Re: Homeless

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Sep 17 2000 - 03:13:30 MDT


phil osborn wrote:
>
> >From: Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net>
> >The will-work-for-fooders stand out there on the corner,
> > >with all limbs in apparent working condition, while Burger
> > >King is *crying out* for someone willing to just push a
> > >mop and wipe tables. And they will hire *anyone* no
> > >questions asked, dog kickers, mass murderers, whatever.
> > >They hire the mentally retarded, but oddly enough, there
> > >arent enough of them either. And the fast food gets steadily
> > >slower, because there arent enough people working the
> > >kitchen. Meanwhile the floors and tables get ever dirtier.

I take it you have never worked at a Burger-King. I have (a long, LONG
time ago when I was < 20). They want people they can make part of their
process. People they can control. Fast food robots.

>
> This is a very real problem at all levels of the economy. The solution at
> the top is to keep raising the wages, with management - no matter how
> incompetent - getting astronomical money with noone noticing that they are
> usually the least competent people in the company.
>

I take it you are not a manager. :-) It is a really gross
generalization to claim all managers are incompetent. It is also an
over-generalization to claim they are all highly paid much less getting
astronomical money.

 
> The next teir down - the engineers, researchers, etc. - who actually do most
> of the work and actually make most of the decisions that management takes
> credit for and gets paid for, have gotten very slight monetary increases,
> and huge increases in work load. The next level - the blue collar and white
> collar grunts who mostly just "do a job" - have gotten less than nothing in
> pay increases in real buying terms for over a decade now, even as their
> productivity has skyrocketed, and the hours have gone up as well.
>

I take it you probably are in this tier. :-) Again, a lot of
over-generalizations. Some of us at this tier make as much or more than
our nominal managers. In software, their is such a demand that
experienced reasonably good people are having money thrown at them.
Some studies say that the productivity of the average white collar
worker has not gone up despite automation. I don't agree that the hours
have gone up across the board. At least not without more information.

> Meanwhile, the engineers, etc., are getting damned tired of 80 hour work
> weeks without corresponding pay, so they are burning out and quiting in
> large numbers. And the grunts are starting to listen to the union
> organizers.

Unions are more exploitive than most management from what I've seen when
I used to work (again a long time ago) in union shops. No thank you.

- samantha



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