Resentment is Building As More Workers Feel Stuck 174
Workers in the U.S. are running in place -- feeling stuck in jobs with dimmed prospects of advancement and seeing fewer opportunities to jump ship for something better. From a report: It's a sharp contrast to the heady days of 2022 -- when employees were quitting their jobs at record high rates, open roles proliferated and the possibility of a higher paycheck always seemed just around the corner.
Employers are sitting tight, says Daniel Zhao, lead economist at job site Glassdoor. Companies aren't making big changes to hiring strategy. That means "fewer opportunities for workers to climb the career ladder," he says. They're still plugging away at the same role they've had for years without the opportunity to move up internally or at a new company. 65% of the 3,400 professionals surveyed by Glassdoor last month said they feel stuck in their current role. "As workers feel stuck, pent-up resentment boils under the surface," Zhao writes in a report out yesterday.
Employers are sitting tight, says Daniel Zhao, lead economist at job site Glassdoor. Companies aren't making big changes to hiring strategy. That means "fewer opportunities for workers to climb the career ladder," he says. They're still plugging away at the same role they've had for years without the opportunity to move up internally or at a new company. 65% of the 3,400 professionals surveyed by Glassdoor last month said they feel stuck in their current role. "As workers feel stuck, pent-up resentment boils under the surface," Zhao writes in a report out yesterday.
Careers are overrated (Score:5, Insightful)
There's nothing wrong with finding a job and not being driven to climb the ladder until you are an example of the Peter Principle. ...As long as you're making enough to be content and you have a job you like. With shitty employers, this last part is difficult to achieve.
Re:Careers are overrated (Score:4, Interesting)
There's nothing wrong with finding a job and not being driven to climb the ladder until you are an example of the Peter Principle. ...As long as you're making enough to be content and you have a job you like. With shitty employers, this last part is difficult to achieve.
Some people prioritize having a family or being able to travel more over reaching the top of some shit company that will forget you the day after you quit/retire. If it's fulfilling work to you, then go for the top. Just don't expect anyone at work to give a damn.
Re: (Score:3)
6.3 [mit.edu] "I exist so that I can program. If I were promoted, I would do nothing but waste everyone's time. Can I go now? I have a program that I am working on."
Re: (Score:2)
Or not even about "work life balance." Some of us like what we are do and are good at it, and don't want to move up. 6.3 [mit.edu] "I exist so that I can program. If I were promoted, I would do nothing but waste everyone's time. Can I go now? I have a program that I am working on."
I was quite content being a software engineer and at most software lead, left alone to design and implement solutions with a lot of independence. Making me team lead or more and sticking me in meetings and having me do paper work would have been a waste of my skills and experience. The one time I did think about becoming a manager type, my boss, who was moving up one position, said he'd rather me stay where I was, doing actual work, then bumped my salary to $1k less than the person who replaced him.
Re: (Score:3)
Some people live to work, some work to live. I have a decent life/work balance and like the people I work with so I'm pretty content doing what I do now. If I moved into middle management I'd get more money but a lot more grief and pressure.
Re: (Score:2)
But being stuck without promotion... that's what many of fellow Gen Xers had to deal with. It's nothing new even if the reasons for it might be differe
Re:Careers are overrated (Score:5, Interesting)
Those of us in tech corporations typically have to at least pretend that we're trying to grow our career. That we're ambitious enough to seek greater responsibilities and accomplish more things. I've had bad experiences in telling my boss that I'm happy where I'm at and want to keep doing what I'm doing. Now I have to make up some lies about my long-term plans and hope he forgets before the next review.
Re: (Score:2)
Ugh, that's no surprise but still depressing. While I'm back in school to finish some education and make a career swap, my current employer is happy with me as a department head and doesn't pester me about moving into an actual management role. I was doing that ladder climbing shit when I was younger and once I reached a certain point, decided I was miserable, the extra money wasn't making up for it and I slide back down a roll but am significantly happier. The extra money wouldn't change my life options bu
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Careers are overrated (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Everything is broken (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Oil is still the king of everything. People forget that when they look at the valuations of tech companies, but big oil is bigger than anything in the world.
I agree with you about the people chasing free money. It's the corporate way, find a way to generate revenue, and then optimize it. There's a serious amount of grift and outright theft going on at every level of humanity. Kids are grabbing stuff off shelves and walking out. The theft problem is shutting down stores in the poor neighborhoods, which were
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What if one isn't a crazy ladder-climber? (Score:3, Insightful)
What if one isn't a money, status and power-obcessed ladder climber? Will such a person also be resentful of their job and workplace?
Methinks the article's author (and its publishing site, axios) has an axe to grind. An agenda to push. Unhappy Workers of the World, Unite!
Nah mate. Marxism had its run and failed. Fuck off.
And leave us non-ladder-climbers the fuck alone, we may have families to look after, or illnesses to conquer. No one has time for your ladder-climbing yuppie up-or-out bullshit.
Re: What if one isn't a crazy ladder-climber? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's not quite that simple. Even those of us who aren't obsessed with promotion eventually notice everyone around us moving up faster. We eventually begin to notice that we aren't in the meetings we should be in. We eventually feel resentment based purely on lack of recognition.
If a person is constantly being passed by their peers, they likely need to find a new employer. Their current employer doesn't value them, so stop giving them anything of value by going somewhere else. Lots of folks do this 3-4 times before they find the right job.
Re: What if one isn't a crazy ladder-climber? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Well that seems to be exactly what TFA is about. The problem being that finding that new employer is far easier said than done, especially if you are specialized in something a little less common than vomiting out typescript.
Re: (Score:2)
You grow out of that "recognition" thing when no money is ever attached to it. Now, if I was missing out on extra money alongside the recognizing, then I would be upset. At this point in my career at my current company, I just want to fly under the radar and be left alone to do my job. This mostly works for me. I'll leave the young ambition folk to shoot for the top.
Re: (Score:2)
Gawd. I felt that.
Though for me it's not that people are moving up faster, it's that companies can't keep focus on anything long enough to see even a medium-term play pay out. If it's not short-term tactical bullshit, then it's taking too long and we need to cancel it. You can spend all your time fixing all the previous short-term tactical shit instead. And anyway, I know we took up all your time on horseshit and told you not to work on it, but why isn't that medium term project delivered yet?
Meanwhile, the
Re: What if one isn't a crazy ladder-climber? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: What if one isn't a crazy ladder-climber? (Score:4, Interesting)
That's actually a really good point you make here. If the work you are doing isn't valued or noticed, then you either a) aren't doing anything useful or b) need to sell what you are doing more effectively to your bosses. Also, if something isn't valued, stop doing it. Just stop. If it's actually important, it will come up and that's the perfect time to have a conversation about it.
Re: What if one isn't a crazy ladder-climber? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I feel like you're being extremely unfair to yourself.
While I agree with you, I've never heard anyone say these things explicitly... and in different language what you've said would constitute saying the quiet part out loud.
Re: What if one isn't a crazy ladder-climber? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I thought it was just common sense that YOU are your own best advertisement....you DO have to toot your own horn and let those in charge know good things you do.
I only work for money....therefore, just seems common sense for me to raise attention to myse
If you end up doing a bunch of work (Score:3)
I've watched this happen more than once where someone organically took over a role and t
Re: (Score:3)
Just because YOU want to be Milton from Office Space doesn't mean normal people don't want a path forward in their jobs. That's not ladder scrabblers, that's just sane human beings.
Maybe you are happy doing the exact same shit every day and not getting a pay raise that even matches inflation, but normal people want to both be compensated fairly, AND have a path forward that is other than doing the exact same drudge work every day and going home. Even factory workers won't settle for that shit.
So yeah, res
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
You had me until you decided to bring your completely unrelated political problems into this.
Shouldnt you want to move up and get a better job so you can be a better capitalist if you have such problems with things on the left?
Re: What if one isn't a crazy ladder-climber? (Score:2)
And we have some hypnosis sessions with a professional who's been complaining about chest pains lately...
not all workers can be come good managers and othe (Score:2)
not all workers can be come good managers and others don't want to play politics at work vs doing more hands on work.
Re: (Score:2)
I moved 3 ranks up between 1990-1996 until I took a job contracting for a couple of years and then went back to my old organization as a contractor. The position I left in 1996 was an assistant director with managing employees responsibility, which I hated, but to make bigger money as an employee you had to do that.
The point I'm trying to make is that maybe some of the employees like what they do and the position they're in. My wife has her certificate to become a high school principal and make about 25-3
Re: (Score:3)
Is it really necessary to swing to extremes?
Workers can have bargaining power and control over the resource they own (their time), without reverting to state capitalism or worker owned collectives.
Re: (Score:2)
You don't have to be any one of those things. However unless your company gives at least an 8% yearly raise you're going to lose money every year.
8% every year?! Most companies can't afford that to even the top 10% of their staff. I mean, that's great for you, seriously! US average raise per year is 3% (while fine 10 years ago it was fine, 3% now is a kick in the balls). No one shoots to be average, but that's pretty great that you can get 8 every year. The most essential employees here got 4% last year (still a kick in the balls).
Re: (Score:2)
You don't have to be any one of those things. However unless your company gives at least an 8% yearly raise you're going to lose money every year.
8% every year?! Most companies can't afford that to even the top 10% of their staff. I mean, that's great for you, seriously! US average raise per year is 3% (while fine 10 years ago it was fine, 3% now is a kick in the balls). No one shoots to be average, but that's pretty great that you can get 8 every year. The most essential employees here got 4% last year (still a kick in the balls).
I think over the course of my career I averaged 2%/yr. This of course won't keep up with inflation in the best of years, so if not for advancement I would have been making far less in real terms when I retired than when I first started 30 years previous. Fortunately my job did have room for advancement, so while I had no interest in a management position, I was still able to end up in a much higher paying position when I retired than when I started. Yeah, if that opportunity would have not been there it
Re: (Score:2)
I think over the course of my career I averaged 2%/yr. This of course won't keep up with inflation in the best of years, so if not for advancement I would have been making far less in real terms when I retired than when I first started 30 years previous.
Fortunately my job did have room for advancement, so while I had no interest in a management position, I was still able to end up in a much higher paying position when I retired than when I started. Yeah, if that opportunity would have not been there it would have sucked big time, and I can totally see why people would not be happy with that situation.
Absolutely! Outside of the raises I got at my first (out of school) job (which only had high percentage raises because I started there making crap), my biggest % raises have come from changing jobs. Even got good raises from one employer a couple times by getting better offers from other employers and leveraging them.
Re: (Score:2)
4% is at least above the IMF (or is it the World Bank?) inflation target of ~2.6%
I think I got 1.5%/year since the last buyout/merger/acquisition along with the inevitable annual rise in the cost of benefits.
A lot of what sucks in being in the corporate world is the result of being successful - bigger companies want to buy your smaller company and then pump you for more productivity, after of course all the TSA exit work is done. But we're all family here... it's just one big 20k-person global family right?
Re: (Score:2)
At least you are getting raises. Many people aren't even getting that 3 or 4 percent, which means they're earning less today than when they started in terms of economic power due to inflation.
And then it's a big mystery why workers get pissed and churn to new positions.
Re: (Score:2)
8%? What are you smoking? Usually people make a few large leaps early in their careers and then are lucky to see 5% increases. If you want large jumps, either you have to be really good at what you do and drag your company on the carpet for them to pay you what you're worth, or if you're not you try to trick some other sucker organization to take you and give you a large increase.
However, even if you were getting 8% a year, you're not losing money as inflation is far below that. So, by definition, you'l
Re: (Score:3)
If you went back to Marx's time and you were a worker, you might well look at the mess and think the only way to fix it is to sweep it all away. Early capitalism was brutally exploitative, and workers had little legal protection for anything short of outright murder. Living conditions were harsh and working conditions were worse, and there was nothing you could do about it because you had no political clout, even if you had the franchise, which you probably didn't.
But there's been almost two centuries of s
Re: (Score:2)
I had a class on the history of science fiction many decades ago. Early in the class the topic on the history and development of utopia type sci-fi was studied. Teacher asked us what was the failure of all utopia type predictions. The answer: the irrationality, or sin if you will, of humans.
Anybody who predicts an idealized future needs to wake up and observe humanity. I would say that people haven't changed much in the last 5K+ years and humans are still humans. Maybe better in some ways now but then worse
time for an union! (Score:3, Informative)
time for an union!
Re: (Score:2)
"An" union? You mean "A union"?
Re: (Score:2)
A union sounds better, but I think the an before a vowel thing comes up. Isn't the rule to use "an" before A-E-I-O and sometimes U?
I guess it depends if it's union or Union. One being a noun while the other is a pronoun. You'd have to ask my sister. She teaches high school English :)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Part of that "don't work past quitting time" also means, don't fucking work for free. It's fine to stay late if you are on the clock but don't clock out and finish the job.
I remember when I first started my union job and was climbing the silly ladder. I got to highest union position, which was one step under our facility director who isn't union. The stress and expectations were insane back then and payroll budget was always an issue. I'd use my OT budget up and if it wasn't enough, I would foolishly clock
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah tenure/seniority has its benefits. The same goes for non-union jobs. If you want good vacation package, you have to be loyal to the company. It's a retention policy for keeping the people who make stuff work. That's not unique to unions. Unions are about organized labor having equal power to organized capital. Without organized labor, you are a just a wage that can be disposed of when shareholders get fidgety.
Re: (Score:2)
That's not how my union works but maybe other unions work different. My union has no say in how much overtime I work or how hard or not hard people work. In fact, the harder workers DO get promoted first and to higher positions. The really ambition folks leave the union to go into higher corporate positions (that don't necessary pay more).
My union negotiates the contract which dictates our pay, our raises, how many hours to the next pay increase until you hit the cap, how much we pay for healthcare vs the e
Which Largely Explains the Election Outcome (Score:5, Interesting)
People are unhappy, want change and don't see any coming or any way they can either personally or collectively help make it happen. Harris had no chance since she represented the status quo. Her only message was that Trump would be worse and a lot of people didn't turn out because they didn't really think that was true or didn't care.
The larger issue is that no one that proposed real change can get the money needed to get elected. The people who have the money are satisified with things as they are. They will only support candidates picking around the edges on side issues like immigration or foreign policy.
Any effort that would reduce wealth inequality is off the table. Any effort that would reduce the power of monopolies is off the table. Any effort that created fair tax policies is off the table. Any effort that fixed our expensive and ineffective health care system is off the table. Any fix to our broken retirement system is off the table. Real efforts to deal with climate change that don't allow the wealthy to buy their way out are off the table. You can create a long list of things that are more important to our daily lives than border security or china using our technology. Or vaccination policy. But there isn't anyone out there with the resources to do anything about them.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Harris had no chance since she represented the status quo. Her only message was that Trump would be worse and a lot of people didn't turn out because they didn't really think that was true or didn't care.
https://kamalaharris.com/issue... [kamalaharris.com] I bet if you told people on the street these were Trump campaign promises they would be praising him to no end.
Re: (Score:2)
It was negative campaigning vs negative campaigning, and that's really a winning campaign strategy. Ultimately, both sides were preaching to the choir rather than enticing people to their sides; and it really came down to getting people to vote instead of staying home. Undecided voters either had secretly decided, or they were just going with the feel good uninformed gut instinct. I think early on in her campaign that Harris was less negative but over time as the numbers dropped the negative campaigning
No Mandate (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't see anything there about how she is going to help people cope with high prices. Just a bunch of wonkish jargon about the middle class and targeted tax cuts and benefits for specific groups. And some things about her past achievements which are now all part of the status quo people are unhappy with.
There are a lot of things she might have done differently. My point is that largely it didn't matter. She had no ability to overcome people's unhappiness with their current lives. This was a vote against t
Re: (Score:2)
haha that's funny because it's true. Still, which party is it again that thinks everyone deserves a vote? We know it isn't the Republicans, so that kind of narrows it down. Democrats insist everyone should get a vote, but then you let the dumbest of dumb vote and now we got Trump again. Funny that eh?
Re: (Score:3)
Bernie Sanders proposed real change: He was 'canceled' by his own party. That was more than a demonstration of corporatism in politics and the US economy. It was the proof that 30 years ago, the Democratic Party stopped putting blue-collar voters, first: It's been said so many times, no-one remembers the Democratic Party is its own worst enemy. We are about to see the Democratic party be the minority party (in the HoR and Senate), for stints of 8-10 years.
Your complaints of US politics/law/economy/gesta
Re: (Score:2)
I think you are blaming the victim. The democratic party has been hijacked by an elite centered around Yale and Harvard who see politics as a matter of managing perceptions. They speak at people, not for them. By contrast, Trump is a professional celebrity who figures out what the group of people who support him want to hear said and then says it. He speaks for them not at them.
One analysis of the election is that when Trump left office working Americans were experiencing the best level of financial securit
Re: (Score:2)
That was more than a demonstration of corporatism in politics and the US economy.
The stagnation that corporatism brings comes from the subtle conversion of capitalism and democracy into feudalism, like history shows us the about the middle ages, now the Lords are Corporate. If eternal vigilance is the price of freedom then slavery is the cost of apathy.
Now, US voters are corrupt too, demanding elitism for themselves and sacrificing their fellow citizens and townsfolk. The USA is truly getting the government it deserves.
Looks like Benjamin Franklin was right about the constitution then:
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form
Re: (Score:3)
I think they meant she was, and still is, part of the administration. The status quo is literally the current administration.
Re:Which Largely Explains the Election Outcome (Score:4, Insightful)
Harris isn't "from the ghetto". That is an amazingly racist stereotype. Her parents were both college professors, one an immigrant from Jamaica and the other from India.
I don't really think it much matters what color or gender the President is. As the current vice-president running for President Harris represents the status quo. The idea that her color and sex somehow make her an outsider is pure bigotry.
It's not so much a need to ladder-climb.... (Score:2)
I can speak to my own personal career, here. I've been in I.T. doing one thing or another in it for I think 31 years now?
I had my own on-site service and consulting business at one point, but I've mostly done corporate I.T. for small to mid-sized companies. I've been the only full-time I.T. guy wearing "all the hats" for a steel fabricator, for a 6 or 7 year stint. I've worked as an I.T. support specialist for nearly as long for another business, as part of a small team. I even spent about a year with AWS,
Re: (Score:3)
Why are programmers non-productive? Because their time is wasted in meetings.
Why are programmers rebellious? Because the management interferes too much.
Why are the programmers resigning one by one? Because they are burnt out.
Having worked for poor management, they no longer value their jobs.
Re: (Score:2)
But the issue I kept running up against, my whole career, is inability to move into a sysadmin or even support role where I no longer have to interact regularly with the end-users.
Yeah I was on track for a job in education like that, I did some contract work for the same employer and was lined up for the job, and then the guy who wasn't capable of doing his job so they had to contract me to do it on multiple occasions decided he was going to keep the job another year because he bought a Harley and needed to pay it off. Why yes, it was a union shop, why do you ask?
It's going to get a *lot* worse (Score:5, Interesting)
To fight that inflation the federal reserve will hike interest rates up, because that's what they do.
Now, let's talk about how and why high interest rates "fight" inflation, because it's not something anyone really talks about.
br> See, it's suddenly expensive to borrow money. Most companies expand using borrowed money. So they stop expanding. Heck, they start *contracting*.
That means layoffs. Mass layoffs. If you're in Tech you're already seeing it, which is why you're "stuck".
The idea is we all get fired, blow through our savings, and massively pull back on spending. That forces companies to cut prices when demand tanks.
It's balancing the books on our backs.
This only works if there's competition, but we've had decades of unchecked market consolidation. So there's no real reason for companies to cut prices except the threat of anti-trust law enforcement and regulation.
And those are right out the window now.
So buckle up folks, we voted for this. [marketwatch.com]
Re: (Score:2)
To quote from Ferris Beuller's Day Off, the teacher (played by Ben Stein, who started as a speech writer for Nixon and Ford) is droning on:
In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the... Anyone? Anyone?...
the Great Depression, passed the... Anyone? Anyone?
The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone?
Raised or lowered?... raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government.
Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects?
It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression.
Re: (Score:2)
The tariffs are going to spike inflation.
...
So buckle up folks, we voted for this.
No problem, Biden will get the blame for it.
Obama, not Biden (Score:3)
We really weren't ready to elect a milquetoast black president. If he'd managed to do an FDR style new deal it would've worked out, but he really just kept things afloat and more or less fixed the most immediate problems.
And my _God_ people were scared. I knew several people who bought guns thinking Obama was coming for them. Obama. A guy who couldn't be bothered passing his own signature legislation (Pelosi's the one who rammed through the ACA).
I think a lot of Americans see
Re: (Score:2)
The only thing that fights inflation is taxes. Taxes aren't coming back, so inflation is the new normal.
When companies borrow, its true they spend the money, adding to inflation, but they also produce additional goods and services that more than counteract that pressure.
Supply is what really fights inflation (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Now, let's talk about how and why high interest rates "fight" inflation, because it's not something anyone really talks about.
Lmafo, 54% of Americans read at the 6th grade level or below, they don’t understand the word tariff so you’re going to need to back up quite a ways. For those reading a tariff is a tax PAID by US companies or people to import things into the US like raw materials, products, and food. Companies can’t go out of business and want to keep making the same profits so COMPANIES ADD ALL THAT TAX AND JACK UP THE PRICE PEOPLE PAY.
If you have a person buying shirts for $10 and selling them for $2
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think I'd of included food in that list but only because we pretty much are a net exporter of food. Also, I seriously doubt you will see a 100% blanket tariff for the entire market. You MIGHT see targeted tariffs, such as Trump did last time and Biden carried them forward (as in, they still exist today!). Heck, Biden even did his own protection racket tariffs on solar panels and EVs. Which is baffling if you think about it. If China wants to sell the world cheap solar panels and EVs, shouldn't we be
Re: (Score:2)
Or they buy from an American company instead. And that company employees American workers and buys supplies from other American companies. The results may be higher or lower prices for American consumers, depending on whether the American company can produce the product at the same or lower cost.
You are right tariffs are taxes. So they will lower somebody else's share of taxes.
I am not a big fan of tariffs. But the notion that "free trade" benefited the average American is doubtful. It allowed American cap
Re: (Score:2)
The deportations as well will create supply chain disruptions, and that will also be inflationary. We'll especially see upward pressure on food prices.
Re: (Score:2)
Got news for ya. The market economy is in trouble regardless of who we voted for. The market's never reached this high and there are various economic warning signs that the tv doesn't like to talk about. It's boring after all.
I'm surprised it's lasted this long to be honest. The real killer for our country will be the out of control debt though. Neither party will "fix" this. It would require massive austerity, spending cuts and tax increases. Democrats love new taxes but only so they can spend more. Republ
Re: It's going to get a *lot* worse (Score:2)
It's critically important to always remind people that the sky is falling.
If it's not actually (remember how everyone 3 weeks ago was insisting THE ECONOMY IS FINE GODDAMNIT! ?) it surely will be any moment now.
Otherwise, why would they need to vote for a mommy government that will snuggle them and hold them and validate them and keep telling them how special they are?
Alternative theory. (Score:5, Insightful)
Looking at the prospects for society moving forward, it all seems pretty bleak. But, the only focus we're told we're supposed to have is career and the pursuit of every increasing wealth. Anything outside of that is considered a waste of time, a waste of energy, a waste of potential. And maybe, just maybe, pursuit of empty, meaningless careers, while watching our parents and elders age out and see that most of it was literally for absolutely nothing at all other than taking care of the people they never had the opportunity to spend time with until they aged out, we wonder what the point of jumping on the treadmill and barely maintaining momentum while standing still is. Middle class folks get pushed down to the bottom if they aren't climbing. And if we aren't climbing, we're told we're failing.
Maybe we're just resentful of a society that has literally found every avenue available to tell us we are worthless. Healthcare has been stolen from those of us that used to be able to afford it. Now, for me, a relatively healthy middle aged guy, it's 10k a years as an individual, for a policy with a 12k a year copay, that covers literally nothing at all, and has the prospect of denying coverage if I have the accident I fear may bankrupt me. So I have a choice to either pay in and continue to pay, or not pay in and risk the unknown. Common bills continue to climb around 8-9% per year, pay increases around 3% per year. Been that way for over twenty years in this area, and right at the moment it's looking like the common bills are going to start climbing faster. I can "make due," but I won't be putting away the retirement funds I'd been hoping to be putting away so I don't have to work until I'm completely shredded.
This isn't a "worker" vs. "employer" only situation. This is a society wide trap that we've all fallen into. And when we ask for hope, we're handed a shit sandwich and told to eat up. "Should have worked harder, should have done more, should have been born better." Well, some of us are looking at the future prospects and seeing more of the same and are tired of the bleakness.
Oh, and by the way, AI is going to replace us all within a few years too. So we got that fun little monkey riding our backs, no matter how false the premise seems to those of us that see how crap the average AI actually is. Because management seems to believe it. And all it takes is the right decisions and we're all out on our asses until the day comes where they realize they fucked up and may actually need humans after all. And by then, our wages will have all reset to baseline again. The future's so bright, I gotta wear SPF 20,000 to avoid burning in it.
Nobody is filling roles (Score:3)
They'll point out how many applicants they get but companies are using that as an excuse because they don't fill the roles with any of them. Nobody is hired to grow into/adapt to roles anymore... everyone needs to be a perfect fit already which can only be done by someone stepping out of that EXACT job somewhere else.
If you won't hire a senior checkpoint engineer to be your new senior palo engineer then you've eliminated the closest parallel that exists to that job, the only thing that works then is another senior palo engineer and checkpoints going out of style. Soon enough the same will be true of palo. And since you won't hire either as an architect cloud or security engineer [which is almost never devsecops/app security but universally listed with that skillset requirement] despite the fact they've likely proven they can switch hats before they have nowhere to go.
This isn't just bad for the employees impacted and bad because it demotivates people in tech. The best talent available almost certainly isn't the closest match! You are going to end up passing over top talent in favor of someone with a skillset that any tech guy could pick up fairly quickly. You can't teach talent and experience... you can teach appliances, languages, frameworks, etc especially to talented staff.
In other news... (Score:2)
More workers have their heads still stuck in the sand refusing to realize that they aren't as valuable as they think they are.
Re: (Score:2)
They're pretty valuable. But what drives decisions in capitalism isn't value, it's *marginal* value. You can always afford to fire someone, you can't afford to fire everyone.
11,000 boomers retiring/day (Score:4, Insightful)
11,000 boomers retiring a day and there are no open spaces up the ladder? Peak baby boom was 1958 plus or minus a year, they are hitting the Grail, Full Retirement Age this year and next year.
Add in later boomers retiring early and the very logical question is where did the job opening go? Or did too many race into computers so that now there is a shortage of electricians, carpenters, and plumbers.
Somewhere there is a disconnect.
Re:11,000 boomers retiring/day (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm in that retiring boomer range, and one thing that has changed drastically about work since I entered the work force is the degree to which jobs with a company are *transitory*. In the 1960s, the average amount of time someone worked for a company was ten years. When I entered the workforce in the 80s it was six years. Today it is four years.
Employment also *feels* a lot more transient than it used to. I know a lot of young workers who work in constant fear of layoffs, even when the company is doing well. Layoffs of course always happened, but only when things were quite bad. Now company decisions are more informatics driven and agile and if the spreadsheet says, we're profitable now but we'll be a lot more profitable next quarter if we lay off a bunch of people, then suddenly people get a text telling them they're not employed anymore.
Companies complain about declining loyalty among employees, but a loyal employee now is just a sucker.
The path up was often a kind of balance between internal promotion and changing companies, but now both paths feel broken. Companies don't invest in developing employees like they used to because employees are hired and let go casually. But now if you try to change jobs the application process is an opaque black box. HR departments get spammed with applications and run them through filters that work god knows how.
Believe it or not, it used to be customary to respond to correspondence applying for a job with a brief but polite decline. And if you actually interviewed, it was customary to tell you in a timely manner if you didn't get the job. Now I've known young people to go through several *days* of interviews, only to be ghosted.
Re: (Score:2)
Certainly there's some re-arrangement needed. Society doesn't need health insurance or A.I. salesmen, but the people doing those jobs won't want to transition into nursing, plumbing, or construction without:
(1) a big stick - unemployment
(2) a big carrot - decent wages on the other side
The next market crash could be the stick. But they'll also need a clear, risk-free path to transition into the next career. Some kind of national employment agency that funds the training, and guarantees job placement. And pro
Re: (Score:2)
There'll be plenty of retirement home jobs to go around!
I worked 35 years at DuPont, yup sucked at times.. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Viva la revolución (Score:4, Informative)
That's interesting. The 3 people I know that started their own businesses got zero help from their parents. Tiny sample size of course but unless you happen to know a lot of entrepreneurs your sample size isn't likely that big either.
My mother started her own property management business. She decided to do this after various bosses refused to compensation her for bringing in new clients. She decided, I'm already doing all the work anyway, might as well be the boss. Her company was going strong until Covid hit California. It's super hard to make money as a property manager when over half your tenants stop paying their rent, as she literally got paid as a percentage of rents for each of her clients.
My uncle started a trucking business over 30 years ago and just recently (2021) retired and sold the company. He financed his own tractor-trailer and worked 6 days a week. Workaholic for sure. His wife even started driving a smaller truck after she retired from a city job. They've always done well. Before that, he worked for Caterpillar fixing their huge equipment items all around the world. So a trucking company made sense for him.
My other uncle started an HVAC company. He struggled a lot more and ultimately ended up working for others again. Then again, he's got a much different work ethic then pretty much the rest of the family.
With all that said, my grandparents have never helped any of them out. Heck, my grandmother has been dead for 28 years and my grandfather passed away a few months ago (94!). They never had money to really help their children. All the education all my relatives received they paid out of their own pockets. Same as I'm doing myself now.
These were both small businesses that only employed my individual relatives but both were clearing low 6 figures. They both retired happy.
So yeah, if enough of these people reach a point where they know enough of their business, they probably could go start another firm but it definitely takes a lot of drive, determination and long hours. Running a business isn't for everyone.
Re:Viva la revolución (Score:5, Insightful)
That's interesting. The 3 people I know that started their own businesses got zero help from their parents. Tiny sample size of course but unless you happen to know a lot of entrepreneurs your sample size isn't likely that big either.
They didn't say "got help from their parents", they said "had mummy and daddy to run back to if it all went to shit". Those are two different things. You can be more successful doing risky things when there is a sturdy net to catch you when you fall.
Re: (Score:2)
Fair enough and valid point. Still, my examples didn't have parents to fall back onto. They had spouses with jobs. I guess that's to much help also?
Re: (Score:2)
They didn't say "got help from their parents", they said "had mummy and daddy to run back to if it all went to shit".
Doesn't match any of the people I know of who run their own businesses. In fact, I only know of one person over the age of 25 who would even consider letting their parents support them.
Re:Viva la revolución (Score:4, Insightful)
help from someone (Score:3)
If its not parents, its someone or some entity with a big poc
Re: help from someone (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Everyone I know who started their own business had mummy and daddy to run back to if it all went to shit.
Many of the wealthy people looked up to as examples of self-made success came from wealthy families, including Bill Gates and Elon Musk. Yes there are also contrary examples, but having the safety net of (at least somewhat) affluent family can help with the mindset and tolerance for risk.
Re: (Score:3)
That's one way to go from "treading water" to "bankruptcy", certainly.
Re: (Score:2)
Technically a *senryu*
Re: (Score:2)
On one hand, anyone who voted for Trump thinking he was going to make things better is a super-idiot.
On the other hand, Biden was a "more of the same old oppression" candidate. He wasn't going to take down the MIC, he wasn't going to take down Big Oil, he was personally the architect of the student loan crisis and has made only tiny strides towards repairing the damage he did, in fact he went around congress to fund genocide in the middle east in order to help bring about the end of the fucking world but he
Re: Honestly we were on the way to fixing shit (Score:2)
What's your plan to ensure that the awful, controlling DNC can give way to a minority faction next time? I just want to make sure we don't have to deal with that pesky majority rule thing, too.
Re: (Score:2)
What's your plan to ensure that the awful, controlling DNC can give way to a minority faction next time? I just want to make sure we don't have to deal with that pesky majority rule thing, too.
Don't worry, the DNC has already made sure you don't have to deal with primaries. Trump told the Evangelicals they won't have to vote any more but the DNC has denied people a vote already.