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Is my advice too mercenary?

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Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#61

Post by dvtrn »

arghnoname wrote: post #58
dvtrn wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm constantly barraged with acceptance training, "human connection" training and calls where the expectation is to "share and connect" by telling the group something personal We had a "leadership training" thing a few weeks back where one of the segments involved a breakout session with a random coworker who you may or may not already know, with the expectation that you share something deep and revealing you've neve…

I know someone who had a similar event happen in training, except the deep and dark secrets were meant to be shared among a group of six or seven. People shared actual deep and dark secrets; crying was involved. My friend who told me about this was deeply uncomfortable with the whole affair and found it bizarre and cultish, but of course, they went along with it and made up some semi-plausible thing to be a "team pla…

I wonder if phobias are just easier to share because some of the more common ones most of us share are ones we know are probably not very rational but still powerfully held.

Like my other phobia...clowns.

Look, I know. Okay, I know. But still.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#62

Post by idiotsecant »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #42
fellowniusmonk wrote: post #5

It truly is shocking that health insurance is tied to employment status. I really think this is a large part of the trend towards overt ruthlessness in the USA, no one has their back so they have no ones back, as people age and experience medical bankruptcy (or narrowly avoid it at great cost) they are realizing this ruthlessness in our system.

As an American who has worked closely with the Federal government, I'm significantly more afraid of the idea that the government would be responsible for my medical care.

I guess you should probably tell that to the entire rest of the civilized world where state insurance seems to work quite well.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#63

Post by randrews »

One of the wisest pieces of career advice I ever heard was "you cannot change an organization by leaving it."

It works both ways: if you're leaving in hopes that it'll be a wake-up call to management that a valuable person left, then it probably won't be. And, if you leave your workplace to improve your own life, you've also necessarily chosen not to try and improve the workplace. Leaving means giving up on trying to improve them.

With that in mind, the exit interview isn't a trap so much as pointless: all you can do is hurt yourself here, you can have them remember you fondly or not, but you can't get them to change things in the exit interview.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#64

Post by [deleted] »

dangerlibrary wrote: post #53
sidewndr46 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American who has worked closely with the Federal government, I'm significantly more afraid of the idea that the government would be responsible for my medical care.

Medicare (single payer healthcare in the US for everyone over age 65) has a lower fraud rate than private insurance, serves millions of seniors and has for decades, and as an American there is a big discontinuity in actuarial data where your life expectancy literally goes up at 65 because you get access to it. Maybe don't generalize from a few personal anecdotes to the functioning of the entire 4 million employee fed…

[deleted]

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#65

Post by uoaei »

vmception wrote: post #56
uoaei wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see only a complete rejection of the collaborative organization that is society, which provided literally everything that gave you the opportunities and outcomes you now enjoy. And now you brag about enriching yourself beyond your share, occupying space where others could make use of those opportunities, reducing the opportunities for everyone in the future. Society improves when more people have more chances to co…

Society is collaborative, the private sector of society is not. Its a flawed incentive model that most of society periodically navigates through. These are different things than society as a whole. It is aspirational to want something else and be in an environment to rely on different advice. You are either conflating society and the private sector or projecting something I have no idea about. (I dont really understa…

Innovation rate in a society is roughly proportional to the branching factor of the possible futures that that society engenders. One way to reduce the branching factor is to consume (or store) resources that others may use to innovate.

"Taking up space" in society corresponds to collecting and storing resources beyond the share which makes you productive, such that an opportunity cost is incurred. Insofar as there is a teleology to capitalist economic organization, it does not include a distribution of resources which optimizes opportunities. The profit motive ensures this.

Delineating the private sector from society at large is an artificial distinction that does not reflect the material realities surrounding resource distribution and utilization. We are all part of one big network, and the boundaries described above are not obeyed by the chaos of self-emergent organization at these scales.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#66

Post by brimble »

rosndo wrote: post #35
121789 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are framing it as a top down objective, but I think it's the opposite. Employers themselves offer healthcare because it's a way to attract employees. You can get other health plans (e.g. Obamacare) but they are not as competitive as employer-sponsored plans. To not have employer-sponsored plans, you would have to either 1) ban employer-sponsored plans 2) offer other plans that are competitive. #1 seems un…

The real problem is how expensive healthcare is in the US. Compare Cignas global plan with and without US coverage. Somehow they can easily cover essentially all of the rest of the world for far less than the US. https://www.cignaglobal.com/

Last I checked, pretty much the entire rest of the OECD was between 40% and 70% of US per-capita spending on healthcare. Some spend less total, per capita, than we do just from public spending that we already do (medicare, medicaid, CHIP, public employee healthcare plans, military care like VA and Tricare, et c.) without even having universal care like ~everyone else does

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#67

Post by evilotto »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #3

This is going to depend on the health of the organization you're in. If you're in a healthy environment, giving mercenary advice is probably not the best move - literally, less likely to advance your career. If you're in a hypercompetitive and/or toxic environment, you'd better be very careful about what advice you give (and everything else you say).

If you're in a toxic environment, then the only way to survive is to be toxic yourself?

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#68

Post by deckard1 »

dvtrn wrote: post #25
chasd00 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 46 and never in my whole career have working conditions been less ruthless nor less sociopathic than they are today. I'm constantly barraged with acceptance training, "human connection" training and calls where the expectation is to "share and connect" by telling the group something personal. I'm not with a bunch of kids either, these are all upper management very high 6 figure types. I don't want to be one of th…

I'm constantly barraged with acceptance training, "human connection" training and calls where the expectation is to "share and connect" by telling the group something personal We had a "leadership training" thing a few weeks back where one of the segments involved a breakout session with a random coworker who you may or may not already know, with the expectation that you share something deep and revealing you've neve…

I always dread the "two truths and a lie" game, usually performed in front of a large group of people you don't know. It's the ultimate trap. Either come up with two things that sound impressive to strangers, or risk being seen as a bore. Plus you'll never beat Todd who went before you and is literally the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World. Fuck you Todd.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#69

Post by kansface »

uoaei wrote: post #32
AYBABTME wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Candidly, do you mind flushing out what you mean here by a fairly predictable outcome given the situation?

Not GP, but: historically Protestant work ethic + unrestrained pursuit of profit + weak labor protections and domination of corporate interests in the halls of legislation = predictable outcome.

This is not historically accurate. Insurance through employers came out of the federally mandated price controls during WW2, and was later solidified by massive tax breaks for corporations for providing said insurance (under the eager endorsement by unions among others). Changing the system would require changing the tax incentive. Changing the deduction to apply to individuals could be a path forward.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#70

Post by dj_mc_merlin »

I live and work in countries with good social security nets and less overtly dystopian work conditions (not perfect of course). I still agree with his advice. Work is a game we play for money. No more real than a choreographed dance. Companies do not really care for you, that should not need stating. Your coworkers might, and if the ones you're friendly with are high up or influential, things might seem like a family. It's actually an in-group.

Don't waste your time trying to be collectivist in an inherently individualistic system. You need to play the game by its rules if you want any results. And less stress.

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