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“Great resignation” wave coming for companies

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Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#841
post #263

> Surveys show anywhere from 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs. This number is meaningless without previous year trends. In my circles, everyone from 25-35 is simultaneously preparing to FIRE and no-one that's 35+ has actually changed jobs despite being 'financially independent'. Expressing intent to resign, and actually resigning are completely different things. (edit: to clarif…

I've realized recently that what I really want isn't FIRE, but a kind of soft FIRE. Basically, if I had the money for FIRE, I would find (or stay at) a job that is comfortable, has great benefits and is low-medium stress. I could forget entirely about job hopping for higher pay (never have to leetcode study again), getting promoted (don't care about more responsibilities, managing, or going up a ladder), and mostly ignore office politics. I could just focus on doing good high quality work and not care about the rest. Basically, I want FIRE money to become immune to any kind of pressure or stress a company could put on an employee since I wouldn't care anymore about being laid off.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#842

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually on gdp alone there is enough money in the US for everyone to have a living wage… checkout northern euros or Australia for example of what that looks like. The problem with the fed stimulus was the benefits too large corps.

US GDP has been lower than China GDP since 2019 and if anything the pandemic accelerated the process of Chinese economic outpacing the US economy. In China there is enough money for everyone to have living wage too. And you pay for you healthcare in China too even though their GDP is enough to cover it for all Chinese citizens. Apparently they are focusing on the big picture, i.e. becoming No.1 and surpassing US by a…

China achieving an equivalent standard of living would probably not work out so well for the authoritarian government there - but it would work out surprisingly well for Marxism. Actually equalizing US and Chinese wages would lead to an extreme acceleration of other areas with depressed wages and, potentially, lead to the world becoming more equal in wages without the current assumed approach - that US wages will deflate quite significantly.

A world where China elevates itself to the US's level is one we should celebrate in the west as it means we need to suffer less ourselves.

Also, the world is well beyond being a zero sum game economically, most of the biggest economic drivers these days are "silly and irrelevant" things like Facebook, Banking and the service industry. All the world can be well off.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#843

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're in for a rudest of all awakenings. You cannot demand salary to be raised without understanding business will be looking elsewhere to fulfill business needs , and will be outsourcing actual labor. Business that can't be outsourced in such conditions (restaurants, hospitality) will be forced to shut down when outsourceable business lays out local workers and replaces them with someone half a world away.

The businesses who won't figure out how to raise wages will go out of business and be replaced by new companies who figured out how to have their employees work more efficiently. It sounds like maybelsyrup has it right, and it's these business owners who are in for the rude awakening. There's a rootbeer stand near me that has a message on their menu saying, "if minimum wage is raised to $15, our prices will go up 10%…

> There's a rootbeer stand near me

Yes! I keep seeing stuff like this, and I think "wait a minute, you're telling me that you want to slightly raise the price of this great product or service, and in exchange, your employees will be paid a living wage, or get decent health insurance, or another half day off, or a vacation? Please take my fucking money."

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#844
post #263

> Surveys show anywhere from 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs. This number is meaningless without previous year trends. In my circles, everyone from 25-35 is simultaneously preparing to FIRE and no-one that's 35+ has actually changed jobs despite being 'financially independent'. Expressing intent to resign, and actually resigning are completely different things. (edit: to clarif…

Everyone from 25-35 is preparing to FIRE?! I wonder, is that economically sustainable?

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#845

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t get caught up in the fantasy that it’s stopped in any appreciable way. The hammer is just starting to fall as vaccination rates go up. This is the start of the first battle, not the second act.

Whether we look back at this moment as fantasy or the beginning of something truly changing won't be the result of some deterministic historical process. It's up to us. Call your congressman, your senator. Meet with coworkers and discuss this stuff. Post shit on the internet and challenge yourself and others to think differently. Go out into the world, even if individual actions are tiny or barely perceptible. The ke…

I doubt you can say some 'one' made the world this way. The present day is the result of historical, economical, scientific, etc. processes that are only partly known by few people.

Țhere is a short term greed pushing wages down so in that sense I agree.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#846

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the Fed printed a ton of money and sent it to everyone making less than a certain amount, and the government guaranteed wages for those who no longer wish to work, and caused a labor shortage and inflation. Soon those benefits will be insufficient, due to inflation, if the government continues to print money, and the real wages of the existing wage earners who actually produce value for the good of society b…

> for those who no longer wish to work > to those who don't wish to work > those who choose not to work at all > the same for working and for doing nothing, that people choose the latter You're making my point for me with the arbeit macht frei dog-whistles here. So let me be clear: if "work" is defined as "millions of white and blue collar professional lives before Covid, lives replete with Kafka-esque meaninglessnes…

I usually read "People don't want to work!" statements as a sentence fragment. It's the first half of a whole statement. The second half of the statement is a variation on: "for the shitty wages or conditions I'm offering and will rescind at a moment's notice for any made up reason I can imagine".

The idea I get from the Cato echoing types is if you have a job you should beg and scrape and genuflect for your betters to thank them for their grace in employing you.

I think this meme accelerated after the 2008 financial crisis. Companies contracted but demanded more work from their remaining employees. Feeling fortunate to be employed they increased individual output to cover for the reduced head count. Companies screwed over employees then shrugged their shoulders with the "it's the economy" refrain.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#847

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it really is hilarious in a way, because you can take many business owners' constant blathering about the so-called free market and throw it right back in their faces: "No one wants to work for poverty wages in my shitty restaurant!" Sucks bro, that's the market. Raise your wages. "If I raise my wages I can't stay in business!" Sucks bro, that's the market. Make your restaurant less shitty and get more business.…

You're in for a rudest of all awakenings. You cannot demand salary to be raised without understanding business will be looking elsewhere to fulfill business needs , and will be outsourcing actual labor. Business that can't be outsourced in such conditions (restaurants, hospitality) will be forced to shut down when outsourceable business lays out local workers and replaces them with someone half a world away.

So much for the better.

We shouldn't subsidize unlivable business models with human misery.

If that (the closures) also result in misery (of the unemployment kind) that will also be a good thing. It will signal stongly that we depend on broken business models and need to update them.

What you want is a compromise that perpetuates substinence-level wages and working class people needing 2 jobs, for the benefit of keeping alive zombie businesses.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#848

Earlier quoted context omitted.

google admitted years ago, it didn't help.. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/06/google-...

Google found that riddles didn’t help, so they stopped asking them. They didn’t find the same for coding questions.

Yet :-P

I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar article about leet code...

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#849

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether we look back at this moment as fantasy or the beginning of something truly changing won't be the result of some deterministic historical process. It's up to us. Call your congressman, your senator. Meet with coworkers and discuss this stuff. Post shit on the internet and challenge yourself and others to think differently. Go out into the world, even if individual actions are tiny or barely perceptible. The ke…

I doubt you can say some 'one' made the world this way. The present day is the result of historical, economical, scientific, etc. processes that are only partly known by few people. Țhere is a short term greed pushing wages down so in that sense I agree.

Yes you're right, no one person made it this way - that was a rhetorical efficiecy on my part. I meant some broader human "we" made it this way. People, us.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#850
post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're working in tech and you can't bank enough to take 6m-1yr off, you're doing your finances wrong. Why would you assume to know what other people's financial situations are, let alone their wage scale in an industry where not everyone is a US-based SWE?

Not to mention, even if you can save this much, put it in your 401(k), not a vacation savings account. The financial impact of taking a whole year without pay in your 20s probably adds 5 years to your retirement date, due to compounding interest and investment growth. Is it really worth it, just so you can fill your Insta with pictures of you windsurfing in Ibiza?

I agree. I had two weeks off between grad school and my current job. I’ve been maxing out my 401k for 25 years and have zero debt (mortgage paid off 2 years ago). Could actually retire now at 49.
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