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petty things such as avoid paying the cleaning staff any sort of decent wages or benefits.” It’s pathological. WeWork, Google, Facebook and all the rest don’t

by gaius 8y ago

petty things such as avoid paying the cleaning staff any sort of decent wages or benefits.” It’s pathological. WeWork, Google, Facebook and all the rest don’t need to shaft their cleaners, catering staff, security guards etc. The cost is a rounding error and it’s directly antithetical to their stated brand values. But they just can’t help themselves.

rchaud 8y ago
I believe there was a NYT story posted last year about how all custodial services are contracted out these days, and ye olde American success story of 'going from the janitor supply closet to the boardroom' was gone forever. The used an example of a cleaner at HP in the early '80s who became a manager of some sort. The comments on that article? Mostly something along the lines of "maximizing shareholder value" and "fiduciary duty to the corporation". Anything to avoid having to admit that this is wrong.
- olyjohn 8y ago
  Sadly, this is the way that IT is going as well. It's getting harder to start at the help desk and work your way into a real position anywhere. When we interviewed for a Desktop Support person, 80% (my guesstimate) of our applicants only had (limited) access to the Office 365 portal, performed basic password resets, and did shit-work like wipe drives. They were totally silo'd out of being able to grow. They weren't even given local admin permissions on workstations to be able to do any real troubleshooting. Of course, all this is in the name of "security" and the least-privilege thing. It's horse shit really. You need to be able to trust your employees and then audit. But it's easier to manage people when you can just lock them into a position and leave them there to rot.
  - expertentipp 8y ago
    Helpdesk?! Outsourced development for major institutions is done that the developer has a remote access to the virtual machine with the IDE, repository cloned, etc. Growth? Your are a JAVA+Angular whore. Complaints? This workplace is for team-players only. Fired? Revoke the access with one click.
- goliatone 8y ago
  I remember a similar story but from Kodak. I think the shareholder narrative and the race to the bottom started in the 70/80s has lead to the current situation. Short term mentality and spreadsheet driven management has taken a toll on the American dream. It seems like the last blue collar stronghold- drivers- is the one under siege right now and bound to collapse in the coming decade(s?). It does worry me to think about easily we are able to brush that aspect of technology to the back of our minds and pretend it’s not going to affect almost everybody in one way or another
  - rchaud 8y ago
    I think Kodak was the company in the article, actually. > Short term mentality and spreadsheet driven management has taken a toll on the American dream. Yes, but stock market growth since the '80s is a big reason why the "wealth" of the average American has increased, even though wages have stagnated and debt has increased. One hand has been feeding the other for a long time.

by gaius 8y ago

rchaud 8y ago

I believe there was a NYT story posted last year about how all custodial services are contracted out these days, and ye olde American success story of 'going from the janitor supply closet to the boardroom' was gone forever. The used an example of a cleaner at HP in the early '80s who became a manager of some sort. The comments on that article? Mostly something along the lines of "maximizing shareholder value" and "fiduciary duty to the corporation". Anything to avoid having to admit that this is wrong.

olyjohn 8y ago
Sadly, this is the way that IT is going as well. It's getting harder to start at the help desk and work your way into a real position anywhere. When we interviewed for a Desktop Support person, 80% (my guesstimate) of our applicants only had (limited) access to the Office 365 portal, performed basic password resets, and did shit-work like wipe drives. They were totally silo'd out of being able to grow. They weren't even given local admin permissions on workstations to be able to do any real troubleshooting. Of course, all this is in the name of "security" and the least-privilege thing. It's horse shit really. You need to be able to trust your employees and then audit. But it's easier to manage people when you can just lock them into a position and leave them there to rot.
- expertentipp 8y ago
  Helpdesk?! Outsourced development for major institutions is done that the developer has a remote access to the virtual machine with the IDE, repository cloned, etc. Growth? Your are a JAVA+Angular whore. Complaints? This workplace is for team-players only. Fired? Revoke the access with one click.
goliatone 8y ago
I remember a similar story but from Kodak. I think the shareholder narrative and the race to the bottom started in the 70/80s has lead to the current situation. Short term mentality and spreadsheet driven management has taken a toll on the American dream. It seems like the last blue collar stronghold- drivers- is the one under siege right now and bound to collapse in the coming decade(s?). It does worry me to think about easily we are able to brush that aspect of technology to the back of our minds and pretend it’s not going to affect almost everybody in one way or another
- rchaud 8y ago
  I think Kodak was the company in the article, actually. > Short term mentality and spreadsheet driven management has taken a toll on the American dream. Yes, but stock market growth since the '80s is a big reason why the "wealth" of the average American has increased, even though wages have stagnated and debt has increased. One hand has been feeding the other for a long time.