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How work kills us

economist.com

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Re: How work kills us

#51

Post by pc86 »

falcolas wrote: post #48
pc86 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apparently exercising protection that dates back to antiquity makes you undesirable. I mean it's easy to categorize it this way but I think you're ignoring the actual risks for the company. Yes, bankruptcy is a completely legal and typically very useful legal mechanism for restructuring. There's nothing ethically or morally wrong with bankruptcy or even having multiple ones in your history depending on the circumst…

> it shows an inability to manage ones finances and staying within a reasonable band of spending In a world^w country where being sick can put you in complete and utter financial ruin, or where buying a house you can make payments on but whose value drops precipitously resulting in a seizure of the house, I call bullshit. There's many, many reasons in our world today that you might need to declare bankruptcy, and bei…

Without letting this devolve into the typical anti-US-healthcare-system circlejerk, medical debt is one of the few ways completely outside of ones control. While I'm sure there are a few, I can't think of another one that is entirely outside of the individual's control.

> where buying a house you can make payments on but whose value drops precipitously resulting in a seizure of the house

This is patently false. You can buy a house for $400k and if its value drops to $100k nothing changes for you unless you want to move, which is a choice. Nobody is going to take your house just because you're underwater on paper as long as you keep making payments.

Re: How work kills us

#52

Post by pc86 »

ryanmercer wrote: post #50
pc86 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apparently exercising protection that dates back to antiquity makes you undesirable. I mean it's easy to categorize it this way but I think you're ignoring the actual risks for the company. Yes, bankruptcy is a completely legal and typically very useful legal mechanism for restructuring. There's nothing ethically or morally wrong with bankruptcy or even having multiple ones in your history depending on the circumst…

>But more often than not, it shows an inability to manage ones finances and staying within a reasonable band of spending You know what home economics taught me in high school? How to sew a tennis racket cover and how to make a beaded lizard keychain/zipper pull. You know what it didn't teach? Balancing a check book, taxes, 19%+ interest rates on credit, emergency fund savings, how to deal with sudden unemployment, ho…

I don't think anyone will argue that the US public education system is teaching its students what it should be about personal finances and money management. It's a disgrace, frankly.

> I was paying my debts monthly, barely, that wasn't good enough for one of the lenders and they sued me in small claims.

I'm sorry but there is definitely information missing here. If you were making the full minimum payment you wouldn't be sued, ever. If you were paying less than the minimum then you weren't actually "paying your debts monthly."

> I never got the summons (apparently quite common)

I can't speak to how common something like this is but you do typically need to be served with the summons, or the plaintiff needs to show some sort of proof that you received the notice (e.g. a certified mail receipt or statement from a process server that you were indeed served). But I can say it's not the first time I've heard of someone being unaware of a court date so who knows.

Re: How work kills us

#53

Post by reustle »

There was a small documentary recently about japanese people who die alone in their houses. One of the inverviewed people said that people have a really hard to adjusting from the community they have at work, and the hierarchical system, to completely on their own in a 'flat' community once they're retired.

Re: How work kills us

#54

Post by ptero »

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…

Some random thoughts; sorry if those are off the mark. If the challenge is that you have in demand skills, but old bankruptcy is a black mark for employers, try small companies -- they tend to be much less bureaucratic. Personal contacts help a lot, too.

On a degree -- if you have skills and just need a piece of paper, maybe look at some gray area schools (especially non-US based) that will effectively sell you a cheap one. Those are complete scams in terms of acquiring skills, but if all you need is a piece of paper it might be an acceptable ROI.

If the challenge is that you do not have skills that are appreciated by employers, try switching fields completely. Are you handy? Folks who can do medium sized house jobs well (e.g., bathroom remodeling) are hunted by homeowners. I have seen groups of friends keeping such folks occupied full time for years. Asking if he could do a hardwood floor gets me a sharp "we got him busy for months from now; go away" from others. Surely there are other examples.

However, to do this career change you need to have energy. This is hard given your current work, but IMO there is no way around it. Looking friendly and energetic can get you through sketchy resume. Looking like a dead fish will kill your chances even with a stellar papers.

Sorry if this is completely off the mark. And best of luck!!

Re: How work kills us

#55

Post by maxerickson »

cjohansson wrote: post #45
maxerickson wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That sounds like a good argument that nobody would disagree with but by the end of the day I think that being unemployed is probably worse to your health than having a work "that kills you"

Well, the article isn't arguing that unemployment would be better, so that's apparently just a tedious reaction to the title?

Re: How work kills us

#56

Post by ryanmercer »

pc86 wrote: post #52
ryanmercer wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But more often than not, it shows an inability to manage ones finances and staying within a reasonable band of spending You know what home economics taught me in high school? How to sew a tennis racket cover and how to make a beaded lizard keychain/zipper pull. You know what it didn't teach? Balancing a check book, taxes, 19%+ interest rates on credit, emergency fund savings, how to deal with sudden unemployment, ho…

I don't think anyone will argue that the US public education system is teaching its students what it should be about personal finances and money management. It's a disgrace, frankly. > I was paying my debts monthly, barely, that wasn't good enough for one of the lenders and they sued me in small claims. I'm sorry but there is definitely information missing here. If you were making the full minimum payment you wouldn'…

>I can't speak to how common something like this is but you do typically need to be served with the summons, or the plaintiff needs to show some sort of proof that you received the notice (e.g. a certified mail receipt or statement from a process server that you were indeed served). But I can say it's not the first time I've heard of someone being unaware of a court date so who knows.

Here's just one site with many threads

https://www.google.com/search?q=sued+in+small+claims+court+n...

In my case I found out I'd been sued after the wage garnishment, oddly enough my check was 666$ that pay period which was considerably less than it should have been, I immediately told my manager, she told HR, HR pulled me into their office and informed me my wages were garnished. I then had to search the state court records to find that Capital One had sued me 3x via "bowman & heintz" and a quick google query shows it's quite common for people to have been sued, and never received a summons, by that shady 'law firm' with an alarming number of default judgements awarded because the person never knew.

If I pull up the court records for the cases they do not even state when I was served, or if I was served. Just that a hearing was scheduled, a bench trial was commenced and default judgement awarded as I failed to appear.

Welcome to life for many people.

Re: How work kills us

#57

Post by sudomake »

some_account wrote: post #9
mapcars wrote: post #3

Let me tell you the secret - life as a process is killing you every moment. One can not exist without another. Jobs is just something we chose to spent our short time on, as well as few other things.

We choose to spend our time working? Only because there is no other reasonable option.

We have this absurd combination of people that are working 40,50,60+ hours a week when some of them might prefer less, and people cant find any work so they are stuck at 0 hours a week.

Re: How work kills us

#58

Post by pc86 »

ryanmercer wrote: post #56
pc86 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone will argue that the US public education system is teaching its students what it should be about personal finances and money management. It's a disgrace, frankly. > I was paying my debts monthly, barely, that wasn't good enough for one of the lenders and they sued me in small claims. I'm sorry but there is definitely information missing here. If you were making the full minimum payment you wouldn'…

>I can't speak to how common something like this is but you do typically need to be served with the summons, or the plaintiff needs to show some sort of proof that you received the notice (e.g. a certified mail receipt or statement from a process server that you were indeed served). But I can say it's not the first time I've heard of someone being unaware of a court date so who knows. Here's just one site with many t…

I believe you, but I stand by my previous point that paying the amount due on or before the due date would have never resulted in a lawsuit, especially from a firm like Capital One. Assuming it's a credit card (ca. 2010-2012) there would have been a slew of internet notifications not to mention the mailings if you were past due. I charged off a Citi card in 2009/2010 and can say from experience I had ample opportunity to make it right, I just didn't have the funds and negotiating a charge off with Citi directly resulted in the quickest end at the cost of a big credit hit and being unlikely to ever get credit from Citi ever again.

Edit: And this is a point that you've ignored in this entire thread, which leads me to believe you were paying below the minimum payment on a credit card. This is an excellent way to get an account sent to collections and not have liquid cash available to actually pay it off. The worst of both worlds.

Re: How work kills us

#60

Post by sudshekhar »

jmngomes wrote: post #24
expertentipp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 experie…

> private hospitals often forward patients they are unable to handle (e.g. complicated births) to public hospitals, who are more skilled and experienced.

In India, this happens simply because private hospitals don't want mortalities on their hands. Complicated cases often mean higher chances of things going wrong. Best let the public hospitals handle it.

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