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Goodbye Jesus

Musing about work


Castiel233

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I am at work for 8 and a half hours a day, my job is OK, I have done a lot worse and most (but of course not all) of my colleagues are cool people....

 

So this is not an anti work rant (as such)

 

I can do my job part time, easily, very easily, so paying me a full time wage seems to me to be a waste of company  money.

 

I have offered repeatedly to go part time and it has always been refused as I'm told my job is a "full time requirement".

 

Now there are two of us working in the office. My colleague has had an accident meaning he is off work, so now I have to do both jobs......and I still clear the work with an hour or so to go........and I am not even going, "hell for leather"......

 

I just don't get it, I have worked there for about a year and a half and I have proved that the job can be done part time. Obviously, if the manger doesn't want to give me part time hours, so be it, I can always go elsewhere. This is not about me getting my own way, merely my head scratching  at why would you pay some one full time for a job that simply does not require it. I just don't get it......

 

When I get a tradesman in to do a job around the house, or say clear the garden, I don't pay per hour, We agree on a price, he does the work and I pay him, it is takes him 5 hours and I pay him £100, or it takes him 90 minutes and I still pay £100, so be it.....

 

Years ago I was temping at a company where there was perhaps about 100 or so temps. The work ran out, so I asked if we could go home. I was told no, sweep and tidy up......OK, so we did that, didn't take long, what with there being so many of us......so I asked again for us to go home...told no again, find something to do.....there is nothing to do...sweep up again......100 plus or so temps pretending to work at a combined cost of around £1300 an hour.....same thing happened the following night....don't get it.....If there is no work and people want to go home, why not let them, is it a manger power trip to keep them....... 

 

I worked in a factory with a 9 and a half hour day.......zero motivation to work fast (paid the same regardless on how much work you produced), boring work, relative long day (for the UK), people just plodded slowly through it...when they weren't chatting at the coffee machine or hiding in the toilet. We used to get moaned at to work faster.....I'd say most people perhaps did "just enough" to stay under the radar.High turn over of staff, low wages, long hours and poor productivity.....I could have tripled my output, but for what...boss openly didn't care about the workers and in turn, the workers disdained him.....the place was straight out of a Dickens novel.

 

On the flip side, i was talking to a chap once who had worked a job unloading lorries. they had to unload 5 lorries a day, working a 6 am-2 pm shift.......one day the manger says, right, unload those 5 lorries and I will let you go home on full pay, I don't care how early you finish, I will pay you until 2 pm, I just want those lorries gone......they cleared the lorries, daily, no latter that 10 am......at no extra cost....every one wins......I accept not every place can do this, but most places don't even trial l it......you are given your hours regardless how productive they (or you are).

 

There is a company in Sweden(sorry, forgotten the name) cut the daily work day down from 8 hours to 6, a twenty five % reduction in hours worked...profits have risen 25 %

Company in Scotland has given all employees a three day weekend. Productivity has risen 33 %

 

There was a company in America, same sort of story.....high turn over staff, constant cost of rehiring and retraining. Boss had a think......reduced the working day by 2 hours a day, yet they still took home the same wage......productivity soared, retention of staff dramatically went up, sick leave went right down.....

 

Is the way we work outdated?

 

thoughts?

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3 hours ago, Castiel233 said:

I am at work for 8 and a half hours a day, my job is OK, I have done a lot worse and most (but of course not all) of my colleagues are cool people....

 

So this is not an anti work rant (as such)

 

I can do my job part time, easily, very easily, so paying me a full time wage seems to me to be a waste of company  money.

 

I have offered repeatedly to go part time and it has always been refused as I'm told my job is a "full time requirement".

 

Now there are two of us working in the office. My colleague has had an accident meaning he is off work, so now I have to do both jobs......and I still clear the work with an hour or so to go........and I am not even going, "hell for leather"......

 

I just don't get it, I have worked there for about a year and a half and I have proved that the job can be done part time. Obviously, if the manger doesn't want to give me part time hours, so be it, I can always go elsewhere. This is not about me getting my own way, merely my head scratching  at why would you pay some one full time for a job that simply does not require it. I just don't get it......

 

When I get a tradesman in to do a job around the house, or say clear the garden, I don't pay per hour, We agree on a price, he does the work and I pay him, it is takes him 5 hours and I pay him £100, or it takes him 90 minutes and I still pay £100, so be it.....

 

Years ago I was temping at a company where there was perhaps about 100 or so temps. The work ran out, so I asked if we could go home. I was told no, sweep and tidy up......OK, so we did that, didn't take long, what with there being so many of us......so I asked again for us to go home...told no again, find something to do.....there is nothing to do...sweep up again......100 plus or so temps pretending to work at a combined cost of around £1300 an hour.....same thing happened the following night....don't get it.....If there is no work and people want to go home, why not let them, is it a manger power trip to keep them....... 

 

I worked in a factory with a 9 and a half hour day.......zero motivation to work fast (paid the same regardless on how much work you produced), boring work, relative long day (for the UK), people just plodded slowly through it...when they weren't chatting at the coffee machine or hiding in the toilet. We used to get moaned at to work faster.....I'd say most people perhaps did "just enough" to stay under the radar.High turn over of staff, low wages, long hours and poor productivity.....I could have tripled my output, but for what...boss openly didn't care about the workers and in turn, the workers disdained him.....the place was straight out of a Dickens novel.

 

On the flip side, i was talking to a chap once who had worked a job unloading lorries. they had to unload 5 lorries a day, working a 6 am-2 pm shift.......one day the manger says, right, unload those 5 lorries and I will let you go home on full pay, I don't care how early you finish, I will pay you until 2 pm, I just want those lorries gone......they cleared the lorries, daily, no latter that 10 am......at no extra cost....every one wins......I accept not every place can do this, but most places don't even trial l it......you are given your hours regardless how productive they (or you are).

 

There is a company in Sweden(sorry, forgotten the name) cut the daily work day down from 8 hours to 6, a twenty five % reduction in hours worked...profits have risen 25 %

Company in Scotland has given all employees a three day weekend. Productivity has risen 33 %

 

There was a company in America, same sort of story.....high turn over staff, constant cost of rehiring and retraining. Boss had a think......reduced the working day by 2 hours a day, yet they still took home the same wage......productivity soared, retention of staff dramatically went up, sick leave went right down.....

 

Is the way we work outdated?

 

thoughts?

Two thoughts immediately come to mind, mate.  First, yes, the way we work is outdated and has been for a few decades now.  Change often comes slowly; but if I still have anything of the gift of prophecy about me, I'd wager that we will see more companies going the way of your friends in Scotland and Sweden.  Of course, being an American, I'm still waiting on companies here to catch up with Europe on annual vacation time and all that.

 

Secondly, having spent the better part of 2018 unemployed, I'd say be grateful to have a job.  Especially if they're willing to pay you to not work.  I did a lot of not working last year and grossed a handsome $4,752.86 annual income.  If your company is willing to pay you a livable wage, for the same work I did, take it.  

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Speaking from the standpoint of regularly saying to the boss words to the effect: "You can give me more to do if you want to do so - but I'm not working evenings or weekends and I already have a backlog, so just tell me the order in which you suggest I do all these things, and which ones to ignore for now", I would echo the thought that, if they are prepared to pay you for drinking coffee, good luck to you.

I am considering also the question possibly of reducing hours in a couple of years' time - but that will be linked to my age and my determination not to spend time in full time work all the way to my retirement.  If I go that route, and am told my job is full time only, I'll be informing the powers that be that their choice is not whether I work full or part time, but whether I work part time for them or for someone else.

I agree, however, there is a lack of imagination as to the best way to keep productivity up and absence down.  I have noted an increasing tendency to greater managerial arrogance this last year or two. Fortunately, I'm, nearing the position where I don't have to put up with it at all, and am already able to say "no" with a reasonable degree of confidence.

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The o.p. sounds like military service, the most colossal waste of manpower I've ever seen.

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On 1/21/2019 at 1:14 AM, TheRedneckProfessor said:

  Of course, being an American, I'm still waiting on companies here to catch up with Europe on annual vacation time and all that.

I wasn't aware the US has no vacation time in its laws, it is perfectly legal for a company to offer zero annual leave and even public holidays can be unpaid. It is estimated 23% of companies don't offer annual leave. From what I could see they are the only country in the world to allow this. What does it say when Afghanistan has more care for workers rights? 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country

 

As to work hours, I'm in the opposite boat. My workload sits at 110%, so every day I have to decide what I ignore, what gets handled and what doesn't. Hopefully once the big project clears I can get the time back to work on my to-do list. Its sitting at ~2 pages of stuff I haven't gotten to. Working less days or less hours would not work for me but I do refuse to work longer hours or afterhours as that destroys your home life. Its up to the business to correctly resource for the workload, not for me to work myself to death so they can save an extra salary. 

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On 1/22/2019 at 6:43 PM, Wertbag said:

Its up to the business to correctly resource for the workload, not for me to work myself to death so they can save an extra salary. 

To add:

Last year, one team was reduced by about 50 percent, due to sickness, etc.....one of the guys said (wisely), "don't rush, as if we clear the work with half of us, they will make this the new norm", or there about.

 

 

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