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If the bus drivers were paid by the number of people who take the bus sure, but when are paid by the travel route distance, they have no obligation to do what t

If the bus drivers were paid by the number of people who take the bus sure, but when are paid by the travel route distance, they have no obligation to do what they are not paid to do.

mtsr 5y ago
What a nihilistic view. Not every aspect that’s part of your job needs to be included in your variable compensation in order to be done, does it?
- iamacyborg 5y ago
  They’re employed to do a specific job, if they’re not rewarded for bringing the company more money, why should they care?
  - goodpoint 5y ago
    Because human beings are not coin operated robots?
    - iamacyborg 5y ago
      So they should do unpaid emotional labour for free?
      - pc86 5y ago
        If you equate smiling at someone, or just being generally courteous, with "emotional labor," you need to make an emergency appointment with your therapist. Being a good human being more often than not (occasional bad moods notwithstanding) should be a non-functional requirement for any job where you interact with other people. I have no problem with anyone, in any role, getting fired simply for being an asshole. The world would be a happier and better place for it.
        xboxnolifes 5y ago
        > If you equate smiling at someone, or just being generally courteous, with "emotional labor," you need to make an emergency appointment with your therapist. This entire conversation started based on an example that smiling brought economic benefits, not that you should do it because of socializing benefits. Answering in economic terms only makes sense.
        iamacyborg 5y ago
        Since when is not smiling at people being an arsehole? I don’t want a bus driver to fake cheerfulness. He’s there to get me from a to b, not to pretend to be my friend.
        alar44 5y ago
        Smiling is not pretending to be someone's friend. Seriously, if this all sounds like alien talk, you should see a counselor or therapist.
        pc86 5y ago
        I didn't say not smiling makes you an asshole, I'm making two separate points. The first was that expecting people to be generally courteous to other people, whether they're explicitly paid to or not, is something we should expect from everyone. It's called just being a human being. And again, everyone's allowed to have bad moods now and then. But in general, if you go through life with a scowl on your face and approach things from a standpoint of "I'm not being paid for this so I don't care, I'm not doing 'unpaid emotional labor,'" you're just kind of a jerk. That's the context of the last couple comments in this thread so it's important to keep the "I'm not being paid to smile so I'm not going to smile because that's labor" thing in mind. The second point, which is related but I think still separate, is that I wish just being an asshole was enough to get fired. I sort of had it in my head but didn't really articulate that I was thinking of being an asshole as a more extreme version of what we're talking about, what I refer to above as just being kind of a jerk. Maybe on a scale of 1-10 being a jerk is a 3 but being an asshole is a 7 or 8.
        goodpoint 5y ago
      - goodpoint 5y ago
        Many types of emotional interaction are meaningful and true only when they are unpaid. Some big examples: friendship and love. For employees not to be rude to customers as part of basic work requirements. But putting on a false smile and feigning warmth to get a tip is a very different thing. It's quite common and accepted in the US. But also seen as soulless and emotionally manipulative in many other cultures.
  - gowld 5y ago
    The specific job includes customer service. It's what they are being paid for. Employees who do the job poorly are at greater risk for replacement by replacement hires. This is why many companies ask customers to rate individual service providers.
    - iamacyborg 5y ago
      I would never rate a customer service employee poorly because they aren’t cheerful. What sort of mad world do we live in where that’s even expected of minimum wage employees?
alichapman 5y ago
Yes but if the number of people on the bus dropped to zero do you think their employers would keep running the route?
- krisoft 5y ago
  The passenger count is so heavily influenced by factors outside of the bus driver’s influence that this example doesn’t make sense. Passengers don’t abandon bus routes because the bus driver didn’t smile at them. They abandon routes when the schedule is inconvenient, there are better alternatives to the bus, the fare is too high etc etc. None of these are in the control of the bus driver.
- throwaway6532 5y ago
  My old bus route to work used to amuse me greatly because on it there were two drivers who were the polar opposite of one another. One guy I assumed had previously been the pilot of a commercial airliner because he used to greet everyone who got onto the bus with that sort of demeanor and make announcements etc. Always brightened my day. The other guy was the grumpiest piece of shit bus driver I've seen anywhere in my life who would frequently berate passengers and oftentimes frighten unsuspecting foreigners. Everyone who needed to get to where they were going showed up and took the bus regardless. It's about the least important variable there is and it averages out to getting a reasonably OK bus driver almost all the time across the different busses you take and the different times of day you take them.

If the bus drivers were paid by the number of people who take the bus sure, but when are paid by the travel route distance, they have no obligation to do what they are not paid to do.

mtsr 5y ago

What a nihilistic view. Not every aspect that’s part of your job needs to be included in your variable compensation in order to be done, does it?

iamacyborg 5y ago
They’re employed to do a specific job, if they’re not rewarded for bringing the company more money, why should they care?
- goodpoint 5y ago
  Because human beings are not coin operated robots?
  - iamacyborg 5y ago
    So they should do unpaid emotional labour for free?
    - pc86 5y ago
      If you equate smiling at someone, or just being generally courteous, with "emotional labor," you need to make an emergency appointment with your therapist. Being a good human being more often than not (occasional bad moods notwithstanding) should be a non-functional requirement for any job where you interact with other people. I have no problem with anyone, in any role, getting fired simply for being an asshole. The world would be a happier and better place for it.
      - xboxnolifes 5y ago
        > If you equate smiling at someone, or just being generally courteous, with "emotional labor," you need to make an emergency appointment with your therapist. This entire conversation started based on an example that smiling brought economic benefits, not that you should do it because of socializing benefits. Answering in economic terms only makes sense.
      - iamacyborg 5y ago
        Since when is not smiling at people being an arsehole? I don’t want a bus driver to fake cheerfulness. He’s there to get me from a to b, not to pretend to be my friend.
        alar44 5y ago
        Smiling is not pretending to be someone's friend. Seriously, if this all sounds like alien talk, you should see a counselor or therapist.
        pc86 5y ago
        I didn't say not smiling makes you an asshole, I'm making two separate points. The first was that expecting people to be generally courteous to other people, whether they're explicitly paid to or not, is something we should expect from everyone. It's called just being a human being. And again, everyone's allowed to have bad moods now and then. But in general, if you go through life with a scowl on your face and approach things from a standpoint of "I'm not being paid for this so I don't care, I'm not doing 'unpaid emotional labor,'" you're just kind of a jerk. That's the context of the last couple comments in this thread so it's important to keep the "I'm not being paid to smile so I'm not going to smile because that's labor" thing in mind. The second point, which is related but I think still separate, is that I wish just being an asshole was enough to get fired. I sort of had it in my head but didn't really articulate that I was thinking of being an asshole as a more extreme version of what we're talking about, what I refer to above as just being kind of a jerk. Maybe on a scale of 1-10 being a jerk is a 3 but being an asshole is a 7 or 8.
        goodpoint 5y ago
    - goodpoint 5y ago
      Many types of emotional interaction are meaningful and true only when they are unpaid. Some big examples: friendship and love. For employees not to be rude to customers as part of basic work requirements. But putting on a false smile and feigning warmth to get a tip is a very different thing. It's quite common and accepted in the US. But also seen as soulless and emotionally manipulative in many other cultures.
- gowld 5y ago
  The specific job includes customer service. It's what they are being paid for. Employees who do the job poorly are at greater risk for replacement by replacement hires. This is why many companies ask customers to rate individual service providers.
  - iamacyborg 5y ago
    I would never rate a customer service employee poorly because they aren’t cheerful. What sort of mad world do we live in where that’s even expected of minimum wage employees?

alichapman 5y ago

Yes but if the number of people on the bus dropped to zero do you think their employers would keep running the route?

krisoft 5y ago
The passenger count is so heavily influenced by factors outside of the bus driver’s influence that this example doesn’t make sense. Passengers don’t abandon bus routes because the bus driver didn’t smile at them. They abandon routes when the schedule is inconvenient, there are better alternatives to the bus, the fare is too high etc etc. None of these are in the control of the bus driver.
throwaway6532 5y ago
My old bus route to work used to amuse me greatly because on it there were two drivers who were the polar opposite of one another. One guy I assumed had previously been the pilot of a commercial airliner because he used to greet everyone who got onto the bus with that sort of demeanor and make announcements etc. Always brightened my day. The other guy was the grumpiest piece of shit bus driver I've seen anywhere in my life who would frequently berate passengers and oftentimes frighten unsuspecting foreigners. Everyone who needed to get to where they were going showed up and took the bus regardless. It's about the least important variable there is and it averages out to getting a reasonably OK bus driver almost all the time across the different busses you take and the different times of day you take them.