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Call me a skeptic, because I'm a mechanic by trade who's had the same job for 15 years now. Pay still goes up but your responsibilities change. The communicat

Call me a skeptic, because I'm a mechanic by trade who's had the same job for 15 years now. Pay still goes up but your responsibilities change. The communication between you and the shop is still damn important. Owners of bigger shops are always convinced they can backfill you with an army of apprentices and day laborers. Smaller shops are always scared you'll bankrupt them. Trust is character, and competence, according to the business gurus. I spend most of my days on big issues. Stripped head bolts and stuck cylinders are still a daily thing, but I also take on breaking bad news to big customers. Telling someone their fleet of aging Mac dumptrucks all need a rebuild is a big task. Explaining it in plain English is impossible for a lot of new guys. My question is do these partners ever take on new responsibilities? Or are they just cashing a paycheck

Swizec 7y ago
To summarize: If you provide more value than you cost, you’re always gonna have a job. It’s a business relationship. Ain’t nobody gonna pay you $5 if you only bring in $3. Everyone will fight to pay you $10 if you bring in $20
- djmobley 7y ago
  Historically, partners in law firms haven’t had to add value themselves because they had junior lawyers to do that for them.
  - Danieru 7y ago
    Indeed, the deeper reason for that is how law firms are only allowed to be "professional companies", no limited liability shareholders allowed. Thus the industry could never be securitized and profits sold. Instead participating in the profits requires participating in the firm, even if only in risk and name only. This also speaks to why competition is hard to create. No outside limited liability partners means no VCes or passive investors. The closest a law firm can do is loans. Loans partners will be 100% personally liable for.
- tsimionescu 7y ago
  Not really. Almost everyone in the world is producing more than they get payed. The only way to be guaranteed a job is to provide a better productivity/wage ratio than enough of your competitors. Depending on your profession, your competition might be smaller (eg highly specialized mechanics in the area) or huge (eg all low-skilled factory workers in the world).
  - Rainymood 7y ago
    If you produce $5 but can't sell it for $3, is it really $5?
    - geofft 7y ago
      Sure. Markets work slowly and capriciously. Part of the deal of taking a salaried job is that you get a paycheck now instead of waiting until you've built something and seeing who's ready to buy it and how much. Even if in the steady state someone will definitely buy it for $5, it's nice to put bread on the table today instead of maybe in a year or two. As with all financial transactions of the form "I'll trade your risky profit in the future for a low-risk profit now," you lose some money, and that money goes to the entity absorbing the risk for you.
    - michaelt 7y ago
      If I have a Foo I can't use myself, but that will make you $5, and you only offer me $3 for it, have I made $5 or $3?
      - mason55 7y ago
        You’ve created $3 in value and the person who sells it created $2 in value. Maybe they’re managing the logistics of shipping the Foo or the storefront where a customer finds it. If you can create it and sell it for $5 yourself then you’d do that.
    - tsimionescu 7y ago
      It depends. If I'm trying to sell an object for 5$ but can only sell it for 3, you're right, I've only produced 3$. However, if I'm working for a company and an object I created gets sold by the company for 5$,but the company is paying me 2$ and the salesman 1$,and declaring 2$ worth of profit, then the salesman and I have obviously produced 5$ worth of value together, but were paid 3$ for our work. Any profitable company by definition does exactly this (and nominally un-profitable ones may be doing the same).

Swizec 7y ago

To summarize: If you provide more value than you cost, you’re always gonna have a job. It’s a business relationship. Ain’t nobody gonna pay you $5 if you only bring in $3. Everyone will fight to pay you $10 if you bring in $20

djmobley 7y ago
Historically, partners in law firms haven’t had to add value themselves because they had junior lawyers to do that for them.
- Danieru 7y ago
  Indeed, the deeper reason for that is how law firms are only allowed to be "professional companies", no limited liability shareholders allowed. Thus the industry could never be securitized and profits sold. Instead participating in the profits requires participating in the firm, even if only in risk and name only. This also speaks to why competition is hard to create. No outside limited liability partners means no VCes or passive investors. The closest a law firm can do is loans. Loans partners will be 100% personally liable for.
tsimionescu 7y ago
Not really. Almost everyone in the world is producing more than they get payed. The only way to be guaranteed a job is to provide a better productivity/wage ratio than enough of your competitors. Depending on your profession, your competition might be smaller (eg highly specialized mechanics in the area) or huge (eg all low-skilled factory workers in the world).
- Rainymood 7y ago
  If you produce $5 but can't sell it for $3, is it really $5?
  - geofft 7y ago
    Sure. Markets work slowly and capriciously. Part of the deal of taking a salaried job is that you get a paycheck now instead of waiting until you've built something and seeing who's ready to buy it and how much. Even if in the steady state someone will definitely buy it for $5, it's nice to put bread on the table today instead of maybe in a year or two. As with all financial transactions of the form "I'll trade your risky profit in the future for a low-risk profit now," you lose some money, and that money goes to the entity absorbing the risk for you.
  - michaelt 7y ago
    If I have a Foo I can't use myself, but that will make you $5, and you only offer me $3 for it, have I made $5 or $3?
    - mason55 7y ago
      You’ve created $3 in value and the person who sells it created $2 in value. Maybe they’re managing the logistics of shipping the Foo or the storefront where a customer finds it. If you can create it and sell it for $5 yourself then you’d do that.
  - tsimionescu 7y ago
    It depends. If I'm trying to sell an object for 5$ but can only sell it for 3, you're right, I've only produced 3$. However, if I'm working for a company and an object I created gets sold by the company for 5$,but the company is paying me 2$ and the salesman 1$,and declaring 2$ worth of profit, then the salesman and I have obviously produced 5$ worth of value together, but were paid 3$ for our work. Any profitable company by definition does exactly this (and nominally un-profitable ones may be doing the same).