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Your Boss Is Not More Stressed Out Than You, Science Says (vice.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Work under capitalism is a brutal psychological gauntlet -- low pay, long hours, and little to no safety net. But bosses usually expect you to take some solace in the fact that you're not doing their (supposedly more difficult) job, even if they make more money. Some part of you might think that's bullshit, but hey, what do you know? Well, according to new work from researchers from the University of Manchester, University College London, and the University of Essex, it probably is bullshit. According to their study, published on Friday in the Journals of Gerontology, people lower on the corporate ladder are, on average, more stressed than people higher up. Worse, according to the study, the elevated stress continues into retirement for average working people. 'Workers in lower status jobs tend to have more stressful working conditions -- they have lower pay, poorer pension arrangements, less control over their work, and report more unsupportive colleagues and managers,' Tarani Chandola, a professor of medical sociology at the University of Manchester and one of the paper's authors, wrote me in an email.
Maybe being better at dealing with stress is what allows you to climb higher up the corporate ladder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... (began in 1967)
"The studies, named after the Whitehall area of London and led by Michael Marmot, found a strong association between grade levels of civil servant employment and mortality rates from a range of causes: the lower the grade, the higher the mortality rate. Men in the lowest grade (messengers, doorkeepers, etc.) had a mortality rate three times higher than that of men in the highest grade (administrators). This effect has since been observed in other studies and named the "status syndrome".[3]"
Getting a start on the clickbait lying right with the first sentence, I see:
"Work under capitalism is a brutal psychological gauntlet -- low pay, long hours, and little to no safety net."
Compared to what? And when? Lord knows no one under feudalism, mercantilism, socialism or communism ever worked "long hours for low pay."
Life in a state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Capitalism, and the technological progress it helped engender, is the system that helped lift those out of the poverty that previously plagued all but a tiny hereditary elite since time immemorial until a period just two centuries ago.
If you want to see what life is like without capitalism, trying looking at Venezuela, where they're rioting because socialism can't provide enough food for them to eat.
But enough. This is just another example of Slashdot leftwing clickbait, because evidently covering actual News For Nerds is evidently too boring compared to launching yet another left vs. right flamewar.
Is msmash the designated leftwing agitprop admin now?
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Responsible Owners of companies and high level executives are burdened with the fact that they are responsible for the livelihoods of their employees. I have worked for several companies where I have personally seen a manager or owner stress to the point of depression when facing the task of laying off an employee.
Contrary to what people think, most managers are good people and have the back of their employees.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
But she deals with a bunch of garbage that I don't have to care about because she insolates me from it so I can get my work done. I see some of the E-mails about the issues she's keeping off my plate and I shudder to think what my life would be like if she didn't do what she does. She takes the stress so I don't have to and I owe her both my loyalty and thanks.
But I can assure you, my current manager isn't typical.... No sir. In my 25 years of having all sorts of managers, she's in the top 5% and I will be sad when she retires. My previous manager was totally opposite, visited his scorn for failure to meet real and imagined (by him) requirements when he demanded (regardless of if they'd been communicated or not). I'm sure he was stressed too, given all his direct and indirect reports generally didn't care one bit about keeping him out of trouble given the likelihood of getting your head handed to you when you raised an issue. He was a moron of a manager and I am lucky I escaped with my self respect from that place. I find this kind of manager much more common....
So, Yes, my managers ARE more stressed than I am.... I'm guessing the good managers are LESS stressed though than the ones who should have never taken the job in the first place.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Work under capitalism is a brutal psychological gauntlet -- low pay, long hours, and little to no safety net.
Average wages in the US are among the highest in the world. "Brutal psychological gauntlet"? As opposed to what? The rainbows and daisies that come from living under a dictator?
Capitalism does not imply the lack of a safety net either. There is nothing about capitalism that prevents a safety net from being put in place.
But bosses usually expect you to take some solace in the fact that you're not doing their (supposedly more difficult) job, even if they make more money.
Which bosses? "Usually"? This is a straw man argument. Some managers are more stressed than those who report to them. Sometimes it's the other way around. Furthermore stress is not an easily quantifiable state so comparisons of any sort are fraught.
'Workers in lower status jobs tend to have more stressful working conditions -- they have lower pay, poorer pension arrangements, less control over their work, and report more unsupportive colleagues and managers
In other news water is wet.
People lower on the ladder make less money. Less money means more stress.
Money is like gravity, the more you have, the easier it is to attract more of it. The less you have, the more likely it is your money will be sucked into the gravity well of a larger amount of money belonging to someone else. Example: My cousin was given a $100,000 4% interest loan at the age of 21 from his multi millionaire father. He also was given a job after dropping out of university (his university debt was wiped by his parents), as a forklift driver (aroun $55k) in his dad's company. Within 2 years he was making commission as a salesman in same company (around $65k BUT with commission around $85k). after 10 years he has bought 3 investment properties. This is due to his starting conditions. Now my situation: I went to university and dropped out after 2 years. This left a student loan debt of $10,000. I have been working entry level jobs for the past 4 years (averaging $50k and am finally breaking into an 80k role). My dad is not as successful as his brother so I was never offered a 4% interest loan at the age of 21 like my cousin. In Australia there has been a property boom/bubble and the average price of an apartment is $350,000, and a house is pushing $750,000 nationally. As a result I own 0 property and am still struggling to save for a deposit, those who got in earlier such as my cousin have had a massive leg up. I am currently being head hunted for a well paying job, but I still don't have that extra boost of a loan no bank would issue a 21 year old with. Capital matters. The sooner you start with a sum of money the further ahead you'll get. Start with 100,000 at 21, and it's easy to get a million dollars by 35.
You seem pretty delusional. I'm in the same situation as you, and I worked very hard too, but I have the insight that without a great deal of luck and timing that are completely outside my control I would have nothing.
I am not sure why certain people are eager to blame individuals for societal problems. It is really obvious to me that things are very tough if you are born in the wrong place, or to the wrong parents, or in the wrong time. I have a lot of sympathy and understanding to those who struggle on this beautiful planet. You seem really condescending and smug in your good fortune. In fiction you'd be on the verge of catastrophe.
Man, you really need that seminar!