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Can we have the day off?

mlsu.io

61–70 of 823 posts

Re: Can we have the day off?

#61
post #33

This article is kind of playful, but I think there’s a serious point here that’s not discussed enough. We’re being asked to usher in huge productivity gains by introducing AI to our workflows, but we’re not asking how does it help us? Not a lot of us stand to directly gain from our employers becoming more productive. I know everybody is afraid of getting fired and replaced with AI or whatever right now. But we should…

Right. If I am producing 10x more output then I expect to be getting paid about 8x more or working 8x less.

something something you're paid the amount the market values your work, which in today's job market is an order of magnitude less than the profit you bring the company

Re: Can we have the day off?

#62

This is certainly a fun exercise in economics. By taking a shortened work-week, should the companies then pay us 80% of our current comp? Or maybe a little less since they will have to pay for the added tokens we are now using as part of our job that we used to do manually (i.e. time)? Or perhaps we are able to justify that now they can save overhead by reducing facilities costs by 20% as well. Oh but maybe their bus…

If I am able to do 10x work with a tool that costs you Y, then my wages should rise by 10x - Y.

Then, let's do a 3 day work week and multiply it by 0.6.

Pretty simple math

Re: Can we have the day off?

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What field? Medical? Those scheduled seem common for medicine and fire/police.

I don't want to get too specific, but I'm a supervisor at a factory. Food stuff. My girlfriend had a similar schedule when she worked at a hospital. Good shoes like Brooks or Hoka and a good sleep schedule and it's doable. I only work 15 or 16 days a month. I work every other weekend, but the weekends I have off are 3 days.

it seems like the lack of consistency would b a net negative in life quality and very annoying to schedule around

Re: Can we have the day off?

#64
post #19

You can have the day off. Don't think for a million years you will be paid for it.

Exactly. In the four days that you worked you produced 40 days of output, so you should get 40x the pay. It would be unreasonable for the company to pay you 50x what you were getting before... they do have shareholders to think about after all.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#65
The four day work week is a prisoner's dilemma. If everyone did it, then we'd all get a payoff, but if someone defects to a longer work week they tend to get ahead at work. Thus we all do it and thus we all lose.

It's funny how underappreciated it is how the five day work week is powered by norms...at least in the US. People assume there are laws about it.

The only laws dictate compensation past certain thresholds, and in the case of well paid knowledge workers those don't even tend to apply. If you ever read HR material referring to your role as "exempt" now you know what you're exempt from.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#66
post #6

Star Trek post-scarcity economy when?? https://rickwebb.medium.com/the-economics-of-star-trek-29bab...

we are very well past post-scarcity.

we definitely choose consumption over free time for the most part.

people generally choose nicer home, starbucks, vacay, neflix over work hours or retirement.

so this is a cultural issue

Re: Can we have the day off?

#67

Relevant: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ the concern would be that this new ability will actually increase competition and give us less than we had before this is not something that can just be blamed on the "CEOs/execs/shareholders" of the world. it is evolutionary competition - unless we can ALL join forces to draw the line somewhere, someone will choose to defect from the agreement to…

Did you just link to a rat website as if that is a good source?

Re: Can we have the day off?

#68
post #33

This article is kind of playful, but I think there’s a serious point here that’s not discussed enough. We’re being asked to usher in huge productivity gains by introducing AI to our workflows, but we’re not asking how does it help us? Not a lot of us stand to directly gain from our employers becoming more productive. I know everybody is afraid of getting fired and replaced with AI or whatever right now. But we should…

The reality is that most people are paid for their time, not for their output. I think most contracts for salaried employees are along the lines of "work n hours a week". If you want to get paid for output, you can't be a salaried employee.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#69
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well productivity gains are largely met with higher standard of living, quality of life and the upward movement of the lowest classes, for one.

That's not generally true in the US over the last 40 years, where the gains from productivity increases have been accumulated almost entirely by the top classes. Yes, lower classes have access to many more conveniences then they might have had in earlier decades, but they are working far more hours, and their expected lifespan has started decreasing.

my dad grew up in a house without running water in a town where everyone worked in a mine and the lead was everywhere. he hitchiked to alaska for seasonal work in a fish cannery. Yeah I don't know... i think things are better than they were 40 years ago.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#70
post #33

This article is kind of playful, but I think there’s a serious point here that’s not discussed enough. We’re being asked to usher in huge productivity gains by introducing AI to our workflows, but we’re not asking how does it help us? Not a lot of us stand to directly gain from our employers becoming more productive. I know everybody is afraid of getting fired and replaced with AI or whatever right now. But we should…

> Or when our paycheck is going to be multiplied accordingly.

That doesn't increase shareholder value, so it would be a violation of the c-suite's fiduciary responsibility. Sorry, the extra capital will instead be used on stock buybacks.

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