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Credit to Walmart for creating an environment where a person can still love their job after years of service. That stuff can't be faked, even with a high salar
by mvkel 3y ago
Credit to Walmart for creating an environment where a person can still love their job after years of service.
That stuff can't be faked, even with a high salary. Before you say, "it's easy to say when you're getting paid $240K a year." Nah. A person needs challenge; a purpose. Lots of FANG ICs making $500K+ who hate their job. Why? No challenge or palpable purpose.
To create a scaled corp structure where a person can ascend from the bottom is also tough to do.
- kotaKat 3y agoThe other interesting effect I notice is that in rural communities especially, you find a lot more long-term employees that have just stayed because it was the solidest employer of the time. Between jobs and before I launched into my current IT position I had a small stint at my local Walmart just to make ends meet -- MANY of the staff had 5, 10, 15, and even 20+ year service badges. Many of those 20+ year employees were there as the concrete was being poured and have been here since that store first opened in the community.
- bicx 3y agoYeah, after a certain amount (like enough to cover expenses, have a little fun, and build savings) and a certain amount of time, your income stops being something that makes you excited. This is especially true if you’re around other people who make the same as you do. If becomes normalized in your mind. Everyone needs a challenge and some goals. Something to look forward to.
- giantg2 3y agoI'm looking forward to retirement. I'm not interested in professional challenges anymore. In my experience they're usually BS and you don't get rewarded.
- BLanen 3y ago> That stuff can't be faked, even with a high salary. Before you say, "it's easy to say when you're getting paid $240K a year." Nah. A person needs challenge; a purpose. Lots of FANG ICs making $500K+ who hate their job. Why? No challenge or palpable purpose. Something only someone with a high income would say. Contrary to all data and research and evidence.
- xenospn 3y agoI have a close friend who was making about 1M in TC and hated every moment of it.
- bradlys 3y agoI’m not the friend but I’ve quit a 7 figure job. I hated it and put my money where my mouth was. I took another job for a massive pay cut. Money isn’t everything. I started comparing my everyday life to prison. “How much money would I take to live in prison?” Realized it was gonna have to be a lot more than what I was getting.
- giantg2 3y agoI hate my job. I've never been close to 7 figures. I'd love to have a job I'd hate and make 7 figures for a year or two.
- ryandrake 3y agoYes, please. I think a lot of HN people have lost all sense of proportion. A 7 figure job is $1M plus--a year. That's financially life-changing, no matter how much you hate the content of the work. Grin and bear it for a couple of years, and then... do anything you like for the rest of your life. Maybe 0.1% of the population gets an opportunity like that.
- ipaddr 3y agoWould you take it if it means a marriage breakup and illness?
- giantg2 3y agoSure, those things are common in many jobs that pay much less. Many marriages can survive a year or two of hardship. If they can't, then perhaps it's not a good marriage and it will fall apart anyways at the next major event. Illnesses happen all the time, but I assume you mean stress-related. But there are many stressful jobs that pay much less and result in injury or disability.
- Ekaros 3y agoAlso these people can make personal impact that is visible for them. They might be wrong, but still they can affect things and see them changing... It might not be possible in many other jobs specially in big corporations.
- mvkel 3y agoYes! Very well said. Autonomy/agency, however small in the grand scheme, is so important.
- vunderba 3y agoDoesn't Walmart have a disproportionately high number of employees taking advantage of food stamps due to suppressed wages? https://www.jwj.org/walmarts-food-stamp-scam-explained-in-one-easy-chart https://www.jwj.org/walmarts-food-stamp-scam-explained-in-on...
- SilasX 3y agoNot the $240k/year store managers, no.
- mvkel 3y agoThat article is from 2014. The average Walmart employee rate today is $17.06. And a non-zero amount of those employees can someday make a lot more. How many other companies of that size can say the same? I'm not saying it's not a problem, and not saying we shouldn't be trying so solve it. But are we talking about wage reform, or Walmart uniquely being a shithead? I read the article you linked and it feels like it's got an agenda. Conjecture 1 is that Walmart doesn't pay employees enough, then Conjecture 2 is that it pays its executives "too much," but conveniently defines "executive" as just the CEO, when in reality executives include the very people that OP's article is about - store managers! I admittedly stopped reading after that because one can always find a convenient fact to backup their view. If I'm misinterpreting, let me know. It's also complicated. When Walmart announced wage increases in 2015, their stock fell 5%. Who owns Walmart stock? Us.
- throwaway2037 3y ago> How many other companies of that size can say the same? This is a bit of a strawman argument. How many other companies exist on planet Earth of this size? Very few. And are you insinuating that Walmart is paying well because they want to? I doubt it. They are tried-and-tested mega corp that responds to labour market pressures. I don't attribute anything else to this level of pay. Finally, average isn't a good metric to use; median is more useful. If we leave size aside, I would say that Starbucks and Whole Foods are very good employers and large.
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- giantg2 3y agoIt's also possible they're saying it because they're in a national article and would almost certainly lose their job if they represented the company poorly. I would also guess PR got involved to approve or even pick which manager would show their image the best.
- mvkel 3y agoCertainly a possibility, but that's everywhere. You trot out the Blue Angels to get people to sign up to the Navy.
- Seanambers 3y agoThere is a trap in there. If you work a lot like this lady does you do not really have much time to reason about how you spend your life and whats important. It just happens to you. But it becomes all encompassing and consumes the person. For some thats the right way to live their life, for most not so much. FANG has a problem in that they have a lot of highly paid individuals doing nothing or very little, so they have a lot of time to sit around and get depressed about it.
- chasd00 3y agoAnother issue is we’re a couple generations in where kids were told over and over swe is what their passion is without it being a real reality. Eventually they get old enough to realize the lie but not young enough to take the risk of doing something about it.
- hd55 3y agoAccording to systems theory (and karl marx?) purpose of the system is what the system does. Here system = person. And according to those who dont like that theory "The Protestant Ethic" is the reason for "The Spirit of Capitalism" or continuing to work/optimize/explore/exploit way past the point your Needs are meet.
- mvkel 3y agoFascinating ideas. Thanks for sharing these - will check them out.
- sgregnt 3y agoIMHO This is like status. Sounds smart but not much behind it... How do you know what are someone needs, maybe they evlolve? Maybe your need is to try a FAANG job and have first hand expiring that will change your needs to less material. Maybe one of your needs is to satisfy protestant ethics? And your need is to go beyond the first level needs... So I'd say the same way system purposes I'd defined by what it does. Your needs are defined by what your do. Having said that, this type of philosophizing is nothing but an empty exercise in confusion. Everyone one is an individual an has his one subjective epirience, a person aspires to live his life as he best understands it.. anything beyond that is just nonsensical.
- paulcole 3y ago> Why? No challenge or palpable purpose. A healthy dash of entitlement as well.
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- VincentEvans 3y agoIf there companies paying 500K who’d like a software engineer to just professionally do the job, not complain, not have an agenda, not worry about promotions - drop me a reply. You pay, I work. That’s the all there’s to it.