Every time I hear people complaint about lazy employees, I blame their managers. I mean, what are managers for? I don't expect them to micromanage what everyone is doing all the time, but their role is to receive the work, distribute it and check that it's delivered on time and quality.
If there are slackers, I can't believe their managers don't know about it. Unless they're also slackers, or don't give a shit. But then the company has far worse problems to attend than telecommuting.
It's not only mine. His comment is currently rated +4 Insightful, instead of Funny. As I've written above: "Unfortunately, I know lots of people who have this mentality"
I enjoy chatting with people when they are attending me. In the end of a lonesome and tiring trip, some human contact is refreshing.
That being said, I don't mind the machine check-in. We better start getting used to it, if it saves costs, it's the future. I'm sure the day is not far when we'll be waited by machines at cafés and restaurants.
Someone who kicks the fat guy off the bridge to save the lives of the people on the trolley might indeed feel empathy toward that person, and even visit his grave every day, but the action of doing the kicking is itself strictly utilitarian, indistinguishable from the same action were it committed by a sociopath who doesn't think twice about it.
A sociopath wouldn't give a fuck about the fat guy or the people in the trolley, hence he would do nothing, if it wasn't advantageous to him.
Just like everything else in life, a good balance is the best thing. Mr. Niceguy does not make a good CEO, or a good leader in any human endeavour. But a society that glorifies psychopaths is horribly wrong.
Some people want Puerto Rico to become the 51st state, but this is also somewhat unlikely since it is an income tax haven for its wealthiest residents.
So, maybe the other Americans who are being fucked in the ass by those "wealthiest residents" should try to make it the 51st state? Or you fancy it?
By that time we'll see right-wing histerical about the Chinese ruining their economy with wussy labour and environmental regulations. Where are the poor bastards going to outsource to, to maximise their already hugely bloated profits? Mars?
Value of currency rising is known as "deflation" and it's every economist and politician's worst nightmare. Not even the neoliberal economists, who live in a fantasy world and think inflation is the Antichrist, dare to defend deflation.
When I was in Spain fifteen years ago, the unemployment was out of control (upwards of 20%). In an environment like that, it's easy to see how a worker would be afraid to stick up for their rights and push back against unfair work practices.
Which makes things even worse. Managers don't have any opposition when they take decisions that hurt the company really, really bad. Everybody is in panic of being fired, so they subject themselves to the whims of those who hold a sword above their heads every day of the week. I'm not saying that all managers are dumb, but an environment where job security is low is a god-sent present to the incompetent, vain and sociopathic ones.
Meanwhile it doesn't give much benefit for the good ones, because they know how to motivate people to get results, not enslave them with fear.
That's why I don't understand when we're bombed all the time with comments from pundits and experts saying that we need to loosen our labour regulations to be more competitive. Nobody is following the existing ones, and the result is dire.
In my personal experience, lack of job security actually produces the opposite results. Incompetent managers will fire the most competent, because they fear them. And they keep the ass-lickers, which are less valuable to the company, since their job security is based on politics, not performance. I've seen it happen several times. One of my friends was fired from her job with these exact words: "Due to costs, I'm forced by management to cut one job position. You're the only person who is here for merit, not nepotism. Hence I must fire you because you're the only with no protection. Sorry".
Should the poor have to give a portion of their income to the rich because now even poor people have a car, a TV, climate control in their home, clean water, refrigerated food, and cold beer?
But they do! They pay for the production of all those things, and even add a big fat margin.
Please, man. Couldn't you have come up with a less retarded analogy?
Oh, fuck! I live in Portugal, which has more or less the same labour laws as Germany. But here, companies take it for granted that we work extra time without being paid for it (which is illegal). I used to work extra time a lot in my current company. I worked many, many weekends, I postponed vacations to deliver projects, in the end, I got a pat in the back and they told me "good boy". So I stopped. Now I work a regular work week. With an occasional crunch now and then, because I decide to do so in any particular conditions. Sorry guys, I have a family. I have a life.
Here, many people are bullied into working extra for free. I know lots of people in the services sector that live only for working. In industry it's not so easy to pull this one off because unions still carry some weight in those areas. Banks force people to work 12 hours a day. Bank employees are trained to evade Labour Authority inspections. Several times, banks are caught, they pay the fines, and keep on doing the same thing. In their calculations, it's cheaper.
The law here requires people to take 22 paid vacation days every year. Vacation days can not be traded by money. I have always seen people that don't take their full vacation time, year after year. And I've seen people being bullied not to take vacations.
In a company I have worked for years ago, I was bullied to postpone vacations when I already had my reservations made and plain tickets bought. They used to try that on everybody because people would postpone again and again, and end up not taking the vacation days. I said NO and fell out of favour with the bosses, that started picking on me constantly after that. I got another job and said goodbye. But I'm a computer engineer. Most people can't find jobs easily, the pay is usually very low and the ubiquity of illegal "temporary" contracts makes everybody submissive, as they can lose their job at a moment's notice.
They think they're so smart doing all this shit. What do they get? Portuguese productivity is among the lowest ones in the developed world. All they get is a bunch of unhappy and anxious employees that can't focus and work efficiently. People throw their health and their family well-being in the toilet for a company that will, in its turn, throw them in the toilet when they see fit. Managers don't have any incentive to do a good job of managing and organising because they can always squeeze some more work from their employees. Hence, management positions are not regarded as places of responsibility, but privilege. As a society, we're sick.
People that emigrate to other countries in Europe (I'm talking about a lot of people in the latest years) tell me that they make a lot more money than in Portugal, work less hours, have a much better work-life balance and get more respect by their company, specially if they are qualified workers. After a while, they don't consider coming back any more. Of course, if they're not hired by a Portuguese company to go abroad. In that case, the shit is the same as here, with the disadvantage of being away from their family and friends.
Sometimes I hear ignorant people saying: "Portuguese are lazy! If we did like the Germans and work 14 hours a day, we wouldn't have gotten in this situation!". When I tell them that in almost every country in Europe people work less hours a day and less days a year, and yet they're a lot richer than us, these fucks almost choke on their own stupidity.
We have to think, what kind of society do we want to live in? Do you want to have the life of a Portuguese worker? It doesn't work, see? Productivity is shit, industry and agriculture have gone away just the same, little added-value, little innovation, no future.
All this debate about left and right, conservatives and liberals is so fucking stupid. For example in Europe, Communist parties have a base of blue-collar workers. Those are very family-oriented and conservative, yet they are left-wing! Parties which call themselves Liberal are all for individual choices in lifestyle issues, but they are also all for the concentration of wealth, hence proudly right-wing. There's a liberal left and a conservative left, there's also a liberal right and a conservative right.
Also, the notions of left and right, conservative and liberal vary wildly from one society to the other. From our point of view, both major parties in the US are right-wing. The Democratic Party compares to right-wing parties in my country. For the Republicans, we don't even have an equivalence, most of what they say sounds nuts to us.
Oh and we have many parties with different tendencies. Here in Portugal, there are six parties in the Parliament.
Slashdot Mirror
Managers don't make people lazy.
Some don't, some do.
Every time I hear people complaint about lazy employees, I blame their managers. I mean, what are managers for? I don't expect them to micromanage what everyone is doing all the time, but their role is to receive the work, distribute it and check that it's delivered on time and quality.
If there are slackers, I can't believe their managers don't know about it. Unless they're also slackers, or don't give a shit. But then the company has far worse problems to attend than telecommuting.
It's not only mine. His comment is currently rated +4 Insightful, instead of Funny. As I've written above: "Unfortunately, I know lots of people who have this mentality"
At first glance I read the title as "Discovery Increases Odds of Life In Europe".
There's life here, but won't be for long.
I hope you're being ironic, because what you wrote is really stupid. Unfortunately, I know lots of people who have this mentality.
I enjoy chatting with people when they are attending me. In the end of a lonesome and tiring trip, some human contact is refreshing.
That being said, I don't mind the machine check-in. We better start getting used to it, if it saves costs, it's the future. I'm sure the day is not far when we'll be waited by machines at cafés and restaurants.
Someone who kicks the fat guy off the bridge to save the lives of the people on the trolley might indeed feel empathy toward that person, and even visit his grave every day, but the action of doing the kicking is itself strictly utilitarian, indistinguishable from the same action were it committed by a sociopath who doesn't think twice about it.
A sociopath wouldn't give a fuck about the fat guy or the people in the trolley, hence he would do nothing, if it wasn't advantageous to him.
You assume an utilitarian would try to be useful to the organisation, instead of only to himself.
Just like everything else in life, a good balance is the best thing. Mr. Niceguy does not make a good CEO, or a good leader in any human endeavour. But a society that glorifies psychopaths is horribly wrong.
Keep closing the siege on them. Eventually they'll end up with nowhere else to run.
Some people want Puerto Rico to become the 51st state, but this is also somewhat unlikely since it is an income tax haven for its wealthiest residents.
So, maybe the other Americans who are being fucked in the ass by those "wealthiest residents" should try to make it the 51st state? Or you fancy it?
Well, hypothermia makes people pretty sick...
What the fuck is this summary about? I couldn't parse it...
Yes, but it's snowing like hell in the North of Portugal, and it is forecasted to snow in the South tonight. What was your comment about, again?
By that time we'll see right-wing histerical about the Chinese ruining their economy with wussy labour and environmental regulations. Where are the poor bastards going to outsource to, to maximise their already hugely bloated profits? Mars?
Too much debt is noxious. Money hoarding is noxious.
Value of currency rising is known as "deflation" and it's every economist and politician's worst nightmare. Not even the neoliberal economists, who live in a fantasy world and think inflation is the Antichrist, dare to defend deflation.
And YOU are ignoring the increased risk of exposure to flu people have by going to wherever the flu shot is administered.
And YOU are ignoring the increased risk of exposure to flu people have by going to anywhere where there are people.
Unfortunately, the same can be said about private companies, or any other human organisation. Humans will be humans, you know.
When I was in Spain fifteen years ago, the unemployment was out of control (upwards of 20%). In an environment like that, it's easy to see how a worker would be afraid to stick up for their rights and push back against unfair work practices.
Which makes things even worse. Managers don't have any opposition when they take decisions that hurt the company really, really bad. Everybody is in panic of being fired, so they subject themselves to the whims of those who hold a sword above their heads every day of the week. I'm not saying that all managers are dumb, but an environment where job security is low is a god-sent present to the incompetent, vain and sociopathic ones.
Meanwhile it doesn't give much benefit for the good ones, because they know how to motivate people to get results, not enslave them with fear.
That's why I don't understand when we're bombed all the time with comments from pundits and experts saying that we need to loosen our labour regulations to be more competitive. Nobody is following the existing ones, and the result is dire.
In my personal experience, lack of job security actually produces the opposite results. Incompetent managers will fire the most competent, because they fear them. And they keep the ass-lickers, which are less valuable to the company, since their job security is based on politics, not performance. I've seen it happen several times. One of my friends was fired from her job with these exact words: "Due to costs, I'm forced by management to cut one job position. You're the only person who is here for merit, not nepotism. Hence I must fire you because you're the only with no protection. Sorry".
Should the poor have to give a portion of their income to the rich because now even poor people have a car, a TV, climate control in their home, clean water, refrigerated food, and cold beer?
But they do! They pay for the production of all those things, and even add a big fat margin.
Please, man. Couldn't you have come up with a less retarded analogy?
Oh, fuck! I live in Portugal, which has more or less the same labour laws as Germany. But here, companies take it for granted that we work extra time without being paid for it (which is illegal). I used to work extra time a lot in my current company. I worked many, many weekends, I postponed vacations to deliver projects, in the end, I got a pat in the back and they told me "good boy". So I stopped. Now I work a regular work week. With an occasional crunch now and then, because I decide to do so in any particular conditions. Sorry guys, I have a family. I have a life.
Here, many people are bullied into working extra for free. I know lots of people in the services sector that live only for working. In industry it's not so easy to pull this one off because unions still carry some weight in those areas. Banks force people to work 12 hours a day. Bank employees are trained to evade Labour Authority inspections. Several times, banks are caught, they pay the fines, and keep on doing the same thing. In their calculations, it's cheaper.
The law here requires people to take 22 paid vacation days every year. Vacation days can not be traded by money. I have always seen people that don't take their full vacation time, year after year. And I've seen people being bullied not to take vacations.
In a company I have worked for years ago, I was bullied to postpone vacations when I already had my reservations made and plain tickets bought. They used to try that on everybody because people would postpone again and again, and end up not taking the vacation days. I said NO and fell out of favour with the bosses, that started picking on me constantly after that. I got another job and said goodbye. But I'm a computer engineer. Most people can't find jobs easily, the pay is usually very low and the ubiquity of illegal "temporary" contracts makes everybody submissive, as they can lose their job at a moment's notice.
They think they're so smart doing all this shit. What do they get? Portuguese productivity is among the lowest ones in the developed world. All they get is a bunch of unhappy and anxious employees that can't focus and work efficiently. People throw their health and their family well-being in the toilet for a company that will, in its turn, throw them in the toilet when they see fit. Managers don't have any incentive to do a good job of managing and organising because they can always squeeze some more work from their employees. Hence, management positions are not regarded as places of responsibility, but privilege. As a society, we're sick.
People that emigrate to other countries in Europe (I'm talking about a lot of people in the latest years) tell me that they make a lot more money than in Portugal, work less hours, have a much better work-life balance and get more respect by their company, specially if they are qualified workers. After a while, they don't consider coming back any more. Of course, if they're not hired by a Portuguese company to go abroad. In that case, the shit is the same as here, with the disadvantage of being away from their family and friends.
Sometimes I hear ignorant people saying: "Portuguese are lazy! If we did like the Germans and work 14 hours a day, we wouldn't have gotten in this situation!". When I tell them that in almost every country in Europe people work less hours a day and less days a year, and yet they're a lot richer than us, these fucks almost choke on their own stupidity.
We have to think, what kind of society do we want to live in? Do you want to have the life of a Portuguese worker? It doesn't work, see? Productivity is shit, industry and agriculture have gone away just the same, little added-value, little innovation, no future.
No need for alarm. Wake me up when doomsday is only a billion years away. I'll worry then.
I love the smell of naive self-righteous bullshit in the afternoon.
All this debate about left and right, conservatives and liberals is so fucking stupid. For example in Europe, Communist parties have a base of blue-collar workers. Those are very family-oriented and conservative, yet they are left-wing! Parties which call themselves Liberal are all for individual choices in lifestyle issues, but they are also all for the concentration of wealth, hence proudly right-wing. There's a liberal left and a conservative left, there's also a liberal right and a conservative right.
Also, the notions of left and right, conservative and liberal vary wildly from one society to the other. From our point of view, both major parties in the US are right-wing. The Democratic Party compares to right-wing parties in my country. For the Republicans, we don't even have an equivalence, most of what they say sounds nuts to us.
Oh and we have many parties with different tendencies. Here in Portugal, there are six parties in the Parliament.