Kind of old news, but an interesting topic...

[pod]

GPS used more extensively to track mobile employees...

For most, it seems to be a rather benign use, i.e. for the UPS drivers mentioned in the story, it is handy so they can make accurate and timely deliverys. Even the garbage truck guy has a valid point.

Where it crosses the line though, is in the disturbing trend towards micromanaging every movement and every minute of the employee's workday. I'm fortunate enough to have a kind and benevolent employer during the day, and an equally kind and benevolent employer at night (counts this month's bonus check hehe...), but I've heard stories from some on here and elsewhere of rampant surveillence and such at their jobs.

On one tack it makes sense...company resources and so forth, they do have the right to do so. It might suck, but such is life.

But how many of you get the feeling that corporate America pretty much wants the common worker to suborn everything for "the good of the company", Japanese-style?

I mention Japan for the simple reason that during the Japanese "economic miracle" of the 1980s and 1990s, there was a very strong corporate culture present. Show up early for work (sure the rules said 8 AM, but you better be in by 7:30...), sing the company song, do the exercises, work late, rinse, repeat. You got paid well, and had a job with benefits for life.

The downside? No time to spend with your wife and kids at all. Wife and kids since girls were and still are kinda second-class citizens over there. Pretty much zero time for leisure too, since on weekends you were probably asleep. Once in awhile, you could go on vacation, and the general trend (trend, people...not all Japanese workers did this!) was to go to say, Thailand, get stinking drunk, party like a madman and bang hookers for a week. Week after, back to work.

Soon after the global economic collapse began, the truth came out. Japanese workers were stressed out, sick, and in many cases, dead from overwork and an overbearing corporate culture. The only exemptions were the zaibatsu, Japan's upper class of CEOs, industrialists, and so forth....for obvious reasons.

Unfortunately, I see a disturbing trend similar to that happening in the United States...but it is worse. You're expected to work like a dog for less pay, shitty benefits, and you're supposed to like it. It isn't like this all over, but sometimes I do get the feeling that we are heading to the situation where the Company is God, and damn your personal life.

I can understand when a corporation chooses to protect and manage it's assets in the name of productivity and profit, but having a batch of unhappy employees is disastrous in the long run.

Unionization may be a solution. Unions kind of get a bad rap in this country, what with the tie ins with the Mafia and all, but at the same time, the theory of unions is sound, which is to protect the average worker from the excesses of managment. The reality is different though. I had a discussion with a friend once, on how the Seminole Hard Rock complex went up so quick, and the Performing Arts Center is taking forever, the difference being the Seminole project was all private contractors, whereas the PAC is union labor with rigid schedules and all that. I don't know the whole story, so who knows, maybe the casino complex went up so quickly at the cost of sub-standard construction, worker abuse, and so forth.

There should be a happy medium somewhere. I'm not suggesting some sort of worker's revolution, but at the same time, it is kind of scary when you've got this trend of companies abusing their workforce just to get that extra 1/2 of a percentage point.

Oddly enough, predicitons in the 1940s and 1950s suggested that the trend of automating the workplace would lead to a shorter workweek with more pay. The direct opposite is true nowadays.

Of course, this only really applies to corporate workers. Obviously the rules are different if you are self-employed.

[Cosmigonon]

Bravo Dan!! Finally one of your kilometric posts gets my attention. Very intereswting indeed 8)

[trancepriest]

Originally Posted by pod

Unfortunately, I see a disturbing trend similar to that happening in the United States...but it is worse. You're expected to work like a dog for less pay, shitty benefits, and you're supposed to like it. It isn't like this all over, but sometimes I do get the feeling that we are heading to the situation where the Company is God, and damn your personal life.

This entire nation is built like a factory.. factory towns abound.. go to work... come home sleep.. no community.. no neighbors.. barely know your family.. ship em off when they get old.. when u feel like partying... drive 20 miles to go to a nightclub (if your in Ft. Lauderdale.. make that 50).. efficient matrix. To care about the effects that this current culture has on the worker/us... is to be labeled a liberal so******t.. or worse yet a communist. It's not so much about the companies... its about everyone being in a rat race to get the big cheese. And the myth that we all can get the big cheese.. yes all 300 million and change of us can get the big cheese too. Women expect it.. so do the kids... so do your parents when u turn 18... the companies just allow us to race for the cheese. they can't be blamed... the worker ethic is in us.. not in the companies. Poverty as become the worse sin and elite differentiation the goal. I'm guilty of it.. are u? We are all sophisticated CEO's...ready to work 100 hour weeks... by products of a far reaching media... everyone is sophisticated and highly informed.... presumable educated.. but not wise.

[pod]

Everyone wants to be a millionaire I guess.

More money would be nice for me, but I see myself living comfortably at a certain point, and it is below a million dollars. The million would be nice, but it isn't my driving desire. I'd rather make half a million and be a lazy fuck, than make a million and be a burnout without the time to enjoy the fruits of my labour. If I could make a million doing what I love, good for me.

That really is the key I think. What use is all the money if you can't enjoy the results of it. It is why I admire Larry Ellison. He enjoys the give and take and strategy of business, the intricacies of programming code, and at the same time manages to enjoy himself immensely. Sure it involves having a mini-Air Force and fucking whichever girl he wants, but hey, to each his own.

I know too many people who have a nice home and car and make a good amount of money, and only get to enjoy it once in awhile.

I'm learning as time goes on that it is quite possible to get what you want without paying full price. Swindle, barter, cajole, and whatnot, and it is possible to "live beyond your means".

Of course, that draws the ire of the powers that be. How dare you drive a BMW when you only pull $35K a year! You must be a drug dealer or some other sort of criminal.

I'm not suggesting some sort of mass walkout on work, what I am suggesting is to take action. Employer harshing you too much and won't listen to reason? Don't work as hard. Work slowdowns and stoppages are quite effective if done properly.
That doesn't work? Go postal. Well, not quite, but make it known that shit will happen if the mistreatment of employees does continue.

At the same time, the consumer end drives this. Customer is always right. Yeah right. There's something about being the consumer that drives the most mild-mannered person into being a raging lunatic. Every job I've worked, there's at least one client or customer I've wanted to roast over an open fire. Rarely have I gotten the chance to throw down on one of them. A guy I work with during the day had the chance once, and he said it felt damn good. Some people are primed to crack.

I keep this in mind, and I'm probably the best "customer" out there. I deal with it if the Taco Hell clerk doesn't say "Have a nice day". I don't run to his or her boss and bitch.

Is corporate culture ruining us all? Maybe. It is turning a good segment of the population into smarmy, self-important bitches. I watched the Apprentice once with the CJ family last month, and frankly I wanted to see everyone on there (except for the old guy and the Donald) just get up and jump out the window. The old guy just sits there, so you know he's up to something, and the Donald is the master manipulator. Gotta love that. He plays these lowlives against each other for a chance to....guess what...work for him!!!! Spend 100 hours of your week sucking the Donald's dick when Melania is out shopping or her jaw muscles hurt too much. What fun! Unless you're the Donald.
I'm not gonna go on a reality TV show for a stinking job like that. My job reality show would have something fun at stake, like being sent up onto the ISS or being a stealth bomber pilot or something. Not being a glorified secretary!

Though in a way, the Apprentice was kinda fun to watch. Makes you realize how fucked up some people are.

[trancepriest]

"American Idiot"

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new mania.
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along in the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's calling out to idiot America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.