The awarding of a gold watch to an employee who has been with the company for 50 years has long been extinct.?ÿ Today, that number would need to be closer to five years to qualify as an oldtimer.?ÿ Loyalty to the "company" apparently does not exist.?ÿ If you worked for Ford, you drove a Ford.?ÿ?ÿ
Had a discussion earlier today with my daughter.?ÿ Her husband is switching employers......again.?ÿ I have no idea how many different employers he has had since he completed his B.S. in Electrical Engineering.?ÿ Or his M.S.?ÿ Or his PhD in some sort of statistical modeling.?ÿ I'm going to say an average of two different employers per year over the past five years alone.?ÿ Every move brings a higher salary and better benefits.?ÿ He entered the six-figure salary range a long time ago.?ÿ The most recent job change came about based on a single interview via his laptop setting on their dining table.?ÿ The employer is in Seattle.?ÿ His previous employer was in Portland, OR.?ÿ One of the earlier ones was based out of Austin.?ÿ Another out of somewhere in upstate New York.?ÿ He's in the Kansas City area.?ÿ He will probably never be in the Seattle office.?ÿ Everything is to be done from home with a potential for limited travel.
Another son-in-law is employed by one of the largest employers in the KC area.?ÿ Maybe 20,000 or so based there with thousands more based elsewhere.?ÿ A read a couple of months ago his company had eliminated 2500 jobs in the KC area.?ÿ When asked about that and the potential for his demise he replied that he is one of those on the team that evaluates when and where to make cuts or expansions.?ÿ Good place to be.?ÿ His office is less than 20 miles from his house but he hasn't seen his office since March 2020.
The third son-in-law works as a Spanish interpreter for courtroom situations and attorney/client sessions.?ÿ Since March 2020 he hasn't been in a courtroom but has been there via his laptop and Zoom routinely.?ÿ He used to put a tremendous number of miles on a vehicle each year.?ÿ Now he works out of his basement office in his house.
It's definitely not the world we grew up in, that's fer sure.
It was sometime back about '86 or '87.?ÿ I had an instrument man and an experienced gopher for a crew.?ÿ Ken, my i-man, was dissatisfied with his position and pay and was always reading the want ads and grumbling.?ÿ He found an ad where the local gas company was looking for someone with surveying experience.?ÿ He was excited because a job with a utility co. usually meant job security and benefits.?ÿ I tried to get him to apply but he didn't feel he had the experience.?ÿ Gary, my gopher, just sat in the back and never said a word.
About two weeks later Gary put in his notice.?ÿ He was going to work for the gas company.?ÿ Ken was so damned mad he wouldn't talk to anybody for a week.
Gary stayed with the gas co. and we kept in touch.?ÿ By the time GPS and cell phones came around he would call me from time to time to help him find a corner if I was close by.?ÿ I guess it was about 2012 when I called his number and found out he had retired from the gas company.
I looked him up after that and found out him and the missus had sold the house and retired to their lake cabin.?ÿ He was the last person I knew that got that "gold watch".
....And I'm still running around listening to my instrument-man bellyache.?ÿ 😉
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I'd say that the biggest difference in the world in the last decade, that has made major negative changes to society is the enabling of mobile f.....g devices for social use.
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I was about ten when my grandfather was laid off from the local lumber mill. He'd put many years in there as a truck driver.?ÿ A Korean vet and excellent mechanic, Grandpa was always early, worked late, and knew how to care for a truck in the ways only someone who has worked on them their whole life knows.?ÿ When the mill owner's son took over, he laid off all the older guys that had been there a bit and were making decent, but by no means great, money.?ÿ Grandpa got a job with the town and didn't seem much bothered by it, but I was.?ÿ
Before ever getting a formal job, I had it in my mind that companies have no loyalty to their employees.?ÿ This of course wasn't a balanced perspective, but I knew how hard working and loyal Grandpa was and doubted I'd ever amount to half of him.?ÿ I'm not sure who failed who, or if it's a failure or an inevitability, but I agree that those days are long gone.?ÿ
I'm pessimistic that we can change course at this point, but I would love to see the dissolution of the corporate entity.?ÿ Greatly increase the liability that can pass onto the chairman of the board.?ÿ Our current corporate model diffuses responsibility in ways not entirely disimilar to the actions of an individual acting within a mob.?ÿ Alexander Hamilton understood this and described it well in the following snippet from Federalist 15:
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.?ÿHas it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a number, than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction which is apt to mingle its poison in the deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which they would blush in a private capacity.
I'm pessimistic that we can change course at this point, but I would love to see the dissolution of the corporate entity.?ÿ Greatly increase the liability that can pass onto the chairman of the board.?ÿ Our current corporate model diffuses responsibility in ways not entirely disimilar to the actions of an individual acting within a mob.
If you want to know how most individuals will act with 95% certainty, look no further than their incentives.
When there is a bigger incentive for the C suite to drive a company into the ground while lining their own pockets, that's what will happen. If they can siphon off more money for themselves by cutting benefits and employee services, you can count on it happening.
When there are large rewards and no consequences for favoring short-term gains over long-term gains, and for favoring "winning work" over optimizing workflow and building a highly skilled workforce...that's what is going to happen.
Incidentally, that's what leads to lower levels of loyalty among employees. That and constantly trying to keep their heads above water with rising costs of living, while benefits are whittled away despite astronomical costs, which drive pay even lower. If someone can snag a small amount of more security for their family by moving, they will, and should, do it. It's not difficult - incentivize employees to stick around and they will.
Ken, my i-man, was dissatisfied with his position and pay and was always reading the want ads and grumbling.
That??s one thing I would not put up with. First time I heard of someone bitching about their job out they went, no exceptions. All 100% of my employees stayed with the company after I sold it, and are still there. ?????ÿ
@flga-2-2?ÿ
As I was starting my surveying career, drafting was my fall-back when thing slowed in the filed. There was an older drafter that was constantly whining and grumbling about something. I could not understand why he would continue to show up for, according to him, such lousy pay and working conditions. I dug it myself.
One day he was in mid-stream about one thing or the other and said loud enough for the CEO of the engineering firm to hear him from a couple of drafting tables back: "Why for two cents, I'd tell these people where to stick this job and walk out that door."
Mr. Jack Hall, quickly reached into his right pocket and pulled out two shiny pennies and walked up to the guy's table and slammed them down in front of him. He told the guy to go ahead and tell him where to stick his job.
Never heard another peep from the guy. His desk was cleaned out in about 45 minutes. Never said goodbye or anything.
He left the two cents, however.?ÿ
JA, PLS SoCal
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Sometimes enough is enough. And the continuous griping, especially because it also affects employee moral in general, does constitute dismissal whether they like it or not. ?????ÿ
Public school systems used to have career teachers who moved to town, raised their families there, retired there and were buried there.?ÿ Today if you can keep a teacher more than three years it may be a sign that no one else wants to hire them or it may be a sign that they have grown to love the community and have no desire to move anywhere else.?ÿ Churches tend to rotate preachers to new locations about every three years.?ÿ Out in the boondocks a new priest for a Catholic Church may have been born in Southeast Asia.?ÿ The days of one or more of the children of a Catholic couple being expected to serve the Church are over.
A couple of snaps from today's FB video offering:
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@flga-2-2?ÿ
Well my opinion, but there's normal everyday bitching and whining, which is harmless.?ÿ And then there's serious bitching and complaining that is detrimental to the workplace.
I feel that if you're working hard, there are times that things suck, especially in the field, when it's hot or cold or wet, etc.?ÿ?ÿ Almost like, if you're not complaining at least a little, you're probably not working hard enough.
But I agree, if there's a guy that is constantly going off about everything, especially if it's about company policies, procedures, pay, lack of benefits, etc., then maybe his time should be up.
but there's normal everyday bitching and whining, which is harmless
I agree, hell I'm always bitching about utter nonsense.(udder, for HC)
The serious bitching subconsciously affects other employees, and in my world ain't good. ?????ÿ
@murphy?ÿ
It sure is nice to see that there is someone else on the planet that reads the Federalist Papers...
The serious bitching subconsciously affects other employees, and in my world ain't good.
There is always harmless belly-aching.?ÿ But a chronic bad attitude can become a spreading cancer among field hands.?ÿ I was always quick to let all the guys know how I felt about it.?ÿ I would first remind them that when I hired them it was they themselves that agreed to my pay offer.?ÿ And if they didn't like the conditions they were free to move on.?ÿ I kept a positive esprit d'corps by being the first to jump in on a difficult task and show them how I wanted it done.?ÿ Do what you can and take enough breaks to keep things on the up and up.?ÿ?ÿ
My pet peeve was having to listen to someone moaning in the midst of some miserable task.?ÿ I always told them, "You don't have to remind me how bad it is shoveling sh*t.?ÿ I'm right here next to you and well aware of how bad it stinks."?ÿ
Holy Cow, your experience with your sons-in-law sounds very familiar. This seems to be the common path now. I have seen a similar arc in my own career and I see it even more so in others'. I'm currently quite fortunate to be at a small company (less than 10 of us) where we are relatively removed from the corporate atmosphere. Each one of us has to "do the work", there is not much in the way of middle management. We manage ourselves and collaborate instead of track budgets, reorganize org charts, and generally waste 8 hours a day on abstract concepts.?ÿ
That being said, I come from a corporate atmosphere and I truly believe the mindset is comparable to a disease. I like the illustration of cancer because I have experience with it (cancer and corporate America ????), it truly ruins an otherwise good employee which then spreads to other good employees. For example: I grew up in southern Indiana, I got my career started in Chicago doing the work (I was a grunt) but I worked my way up. I got a degree, I worked in the field, lived in the 'hood but the part that was considered acceptable for a degreed, hard-working member of the machine. I paid my mortgage, bills, kept my nose clean, and drank heavily. I kept thinking that one day, I would "make it". You know, nice house in the 'burbs, no crime, hopefully no freezing winters, more money, cars that didn't break down, yadda yadda.
Fast forward a couple of years and I have the corporate gig in SoCal. I'm an office puke, middle management with the carrot of partner ever in front of me. More money every year, more offers. After a couple of years I jump for one of them. My work becomes more abstract. I hardly remember surveying, meanwhile I'm trying to get licensed. But I'm living 'the Dream". I have the house, the car, the six-figure salary, the respect, but I'm living a nightmare. That's what the Dream has become. It's not what my grandfather worked hard for. He never got the respect to make 50 years at a company (he was Depression era). My Dad bounced all over and even bounced out of the County because he saw the American Dream for what it really was. He also discovered that the Canadian Dream was not for him. We discovered as a family that Mexico had no use for us. So back we came to live out what America was turning into in the 1980's and '90s.?ÿ
I have no answers or profound observations. This has just been my experience. Thank God I quit corporate America. Thank God the alcohol fell off my back. My eyes are open a bit wider than they used to be, but I'm surrounded by these Dreamers. Dreamers believe they deserve the World, but they don't know what the World even is. They think it's money, they think it's power, they think they can elevate themselves by beating down the "lesser" in our society, and we all have to play the game to a certain extent.?ÿ
I keep coming back to an old proverb: Don't think, look!
