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Author Topic: A Fine Rant  (Read 4052 times)

Telecaster

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A Fine Rant
« on: April 25, 2015, 03:31:06 pm »

This may be NSFW depending on where and for whom you work. IMO it hits its mark with precision.

https://medium.com/bad-words/the-asshole-factory-71ff808d887c

-Dave-
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Johnny_Johnson

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2015, 08:19:45 pm »

He made all that up didn't he?

Later!
Johnny
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Telecaster

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2015, 09:12:25 pm »

He made all that up didn't he?

The best critiques of reality often come in the guise of fiction. Though thinly veiled in this case IMO.  ;)

-Dave-
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Diego Pigozzo

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2015, 01:10:12 pm »

It may sounds like I'm on the a££hole side but... This girl had two graduate degrees on what?
Because let's face it: a degrees on XII century wood chopping isn't worth very much on the job market.

What modern technology is teaching us is that almost always your passions won't fill your belly and, therefore, it is not wise to choose your professional education on this passions.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2015, 01:54:13 pm »

Brilliant essay.

The only fiction there might be that she got the job in the first place. She would be typically rejected as overqualified and too smart, too likely to rebel.

To link it to photography, it sounds like Peter Lik's drones (a.k.a sales associates).
« Last Edit: April 26, 2015, 02:17:39 pm by Slobodan Blagojevic »
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2015, 02:24:18 pm »

He made all that up didn't he?

Perhaps, but unlikely, especially not "all."

I was once shooting inside a mall (for a client) and positioned myself and a tripod at the very entrance of a shop, trying to get the most of another shop across. A few minutes later, a sales girl comes to me and asks me to move away from the entrance. The reason: my presence and constant movement around the tripod was messing up with sensors inside the entrance that count visitors coming in. She further explained they get measured by the ratio of sales to number of visitors.
« Last Edit: April 26, 2015, 02:26:39 pm by Slobodan Blagojevic »
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mbaginy

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2015, 03:23:27 pm »

Brilliant and scary.  Not far from reality.  I'm truly thankful, I'm not that young anymore and dependent on a job for only five more years.  Yes, that essay may exaggerate a bit, but only a bit.
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pegelli

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2015, 04:28:16 pm »

I think it's exaggerated bullshit.

My bosses never behaved the way it is described, not would I have accepted it if they did.
The people that worked in the organization below me were not treated that way, nor would they have accepted it (and rightfully so).

I think at most there might be a small niche that works this way, but it will be a minority and not the mainstream, and individually they won't last long.
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pieter, aka pegelli

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2015, 04:53:55 pm »

I think it's exaggerated bullshit.

My bosses never behaved the way it is described...

Are you a minimum-wage retail worker?

It just annoys me to no end when such smart-ass comments come from people who live happily in their bubbles and think the rest of the world is just like them.

My daughter spent a year working for Dunkin Donuts, starting at age 14. They allow them 100s per customer interaction, videotape it, analyze it and scold them if over. It did not matter if the customer was taking their sweet time discussing the order, asking questions or just slowly making up their mind. Her boss would observe her on remote monitors and call her to tell her she should not, for instance, keep her personal glass of water close to her, but in the area reserved for employees (she did it as she was the only one in the store and going away to sip from the glass would mean she would have to leave the store unattended). She felt like being in the Big Brother house all the time. He would call her to tell her he saw on the monitors she is not wearing a company-approved footwear (she was wearing Uggs in winter).
« Last Edit: April 27, 2015, 01:51:08 pm by Slobodan Blagojevic »
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pegelli

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2015, 03:31:40 am »

It just annoys me to no end when such smart-ass comments come from people who live happily in their bubbles and think the rest of the world is just like them.
It just annoys me to no end someone who doesn't know me passes bullshit comments like this and live in their bubble to think they know everything better.

Maybe you should follow your own advice: "When everybody thinks the same... nobody thinks"
« Last Edit: April 27, 2015, 03:36:59 am by pegelli »
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pieter, aka pegelli

mezzoduomo

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #10 on: April 27, 2015, 08:00:05 am »

"Have you noticed, lately, that people seem to be more, well, assholish…than before? That everywhere you go, people seem to be meaner, nastier, dumber, angrier, more brutish?"

Actually, now that you mention it.....*no* I have not noticed that at all (except at the airport, but then again its always been that way at the airport).
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Diego Pigozzo

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #11 on: April 27, 2015, 08:07:02 am »

"Have you noticed, lately, that people seem to be more, well, assholish…than before?..."

Actually, now that you mention it.....*no* I have not noticed that at all (except at the airport, but then again its always been that way at the airport).

Probabily it depends on how free someone is to choose the workplace to be: if your professionality doesn't allow you to choose a good job you're probably very frustrated and stuck with very frustrated people.
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mezzoduomo

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #12 on: April 27, 2015, 09:25:27 am »

if your professionality doesn't allow you to choose a good job you're probably very frustrated and stuck with very frustrated people.


Maybe, but then how does one explain the exceptions: The friendly, energetic, warm person in a seemingly terrible job? Or the opposite exception: The rude jerk making six figures in posh surroundings?
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Diego Pigozzo

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #13 on: April 27, 2015, 09:26:50 am »

Maybe, but then how does one explain the exceptions: The friendly, energetic, warm person in a seemingly terrible job? Or the opposite exception: The rude jerk making six figures in posh surroundings?
They are just that: exceptions.
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mezzoduomo

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #14 on: April 27, 2015, 09:33:45 am »

They are just that: exceptions.


Well...yeah. I know that. I'm the one who identified them as such.
Then, I posed a question. "How does one explain them?" Perhaps there's more to one's attitude and behavior toward others than one's surroundings and circumstances.

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Diego Pigozzo

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #15 on: April 27, 2015, 09:37:24 am »

Well...yeah. I know that. I'm the one who identified them as such.
Then, I posed a question. "How does one explain them?" Perhaps there's more to one's attitude and behavior toward others than one's surroundings and circumstances.
Of course there is more, but except for masochists no one will accept such treatement for long.
So, if someone can buy him/herself a better job sooner or later he/she will leave.
Those who stay usually don't leave because they can't leave.
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NancyP

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #16 on: April 27, 2015, 01:45:13 pm »

I am with Slobodan on this. The life of the entry level worker has gotten MUCH worse since I was young. The biggest insult is the "just in time" model for minimum wage workers, where one is obliged to be available to work and to show up for a shift, but the employer decides at the beginning of the shift whether the worker is needed based on current activity and computer projections. So, 8 people are hired to be available full time, but on average work half time and thus are not able to get benefits or unemployment compensation or work other jobs or temp jobs that "may" conflict.
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Diego Pigozzo

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #17 on: April 27, 2015, 02:01:01 pm »

The life of the entry level worker has gotten MUCH worse since I was young.

I agree but I also have to say that (as I understand it) the rant is not about entry level worker but about a double graduate girl who cannot find anything better than an entry level job.
I suspect many would found perfectly right the treatment you describe when applied to some illegal mexican.

I also add that such treatment may not be all bad: it tells young people to educate themselves properly, instead of getting unsellable degrees.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #18 on: April 27, 2015, 02:13:12 pm »

I agree but I also have to say that (as I understand it) the rant is not about entry level worker but about a double graduate girl who cannot find anything better than an entry level job.
I suspect many would found perfectly right the treatment you describe when applied to some illegal mexican.

I also add that such treatment may not be all bad: it tells young people to educate themselves properly, instead of getting unsellable degrees.

It definitely isn't' about a double graduate, that's just tangential. It is about automatization of the process and work place that affects and dehumanizes entry-level positions the most.

Not all entry-level positions are a result of "getting unsellable degrees." As a matter of fact, it is in minority. A lot of people do it to support their families. Some teens do it to supplement their pocket money, some to help their families in financial dire straits (like my daughter). They are bright young people, doing well in school, and on their way to "sellable" degrees. They deserve a better treatment. Just like an illegal Mexican (or any other human) does.

Telecaster

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Re: A Fine Rant
« Reply #19 on: April 27, 2015, 02:44:33 pm »

What modern technology is teaching us is that almost always your passions won't fill your belly and, therefore, it is not wise to choose your professional education on this passions.

I disagree with this in part. In my direct experience modern tech can allow people to pursue their passions and make a good living from doing so in ways not previously possible. But it takes a particular kind of person—highly self-motivated & persistent—with the right mix of talents & skills, along with no small amount of luck, to make this work. There are other ways, however, such tech can be and is used—likely more common at present and not at all positive—which is what the piece is about.

IMO this all leads to considering further, longer-term issues. Given the tech-driven changing nature of the jobs market and the advances we're seeing across the board in efficiency & automation—and the accelerating decrease in the need for human employees resulting from this—what are most of the 7,000,000,000+ people on this planet gonna do when only a relative handful of 'em are needed to keep the whole shebang going? Will the result be some sort of dessicated J.G. Ballard-ish "a billion balconies facing the sun" scenario? An oligarchy of A$$hole Supremes? Something even more dystopian? More hopeful? Regardless, a fundamental reconsideration of what human society is and how it functions would seem to be in order.

-Dave-
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