Great employers
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Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
As a contractor I was once sent to a law office where employees were told to raise their hands and ask a superior to visit the restroom. I stayed exactly as long as it took for someone to explain that to me.
There is a medical practice where I have worked in the past, where employees are expected to report their time in six minute increments.
I am amazed at what people are willing to put up with sometimes.
There is a medical practice where I have worked in the past, where employees are expected to report their time in six minute increments.
I am amazed at what people are willing to put up with sometimes.
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Yeah my wife works at WIC and they mandate "time studies" which are something like 6 minute increments maybe 5, I forget exactly.
My wife recently worked at nutrisystem's call center near where we live (relatively) and she didn't last two months. Her complaints sound very similar to time's. She basically got two bathroom breaks and taking the full half hour for lunch was frowned upon. Everyone was afraid of being fired all the time. Call center jobs suck. No wonder they are being exported to india.
My wife recently worked at nutrisystem's call center near where we live (relatively) and she didn't last two months. Her complaints sound very similar to time's. She basically got two bathroom breaks and taking the full half hour for lunch was frowned upon. Everyone was afraid of being fired all the time. Call center jobs suck. No wonder they are being exported to india.
ddrueding
Fixture
Where is the complaint? That people with little education and no motivation have crappy jobs?
The guy working the drive-thru line at Burger King has about 12 seconds between orders. Come to think of it, he has more decision-making responsibility than your average call center drone staring at a decision tree.
There have always been crappy jobs, that the tech industry has become mainstream enough to have it's share isn't really news.
The guy working the drive-thru line at Burger King has about 12 seconds between orders. Come to think of it, he has more decision-making responsibility than your average call center drone staring at a decision tree.
There have always been crappy jobs, that the tech industry has become mainstream enough to have it's share isn't really news.
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Not many people are aware of the depths of crap in these crappy jobs.
That is the news.
And the complaint is the horrid working conditions.
That is the news.
And the complaint is the horrid working conditions.
ddrueding
Fixture
Sorry, but sitting at a climate-controlled desk NEVER counts as horrid working conditions. There are better, but I would argue that a significant percentage of the population has worse (field workers, construction, hospitality, janitorial, mining, fishing, etc). No toxic chemicals, no risk of physical harm, no physical labor. If you are sitting at that desk you have no-one to blame but yourself.
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Argumentative today are we?
There are plenty of toxic chemicals in an office building. These are some of the most mold infested and toxic places. Nobody cleans them.
Physical harm... you mean from johnny in the next cube that went on a killing spree from the pressure? No physical labor... There is arguably physical stress involved in call center work. Sure you aren't doing back breaking physical labor but the physical stress from the call center job doesn't do anything good for your body.
So some professions have serious issues. Mining for one has toxic chemicals and physical labor and physical harm. Anybody who mines and isn't getting paid lots of cash is plain crazy. But by your reasoning, they chose their own job. I think that reasoning has a flaw. Many people take the only jobs they can find. And then they get stuck in that job financially for many years.
So let's take some of the other professions. People can be perfectly happy in any of those other jobs as long as they aren't being oppressed by the management. That feeling of you can't escape and constant pressure probably does more harm than lots of other things. Treating people like people or at least some sliver of that is what is most important. When you are treated like a machine like in the call center jobs above, it gets to you emotionally and physically.
So in conclusion the conditions in the call center described above are most certainly horrid. The one where my wife worked was most certainly horrid. But people still choose those call center jobs. The turnover rate is ridiculously high for a reason. Is the turnover rate in any of the other professions you indicate ridiculously high? Maybe it takes longer in the other ones to realize the job sucks. It doesn't take very long to realize most call center jobs suck.
Many labor intensive jobs are rewarding because they are labor intensive. It feels good to do things with your hands. Maybe you get tired of it after many years. I don't think so though.
There are plenty of toxic chemicals in an office building. These are some of the most mold infested and toxic places. Nobody cleans them.
Physical harm... you mean from johnny in the next cube that went on a killing spree from the pressure? No physical labor... There is arguably physical stress involved in call center work. Sure you aren't doing back breaking physical labor but the physical stress from the call center job doesn't do anything good for your body.
So some professions have serious issues. Mining for one has toxic chemicals and physical labor and physical harm. Anybody who mines and isn't getting paid lots of cash is plain crazy. But by your reasoning, they chose their own job. I think that reasoning has a flaw. Many people take the only jobs they can find. And then they get stuck in that job financially for many years.
So let's take some of the other professions. People can be perfectly happy in any of those other jobs as long as they aren't being oppressed by the management. That feeling of you can't escape and constant pressure probably does more harm than lots of other things. Treating people like people or at least some sliver of that is what is most important. When you are treated like a machine like in the call center jobs above, it gets to you emotionally and physically.
So in conclusion the conditions in the call center described above are most certainly horrid. The one where my wife worked was most certainly horrid. But people still choose those call center jobs. The turnover rate is ridiculously high for a reason. Is the turnover rate in any of the other professions you indicate ridiculously high? Maybe it takes longer in the other ones to realize the job sucks. It doesn't take very long to realize most call center jobs suck.
Many labor intensive jobs are rewarding because they are labor intensive. It feels good to do things with your hands. Maybe you get tired of it after many years. I don't think so though.
ddrueding
Fixture
I was this morning. I just pulled my shoulder (again), and the pain meds haven't kicked in, so I'm not feisty enough for this.
Good points, though
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I've read that people that do manual labor are healthier than those that work behind a desk. The activity is good for you heart. Also, the mental stress of office-type jobs is generally higher than manual labor (such as construction). If I could remember where I read this I would link to the article, but don't have time to search right now. Need to figure out how to resize an ext3 partition without losing the data.
ddrueding
Fixture
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Yep, that's what I used. After trying about 6 other utilities I was more familiar with. But, now GRUB won't load, so I need to figure out how to reinstall that. Anyone have a quick method to do this? Sorry to hijack this thread, we can move over to another Linux thread if anyone cares.
ddrueding
Fixture
Sorry, that was the extent of my Linux knowledge
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I got it. It took 6 hours total to figure it out. I had to grow a VMWare image, then resize the ext3 partition, then figure out how to get GRUB to load at boot again. Who the hell configures a VMWare appliance with only 900MB of space?
I also had the help of our Unix System Administrator. Too bad Merc doesn't work here, I have a feeling he could have gotten it working in under an hour.
I also had the help of our Unix System Administrator. Too bad Merc doesn't work here, I have a feeling he could have gotten it working in under an hour.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Some of those jobs actually look fun.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
People don't mind getting dirty if the pay is high enough. The worst jobs are those where the work in boring and the pay stinks. These call center people are probably getting $2 or $3 an hour, and then to add insult to injury the employer has to monitor every minute. Now that's understandable for maybe a $50 an hour employee, but not these people.
It also speaks volumes of the direction our society is heading when you treat people like machines rather than like viable assets. Gone are the days when employers further their employees' education, or otherwise help them to better do the task at hand. Also gone are the days when employers might move people around to different types of jobs within the company, both to make the person more versatile, and to keep them from getting bored doing the same thing. Nowadays you hire on, you'll be doing the same monotonous task at the same pay for years. Might as well clone giant ants for employees given the mentality these days.
It also speaks volumes of the direction our society is heading when you treat people like machines rather than like viable assets. Gone are the days when employers further their employees' education, or otherwise help them to better do the task at hand. Also gone are the days when employers might move people around to different types of jobs within the company, both to make the person more versatile, and to keep them from getting bored doing the same thing. Nowadays you hire on, you'll be doing the same monotonous task at the same pay for years. Might as well clone giant ants for employees given the mentality these days.
ddrueding
Fixture
I round up to the nearest even hour , writing up my invoices takes about 10 minutes a week.
, writing up my invoices takes about 10 minutes a week.jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Same here. I can't be bothered counting minutes. Honestly, most of the time I just guestimate my time. Working on a clock is about as artificial as it gets to me.I round up to the nearest even hour