Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you the author?
Nope. Just someone who sees wisdom in the message.
[deleted]
Maybe you should do less 'work'
61–70 of 431 posts
Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'
#62Most people work within some kind of incorporated structure, as employees or contractors on hourly wages or salaries. Unless they're also invested in the corporate structure, i.e. they're the providers of capital, they'll see no real benefit from the success of the business other than avoiding losing their job when the business crashes.
The solution is pretty obvious, and is fairly common in Germany at least: employees and investors must be viewed as equivalent stakeholders. This means worker organizations should have as many voting seats on corporate boards as the investor organizations providing the capital do. It's not one or the other - generally speaking, no workers means no business, and no capital also means no business. The result would be that profits get distributed equally to workers (as bonuses on top of wages/salary) and investors.
Otherwise it's the same problem as communist countries had: why work hard and be productive if you get the same reward for it as someone who sits around doing little or nothing? In response upper management will trot out lines like 'we're all a family here' and 'you should enjoy the pride and satisfaction of a job well done' and similar nonsense.
Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'
#63Beyond those arguments, it's also important to remind that we should work between 20 or 30 hours per week, not more. It's about health, being able to rest, do leisure, physical activity, see friends, date, etc. There are things to learn about the antiwork mentality. Not saying everyone should quit their job, but still, it would be nice if everyone could be able to negotiate with their employees. I have often been cal…
> Those people will generate enough taxes and labor for lazy people like me, and it's okay. Feels odd to me to make a statement like this. Is it in jest? In my view everyone should pull the same minimum. Not have some people work more to offset other people working less.
Do you think everyone pulling the same minimum will ever happen? I don't, and it might be important to come to terms with that concept... otherwise I imagine you'd harbor some malice towards people who don't.
Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'
#64Beyond those arguments, it's also important to remind that we should work between 20 or 30 hours per week, not more. It's about health, being able to rest, do leisure, physical activity, see friends, date, etc. There are things to learn about the antiwork mentality. Not saying everyone should quit their job, but still, it would be nice if everyone could be able to negotiate with their employees. I have often been cal…
> Those people will generate enough taxes and labor for lazy people like me, and it's okay. Feels odd to me to make a statement like this. Is it in jest? In my view everyone should pull the same minimum. Not have some people work more to offset other people working less.
If you are pretty good at your work that minimum might only take 20 hours?
Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'
#65100% this, but let me add the why : Most people don't want to do good work, they just want to get paid and fuck off. It is really hard to grok this because it is just so disappointing and demotivating. Most people lie constantly, to appear as if they want to do work, as if they give a fuck - they are lying to your face. Once you realize this much, once you come to terms with what most people are - the rest will fall…
From the other side of the coin. Your employer is free loading off of you. You are paid a fraction of the amount of money that your work actually generates. If your work generates 100 dollars... you're paid 10. So essentially your employer is fucking you and any other attitude other than to treat the situation for what it is, is delusional. Don't call us 'people'. You're the one that doesn't get it. Now I'm not sayin…
I don't employ anyone. I'm not coming from a place of a disgruntled employer complaining about the workers being 'lazy' or whatever.
I'm coming from a place of what the blog talks about - someone who came in starry eyed doing good work, only to find out you won't get paid 3x for doing 3x the work relative to everyone else, but instead they'll try to get you to do 4x the work for a 10% yearly bonus, until you drop dead of exhaustion.
Oh, and your co-workers will hate your guts and try to undermine you. Nice system, right?
That's the dynamic I'm addressing - if you're enthusiastic and starry eyed and think people are out there wanting to change the world for the better or at least take a modicum of pride in their work - be very careful, the real world is not like that, at all.
Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'
#66I agree with the content of the article, but I don’t agree with the premise that these things aren’t also “work”. Engineers tend to obsess over, “focused work” like it’s the only way to be productive, and anything that’s not “focused work” is wasted time. That is a surefire way to burn out. Instead, finding ways to “riff” on your job by doing work with longer time horizons of payoff keeps your job fun. It’s all “work…
Well, the bosses usually only care about work the helps produce value. They might like the fact that you know some new tech that they can use in their latest assignment, but they weren't giving you credit while you were learning it the year before just for fun.
Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'
#67Beyond those arguments, it's also important to remind that we should work between 20 or 30 hours per week, not more. It's about health, being able to rest, do leisure, physical activity, see friends, date, etc. There are things to learn about the antiwork mentality. Not saying everyone should quit their job, but still, it would be nice if everyone could be able to negotiate with their employees. I have often been cal…
> Those people will generate enough taxes and labor for lazy people like me, and it's okay. Sorry, but it's definitely not ok.
More taxes are a result of earning more and not really from working more although they are usually related, so they still get compensated for that "extra" work.
Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'
#68One should definitely not be working hard. You need to minimize work and maximize income. The more you work, the less you actually make per-hour invested, if the income does not grow proportionally to surpass the current ratio. Unless you're in a good strategic position which ensures you will get huge benefits by working hard (think large stake in the company), working hard is a losing game.
A company will pay you the bare minimum it can get away with, taking into considerations all sort of parameters (such as risk of attrition) so naturally, your optimal behavior should be to work as little as possible to not get fired. Use the extra time to invest in yourself or just enjoy life.
Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'
#69Getting my task completed at my own pace makes me feel good. Often that is fast and on time. In my heart, when I touch the keyboard, I feel like a greyhound dog with a little Bob Ross afro - it can be a race, a competition, but it is also an expression of my art. This article makes me feel bad because in the authors world, people like me are relegated to worker bee monkies trying to please the bossman due to patholog…
That is not at all what the article was about! It was never stated that you should be late or take too much time in doing tasks… it was about using more wisely your time (if the sizing claimed the task needed 5 days to be done and you are done in 2 maybe you could have spent more time thinking about the design or if everything is ok try to using the extra time to generate value in other ways instead of rushing toward…
Sounded more like if you get it done early, wait until the due date to hand it in. Them use the extra time for other stuff.
Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Those people will generate enough taxes and labor for lazy people like me, and it's okay. Feels odd to me to make a statement like this. Is it in jest? In my view everyone should pull the same minimum. Not have some people work more to offset other people working less.
If you are pretty good at your work that minimum might only take 20 hours?
Well i'm not talking hours, to be clear. Just some idea that we're all equal.
Ie, if a hypothetical society depends on addicts working more than "lazy people" (in the parents words) then it feels to me we're set up for failure.