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U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why

washingtonpost.com

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Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why

#621

Post by jointpdf »

makosdv wrote: post #569
dfxm12 wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just the corporation friendly mass media trying to combat calls for better worker treatment/compensation. This is just the next single from the album that brought us "quiet quitting", "the great resignation", "millennials are lazy", etc. It's important for the backers of these media outlets to float these stories out there, lest anyone become sympathetic to workers in light of the facts that minimum wage hasn't…

Yeah, this "new" trend of "quiet quitting" sounds so silly. People have been behaving like that for a very long time and they've probably always done it.

It’s worse than silly. I had to ragequit this (https://hbr.org/2022/09/when-quiet-quitting-is-worse-than-th...) article from HBR on “quiet quitting” after reading:

> Quiet quitters continue to fulfill their primary responsibilities, but they’re less willing to engage in activities known as citizenship behaviors: no more staying late, showing up early, or attending non-mandatory meetings.

Yes, we should all bereave the withering of classical virtues—like sacrificing our health and time with loved ones in order to provide free labor.

Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why

#622

Post by QuercusMax »

Test0129 wrote: post #591
gridspy wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good example. --- The system distinguished between errors that halted the machine, requiring a restart, and errors which merely paused the machine (which allowed operators to continue with the same settings using a keypress). However, some errors which endangered the patient merely paused the machine, and the frequent occurrence of minor errors caused operators to become accustomed to habitually unpausing the machine…

This sounds like poor consideration for edge cases - not really a problem with the UI or people clicking through it too fast. Anything that could be interpreted as remotely fatal should've shut the machine down.

They basically did no testing at all on that machine, and reused the previous software which relied on hardware safety interlocks which had been removed from the newer model. It's literally a textbook case of how not to do mission-critical software.

Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why

#624

Post by ec109685 »

jjk166 wrote: post #362

US Worker productivity is 0.7 standard deviations below its average over the last 3 years. It is 3.6% below all time high. It is higher now than at any point before July of 2020. YOY Productivity growth has dipped negative and then went back to positive 20 times in the past 22 years. To be concerned about the current level of productivity requires either the attention span or the intelligence of a goldfish. https://t…

That article was awful with just guesses left and right on causes, without even measuring how the number is calculated.

Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why

#625

Post by Test0129 »

Nathanba wrote: post #534
dougmwne wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally one of these on the front page of the NYT today, fully of chirpy anecdotes about people ditching the sweatpants and silly comments about how much our dogs will miss us when we go back to "real work". You may kindly shove it, NYT. I'm not going back. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/29/technology/return-to-offi...

really a bit hard to believe that these kinds of articles aren't paid for by some industry group

Do you believe they aren't for some reason? It's not like they release whose buying ads if you ask.

Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why

#626

Post by [deleted] »

qeternity wrote: post #541
stormbrew wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really curious how you think it's defined or measured then. I'm obviously abstracting a bit, but a lot of people in the replies here seem to think it's related to how much time you spend watching cat videos on company time and it's definitely not that.

It has nothing to do with what I think. Another commenter has already posted the definition from the Fed (FRED). Productivity is not a measure of prices, profitability or anything similar. It’s a measure of output per unit of input. Classic HN downvote fest because people incorrectly disagree with a factual post.

[deleted]

Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why

#627

Post by type-r »

throwaway22032 wrote: post #27

I'm pretty sure I know why... The working environment changed. Bit by bit I moved from an environment with gentleman's agreements and so on towards something in which everything was codified, safetyism became rampant, etc. In the UK over the past few years I went from going into a nice office in a number of beautiful old buildings, getting my stuff done with cameraderie, having lunch together and playing board games,…

You have a very diverse group of friends!

Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why

#628

Post by causi »

This is not a mystery. 2022 is the peak year of retirement for the large baby boomer generation. People approaching retirement are at their most skilled and thus most highly productive. As they retire the average age and hence average skill level drops. I suspect if you separated the statistics into blue collar jobs and white collar jobs, the blue collar worker output began dropping a decade ago as the boomers aged out of their physical fitness prime.

Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why

#629

Post by randycupertino »

dougmwne wrote: post #482
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the cries for returning to the office

Literally one of these on the front page of the NYT today, fully of chirpy anecdotes about people ditching the sweatpants and silly comments about how much our dogs will miss us when we go back to "real work". You may kindly shove it, NYT. I'm not going back. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/29/technology/return-to-offi...

I mean, NYT also is telling us that lace is in style for men right now sooo if you have to ditch the sweatpants for the office maybe consider a lace overcoat? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/style/mens-wear-lace-fash...

Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why

#630

Post by codalan »

Nathanba wrote: post #534
dougmwne wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally one of these on the front page of the NYT today, fully of chirpy anecdotes about people ditching the sweatpants and silly comments about how much our dogs will miss us when we go back to "real work". You may kindly shove it, NYT. I'm not going back. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/29/technology/return-to-offi...

really a bit hard to believe that these kinds of articles aren't paid for by some industry group

It is. The NYT Real Estate section is a pretty sickening read for most of the 99% who aren't totally disconnected from reality and don't have a million plus in cash to toss away on a second home.

Every time I've read that section, it felt like product placement for luxury home realtors and commercial property owners.

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