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This employee and another… lackadaisical employee were both full time. Full time guaranteed more hours, sick pay, accrued paid vacation time, actual healthcare,

This employee and another… lackadaisical employee were both full time. Full time guaranteed more hours, sick pay, accrued paid vacation time, actual healthcare, etc. Pretty cozy benefits for retail work which is thanks to the union. At the same time multiple part time workers, such as myself, would pick up slack or work OT due to these unmotivated workers. It definitely lead to a weird culture.

toomuchtodo 4y ago
I would strongly agree there is room for improvement with regards to the disparity you mentioned (accountability, benefits, workload equity), but also that without a union, you get the current socioeconomic situation: a total lack of labor power where you are at the mercy of a corporation’s whims, which is no way to go through life. Work should not be constant grueling or suffering. Maybe it should be more cozy. High level, there’s room to improve where workers have a decent work experience and investors still see some benefit (even if it’s less than they would like to maximize for). These are not binary decisions.
genocidicbunny 4y ago
> At the same time multiple part time workers, such as myself, would pick up slack or work OT due to these unmotivated workers. It definitely lead to a weird culture. Isn't this part of the problem? It's managements problem to deal with, not yours, and you shouldn't need to 'pick up the slack.' Sure there are times when it makes more sense to just do it, but if it was consistent, and everyone else was picking up the slack, the union wasn't the only problem; Everyone that was constantly enabling this behaviour was at least partially responsible too. Once in a while is fine, but eventually you need to go to management and put your foot down. And isn't it interesting that if you did put your foot down, it's your union that would also be protecting you against retaliation from management?

toomuchtodo 4y ago

I would strongly agree there is room for improvement with regards to the disparity you mentioned (accountability, benefits, workload equity), but also that without a union, you get the current socioeconomic situation: a total lack of labor power where you are at the mercy of a corporation’s whims, which is no way to go through life. Work should not be constant grueling or suffering. Maybe it should be more cozy. High level, there’s room to improve where workers have a decent work experience and investors still see some benefit (even if it’s less than they would like to maximize for). These are not binary decisions.

genocidicbunny 4y ago

> At the same time multiple part time workers, such as myself, would pick up slack or work OT due to these unmotivated workers. It definitely lead to a weird culture. Isn't this part of the problem? It's managements problem to deal with, not yours, and you shouldn't need to 'pick up the slack.' Sure there are times when it makes more sense to just do it, but if it was consistent, and everyone else was picking up the slack, the union wasn't the only problem; Everyone that was constantly enabling this behaviour was at least partially responsible too. Once in a while is fine, but eventually you need to go to management and put your foot down. And isn't it interesting that if you did put your foot down, it's your union that would also be protecting you against retaliation from management?