industry after your degree and you're SOL and going back to school in the hopes that a master's degree and project portfolio will help you get an entry level position or internship which will translate into finally being abl…

Then you graduate again in december of 2019 and you lose another 2 years to whims of fate.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#49

Post by rahimnathwani »

brokenodometer wrote: post #37
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of criminal prosecutors, I'm binging Law and Order (the OG). I completely understand it's a dramatization of real life but I never understood how complex the process is and how much they actually lose . You'd think the State/People have the upper hand at every turn and most of the time they do, but the amount of process, discovery and overcoming the reasonable doubt burden on their (relatively) limited budge…

Prosecutors do a lot of work, but the idea that they lose a lot is questionable. In the federal system, more than 90% of defendants plead guilty, and only around 1% of defendants take a case to trial and ultimately win. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/11/only-2-of-f... The numbers in state courts may vary, but in NY they are similar to the federal system. https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Do…

"Obviously a guilty plea still requires work, and maybe a lot of it. But in terms of outcomes, they rarely lose."

Right, but this is the result of:

1. Selection bias (prosecutors only prosecute a case they have a great chance of winning).

2. Negotiation (prosecutors will charge for lesser crimes than those they believe were committed, in order to gain agreement to a plea deal).

The percentage alone doesn't tell you much about how hard it is to gain a conviction. It tells you a lot about how willing prosecutors are to prosecute a case that they may not be able to win.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#50

Post by oaiey »

thenerdhead wrote: post #40

I had a "shitty job" as a high schooler. I was a janitor at a public elementary school where I'd have to clean the unspeakable things that kids do in the bathrooms and classrooms. While it was a literal "shitty" job, anyone could do it for the $10/hr. I saw that it was a dead-end though. I would be looking at my twenty-something year old boss and wanting much more for myself than the fun job he had. I saw that I coul…

.. the privilege of a teenager with unlimited time and no responsibility.

I get your point but the personal development can only happen if the primal needs are covered.

Post reply on HN