Why we are so screwed up in America.

[TickTockMan]

I don't agree with any of you.

I happen to work for a company that does not care when you come in and when you leave. The unspoken rule is come in between 7 and 8. If you have somewhere to go during the day for personal purposes, like a doctor's appointment, mailing out stuff, going to courthouse for ticket, or whatever else, then go. The unspoken rule about that is just tell someone.

I once got a call from the husband, boyfriend back then, that the dog disappeared from the backyard and he couldn't find him anywhere. I literally ran out of the oftice. Later that day, when I came back, no one said anything. They later said they figured I had something really important to do.

I understand the old theory of doing things. I really do. But I think we as a society are ready for the next step in work evolution. Just perform your work duties with pride.

When I first joined this company, I had no vacation time or any other PTO yet. I think it was the 2nd week or something like that. I needed to take time off for a few days because my then bf was going to have surgery. I put in a request to borrow PTO from the future (yes my company let's people borrow PTO from the future). My boss, the department manager, came by my office and asked why I needed time off? I explained to him. He promptly gave the form back to me and told me just go do what I need to. He'd give me something to do. I'd be working from home. What he gave me took all of 30 minutes to do, but officially I was doing that assignment at home for 3 days.

I know what I'm telling sounds weird to you old guys. But this system works wonderfully well. I take pride in my work. I don't just turn in my calculations ASAP. I actually make sure everything is nice and neat. Proof read everything. Even take a moment to admire it LOL.

And because of how generous they are to me, I voluntarily make myself available all the time. I am known by everyone at work that if they need anything they can call me anytime, day and night. Just the other day, at about 9pm my boss and I exchanged text messages about something at work.

I recently got my annual review. Perfectomundo. Got a nice raise. Company quarterly profits are sky high. I've been told ever since they changed to the new system of doing things people have been a lot more productive.

Someone ay work told me once that he believes if you do everything you can to make people be at their desk ready to work at auch and such time, you're actually encouraging people to do the absolute minimum amount of work. Everybody has a different way to be productive. We got a guy that comes in every morning at 4am. He says he likes it that way so he can be with his family early. We got a guy that comes in at 12 pm and leaves at 4ish 3 times during the work week. But he comes in every Saturday and Sunday all day to crank out numbers. He likes being by himself.

Anyway, you get my point.

Edit.

My company this year and last year was listed times as having one of the most employee satisfaction on survey. Google is on top somewhere in that list. They came up with creative ways to make their employees happy. I really think the old if-you're-not-at-your-work-station-10-minutes-early-then-you-are-late saying is horribly outdated. Companies that follow a different, more flexible work cultures, are the future. I know my own capabilities. I don't need a babysitter to tell me I need to come in exactly at auch and such time to be productive.

I don't deny that I'm a workaholic. And work does occupy my mind quite a lot. The reason being I have a lot of responsibilities. I'm a middle manager and I run projects, big and small.

Here's the thing. I didn't start to become a workaholic until I came to this company and all of a sudden be given so much freedom.


And I'm trying to tell you if you changing the work culture from being strict with time to being relaxed about it will make people care more about the job. It's human nature. The more you are strict with someone's work schedule, the more they will try to do the absolute minimum amount of work required.

I'm not saying if you switch to a new work culture now people will all of a sudden start to do this right away. It takes time. But once people see that they are trusted to do their duties without being babysat, they will eventually come around. So, don't expect to see results right away with a 1 week experiment.

I agree fully with you. When I worked I ran my crew a much different way than others in charge and people were begging to be on my crew and those that were already was happier.

As long as the job is not time sensitive daily being more laid back got more work done.



(After I got fired I was told they had to hire four new people and bring in two people with over a decade of experience each to make up for what my crew and I did. It was because they went back to making everyone feel worthless in my crew so no one did the things they knew I expected when I was there.)

 

[TickTockMan]

My observation is the opposite. My employers are not strict. I am in an unusual situation in Finance which has monthly cycles and unrelenting deadlines.

But, I observe Pricing, and Engineering, and Supply Chain, and only a few work to task. My own department, Business Management, doesn't work very hard.

And my company accommodates all sorts of flexible situations. My former company did too. But, the ones who take advantage of the work from home and other freedoms indeed abuse it. I have been personally involved as an ethics officer when the few who get reported are investigated. It is quickly proven that they charged for time they were not present, and that they did not have computer activity during hours at home.

In my own department, one business manager hired but then shared with everyone that she requires accommodation because she cannot drive at night. So, she came in early-ish, and left earlyish in season when daylight was fading near five. But, what she actually does, year round, is leave work early, claim to work from home, but actually work supporting her local animal shelter, as she is the head of it.

She also whiles away the hours at work playing Candy Crush on her phone.

She isn't a rarity.

There is tons of fraud going on, and far from being a controlling environment, the managers are wholly unaware of their workers' hours and workload. Instead of actually working hard or long hours, they merely say they are. I've been at this for the 30 years. I've seen it.

A manager would rather let crap go unaddressed than to have to manage.

Sounds like a management problem. You can be stern and make the job get done without being a hard ass.


I was known for making people tear up a bit, but by the time they walked away from me they were smiling.

 

[NotHardUp1]

That's just it. It has become the norm for managers to not actively manage. They overstaff, then report why the work is late. There is almost never active management in the salaried ranks where I have observed.

And, to be fair, the companies don't exactly incentivize excellence. The whole performance review process is a sham, so people would have to fail spectacularly for it to matter. Excellence is going to get you a 3.0% raise if you are low paid in your category, and 2.0% if you aren't. There really isn't any bonus for regular workers.

 

[Dominus]

If the people have no bread, let them eat cake.

Your statement is a non-sequitur. Many of us would love to simply work to live. I have had a job for two years now that hasn't let up. I've been compelled over and over to work overtime to meet deadlines with no understanding by executive management who yet pride themselves on dwelling on what is yet undone instead of what is done and how feasible the schedule is.

And to my earlier points, not working the job you are being paid to do is NOT "working to live," but merely shirking, or in the case of government contracts, "waste, fraud, and abuse."

But be sure it is not just the young. We have lots of "Wally" characters from Dilbert who are coasting retirement.

I don't remember if I told people on here before how I got the job with my company. But here goes. If I sound like a broken record, I apologize ahead of time.

I firmly believe that work ought to be much more than just work. We do spend the majority of our productive day at our job. So, there has to be a certain level of inter-personal interaction.

Especially me. I'm an extrovert. If I don't have anyone to interact with, I will go insane. Remember when I was in Arkansas while my spouse was in Europe? Remember how I kept posting on here how depressed I was?

Well, my extrovertedness was what got me into this company. I was working for this other engineering firm that had been taken over by office drones. The branch I was at was almost always quiet. There were days when not a single word was uttered by anyone. I would say hi to people and they would just ignore me and continue doing what they were doing. It was bad. I was very bored and my productivity was going down the toilet. I found myself regularly leaving my office and just walking up and down the hallway and lobby to relieve my boredom.

One day, I was sitting in the starbucks in the lobby when I met a guy there from a different company. We started talking. Then before long, we started going out to lunch together. I was quite impressed with his SUV, especially when he told me that was company car. Then we started hanging out on the weekends.

One day, he told me during lunch that his company branch had a position open. Required x amount of experience. He asked if I was interested? I said yes, even though x > my years of experience by several years.

He promptly sent in my resume for me with a reference letter on Friday. I interviewed the following Wednesday. I told the hiring manager that I did not want to miss work and so I could only interview after 5pm. He said no problem. So, he stayed behind that day just to meet me at 6pm. I got the offer letter on Friday, exactly one week after my friend sent in my resume.

Had I not been socializing with a random stranger, aka networking, I would never have gotten into this company. It literally changed our lives. How? My salary almost doubled overnight. Company car, which meant my spouse could ditch his money pit of a car and use mine to go to school. This was before the supreme court legalized gay marriage nation wide, but since this was a liberal company they did not require a marriage certificate for spousal coverage. All we had to do was tell them we lived together and that was enough to put him on my insurance. Furthermore, this company actually values people with creative ways to solve problems rather than just be an office drone, so I finally had the opportunity to use my strengths to contribute (my programming skills for example).

All of that resulted from my extrovertedness. Had I been an introvert and not like to socialize, it would have been a very different timeline for us where we'd still be struggling to pay the bills let alone save up to start our own company.

My point is socializing at work isn't necessarily a bad thing. I do it all the time. This year, my boss took his wife and 2 daughters to Canada for vacation and when he came back he went around showing people pictures. That's actually not uncommon. People do that all the time in my office. We have a social committee that likes to celebrate everyone's birthday and have regular bowling nights. Our quarterly meetings are composed of 50% work meeting and 50% socializing with pizza. I think our corporate has figured out the perfect balance to make people happy while earning record profits. Yes, we are earning record profits.

I'm just telling you how my company do things. And it's been working wonderfully well for us. I'm not complaining. I know I work a lot. Yes, I'm a workaholic. But I'm not the typical workaholic that you see in movies. I don't go in early and leave late while bitching about Michael coming in 30 seconds late on Tuesday and 42 seconds late on Wednesday. I'm a workaholic because I chose to take on the responsibilities.

And as I pointed out earlier, Google has a very worker-friendly environment. Heck, they let you take naps during work hours. They don't seem to have any trouble earning profits. Isn't it time the rest of corporate America rethink how it thinks about work?

 

[peeonme]

When I retired my boss (the owner) thanked me and shook my hand. He told me that while I was a bit cranky at times that he knew that he could rely on me, he said that I never complained about a job. The fact was that I took some personal satisfaction in doing the most complex, nastiest, wackiest work.
Being on time, doing your job and applying ones self (which includes honing in your skills and learning new skills) are to be expected. The lazy, bitching, whining drove me crazy. One guy told me that he 'hated' angles. Then he was in the wrong line of work.

 

[peeonme]

That's just it. It has become the norm for managers to not actively manage. They overstaff, then report why the work is late. There is almost never active management in the salaried ranks where I have observed.

And, to be fair, the companies don't exactly incentivize excellence. The whole performance review process is a sham, so people would have to fail spectacularly for it to matter. Excellence is going to get you a 3.0% raise if you are low paid in your category, and 2.0% if you aren't. There really isn't any bonus for regular workers.

My first job as a boss was in management, under the golden arches. The crew had ran off the guy that I replaced. He had tried to be a friend to the guys who in turn made him a laughing stock. I fired guys for smoking both grass and tobacco on the job, I fired guys for insubordination. I was a prick, but, within a month the crew knew what was expected, follow all of the rules and do as you are told.

 

[Dominus]

My observation is the opposite. My employers are not strict. I am in an unusual situation in Finance which has monthly cycles and unrelenting deadlines.

But, I observe Pricing, and Engineering, and Supply Chain, and only a few work to task. My own department, Business Management, doesn't work very hard.

And my company accommodates all sorts of flexible situations. My former company did too. But, the ones who take advantage of the work from home and other freedoms indeed abuse it. I have been personally involved as an ethics officer when the few who get reported are investigated. It is quickly proven that they charged for time they were not present, and that they did not have computer activity during hours at home.

In my own department, one business manager hired but then shared with everyone that she requires accommodation because she cannot drive at night. So, she came in early-ish, and left earlyish in season when daylight was fading near five. But, what she actually does, year round, is leave work early, claim to work from home, but actually work supporting her local animal shelter, as she is the head of it.

She also whiles away the hours at work playing Candy Crush on her phone.

She isn't a rarity.

There is tons of fraud going on, and far from being a controlling environment, the managers are wholly unaware of their workers' hours and workload. Instead of actually working hard or long hours, they merely say they are. I've been at this for the 30 years. I've seen it.

A manager would rather let crap go unaddressed than to have to manage.

Let me ask you this. Are people still getting their stuff done on a timely manner and with certain level of quality? If so, why does it matter they are spending some of the time doing other things?

There is a documentation guy in my office that has 4 monitors, 1 of which always has facebook on. He doesn't hide it. Everybody sees it. He likes to talk about movies and tv shows with people. His productivity level is right through the roof.

If you come by my office, you will occasionally catch me "playing" on my phone. Actually, I've had a client complain to my boss about me about that before. They saw me on my phone and assumed I was playing games or something. I'm an engineering/construction manager. I communicate with people out in the field with text messages. One time, I was out in the field and I was showing my surveyors what I wanted them to lay out and showing my foremen how I wanted them to form up. We were rebuilding part of a zoo. My boss later that day called me and laughingly told me he got a complaint call from one of the zoo administrators. The zoo guy told my boss he was driving by and saw me (the project engineer) talking instead of working. My boss was laughing about it but I was pissed off. What the hell did that zoo guy expect me to do as the project engineer beside talking and showing my guys what I wanted them to do? Was he expecting to see me holding a shovel and digging a ditch?

My point is people from different professions tend to not have a clear view of people in other professions. I'm just suggesting that may be you have misunderstood what people were doing?

 

[Dominus]

That's just it. It has become the norm for managers to not actively manage. They overstaff, then report why the work is late. There is almost never active management in the salaried ranks where I have observed.

And, to be fair, the companies don't exactly incentivize excellence. The whole performance review process is a sham, so people would have to fail spectacularly for it to matter. Excellence is going to get you a 3.0% raise if you are low paid in your category, and 2.0% if you aren't. There really isn't any bonus for regular workers.

LOL

About 5 years ago, my company tried something new. Annual review was to be done by the employee. After 5 years of repeated complaints by everyone, this year they finally did away with it. Any competent person knows that you are the worst person to evaluate yourself. I never knew what to put for myself. Hated doing it each time.

 

[Dominus]

I would like to point out something else.

My husband and I have applied this philosophy of work to our personal lives. For example, last night we hosted 6 people and a toddler for Christmas dinner. He and I agreed before hand that I clean he cook. Before people arrived, I cleaned the place up. He then started cooking to serve 8 people and a toddler. After the dinner, I told people don't worry about helping to clean. I got it. So, while talking to people, opening presents, etc., little by little I cleaned the dinner table, put everything in the dishwasher, washed the pots and pans by hand, etc.

Here is why I'm telling this story. My parents are old school. They always wanted a set schedule for everything. Everything has to be done a certain way by a certain time. Or they would go crazy. One time one of the kids pulled onto something and several glasses came tumbling down. This wasn't part of the plan, so my dad went crazy on it.

My husband and I think differently. It's time for fun. Who cares how things are done as long as they get done? Our 120 pound dog knocked over a wine glass last night and we promptly cleaned it up. No problem. No big deal. At the end of the night, everyone was happy. This versus my parents' way of doing it which always resulted in tension.

If this system works so well at home, why can't it work at the work place, too? Here are the things we need to do. Ok, let's divide up our tasks. Ok, everybody just do whatever but please let's make us look good. We are all in this together. If a problem arises, don't treat it like it's the end of the world. It happened, fine. Let's figure out a solution. The guy who screwed up is already feeling bad about it. Don't make him feel any worse by yelling at him, which would probably make him useless.

This brings me to my next point. I absolutely don't agree with the yelling style of management. The most productive people are those who are relaxed and happy. The most unproductive but well-intentioned people are those who are stressed out. Yelling at people will only make them stressed. Productivity goes down the toilet once you have a demoralized team of people. And yet, there are managers out there who continue to think yelling at people will somehow make them do a better job.

Stress is not a worker's friend.

 

[NotHardUp1]

LOL

About 5 years ago, my company tried something new. Annual review was to be done by the employee. After 5 years of repeated complaints by everyone, this year they finally did away with it. Any competent person knows that you are the worst person to evaluate yourself. I never knew what to put for myself. Hated doing it each time.

Let me ask you this. Are people still getting their stuff done on a timely manner and with certain level of quality? If so, why does it matter they are spending some of the time doing other things?

No. I worked in aerospace. The deadlines are not being met. We are experiencing quality problems. In my previous company, we could not keep on schedule across the board on products we had made for years, on production contracts. It was shameful. What Peeonme is saying is exactly true. What we did a generation ago, we are losing the ability to do.

If you come by my office, you will occasionally catch me "playing" on my phone. Actually, I've had a client complain to my boss about me about that before. They saw me on my phone and assumed I was playing games or something. I'm an engineering/construction manager.

. . .

My point is people from different professions tend to not have a clear view of people in other professions. I'm just suggesting that may be you have misunderstood what people were doing?

I am experienced. I know the difference between an idle moment on the phone and obsessive texting to the children, boyfriend, or actually playing. And the lady I described earlier does it in addition to perpetual smoking breaks.

Additionally, productive, hard-working people are perfectly relaxed when handling personal business, as they know they have done their work and are workers. The guilty act guilty, and it is unmistakable.

I would like to point out something else.

My husband and I have applied this philosophy of work to our personal lives. For example, last night we hosted 6 people and a toddler for Christmas dinner. He and I agreed before hand that I clean he cook. Before people arrived, I cleaned the place up. He then started cooking to serve 8 people and a toddler. After the dinner, I told people don't worry about helping to clean. I got it. So, while talking to people, opening presents, etc., little by little I cleaned the dinner table, put everything in the dishwasher, washed the pots and pans by hand, etc.

Here is why I'm telling this story. My parents are old school. They always wanted a set schedule for everything. Everything has to be done a certain way by a certain time. Or they would go crazy. One time one of the kids pulled onto something and several glasses came tumbling down. This wasn't part of the plan, so my dad went crazy on it.

My husband and I think differently. It's time for fun. Who cares how things are done as long as they get done? Our 120 pound dog knocked over a wine glass last night and we promptly cleaned it up. No problem. No big deal. At the end of the night, everyone was happy. This versus my parents' way of doing it which always resulted in tension.

If this system works so well at home, why can't it work at the work place, too? Here are the things we need to do. Ok, let's divide up our tasks. Ok, everybody just do whatever but please let's make us look good. We are all in this together. If a problem arises, don't treat it like it's the end of the world. It happened, fine. Let's figure out a solution. The guy who screwed up is already feeling bad about it. Don't make him feel any worse by yelling at him, which would probably make him useless.

This brings me to my next point. I absolutely don't agree with the yelling style of management. The most productive people are those who are relaxed and happy. The most unproductive but well-intentioned people are those who are stressed out. Yelling at people will only make them stressed. Productivity goes down the toilet once you have a demoralized team of people. And yet, there are managers out there who continue to think yelling at people will somehow make them do a better job.

Stress is not a worker's friend.

I'm not talking about screaming at anyone, cursing them, or anything like that. I refuse to work under abuse. I'm talking about actually monitoring, determining what the workload is, and managing it. I'm under impossible stress for deadlines because the management is wholly unaware of the hours required to do the insanely mounting workload for the few, while the many play.

And yes, I've voiced it up and down the chain of command.

 

[Dominus]

No. I worked in aerospace. The deadlines are not being met. We are experiencing quality problems. In my previous company, we could not keep on schedule across the board on products we had made for years, on production contracts. It was shameful. What Peeonme is saying is exactly true. What we did a generation ago, we are losing the ability to do.



I am experienced. I know the difference between an idle moment on the phone and obsessive texting to the children, boyfriend, or actually playing. And the lady I described earlier does it in addition to perpetual smoking breaks.

Additionally, productive, hard-working people are perfectly relaxed when handling personal business, as they know they have done their work and are workers. The guilty act guilty, and it is unmistakable.



I'm not talking about screaming at anyone, cursing them, or anything like that. I refuse to work under abuse. I'm talking about actually monitoring, determining what the workload is, and managing it. I'm under impossible stress for deadlines because the management is wholly unaware of the hours required to do the insanely mounting workload for the few, while the many play.

And yes, I've voiced it up and down the chain of command.

Then you have bad management.

My very first management position, I was hit with an insanely accelerated project. I was the lead structural engineer in charge of all things structural. I worked closely with the guy in charge of all things roadway related. Just think of it this way. I was in charge of everything above ground level and he was in charge of everything ground level down. The project was originally scheduled to run for 3 years. Management thought we could do it in 1 year.

As the work load became more and more overwhelming, the other guy and I told management we were swarmed. They diverted manpower from other projects to us. When that wasn't enough, they diverted more manpower to us.

My current project, things got incredibly busy and we had a relatively short time to finish before this winter shutdown. We called management and they diverted manpower from other office to us.

Sure, we still worked long hours. But nothing unrealistic. And we still maintain our culture of being able to leave work anytime we need to to take care of personal stuff. I left a few times to go to a dentist appointment and several doctor's appointments.

It all comes down to management. Do they have realistic expectations or not?

The firm I worked in before this had terrible management. They were always too quick to tell the client oh yeah we could finish this in no time and then not give us anymore manpower or time. Then they would call us and bitch about overtime we put in because the proposed budget only allowed straight 40. Think about it. What happens when expectations are unrealistic and the workers are not given enough time or enough help to do the job? Quality of the product takes a nosedive.

I can 100% trust my boss that if I needed more help there will be a few extra pairs of hands showing up the following day at my office. And when other projects need the help, I'm more than happy to send my people over there to help out temporarily. That's how it's suppose to work. We are all in this together.

One of the ways we can tell if a company is genuinely good intentioned for the employees is look at how much people on top get paid. In the engineering firm I was in before my current one, I was an underpaid engineer. Terribly underpaid. The people on top were getting paid $300k - $400k / year. I now work for a corporation a hundred times bigger. We have 10,000 engineers throughout the world. I get paid a lot more. And I mean a lot. Our branch VP gets paid a lot less than the VP in that other much smaller firm. Think about it for a few seconds.

I'm not even talking about fairness, by the way. I don't believe in that. But I do believe the intentions that go into the kinds of pay scale in a company.

 

[Sausy]

^What exactly do you mean by not believing in "fairness"?

 

[NotHardUp1]

You would never know what a VP at Lockheed or Boeing or Northrop Grumman is making. They all rise through different cabals and schemes, and all make accordingly.

Most of the companies even have rules preventing discussion of pay.

At any rate, as I said, I have worked for three of the largest primes in the business, plus smaller ones. The problem with bad management isn't just here. That is why I agree with the OP that it is a systemic problem.

 

[NotHardUp1]

It all depends upon the integrity of the worker. If he can be trusted to act honorably and self-disciplined and goal-oriented, then the collaborative approach will work.

I began in industry some 31 years ago. That company was adopting the Japanese team-directed approach to production. We helped plan and direct our work within the parameters given, with a quota that must be produced. It helped some, but there was still substance abuse, still inequity between rewards given different teams, still high absenteeism with the pareto principle being operative. The few carried the many.

Over time, that kills morale, and peers are not able to mete out discipline on peers effectively.

 

[peeonme]

It all depends upon the integrity of the worker. If he can be trusted to act honorably and self-disciplined and goal-oriented, then the collaborative approach will work.

I began in industry some 31 years ago. That company was adopting the Japanese team-directed approach to production. We helped plan and direct our work within the parameters given, with a quota that must be produced. It helped some, but there was still substance abuse, still inequity between rewards given different teams, still high absenteeism with the pareto principle being operative. The few carried the many.

Over time, that kills morale, and peers are not able to mete out discipline on peers effectively.

That's what i saw, also, the many that you refer to set the tone for the politics in the work place... they team up and cover each others asses and bad mouth those who produce.

 

[peeonme]

I worked in a job shop as a toolmaker. The boss got a contract with a medical supply outfit. They needed a lot of details made from aluminum, some were rather complex, most had tight tolerances, very small tapped holes and to top it off, no tool marks were permitted. The other workers refused to do the work or screwed it up so much that the boss wouldn't let them do it. I ended up doing 95% of the job. It just took a little TLC, polishing the pieces with a scotch bright pad took out tooling marks.
Paying attention and tapping all screw holes by hand (we are talking hundreds) and checking all reamed holes with gage pins was necessary. You couldn't gab, play on your phone or be sloppy.

We aren't talking about 50 of the same thing, it was 1 or 2 of this, maybe 5 of that, a lot of programing, math and thinking. The other workers at first were glad that I took the work, eventually they were pissed because I could do it, not that they couldn't, they either were lazy or lacked the self confidence. But, in America today success and applying one's self are resented, not rewarded.

 

[willhunt]

As a Millineal, much of my life is web based. I am a subcontractor and must login real time to police digital heists and their coding. I must always be above the curve at a specific time, I must travel when I need to be on-site. I am responsible and self-disciplined to make my work valuable. Coding is what I love. My second job is doing PT and Rehab as an employee = medical insurance benefits. For this also I must be on schedule, tactile to actually help others rebound. In short: I work for money and for benefits so, I am very lucky. Fun Fact: Despite my blessings, I am debating you on a tool which is ingenious. It was likely built by a Chinese child sleeping in a warehouse, breathing god knows what, for god knows how long. So, My American Fellows... There's that too.

Via Android - Apple OS - or " Windows with updates ",
I wish you a Merry Christmas.
Count our blessings and don't ' be late.

 

[KrisGreen]

Major reasons why we are screwed up in America.

Political parties for one. Americans are more in love with Capitalism then any other country. I’ve been to Mexico and the mentality is “I’ll help your family and you help mine.” We don’t have that type of thinking here.

Commercialism and having to have he latest and the greatest. Jimmy Carter even said the consumer obsession desensitizes people. He even told people with modern phones to wait 2-3 years after a phone comes out and to save your money wisely.

Being lazy is due to the disgusting food we eat (some additives have been BANNED in Europe but it’s still fed to US), the me me me right now “I HAVE TO HAVE IT NOW” mentality. Has nothing to do with social programs (god I hate when people blame disabled and poor people.)

Americans are the WORST at parenting. We let our kids have computers in their own rooms, we don’t put parental controls on their game consoles to BAN mature rated games which ALL parents should be doing. I recently called DCFS on a mom few months ago for letting her kids be exposed to certain games among pornography andshrugged it off. This kid at 9 years old told me he’s gonna steal a car and murder every officer when he grows up. What does she do? Buys him a toy gun to play GTA role play with his friends. THATS why games have ratings. DCFS came and put Child was put in the home of his grandparents.

When parents become half assed guardians, this is the end result. Some smoke around their children now! Fuck parents even encourage slang and incorrect grammar. Telling your child that your baby daddy is coming to pick you up? YOUR FATHER IS PICKING YOU UP. I’ve called DCFS on so many parents because this society is tainted by poor raising.

Ways to make a difference. When treating others REALLY think how your words and actions can make them feel. How will it affect heir lives? If you have children.. watch what your children are being exposed to. Kids are becoming DESENSITIZED.

We have had a few threads as of late about education, living at home, owing for a ton of student debt and many opinions about it.
My observation is that we reward laziness. I have 2 neighbors... I am on a corner, so 1 lives next to me and the other lives behind me. Neither family touched a rake in the fall. I cleaned leaves at least 3 times and still have some in my yard from my neighbors trees. For the last 2 days the park has had crews out cleaning the leaves of those who's yards are filled up with leaves... at no charge. They didn't touch mine or others that had some residual amount from lazy neighbor's yards.

My son called this morning and said that he only put in 1/2 day at work yesterday. I remember before I retired, the boss let us go at noon on Fridays before a holiday because the guys just stood around after lunch and didn't work, those were his words.

One place I worked at moved starting time to 7:30 because no one could make it at 7:00, guess what? The guys started to show up at 8:00. I was there 2 weeks when he gave me a key so I could start work on time, yes, the boss was late also. When a person leaves work they have over 12 hours to get back, on time!

What does "on time" mean? It means at your work station ready to go when your pay starts, not in the shitter or getting coffee or changing clothes or bull shitting. I sometimes marvel that these guys can whipe their own asses.

 

[TickTockMan]

It all depends upon the integrity of the worker.

I think it is more failure of management than failure of the policy of how work gets done. No manager need to micromanage, but they do need to manage.

 

[blublud]

I blame it all on Trump. It's fake news anyway