3 ms·

I don't think those are the kinds of jobs that have workers that expect to work from home. If you deal with physical assets, machinery, direct-customer communic

I don't think those are the kinds of jobs that have workers that expect to work from home. If you deal with physical assets, machinery, direct-customer communication, etc, you probably don't expect to be able to do your job outside of your company-assigned post anyway. On the other hand, anybody that works in a cubical and mostly deals with a phone/computer could probably easily expect that they would be able to work from home. Many of those jobs have fairly modest pay. And I think if you have that aspiration to work from home, you would probably still be a little annoyed about the inability to work from home, regardless of the pay. But I agree there is likely a price where one would be fine with letting that dream stay a dream. I feel that the far greater problem is that employers are now painting this neat picture where it's employees vs employees in this dilemma over inequality. Foreshadowing that it may be something they need to bother to step in the middle of in the near future. When in reality we are fairly united against employers in their seeming lack of willingness to just treat all of their employees well. Speaking generally of course.

hutzlibu 3y ago
"I don't think those are the kinds of jobs that have workers that expect to work from home." I think especially for forklift drivers and alike - this is about to change. With teleoperating semi autonomous machinery, most of these jobs could be then remote as well. But it will take some time as currently humans and simple forklifts are way cheaper.
silisili 3y ago
I for some reason think about these things a lot, even though I guess I'm not in the front line anymore and have it pretty nice. I can remember in 2010 or so having two friends who worked from home - one doing generic helpdesk in a small apartment, and one doing medical coding in a trailer. Neither paid well at all, and never did I get this sense of jealousy. Perhaps their lives were easier because of it, but it was far from the giant sun lit home offices people seem to imagine. I also think a lot about how retail has changed. As a child, you had actual sales people in a lot of places who seemed happy to help. Probably on commission. Even the non-commissioned jobs people didn't seem so miserable. Probably because the wage gap wasn't as huge as it is today. So many people I encounter seem bothered by my presence and genuinely miserable, I try to avoid even going to stores anymore. It's a lose lose lose situation. Of course, I have no answers for any of this, just observations from a middling age man.
- starttoaster 3y ago
  > Neither paid well at all, and never did I get this sense of jealousy. You might just not be one of these people. For some people, the feeling of being on your way to work is an existential dread. Or like you're leaving your life behind to live a different one that you don't generally enjoy for a while. Some of those people would likely do anything to avoid that feeling. I think for those people, working from home is epic. You get to go to work every day on what feels more like your terms and your life, whatever that life may be. Instead of molding myself into the image of my work environment every day, I can mold my workplace more into myself. Feeding me into: > but it was far from the giant sun lit home offices people seem to imagine. For some people, the ideal working conditions are a dimly lit basement, believe it or not. > [The generally unhappy state of front line workers yesteryear and this one.] Just 10 years ago, I was working front lines at a Super Target, making 15 cents above my state's minimum wage, which amounted to something like $8.50/hour. I'm in general a fairly.. well "stoic" might be the nicer word.. person, so faking a smile for the sake of a stranger's comfort would have cost me more in energy than my employer was paying me, if that makes sense. That's not to say I'm a jerk to people on purpose, by any means. But if I'm in a bad mood because I left for work at 4:30AM to make barely more than enough for a room to rent, peanut butter sandwiches, and my cell phone bill, it would have been difficult to summon the strength. This is mostly just to say that I agree with your observation, but I empathize more with the employees than the customers who feel they were under-helped. Observations from someone who will be entering the middling ages soon.
  - verve_rat 3y ago
    I totally agree with all of this. It used to be that Retail Salesperson was a career you could do until you retire. But now employers really do not pay the sales people enough to care.
- conductr 3y ago
  On the service front I think what you’ve witnessed is work culture evolution. If you think about retail and food service, people churn in and out fast. The culture evolves quicker than you’d normally expect because of the people changing and many adaptations to new management, policies, technologies, etc. It’s become common place for workers to just not be present at all in these settings. Nobody to ask where to find something and certainly nobody trustworthy enough to ask about a products features/ or for a recommendation. The employees on the floor are likely preoccupied by something else like stocking shelves and it’s as if you’re interrupting them to ask as any question. So new employees come on board and they’re never taught how to help customers. Then they get promoted and maybe they know the POS the best but they can’t deal with customers well. They’re responsible for hiring and training new hires. So since they don’t value customer service, they don’t mind when new hire wants to wear AirPods while stocking. Now suddenly everyone is wearing AirPods while working. So you literally are interrupting them as a customer. They have to pause their podcast to have you repeat the question you already asked 3 times while trying to get their attention. It’s likely they don’t know how to help you if you really do need help did solving your problem is not their default, they think shrugging and saying I don’t know is acceptable and you’re on your own. This happens over and over and now a workforce that’s too ambivalent to be productively helpful to customers experiences. Not even proactively in common sense ways. An example I’ve run into a couple time from quick service food joints goes like this. I order a fountain drink with my food. Pay, walk to drink machine that’s out of order. I ask clerk if there’s anything else to drink, they say no. I then ask why they sold me a fountain drink if they know machine is broken? I tell them I want a refund. They say they don’t know how. Takes 15 minutes and a manager to get the refund. As I’m waiting, cashier continues selling fountain drinks to customers in line.

hutzlibu 3y ago

"I don't think those are the kinds of jobs that have workers that expect to work from home." I think especially for forklift drivers and alike - this is about to change. With teleoperating semi autonomous machinery, most of these jobs could be then remote as well. But it will take some time as currently humans and simple forklifts are way cheaper.

silisili 3y ago

I for some reason think about these things a lot, even though I guess I'm not in the front line anymore and have it pretty nice. I can remember in 2010 or so having two friends who worked from home - one doing generic helpdesk in a small apartment, and one doing medical coding in a trailer. Neither paid well at all, and never did I get this sense of jealousy. Perhaps their lives were easier because of it, but it was far from the giant sun lit home offices people seem to imagine. I also think a lot about how retail has changed. As a child, you had actual sales people in a lot of places who seemed happy to help. Probably on commission. Even the non-commissioned jobs people didn't seem so miserable. Probably because the wage gap wasn't as huge as it is today. So many people I encounter seem bothered by my presence and genuinely miserable, I try to avoid even going to stores anymore. It's a lose lose lose situation. Of course, I have no answers for any of this, just observations from a middling age man.

starttoaster 3y ago
> Neither paid well at all, and never did I get this sense of jealousy. You might just not be one of these people. For some people, the feeling of being on your way to work is an existential dread. Or like you're leaving your life behind to live a different one that you don't generally enjoy for a while. Some of those people would likely do anything to avoid that feeling. I think for those people, working from home is epic. You get to go to work every day on what feels more like your terms and your life, whatever that life may be. Instead of molding myself into the image of my work environment every day, I can mold my workplace more into myself. Feeding me into: > but it was far from the giant sun lit home offices people seem to imagine. For some people, the ideal working conditions are a dimly lit basement, believe it or not. > [The generally unhappy state of front line workers yesteryear and this one.] Just 10 years ago, I was working front lines at a Super Target, making 15 cents above my state's minimum wage, which amounted to something like $8.50/hour. I'm in general a fairly.. well "stoic" might be the nicer word.. person, so faking a smile for the sake of a stranger's comfort would have cost me more in energy than my employer was paying me, if that makes sense. That's not to say I'm a jerk to people on purpose, by any means. But if I'm in a bad mood because I left for work at 4:30AM to make barely more than enough for a room to rent, peanut butter sandwiches, and my cell phone bill, it would have been difficult to summon the strength. This is mostly just to say that I agree with your observation, but I empathize more with the employees than the customers who feel they were under-helped. Observations from someone who will be entering the middling ages soon.
- verve_rat 3y ago
  I totally agree with all of this. It used to be that Retail Salesperson was a career you could do until you retire. But now employers really do not pay the sales people enough to care.
conductr 3y ago
On the service front I think what you’ve witnessed is work culture evolution. If you think about retail and food service, people churn in and out fast. The culture evolves quicker than you’d normally expect because of the people changing and many adaptations to new management, policies, technologies, etc. It’s become common place for workers to just not be present at all in these settings. Nobody to ask where to find something and certainly nobody trustworthy enough to ask about a products features/ or for a recommendation. The employees on the floor are likely preoccupied by something else like stocking shelves and it’s as if you’re interrupting them to ask as any question. So new employees come on board and they’re never taught how to help customers. Then they get promoted and maybe they know the POS the best but they can’t deal with customers well. They’re responsible for hiring and training new hires. So since they don’t value customer service, they don’t mind when new hire wants to wear AirPods while stocking. Now suddenly everyone is wearing AirPods while working. So you literally are interrupting them as a customer. They have to pause their podcast to have you repeat the question you already asked 3 times while trying to get their attention. It’s likely they don’t know how to help you if you really do need help did solving your problem is not their default, they think shrugging and saying I don’t know is acceptable and you’re on your own. This happens over and over and now a workforce that’s too ambivalent to be productively helpful to customers experiences. Not even proactively in common sense ways. An example I’ve run into a couple time from quick service food joints goes like this. I order a fountain drink with my food. Pay, walk to drink machine that’s out of order. I ask clerk if there’s anything else to drink, they say no. I then ask why they sold me a fountain drink if they know machine is broken? I tell them I want a refund. They say they don’t know how. Takes 15 minutes and a manager to get the refund. As I’m waiting, cashier continues selling fountain drinks to customers in line.