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"The workforce is stretched thin as you can make similar money fucking around with your phone on the clock at Walmart" I don't understand this. "Stretched thin

"The workforce is stretched thin as you can make similar money fucking around with your phone on the clock at Walmart" I don't understand this. "Stretched thin" means there are few of you. If you can make similar money in easier work at Walmart, why wouldn't you do that? Not looking to be oppositional, I just don't understand your point here. I would imagine that what you do is in fact skilled labor that should pay better than Walmart clerking.

cj 4y ago
(Not the OP) An analogy: would you quit a $140k developer job for a job that pays the same, but has you answering the phone for 8 hours a day in a Google Support call center, helping people reset their gmail password 100 times a day? I'm guessing most developers would prefer keeping their dev job rather than doing easier work at the same pay in a call center. Edit: To make the analogy even more direct, I think the majority of engineers would even prefer to keep a $140k engineering job, even if Walmart were paying $140k to be a cashier.
- derangedHorse 4y ago
  Not equivalent to the OP's situation though. If the question were framed in the same context it would read more like: would you quit a $140k developer job that requires 12 hours a day for a job that pays the same, but has you answering the phone for 8 hours a day in a Google Support call center, helping people reset their gmail password 100 times a day? In that case yes. I could use that 33% reduction in consumed time to work freelance developer jobs that won't endanger my livelihood if I decide to quit. If anything I would be angry at the factory workers who stay for the same pay since there are better job alternatives that could be used as bargaining chips.
public_defender 4y ago
> "Stretched thin" means there are few of you. I think in context you can assume OP means the people are being overworked because they are perceived as replaceable. > I just don't understand your point here. I would imagine that what you do is in fact skilled labor. OP likely does do skilled labor, but the employer has evolved to efficiently exploit it, by which I mean deprive these workers of adequate compensation. Part of that has been classing the labor as "unskilled."
rc_subreme 4y ago
>"Stretched thin" means there are few of you. Yes, there's less participation from young people in manufacturing. The pay doesn't go up, the plants go to Mexico or China. During covid when a bunch of old timers left my factory tore down a few machines and shipped them to Mexico because young people like myself aren't coming into the field fast enough to replace the boomers. As other countries catch up in tech skills you might find yourself in a similar position. >If you can make similar money in easier work... Nerd sniping. Some people were just born with a wrench in their hand and need to be solving practical problems. I just can't work jobs like that without being bored out of my mind and miserable. >I would imagine that what you do is in fact skilled labor it should pay more... Buddy I can MIG TIG and stick weld, I'm a mechanic, I've worked as a qualified person on 480V three phase, and low voltage controls, as well as hydraulics and pneumatics. I can drive 10 ton trucks stick, take apart and put a motor back together, and locate the clitoris with only a bubble level, ruler, protractor, line out chalk, twine, pocket calculator, and a stud finder. Imagine what you want. Macroeconomic principles are of little comfort in the real world, where social forces and political forces collide and such simple game theory doesn't hold up. The company can pay less and ask more, paying less and asking more has become common and nobody wants to rock the boat and lose the immense power gap between labor and management by competing on the basis of wages to attract talent. Besides, a lack of manpower means you can just go somewhere else. The world supply chain, even during covid, is so robust at scale that physical location means little, but relative economic wealth and power means a lot. I'm not bitching, I eat three meals a day and pay rent. But tech has it good and I see a lot of people not realize how much that can change overnight. I expect a great deal more people will work in tech in the west, and less at my kind of job, so I'd like to see workers realize that they have to entrench the current available quality of life, for the future generations. Because the people in manufacturing through the 50s-70s didn't entrench the quality of life in such a way it could survive financialization and lean strategies of the 80s.

cj 4y ago

(Not the OP) An analogy: would you quit a $140k developer job for a job that pays the same, but has you answering the phone for 8 hours a day in a Google Support call center, helping people reset their gmail password 100 times a day? I'm guessing most developers would prefer keeping their dev job rather than doing easier work at the same pay in a call center. Edit: To make the analogy even more direct, I think the majority of engineers would even prefer to keep a $140k engineering job, even if Walmart were paying $140k to be a cashier.

derangedHorse 4y ago
Not equivalent to the OP's situation though. If the question were framed in the same context it would read more like: would you quit a $140k developer job that requires 12 hours a day for a job that pays the same, but has you answering the phone for 8 hours a day in a Google Support call center, helping people reset their gmail password 100 times a day? In that case yes. I could use that 33% reduction in consumed time to work freelance developer jobs that won't endanger my livelihood if I decide to quit. If anything I would be angry at the factory workers who stay for the same pay since there are better job alternatives that could be used as bargaining chips.

public_defender 4y ago

> "Stretched thin" means there are few of you. I think in context you can assume OP means the people are being overworked because they are perceived as replaceable. > I just don't understand your point here. I would imagine that what you do is in fact skilled labor. OP likely does do skilled labor, but the employer has evolved to efficiently exploit it, by which I mean deprive these workers of adequate compensation. Part of that has been classing the labor as "unskilled."

rc_subreme 4y ago

>"Stretched thin" means there are few of you. Yes, there's less participation from young people in manufacturing. The pay doesn't go up, the plants go to Mexico or China. During covid when a bunch of old timers left my factory tore down a few machines and shipped them to Mexico because young people like myself aren't coming into the field fast enough to replace the boomers. As other countries catch up in tech skills you might find yourself in a similar position. >If you can make similar money in easier work... Nerd sniping. Some people were just born with a wrench in their hand and need to be solving practical problems. I just can't work jobs like that without being bored out of my mind and miserable. >I would imagine that what you do is in fact skilled labor it should pay more... Buddy I can MIG TIG and stick weld, I'm a mechanic, I've worked as a qualified person on 480V three phase, and low voltage controls, as well as hydraulics and pneumatics. I can drive 10 ton trucks stick, take apart and put a motor back together, and locate the clitoris with only a bubble level, ruler, protractor, line out chalk, twine, pocket calculator, and a stud finder. Imagine what you want. Macroeconomic principles are of little comfort in the real world, where social forces and political forces collide and such simple game theory doesn't hold up. The company can pay less and ask more, paying less and asking more has become common and nobody wants to rock the boat and lose the immense power gap between labor and management by competing on the basis of wages to attract talent. Besides, a lack of manpower means you can just go somewhere else. The world supply chain, even during covid, is so robust at scale that physical location means little, but relative economic wealth and power means a lot. I'm not bitching, I eat three meals a day and pay rent. But tech has it good and I see a lot of people not realize how much that can change overnight. I expect a great deal more people will work in tech in the west, and less at my kind of job, so I'd like to see workers realize that they have to entrench the current available quality of life, for the future generations. Because the people in manufacturing through the 50s-70s didn't entrench the quality of life in such a way it could survive financialization and lean strategies of the 80s.