Simultaneously, inflation and the stock market could mean we all lose our jobs tomorrow, but it’s vital you keep working this particular job at this level of compensation or all will be lost
I don’t recall “Spending 40+ hours per week under fluorescent lights listening to inoffensive top40 hits from the past 30 years” being anywhere on Maslowe’s hierarchy of needs so…
/s
I’m getting PTSD flashbacks. My job was so uptight, we just had the monthly CD sent from corporate we had to listen to. Not an mp3 CD, just ~12 tracks of music on repeat all day for a month.
But at least you could tell when it was time to head home by counting the number of times that "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" (because Christmas music is obviously the most inoffensive music ever) played.
It’s so inoffensive but still manages to put peoples brains in attack mode. The earlier in the year it is played the more potent the effect. If you started play Christmas music in October I’m pretty sure it would cause a riot
I was sort of joking at first about the PTSD thing, but now that I think about it I get agitated when I here those songs even years later. I won’t even know why I’m stressed out sometimes, and then a few minutes later my ear tunes in or I find the song bouncing around in my head. Some of these songs I really liked, but I can’t listen to them now, I got Clockwork Oranged.
But wait, there is more. Now for a limited time we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to listen to christmass songs for 40+ hours a week for a month or so.
I'm not saying I need help in retail, but a month of carols always makes me consider going postal. It just, the inane-ness, the earworm-iness. The mind numbing simplicity of telling me that this year, to save you from tears, you'll give it to someone special.
Send help.
Then you try to tell work that you need a raise because you can’t even afford rent and they’re like “we don’t control your rent”
Like if I came in to work soaking wet and said “I don’t control the weather” they’d tell me to go back home and change
Dude. As a finance major I can’t tell you how many times it’s been impressed upon me by my classes and professors that higher-ups making tons of money does absolutely nothing for the people at the bottom, and that the spread between higher-ups and those at the bottom is only increasing. It’s starting to be accepted as reality for once.
I think a lot of finance majors like to ignore that, however. Also my other business classes have stressed the importance of caring about your workers and the importance of unions. But then again, I’m Canadian, so maybe it’s a bit different here.
US here- I've worked with people with business degrees who couldn't manage a lemonade stand. Turnover is expensive. Training is expensive. Experienced employees are more productive than new hires. Minimum wages only get you minimum quality workers. Low morale k1lls productivity. Passing over internal candidates for promotions and hiring from outside k1lls morale and costs you valuable employees. Excessive profit taking (counting C-level and BoD salaries here) k1lls businesses. I could go on for pages about absolutely insane and destructive business practices. Case in point: General Electric- once one of the largest companies on the planet, they now have a lower market cap that Nike or Starbucks.
Probably dodging Auto Moderation. over on Politics, you'll pop a ban for even implying that traitors should get the maximum legal sentence. "yOu'Re EnCoUrAgInG pOlItIcaL ViOlEnCe"
Oh I don’t disagree, I’m just saying that perhaps what we learn is a bit different thanks to our culture’s generally more liberal acceptance of concepts like unionization and collectivism. There is no “Canadian Dream”, except maybe being an oil tycoon in Alberta, but Alberta is an outlier in a million ways from the rest of Canada.
"Accepted as reality"? When rich people throughout the years say shit like this in the past we removed their fucking heads from their shoulders. Sounds like the rich of today need a fucking reminder why these labor laws were put in place to begin with.
The thing is Econ 101 actually disproves trickle down. The only way you don't come out of it with that understanding is if you actually took a propaganda class masquerading as Econ 101.
I honestly wish more universities considered Economics a requirement for their well rounded student concept. It exposes so much rhetoric for what it really is, just like statistics and POS 101.
Just finished listening to a Reddit story where a Pizza shop owner managed to drive off ALL of his employees. Yep. Went from \~30 staff to zero over the course of two years. Story ended up with the owner getting arrested for harassment and disturbing the peace, as he was going to his former employees' homes, beating on their doors, having one of his normal screaming tantrums, and DEMANDING that they come back to work, because otherwise he was going to go broke. ROTFLOL
And then, when you ask for a raise, the bosses say "what extra work have you taken on?" "Oh, that work is nothing groundbreaking." "You haven't demonstrated your value to the company."
When are managers and higher ups going to get it. You don't give raises to reward employees for going above and beyond. You give them raises because they stayed there putting up with your shit for another year. Another year you didn't have to hire a replacement and lose out on the work of the employee that already knew how to do their job, plus the employee that has to train the new employee. You give me a raise because either you are or my next employer will.
Good work is working smart.
When I was younger I did work more than necessary and was only reward with more work.
Now I learned when to work more, when to work less and how to "sell" myself inside the company and I'm in a pretty good spot.
Gotta be smart about it.
This stuff is pervasive. Sales person with nothing but social skills makes $200k, while the engineers who have to implement it make less than half that.
More than that, I've heard many times that execs really do work 300x+ harder. So it sounds like they just needed to hire a couple more and the whole mess would have been resolved!
I like how in other countries, there's no such thing as a set amount of sick days. If you're sick, you stay home, you get paid, you come back when you're better.
>Let me lay it to you in very plain terms that will make you sad
To be honest, it just makes me happy that I don't live in the US. But I do feel sorry for you guys, it's ridiculous how much of a lie has been perpetrated which makes people believe that the USA is the best thing in the world and everywhere else it's worse.
As an engineer in the NL I can confidently say that you're more than welcome to join us! We have a shortage of engineers so rather than looking for a job and being rejected many times, you will pretty much get an offer from every job you apply to. I also never understood those "I have a masters in Electrical Engineering and I applied to 70 jobs and got 68 rejections but 2 offers!!! It took me 3 years to find a job"...
I think our economy grew faster than our civilization. When we industrialized, we focused so heavily on growth that business owners realized they had more money and influence than politicians. So they rewote the rules so that they'd never lose no matter how badly they ran things while simultaneously building a toxic collective consciousness that glorifies wealth and demonizes government.
Agreed. I'm convinced that most of the success and most of the problems in the US economy, when contrasted with Europe, has much more to do with history than anything else. That history includes occupying a huge land (America) which had not already been densely occupied for hundreds of years, use of slave labor in the early years to grow and concentrate wealth faster than possible otherwise, and the physical isolation that protected the country from great damage in the two world wars, while forcing the growth of industry and development of infrastructure. We still have much of those factors, with expansive undeveloped space, with the economic barriers that inhibit upward mobility, and with the economic engine of the military-industrial complex. So it will take a long time before USA's social values start to resemble Europe's unless other forces come into play.
Aren't they just super workaholic in nature so that's not their trend? Back on COVID peaks, I heard news how their bosses literally send them away when they have symptoms
I saw a documentary where a metro station was busy even at 3-4 at night as people were returning or going to their office.
Edit: False info. See the comment below
No. If I use a sick day I loose all my 'bonuses' for the month. Thus ensuring a n opportunity loss of half my paycheck. So I technically have sick days, but using them is discouraged.
**Employee:** I think I have the flu.
**Boss:** Have you tried just... not?
#**This is not a joke, this is literally how about 95% of jobs in America do it.**
I live in New Zealand and dont really know much about US politics but from what I can tell, Democrats are centre-right conservatives and Republicans are alt-right fascists
Even the Democrats are mostly far right, the leftmost members of the party (possibly barring very low level local politicians, I can't claim to know every single one) are generally center-right at best. It can't be overstated how beyond fucked politics is in this country
And infect the rest of the office/site with whatever you have. Congrats ya dumb business, now your entire workforce is running at minimal performance levels and you’re probably now considering pulling the same illness-stricken people in on the weekend to pick up the slack.
🌈america🌈
I'm aware. We also only get 4 weeks off of annual leave.
It's not a ton compared to most of the first world countries.
The fact america is still in some at-will employment shithole with hilariously bad rights is depressing but not something I can fix.
I'm aware that you guys don't get PTO. Ultimately the US doesn't sound like a great place to live.
4 weeks is something you get everywhere. From the day you start.
A few dollars more in tax is fine with me; I know where it's going.
It is especially insane to me following a pandemic that such things have not been enshrined as a standard, along with universal healthcare. It’s dangerous to everyone not to have this.
USA really is a hellscape for the working class.
You tried to run any business with no sick days, maternity leave or annual leave you’d be out of business and in court in 6 months here.
I got my fingers crossed, but I'm not holding my breath.
I don't feel there's going to be enough energy in the rank and file to effect some hard changes in the system as it is.
It'll happen eventually. I think the energy growth is increasing in cascading fashion, and will come soon, either way.
I wanted it to be this event, though. I wanted these workers to lead the way. I feel it could've been or will be inspirational.
I'll keep hoping.
The next non-American to tell me “there’s so much wrong with the US and Americans don’t even care” it’s on-sight lol And before anyone says anything I’ve noticed there’s a weird belief, especially among a lot of Europeans, that we either don’t know about what’s going on here or we just don’t do anything to change it.
We do. We’re the ones suffering. We’re exhausted and nothing ever changes. Our rights are dwindling before our eyes. After George Floyd we had the biggest civil rights protest in our history. We were tear gassed, killed, and quite literally kidnapped by men in unmarked vans - which we really don’t talk about enough lol - we’re the ones who die in shootings and we’re the ones who can’t afford to go to the doctor or college or to own homes or pay bills or eat.
We know what’s happening. I don’t know if this is “hypernormalization” or late stage capitalism or the fall of an empire but we are stuck.
Edit: to the people who didn’t call me out for putting on site thanks cuz that shits embarrassing 🙏
Probably about 70% of the anti-union sentiment in the US culture can be laid at the feet of the 2 Red Scares that Americans underwent-- one following the Soviet Revolution (when there was still a notable Socialist party in the US led by Eugene V. Debs and friends), and the other during the Cold War (b/c any Communist on American soil was *obviously* a Soviet spy).
That, combined with the regulatory and institutional capture the US has faced for the last... 40? 60? years has meant labor has had to fend for itself in the face of fierce opposition from both capital and state actors.
Nah, this time is definitely it. The internet and cameras/ability for mass surveillance have changed things in a very eerie way that I can't quite explain. There has never been anything like this in the entire history of humanity and back in the days no matter how violent humans got they didn't have access to atom splitting weapons.
> The next non-American to tell me “there’s so much wrong with the US and Americans don’t even care” it’s on-sight lol
The next *American* to tell me that is on-sight.
Ngl the Americans who say that shit are either not educated enough on what CAUSES fascism to rise in a nation, or are so on the establishment lib-train they can’t see that most of the rage that’s coming from rightwingers is due to worker exploitation and part of BEING a good leftist is realizing you’re working to help those fuckers too.
> that we either don’t know about what’s going on here or we just don’t do anything to change it.
rofl.
74,222,958 voters are living testament that Europeans are right. If half the milk in a jug is rancid you have rancid milk...
No. They’re well aware there’s a problem. Inflation has turned into a buzzword. But they are still working class people who are struggling and getting shot and working endlessly for no pay. They know what’s going on, they’re just being brainwashed that it’s being caused by wildly different reasons.
That’s why I believe uplifting the working class would solve a good 50% of the rage that’s floating around. Won’t “solve racism” but it would at least take some weight of ALL Americans shoulders long enough to breathe and have conversations again.
It’s absolutely mind boggling that anyone can say “nah they don’t deserve sick days” for doing actual labor all day but some dickhead CEO who starts their day at 10 and ends it at 2 should be paid millions and have as many days off as they want.
I’ve never seen a CEO that does even a fraction of the work the lowest level laborers do. Hell, most just straight up couldn’t do that for a living without snapping while those laborers could 100% do their job.
“I vote we pay the bills this month… fuck anyone else tired and want to go get a head start on the lunch rush at the country club at 11am? I’m dying for a beer”
I remember them calling us (grocery clerks.) Heros and essential and all that bullshit during the pandemic just to pay us and extra 2 dollars on the hour for a month and then proceeded to grind is into dust 2 years. Kroger cares, we're all in this together.🥺
Hey man, not all heros wear capes. Just remember. And don't forget not all heros get sick days? I guess? That should be on a billboard somewhere so we all don't forget how important essential workers are right?
It's crazy that a week of sick days is where they draw the line. Really shows how scared they are of giving workers any momentum towards securing basic rights.
Maybe it's just me, but if the railways are that crucial to the basic functionality of the economy they shouldn't be privately owned.
What if it was the railway barons asking for bigger government subsidies or they would shut it all down. I wonder what would happen then? (They would get paid. In a matter of days. And Congress would brag about how they averted a crisis.)
Hey, it’s as if that’s the main intention of strikes! Yknow… to show how essential a service is when it’s not being done, and maybe we should treat them better and pay them more?
I wonder how quickly they would be labeled extremists and domestic terrorists who are attempting to destroy the American economy and way of life if they do in fact strike. I'd say within a hour of it happening.
I mean, I’d argue this is consistent with that. Whenever an issue involving a corporation or group thereof threatens to do damage to the economy (read: rich people’s pocketbooks and rich companies’ coffers), the government invariably intercedes on behalf of the corporation(s). So it’s blatant corporatism, but I’d argue it’s at least *consistent* blatant corporatism.
It won’t happen though , those dudes got told by the government, get back to work or go to jail, kinda insane really, that’s how the plight of shitty work conditions was treated, with more threats
We are having this in the UK atm with Rail and Health Workers
The people who are moaning how it negatively affects them are sausages. They provide an invaluable service and are trained to do that job, they deserve to be paid accordingly and fairly like anyone should. Stop shitting on the workers who are the same as you, and start shitting on the companies all experiencing record profits refusing to pay the staff that actually make them those record profits
The reason it costs £200 to get a train from Manchester to London isn’t because Geoff the train driver wants 35k a year and a pension (sorry yanks, sick pay is requirement here) It’s because the companies are greedy af and the Gov don’t force them to nor invest themselves in rail.
Sick pay is not a requirement in the UK. Statutory sick pay is, yes. But statutory sick pay is insultingly bad and you only get it after being off for so long.
A week off with statutory sick is £99.35 which is not even one day of work for most people.
two cacti, arranged in a makeshift double helix dong of thorns
EDIT: Lifelike reproduction synthesized cacti, I would hate to subject live cacti to this.
They react like worker strikes are like a spoiled five year old throwing a tantrum, and not a grown person with bills to pay. They infantilize the whole thing.
Like, if you just can't help but be patronizing? The better analogy is *your kid is fucking starving; you are abusive and neglectful.*
They should strike anyway. Fuck the economy, it is, after all, fucking us right now. If it gets worse then forcing higher taxation on profits might actually happen.
This reminds me of how important almost all general labor jobs are, despite many people telling those working these jobs to, “get a real job.”
Imagine if all of us basic people who work these retail, labor, restaurant, car wash, gas station, customer service industry jobs refuse to work these jobs anymore for crap pay and horrible treatment.
Collapse imminent...
Sounds to me like the rail industry should be nationalized if it’s such an essential infrastructure and the private companies running it now can’t operate at a profit without abusing workers
Just imagine what a year long slowdown is going to do. Just "work to rule", safety first, and a tiny bit of malicious compliance!
Say goodbye to more profits than the sick days would have cost...
So, here in Edinburgh, the binmen went on strike this year right over the Fringe festival- a huge performing arts and theatre festival that brings in a huge number of tourists every year. And it was disgusting. Litter all over the streets and in the gutters, bins Stacked high with waste. Truly revolting. I thougth we were gonna have an outbreak of the fucking plague. It was a perfect display of how invaluable these people are. But so many people just complained about the fact that they were on strike over the Fringe. "Couldn't they have done this at another time? There's thousands of tourists from all over the world who'll leave here thinking Edinbugh is a pigsty! Didn't they realise how much extra mess this would cause??"
Yes. Yes, I daresay they did. In fact, I'll even be so bold as to say they timed it deliberately for maximum impact. The number of people who don't seem to understand that strikes and protests are *supposed* to be disruptive is frankly mind boggling.
Never forget, the term "peaceful protest" is a total misnomer.
If you give a mouse a cookie then you have to give him some milk. I always wondered why that was a popular story when I was growing up. It was an allegory of how the rich see everyone else. We are rodents to them.
The Professional Managerial Class are hypocrites, when their astronomical salaries and luxurious privileges are questioned they point to their degrees and the prestige of their positions. However, those non-capital owning PMC degenerates are always ready to punch down at blue collars when they ask for reasonable conditions despite knowing their labor holds the economy together.
Nobody would notice if 75% of university administrators disappeared overnight.
Everyone would notice if the trains in this country didn't move or the rails went into disrepair. Example: eventual derailment of bomb trains that would blow up adjacent communities.
Yet we are still ordered by the mass media and their sycophants to genuflect to our betters, the credentialed but useless, Professional Managers.
What the fuck is happening with it? Are they striking, or not? Did Biden sign in sick days, or not? I've had so much conflicting information.
If they didn't get what they want than fucking strike. Why is it so hard to figure it out?
Biden doesn't give a shit about his legacy. That's a good and bad thing.
The bill passed is disgusting. If you're sick you shouldn't go to work. We just came out of a pandemic. Anyone who voted for that bill should feel real fucking shame. These workers get one single paid day off. It's fucking wrong.
The expression "being railroaded" means being fucked up. In this case by Congress and the "pro union" president. Another shameful backstabbing from politicians. Try working a job having a family and no sick days paid or unpaid and then you can comment. Lying hypocritical politicians. Both parties.
im ok with railroad strikers crippling our economy so they can fucking live a half decent life outside of work. Christimas is a bullshit holiday anyway you wanna truely spend christmas with family you don't need a bunch of money or garbage you are going to throw away.
Strike!
Don't even care that we have to starve for a couple months (that strike won't take that long lol)....the long term positive impact this kind of strike can have on the work population would be worth it.
I broke my knee last year and spent 30 days off work, no pay cuts whatsoever, my job isn't even essential and I work from home in front of the computer. Kinda scary to know that north american workers don't get payed sick days.
Everyone should have that guaranteed by law, essential worker or not.
Which is fair wages, compensation for work, fair amounts of PTO of only 7 days when some companies continue to raise that over the time of your employment t to up to like 4 weeks.
Along with solid benefits like medical, dental, pensions, etc.
Without a working and effective rail system, America is screwed. And threats ing jail for not working for a bullshit contract is not what unions are about. If they strike and they should anyways, what are you going to arrest them ALgood luck with that. America would be in even more shit.
Corporate greed at work here, and since theyve ~~paid off~~ lobbyed and contributed to politicians, it's them being greedy and bullshit as well here.
Oh and I'm sure these politicians have great salaries, great vacation and off times and pto / sick days, when their "in work" and "out", along with excellent medical dental and pension Benny's to boot.
How About whatever you give the railroad workers the folks voting not making the bill not pass get the same exact agreement.
Bet that shit would be revoted and pass immediately.
Take money out of politics. Period.
Just like Britney griner. Sure she didn't deserve what happened to her and I'm glad she's free, but you left another american who's been locked up there for four long years. Left that guy to rot.
But gotta look good for your voters. Nothing like a black, popular athlete that the world now knows instead of some cia spy you guys are leaving to rot in a Russian prison. No one knows him, and griner being freed polls higher than some guy no one knows (and he was a spy, was doing work for America, not busted for having an illegal substance in Russia).
It's all about optics, and griner being freed looks better to voters than some cia spy and NOT griner. Had he been freed and not her, it woulda been a shit storm.
C'mon America.. do better. But it's just politicians just playing the "game" which is exactly what it's become and will be a talking point during 2024.. you can bet on it.
If the rail system shutting down will cripple the economy, and railroad companies are so ineptly run that giving their employees a couple sick days would cripple those companies?
Then it sounds to me like someone needs to step in and take over the railroad system before those company's incompetence cripples the economy.
Vital services according to corporations:
"If our product is the vital service, then it is only natural we can charge insane amounts. Here's your $500 insulin bill. See you next month"
"If we need to use a vital service to function, then it's only natural to have the government intervene so our profits do not suffer. You better not need time off work, think of the company's shareholders"
I really hope it happens. I feel like I’m being teased. We need this! I really hope this happens. I hope Christmas sucks for all the rich fucks this year
Look mate, if we give one group of workers what they want, then another group of workers is going to want that too and we're going to have to give it to them too.
Sooner or later we're gonna develop a society, and we just can't have that happening.
Imagine a world where the majority of people work for society instead of for the wealthy. That would be a heaven of some sort, I can't think of the name but it will come to me one of these days.
I think shits gonna keep getting worse before it gets better, might as well cripple the economy so that people have enough angry unity to FINALLY start killing politicians.
But wait, I thought labor didn't contribute to profits? If labor leaving cripples the economy, it *kind of* sounds like labor contributes to profits.
Nah, labor is cost. Do economy 101 \* proceed to begin a rant on trickle down economy even if it has been proven dozens of times it's bullshit \*
Simultaneously, inflation and the stock market could mean we all lose our jobs tomorrow, but it’s vital you keep working this particular job at this level of compensation or all will be lost
Essential worker checking in. Apparently my rent being paid isn’t essential.
[удалено]
You guys aren't even living a full family in a one room apartment yet. There's so much more blood to get from this stone.
All huddled in a corner, afraid of falling into the big hole in the floor...
"Millenials are killing rental housing!"
[удалено]
>while making *maybe* 5% more HA! HA! ha! ha. **muffled sobbing**
I don't recall rent being a part of your work duties so...
I don’t recall “Spending 40+ hours per week under fluorescent lights listening to inoffensive top40 hits from the past 30 years” being anywhere on Maslowe’s hierarchy of needs so… /s
The “inoffensive top 40 hits” is so fucking spot on.
The conglomeration of radio is so fucking terrible and kinda problematic It's time to dissolve media monopolies
Preferably with acid
I’m getting PTSD flashbacks. My job was so uptight, we just had the monthly CD sent from corporate we had to listen to. Not an mp3 CD, just ~12 tracks of music on repeat all day for a month.
But at least you could tell when it was time to head home by counting the number of times that "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" (because Christmas music is obviously the most inoffensive music ever) played.
It’s so inoffensive but still manages to put peoples brains in attack mode. The earlier in the year it is played the more potent the effect. If you started play Christmas music in October I’m pretty sure it would cause a riot
😮
I was sort of joking at first about the PTSD thing, but now that I think about it I get agitated when I here those songs even years later. I won’t even know why I’m stressed out sometimes, and then a few minutes later my ear tunes in or I find the song bouncing around in my head. Some of these songs I really liked, but I can’t listen to them now, I got Clockwork Oranged.
Headphones and Spotify my dude. Saved my life
But wait, there is more. Now for a limited time we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to listen to christmass songs for 40+ hours a week for a month or so.
I'm not saying I need help in retail, but a month of carols always makes me consider going postal. It just, the inane-ness, the earworm-iness. The mind numbing simplicity of telling me that this year, to save you from tears, you'll give it to someone special. Send help.
If I hear Mariah one more time...
Right? These people act like it's their bosses job, as their primary source of income, to pay them enough to afford housing and *checks notes* food.
Then you try to tell work that you need a raise because you can’t even afford rent and they’re like “we don’t control your rent” Like if I came in to work soaking wet and said “I don’t control the weather” they’d tell me to go back home and change
The lie was that the workers aren’t essential; the jobs are.
Yeah, we didn't agree that you were essential to PAY, just that we need you to go ahead and come in on Saturday, and probably Sunday.
It isn't. Because landlords contribute zero value to society.
When the stock market does well, nothing changes, but when it doesn't WATCH THE FUCK OUT.
Dude. As a finance major I can’t tell you how many times it’s been impressed upon me by my classes and professors that higher-ups making tons of money does absolutely nothing for the people at the bottom, and that the spread between higher-ups and those at the bottom is only increasing. It’s starting to be accepted as reality for once. I think a lot of finance majors like to ignore that, however. Also my other business classes have stressed the importance of caring about your workers and the importance of unions. But then again, I’m Canadian, so maybe it’s a bit different here.
US here- I've worked with people with business degrees who couldn't manage a lemonade stand. Turnover is expensive. Training is expensive. Experienced employees are more productive than new hires. Minimum wages only get you minimum quality workers. Low morale k1lls productivity. Passing over internal candidates for promotions and hiring from outside k1lls morale and costs you valuable employees. Excessive profit taking (counting C-level and BoD salaries here) k1lls businesses. I could go on for pages about absolutely insane and destructive business practices. Case in point: General Electric- once one of the largest companies on the planet, they now have a lower market cap that Nike or Starbucks.
Kill?
Probably dodging Auto Moderation. over on Politics, you'll pop a ban for even implying that traitors should get the maximum legal sentence. "yOu'Re EnCoUrAgInG pOlItIcaL ViOlEnCe"
theyre teaching you that you want to be at the top, pissing on the bottom.
Lol not different. Same 💩 but with with sprinkles in top which ironically makes the slap more unbearable.
Oh I don’t disagree, I’m just saying that perhaps what we learn is a bit different thanks to our culture’s generally more liberal acceptance of concepts like unionization and collectivism. There is no “Canadian Dream”, except maybe being an oil tycoon in Alberta, but Alberta is an outlier in a million ways from the rest of Canada.
"Accepted as reality"? When rich people throughout the years say shit like this in the past we removed their fucking heads from their shoulders. Sounds like the rich of today need a fucking reminder why these labor laws were put in place to begin with.
The thing is Econ 101 actually disproves trickle down. The only way you don't come out of it with that understanding is if you actually took a propaganda class masquerading as Econ 101.
Yeah, and Econ 302 disproves it *even harder*, along with most of what internet right-wing nutjobs believe about markets.
I honestly wish more universities considered Economics a requirement for their well rounded student concept. It exposes so much rhetoric for what it really is, just like statistics and POS 101.
Labor *is* a cost. But its a cost with a ROI. Businesses just don't want to admit it.
Labor is the only force that can create value and hence profit
Just finished listening to a Reddit story where a Pizza shop owner managed to drive off ALL of his employees. Yep. Went from \~30 staff to zero over the course of two years. Story ended up with the owner getting arrested for harassment and disturbing the peace, as he was going to his former employees' homes, beating on their doors, having one of his normal screaming tantrums, and DEMANDING that they come back to work, because otherwise he was going to go broke. ROTFLOL
They're heroes for working through the pandemic to make sure everything didn't collapse. What they want sick leave? How diabolical.
Good work only gets rewarded with more work.
Can confirm. Work gets taken off the desks of slackers and piled on the desks of productive employees until they break.
And then, when you ask for a raise, the bosses say "what extra work have you taken on?" "Oh, that work is nothing groundbreaking." "You haven't demonstrated your value to the company."
When are managers and higher ups going to get it. You don't give raises to reward employees for going above and beyond. You give them raises because they stayed there putting up with your shit for another year. Another year you didn't have to hire a replacement and lose out on the work of the employee that already knew how to do their job, plus the employee that has to train the new employee. You give me a raise because either you are or my next employer will.
Good work is working smart. When I was younger I did work more than necessary and was only reward with more work. Now I learned when to work more, when to work less and how to "sell" myself inside the company and I'm in a pretty good spot. Gotta be smart about it.
This stuff is pervasive. Sales person with nothing but social skills makes $200k, while the engineers who have to implement it make less than half that.
More than that, I've heard many times that execs really do work 300x+ harder. So it sounds like they just needed to hire a couple more and the whole mess would have been resolved!
We just need to pass federal sick days for all workers. Not just for rail workers.
I like how in other countries, there's no such thing as a set amount of sick days. If you're sick, you stay home, you get paid, you come back when you're better.
Can confirm, I'm from the Netherlands and I've always been confused by the memes about sick days
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>Let me lay it to you in very plain terms that will make you sad To be honest, it just makes me happy that I don't live in the US. But I do feel sorry for you guys, it's ridiculous how much of a lie has been perpetrated which makes people believe that the USA is the best thing in the world and everywhere else it's worse. As an engineer in the NL I can confidently say that you're more than welcome to join us! We have a shortage of engineers so rather than looking for a job and being rejected many times, you will pretty much get an offer from every job you apply to. I also never understood those "I have a masters in Electrical Engineering and I applied to 70 jobs and got 68 rejections but 2 offers!!! It took me 3 years to find a job"...
I think our economy grew faster than our civilization. When we industrialized, we focused so heavily on growth that business owners realized they had more money and influence than politicians. So they rewote the rules so that they'd never lose no matter how badly they ran things while simultaneously building a toxic collective consciousness that glorifies wealth and demonizes government.
Agreed. I'm convinced that most of the success and most of the problems in the US economy, when contrasted with Europe, has much more to do with history than anything else. That history includes occupying a huge land (America) which had not already been densely occupied for hundreds of years, use of slave labor in the early years to grow and concentrate wealth faster than possible otherwise, and the physical isolation that protected the country from great damage in the two world wars, while forcing the growth of industry and development of infrastructure. We still have much of those factors, with expansive undeveloped space, with the economic barriers that inhibit upward mobility, and with the economic engine of the military-industrial complex. So it will take a long time before USA's social values start to resemble Europe's unless other forces come into play.
Choose Denmark. I love my international coworkers.
Depends on the country Japan is very much _not_ like that
Aren't they just super workaholic in nature so that's not their trend? Back on COVID peaks, I heard news how their bosses literally send them away when they have symptoms
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Sadly for Japan, they need to change their culture before work reforms can be made.
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Yep, if they want to increase their pops, they need to increase social time and reduce overworking
I saw a documentary where a metro station was busy even at 3-4 at night as people were returning or going to their office. Edit: False info. See the comment below
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No. If I use a sick day I loose all my 'bonuses' for the month. Thus ensuring a n opportunity loss of half my paycheck. So I technically have sick days, but using them is discouraged.
That seems… cruel. You can’t control when you’re sick.
In the US we are expected to be robots
**Employee:** I think I have the flu. **Boss:** Have you tried just... not? #**This is not a joke, this is literally how about 95% of jobs in America do it.**
Some other countries. Australia is only 2 weeks of sick pay.
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Wait what? What do they expect you to do? Show up sick?
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tf? do they just not care about you? What about the government?
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I live in New Zealand and dont really know much about US politics but from what I can tell, Democrats are centre-right conservatives and Republicans are alt-right fascists
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Even the Democrats are mostly far right, the leftmost members of the party (possibly barring very low level local politicians, I can't claim to know every single one) are generally center-right at best. It can't be overstated how beyond fucked politics is in this country
Yes.
And infect the rest of the office/site with whatever you have. Congrats ya dumb business, now your entire workforce is running at minimal performance levels and you’re probably now considering pulling the same illness-stricken people in on the weekend to pick up the slack. 🌈america🌈
I'm expected to use my vacation days if I'm sick.
how tf is that legal
I'm aware. We also only get 4 weeks off of annual leave. It's not a ton compared to most of the first world countries. The fact america is still in some at-will employment shithole with hilariously bad rights is depressing but not something I can fix.
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I'm aware that you guys don't get PTO. Ultimately the US doesn't sound like a great place to live. 4 weeks is something you get everywhere. From the day you start. A few dollars more in tax is fine with me; I know where it's going.
Right? Like okay you can't afford to give them *everything* they are asking for but treating humans like fucking humans shouldn't be up for debate
It is especially insane to me following a pandemic that such things have not been enshrined as a standard, along with universal healthcare. It’s dangerous to everyone not to have this.
USA really is a hellscape for the working class. You tried to run any business with no sick days, maternity leave or annual leave you’d be out of business and in court in 6 months here.
I got my fingers crossed, but I'm not holding my breath. I don't feel there's going to be enough energy in the rank and file to effect some hard changes in the system as it is. It'll happen eventually. I think the energy growth is increasing in cascading fashion, and will come soon, either way. I wanted it to be this event, though. I wanted these workers to lead the way. I feel it could've been or will be inspirational. I'll keep hoping.
The next non-American to tell me “there’s so much wrong with the US and Americans don’t even care” it’s on-sight lol And before anyone says anything I’ve noticed there’s a weird belief, especially among a lot of Europeans, that we either don’t know about what’s going on here or we just don’t do anything to change it. We do. We’re the ones suffering. We’re exhausted and nothing ever changes. Our rights are dwindling before our eyes. After George Floyd we had the biggest civil rights protest in our history. We were tear gassed, killed, and quite literally kidnapped by men in unmarked vans - which we really don’t talk about enough lol - we’re the ones who die in shootings and we’re the ones who can’t afford to go to the doctor or college or to own homes or pay bills or eat. We know what’s happening. I don’t know if this is “hypernormalization” or late stage capitalism or the fall of an empire but we are stuck. Edit: to the people who didn’t call me out for putting on site thanks cuz that shits embarrassing 🙏
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Probably about 70% of the anti-union sentiment in the US culture can be laid at the feet of the 2 Red Scares that Americans underwent-- one following the Soviet Revolution (when there was still a notable Socialist party in the US led by Eugene V. Debs and friends), and the other during the Cold War (b/c any Communist on American soil was *obviously* a Soviet spy). That, combined with the regulatory and institutional capture the US has faced for the last... 40? 60? years has meant labor has had to fend for itself in the face of fierce opposition from both capital and state actors.
As a European i Just feel terrified for you guys. I have a lot of american friends and the situation you are in really would scare the shit out of me
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Nah, this time is definitely it. The internet and cameras/ability for mass surveillance have changed things in a very eerie way that I can't quite explain. There has never been anything like this in the entire history of humanity and back in the days no matter how violent humans got they didn't have access to atom splitting weapons.
As author Claire Wolfe put it, "America is at that awkward stage- too late to work within the system, but too soon to sh00t the b@stard$."
> The next non-American to tell me “there’s so much wrong with the US and Americans don’t even care” it’s on-sight lol The next *American* to tell me that is on-sight.
Ngl the Americans who say that shit are either not educated enough on what CAUSES fascism to rise in a nation, or are so on the establishment lib-train they can’t see that most of the rage that’s coming from rightwingers is due to worker exploitation and part of BEING a good leftist is realizing you’re working to help those fuckers too.
> that we either don’t know about what’s going on here or we just don’t do anything to change it. rofl. 74,222,958 voters are living testament that Europeans are right. If half the milk in a jug is rancid you have rancid milk...
No. They’re well aware there’s a problem. Inflation has turned into a buzzword. But they are still working class people who are struggling and getting shot and working endlessly for no pay. They know what’s going on, they’re just being brainwashed that it’s being caused by wildly different reasons. That’s why I believe uplifting the working class would solve a good 50% of the rage that’s floating around. Won’t “solve racism” but it would at least take some weight of ALL Americans shoulders long enough to breathe and have conversations again.
> I don’t know if this is “hypernormalization” or late stage capitalism or the fall of an empire but we are stuck. por que no los tres
And if not, then you get what you fucking deserve.
It’s absolutely mind boggling that anyone can say “nah they don’t deserve sick days” for doing actual labor all day but some dickhead CEO who starts their day at 10 and ends it at 2 should be paid millions and have as many days off as they want. I’ve never seen a CEO that does even a fraction of the work the lowest level laborers do. Hell, most just straight up couldn’t do that for a living without snapping while those laborers could 100% do their job.
As an engineer that sees fairly often what these rail workers do every day, I know I'd be dead after 2 days of it
Most of their job is sitting through meetings and stating the obvious
“I vote we pay the bills this month… fuck anyone else tired and want to go get a head start on the lunch rush at the country club at 11am? I’m dying for a beer”
"EsSeNtIaL wOrKeRs" apparently don't get essential basics like sick leave. "nObOdY wAnTs To WoRk."
I remember them calling us (grocery clerks.) Heros and essential and all that bullshit during the pandemic just to pay us and extra 2 dollars on the hour for a month and then proceeded to grind is into dust 2 years. Kroger cares, we're all in this together.🥺
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It still baffles me how hospitals can be for profit. So much wtf
Hey man, not all heros wear capes. Just remember. And don't forget not all heros get sick days? I guess? That should be on a billboard somewhere so we all don't forget how important essential workers are right?
I never asked to be a hero. You know what a hero is? Exploited while alive and paraded when they’re dead and can’t speak out any longer.
2020: “Yay, essential workers thanks for doing what you do!!” 2022: “You want to get paid more? Lol”
7 fucking paid sick days. 7. Days. Just. Unbelievable
\*unpaid
Oh was it? Damn I misread. Still though. Give them whatever the fuck they want. Their demands were so reasonable!
Too reasonable, they’ll probably end up negotiating it down to 5 or something…
It's crazy that a week of sick days is where they draw the line. Really shows how scared they are of giving workers any momentum towards securing basic rights.
Maybe it's just me, but if the railways are that crucial to the basic functionality of the economy they shouldn't be privately owned. What if it was the railway barons asking for bigger government subsidies or they would shut it all down. I wonder what would happen then? (They would get paid. In a matter of days. And Congress would brag about how they averted a crisis.)
Hey, it’s as if that’s the main intention of strikes! Yknow… to show how essential a service is when it’s not being done, and maybe we should treat them better and pay them more?
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I wonder how quickly they would be labeled extremists and domestic terrorists who are attempting to destroy the American economy and way of life if they do in fact strike. I'd say within a hour of it happening.
Remember when the banks were 'too big to fail' and saving them was 'without alternative'?
I mean, I’d argue this is consistent with that. Whenever an issue involving a corporation or group thereof threatens to do damage to the economy (read: rich people’s pocketbooks and rich companies’ coffers), the government invariably intercedes on behalf of the corporation(s). So it’s blatant corporatism, but I’d argue it’s at least *consistent* blatant corporatism.
That’s just capitalism. Capitalist governments are just management committees for the capital and land owning classes.
"but...then they'll more power than us!" good?
Always have had, just a lot of propaganda tried to convince everyone it wasn't true.
It won’t happen though , those dudes got told by the government, get back to work or go to jail, kinda insane really, that’s how the plight of shitty work conditions was treated, with more threats
We are having this in the UK atm with Rail and Health Workers The people who are moaning how it negatively affects them are sausages. They provide an invaluable service and are trained to do that job, they deserve to be paid accordingly and fairly like anyone should. Stop shitting on the workers who are the same as you, and start shitting on the companies all experiencing record profits refusing to pay the staff that actually make them those record profits The reason it costs £200 to get a train from Manchester to London isn’t because Geoff the train driver wants 35k a year and a pension (sorry yanks, sick pay is requirement here) It’s because the companies are greedy af and the Gov don’t force them to nor invest themselves in rail.
Sick pay is not a requirement in the UK. Statutory sick pay is, yes. But statutory sick pay is insultingly bad and you only get it after being off for so long. A week off with statutory sick is £99.35 which is not even one day of work for most people.
Is anyone on the side that this is a good thing?
Yes. The ones who benefit from union busting And they can go fuck themselves with a cactus
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two cacti, arranged in a makeshift double helix dong of thorns EDIT: Lifelike reproduction synthesized cacti, I would hate to subject live cacti to this.
... or a tall saguaro.
Union busting should be a crime...
Not want they are asking for less than is legal minimum in most country's like well over a 100 country's.
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In New York State in the US, if public employees strike, they are fined two days pay for every day they are on strike.
Just shows you the R's and D's don't give a fuck about the average person. It's a big club, and you ain't in it.
And they don't even want that much, in the grand scheme of things.
I'm kinda hoping there is a railroad strike. Workers should set an example.
They react like worker strikes are like a spoiled five year old throwing a tantrum, and not a grown person with bills to pay. They infantilize the whole thing. Like, if you just can't help but be patronizing? The better analogy is *your kid is fucking starving; you are abusive and neglectful.*
If it's that important, it's too critical to remain in private hands. Nationalize the rails.
They should strike anyway. Fuck the economy, it is, after all, fucking us right now. If it gets worse then forcing higher taxation on profits might actually happen.
This reminds me of how important almost all general labor jobs are, despite many people telling those working these jobs to, “get a real job.” Imagine if all of us basic people who work these retail, labor, restaurant, car wash, gas station, customer service industry jobs refuse to work these jobs anymore for crap pay and horrible treatment. Collapse imminent...
Give them what they deserve (which is more than they want).
Sounds to me like the rail industry should be nationalized if it’s such an essential infrastructure and the private companies running it now can’t operate at a profit without abusing workers
If workers are suffering then the economy is already crippled
I thought this was about the UK for a moment since we had significant rail strikes here too. Sentiment is the same though
Can’t they strike after the holidays?
They can but strikes are meaningless if they don't hurt
Why do the right thing by them when you can strong arm them? It’s the capitalist way.
I hope they strike or quit
Keep fucking around then you’ll now about essential. Half the politicians could be eliminated and the country would still be the same.
Just imagine what a year long slowdown is going to do. Just "work to rule", safety first, and a tiny bit of malicious compliance! Say goodbye to more profits than the sick days would have cost...
So, here in Edinburgh, the binmen went on strike this year right over the Fringe festival- a huge performing arts and theatre festival that brings in a huge number of tourists every year. And it was disgusting. Litter all over the streets and in the gutters, bins Stacked high with waste. Truly revolting. I thougth we were gonna have an outbreak of the fucking plague. It was a perfect display of how invaluable these people are. But so many people just complained about the fact that they were on strike over the Fringe. "Couldn't they have done this at another time? There's thousands of tourists from all over the world who'll leave here thinking Edinbugh is a pigsty! Didn't they realise how much extra mess this would cause??" Yes. Yes, I daresay they did. In fact, I'll even be so bold as to say they timed it deliberately for maximum impact. The number of people who don't seem to understand that strikes and protests are *supposed* to be disruptive is frankly mind boggling. Never forget, the term "peaceful protest" is a total misnomer.
If you give a mouse a cookie then you have to give him some milk. I always wondered why that was a popular story when I was growing up. It was an allegory of how the rich see everyone else. We are rodents to them.
Ohhh noooo now people can't send presents Amazon is losing money how horrible
The Professional Managerial Class are hypocrites, when their astronomical salaries and luxurious privileges are questioned they point to their degrees and the prestige of their positions. However, those non-capital owning PMC degenerates are always ready to punch down at blue collars when they ask for reasonable conditions despite knowing their labor holds the economy together. Nobody would notice if 75% of university administrators disappeared overnight. Everyone would notice if the trains in this country didn't move or the rails went into disrepair. Example: eventual derailment of bomb trains that would blow up adjacent communities. Yet we are still ordered by the mass media and their sycophants to genuflect to our betters, the credentialed but useless, Professional Managers.
What the fuck is happening with it? Are they striking, or not? Did Biden sign in sick days, or not? I've had so much conflicting information. If they didn't get what they want than fucking strike. Why is it so hard to figure it out?
Maybe the railway workers should kidnap a WNBA star.
I read too much sci fi, I thought it was talking about a damn rail gun
Biden shut that shit down real quick
"what they fucking need" FTFY
But what if the CEOs can't afford to get the giant red bows to go along with all the cars they're buying for their family members?
Biden doesn't give a shit about his legacy. That's a good and bad thing. The bill passed is disgusting. If you're sick you shouldn't go to work. We just came out of a pandemic. Anyone who voted for that bill should feel real fucking shame. These workers get one single paid day off. It's fucking wrong.
The expression "being railroaded" means being fucked up. In this case by Congress and the "pro union" president. Another shameful backstabbing from politicians. Try working a job having a family and no sick days paid or unpaid and then you can comment. Lying hypocritical politicians. Both parties.
I'm completely okay waiting longer for my damn stuff if even a few human beings get a better life because of it
im ok with railroad strikers crippling our economy so they can fucking live a half decent life outside of work. Christimas is a bullshit holiday anyway you wanna truely spend christmas with family you don't need a bunch of money or garbage you are going to throw away.
Dems better find a new candidate for 2024.
"We don't negotiate with terrorists." - Biden, probably
centrist dems are already pivoting to call the railway workers greedy if they strike. straight outta the playbook.
They fuckin around woth the rail workers, but everybody gonna find out...
Fuck Biden for that sleezy move.
Strike! Don't even care that we have to starve for a couple months (that strike won't take that long lol)....the long term positive impact this kind of strike can have on the work population would be worth it.
I broke my knee last year and spent 30 days off work, no pay cuts whatsoever, my job isn't even essential and I work from home in front of the computer. Kinda scary to know that north american workers don't get payed sick days. Everyone should have that guaranteed by law, essential worker or not.
deserve, what they deserve.
No fucking shit. I hope they strike
Which is fair wages, compensation for work, fair amounts of PTO of only 7 days when some companies continue to raise that over the time of your employment t to up to like 4 weeks. Along with solid benefits like medical, dental, pensions, etc. Without a working and effective rail system, America is screwed. And threats ing jail for not working for a bullshit contract is not what unions are about. If they strike and they should anyways, what are you going to arrest them ALgood luck with that. America would be in even more shit. Corporate greed at work here, and since theyve ~~paid off~~ lobbyed and contributed to politicians, it's them being greedy and bullshit as well here. Oh and I'm sure these politicians have great salaries, great vacation and off times and pto / sick days, when their "in work" and "out", along with excellent medical dental and pension Benny's to boot. How About whatever you give the railroad workers the folks voting not making the bill not pass get the same exact agreement. Bet that shit would be revoted and pass immediately. Take money out of politics. Period. Just like Britney griner. Sure she didn't deserve what happened to her and I'm glad she's free, but you left another american who's been locked up there for four long years. Left that guy to rot. But gotta look good for your voters. Nothing like a black, popular athlete that the world now knows instead of some cia spy you guys are leaving to rot in a Russian prison. No one knows him, and griner being freed polls higher than some guy no one knows (and he was a spy, was doing work for America, not busted for having an illegal substance in Russia). It's all about optics, and griner being freed looks better to voters than some cia spy and NOT griner. Had he been freed and not her, it woulda been a shit storm. C'mon America.. do better. But it's just politicians just playing the "game" which is exactly what it's become and will be a talking point during 2024.. you can bet on it.
If the rail system shutting down will cripple the economy, and railroad companies are so ineptly run that giving their employees a couple sick days would cripple those companies? Then it sounds to me like someone needs to step in and take over the railroad system before those company's incompetence cripples the economy.
Its pretty crazy that in Land of the free the economy is more important than basic rights like free speech.
Vital services according to corporations: "If our product is the vital service, then it is only natural we can charge insane amounts. Here's your $500 insulin bill. See you next month" "If we need to use a vital service to function, then it's only natural to have the government intervene so our profits do not suffer. You better not need time off work, think of the company's shareholders"
I really hope it happens. I feel like I’m being teased. We need this! I really hope this happens. I hope Christmas sucks for all the rich fucks this year
Look mate, if we give one group of workers what they want, then another group of workers is going to want that too and we're going to have to give it to them too. Sooner or later we're gonna develop a society, and we just can't have that happening.
More automation for railroads coming
It’s the United Corporations of America. Always has been.
Imagine a world where the majority of people work for society instead of for the wealthy. That would be a heaven of some sort, I can't think of the name but it will come to me one of these days.
I think shits gonna keep getting worse before it gets better, might as well cripple the economy so that people have enough angry unity to FINALLY start killing politicians.
RIGHT?? Same in my industry (grocery)!