this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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I mean I'm GenX, and I've been fired from three different jobs for reasons beyond my control.
The concept of working for one company for your whole career, getting promoted to a high paying position, retiring with a healthy pension simply no longer exists anymore. You can work hard and do everything right, even be in a division that's making money and you still might lose your job simply because laying off employees looks good to the shareholders.
But it's all the fault of the young people! You just need to work harder... on your LinkedIn profile because what you do for the company you're at right now doesn't matter, it's what it looks like you do that matters more now.
The company I work for had record earnings recently and there were high spirits, long praising newsletter from the CEO. Praise for maintaining a very stable production and higher output with fewer people than competitors.
Until our closest competitors reported their earnings. Which were higher, not surprising as they are bigger than us. Then it was doom and gloom
All of a sudden we had to have substantial budget cuts, and couldn't rehire to fill a position for someone who had left.
Crazy huh, earned a boatload of money, but someone else earned a bit more. So then we have to cut expenses and optimize.
They still had the audacity recently to try to push the company "spirit and mindset" to employees. Something something buzzwords..
They will still discard you as fast as yesteryears iPhone.
Yup it's all the fault of Jack Welch. He worked at GE and company culture at the time was to be proud of the number of employees they had. Some companies were proud that they never laid anyone off even during the great depression. They proudly took a loss rather than lay off anyone.
So Jack works his way up the ranks of GE which is how things worked back then. He got all the way to the top of this great company that was proud of his employees. And as soon as he was CEO he started laying everyone off. And the stock price of GE soared.
Ever since then that's what every CEO tries to emulated. The stock market sees the CEO emulating Jack Welch and buy buy buy.
But it's all short term thinking. Products get worse and worse, nobody give a shit about their job, work doesn't get done. But just blame the employees and do another layoff.
Jack Welch fucked us all, but very few people even know his name.
Behind The Bastards did a series on him. And fuck Jack Welch
"We care about you until you start underperforming during a global pandemic because of mental health. Then fuck you"
It's easy to tell when a company actually is serious about caring about employees. Our executives took $0 bonuses last year so employees could have normal bonuses, and they bought everyone a free turkey for Thanksgiving. Our financials aren't the best right now, but we still have a 401k match and all our benefits, and they've frozen hiring so they don't have to do layoffs. Our CEO chats with us weekly and takes questions, and he tells us to not worry about the stock price. We do good work, and success will follow, he says.
Anecdotally, I had a serious health issue at the beginning of this year, and my boss told me to take off all the time I needed. I'm still on leave through the rest of the month, no questions asked. My previous company had people like that, but they weren't supported by HR policies.
I'm still very wary however, because it doesn't take long at all to get screwed over.
what thinly veiled parochial mentality, isn't it?