Sleeping giants

reply to post by misuneko


I think you misunderstand how it works.

In the sector i work in, the money makes it back to the investors. People like you and me who buy shares of the company. The executives in my sector didn't make much money when compared to bankers.

What you describe is an issue with the way our banking systems are set up. And i agree. But the solution isn't to make hours shorter. it is to reduce bonuses at the top, and put more back into infrastructure and consumer benefits. Consider all those nickel and dime fees that you pay the bank (and there are new ones created daily). Consider the interest rates on loans. Things like that could be reduced, benefitting the entire economy.

I worked long hours to reduce waste and overhead. I expected my supervisors to do the same. The only ones who made money were the front line agents, and i could care less how many hours they worked. If they didn't work, i didn't pay them. If they did work, then the company made money off of them. That was there choice. Of course, i had attendance standards....but i only held them to what they committed to (and had several people on 20-30 hour a week schedules).

Oh and ps:

If you don't like working for the man and making him money start you own company....yeah that's it.
Become a farmer. Get up at 4 in the morning to milk the cows and work till evening to get everything done. Now those are some serious working hours these guys make and they get all the stress untop of this if a crop goes bad or your lifestock gets hit with some strange dissease that could result in you having no income that year.......
Why we don't hear from these guys?.......well, they're to busy working!!

Respect for all the farmers in the world for getting me my food when i want it!!!



Edit: forgot some words...

[edit on 27/12/2008 by operation mindcrime]

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


This is the problem the expectations to work longer..to work the house for the overheads.. cus if someone doesnt do it, there is always someone who is willing to work an extra hour for the same amount of money.

My point is: let the work get done the next day. Companies stop being money hungry and think about the people who are working. Bosses think about the people, not the profits. Average it out a little. if every single company did this.. took a different approach to work and time at work things could change.

Ahh, yet another awakens and becomes disgruntled at the world we live in.

It's sad really, how much we slave away our lives. The simple fact is, survival is an obstacle. And certain greedy bastards at the top of the pyramid have made survival so difficult for so long that most believe it's just a simple fact of life. A necessity. The thing is, it doesn't have to be like this at all. Primitive instinctual habits have taken society hostage and made to seem the 'norm'.

I wish everyone would wake up all at once. I wish we lived in a world without secrets so everyone knew exactly how much we were being taken advantage of. It's through secrecy and deception that the human slavery machine keeps going.

I made a post a while back which I think applies to this thread: Survival vs. Living

You'd think with the way technology is increasing, we should have to work less, not more... but that isn't the case at all. I'm just glad more are starting to wake up to this nonsense we call "civilization".

reply to post by operation mindcrime


maybe we should all work on the land more....! after all that is more the way of life we should be leading rather than slaving away to put money in someone else pocket.

At least working on the land is something that we should all know how to do.

reply to post by misuneko



Most certainly ,talk about rewarding work...

(sorry for the one line reply..... )

Originally posted by misuneko
reply to post by operation mindcrime

 

maybe we should all work on the land more....! after all that is more the way of life we should be leading rather than slaving away to put money in someone else pocket.

At least working on the land is something that we should all know how to do.

I think about this very topic almost every day, recently. I see so many miserable people where I work. It would be nice if we had more of a choice in the way we live. Yeh, yeh - we have choices, to go to college or not, eat and have a place to sleep or not, etc etc. The thing is no matter what we do, unless we disappear from the "grid" and go live on a lost island or in the wilderness somewhere, we have to pay exhorbitant amounts of money to live on the planet we were born on. And of course we have to pay money for even water because of the processing to get it to us, but why does everything cost what it does? The prices of everything continues to rise so people can have more and more "stuff"!!! Too much demand for too much useless stuff. Something went wrong many, many years ago. Society has gotten so messed up that we currently require the legal system, the medical system (that's a whole other story), etc. If whatever it is that went wrong with society hadn't taken place, people would do the right thing; barter systems could be in place and the majority of people who wanted to could focus on what's really important - people - caring for each other, making sure those who are unable have help and enough; caring for the earth and it's animals instead of pillaging and raping it.

I personally would love to get off of the "grid" and yes, work my little piece of land; grow and gather my food. I'd be more healthy for it. I'd get more exercise, clean air, and organic food. Some people get this not but not the majority for a myriad of reasons.

Sorry if I rambled and drifted off subject. I have a lot of thoughts with regard to the OP. I think I know where you're coming from. I believe that a time is coming, sooner than most think, where we're going to see huge changes in the way society lives. We can't go on the way things are now.

I suggest that anyone interested in working less should look into a concept known as the "Five Day Weekend."

The idea originated as sort of a PR campaign in North Carolina, and was proposed as a tongue-in-cheek idea. However, it gained popularity and is now considered feasible by some people.

There are several smaller ideas that make up the concept:

1. Work "expands" to fill the time allotted to get it done. In other words, if you have a task that takes an hour but you're given two hours to get it done, you'll take two hours. This makes it seem like we need all five workdays to get our jobs done - the simple fact that we're used to having five days. If we only gave ourselves two days, we'd get it done in that much time.

2. People should be paid based on performance, and not time worked. In other words, if it takes you two hours to get your one hour of work done, you'd still get paid for an hours' worth of work. After all, that's all you were assigned. Under the "Five day weekend" model, you'd get paid significantly more to maximize your efficiency... and therefor, you would.

Since there's no real way to regulate such a pay system, a more realistic system might be to use profit sharing and commission to compensate employees for their work. Frequent job evaluations could determine monthly bonuses as well, to ensure that nobody is coasting on other peoples' success.

3. With 3 extra days of leisure time each week, people would have more time to unwind from their work and then pursue the enjoyable side of life. Job satisfaction, and therefor job performance, would be increased exponentially. Imagine the worst job you ever had - now imagine you got a 5 day vacation at that job every week. A person who likes their job will usually do it much better than a person who does not.

4. The additional free time will give people the opportunity to engage in personal investments more often - boosting the overall productivity of society. Most people spend their weekends catching up on home chores and then unwinding from their busy schedules. Before their mind can get a chance to focus on other pursuits, it's time to begin the work week again.

5. An 8 hour workday is actually a short work day. A 12 hour workday sounds like a nightmare, but if you only had 2 per week it wouldn't be nearly as difficult as doing it five days a week.

Of course, there are many problems to be addressed. The biggest problem is that business owners are not likely to be pressured into paying people the same weekly incomes for 24 hours as they are for 40. This amounts to their own greed and short-sightedness, as many of them fail to see beyond the payout-to-hour ratio that most of the populace is programmed to recognize.

Also, the service and entertainment sectors believe that they would have trouble in such an economy. They only understand that they would have to hire more people to fill the many separate shifts that would be created. It somehow eludes these businesses that if everyone were on a 5 day weekend, service and entertainment would be the first companies to see a massive upswing due to the increase in leisure time.

I believe the real opposition to the Five Day Weekend model comes from the ultra wealthy, who would much rather see the working class remain shackled and obedient. Indeed, the growing economic gap between the social classes is a major contributor to the increasing worktime of the average laborer, while the fat cats build bigger yachts, larger golf courses, and faster exotic cars every year.

But, that's not what you asked about. You asked if we were a sleeping giant. The answer is yes, of course, in many ways more than you've theorized. The problem is that we will likely not be waking up in time to make our own lives any better.

And you didn't understand me. I work 2 days per week, more when I want to. The rest of the time is mine to do with as I please. I can play my guitar, sit on my butt, go fishing, it's up to me. It's my choice. And the reason hospitals do this is because nurses told them this is the way you're going to do it, because there are not enough of us to go around. If you want to keep your staff, you will do it this way.
Guess what? Nurses can pretty much write their own ticket.

Originally posted by kettlebellysmith
And you didn't understand me. I work 2 days per week, more when I want to. The rest of the time is mine to do with as I please. I can play my guitar, sit on my butt, go fishing, it's up to me. It's my choice. And the reason hospitals do this is because nurses told them this is the way you're going to do it, because there are not enough of us to go around. If you want to keep your staff, you will do it this way.
Guess what? Nurses can pretty much write their own ticket.

My sister in law is a BSN in Abilene, TX. This is the way it works for her. She works 3 days, gets paid for 6 at about 35 an hour. The only thing is the three days she works changes every week, as she is a "pool nurse". She gets put where ever there are shortages.

My wife is an LVN. But working for the state in a mental hospital....she doesn't get as much "pull" as an RN at a private hospital. She works nights for a decent wage, and we have killer insurance.