People not working anymore

[Alberon]

Fucking love my low status job that I don't have to think about at home, good to hear I'm not the only one

This.

My boss is only on a few thousand a year more than me and has a much more stressful job. Who'd want to manage people? Have you met them? They're awful.

[flotemysost]

Completely fascinated by the alleged workplace rules at prolific Tory donor and not-racist man of the moment Frank Hester's company, the Phoenix Partnership (sorry if this has already been posted elsewhere):

According to an employee handbook, typically issued to staff on their first day at the company, workers should avoid touching the office's glass doors and those who leave fingerprints have to clean them off. Employees who are late for work are advised to "shout up your apology to the room".

Employees are also told how to speak in the workplace. On entering a meeting room, they are instructed to "walk straight in" and "not to hover outside the door for any amount of time". They are told: "Do not worry about being polite, just start talking to the person you need" and are instructed not to use phrases such as "sorry to interrupt", or "could I bother you?"

and best of all:

Another former staff member recalled that a "mistakes made" email contained a spelling error, prompting an hour-long discussion about whether a team member should send a mistakes made email about a mistakes made email.

Can't imagine why anyone could be disillusioned with the world of corporate office work right now, nah, totally stumped.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

People just can't be fucked anymore? Covid wrecked em? Economy?

Consumerism and the availability of credit have both played their part, over the long term.

Neoliberalism requires rampant consumerism so needs to provide the average punter with more spending power, hence the massive increase in the availability of credit from the 1980s or so onwards. People end up in debt and feel they need to work just to keep their heads above water, or it turns out the vast amount of stuff that's now available to buy doesn't make them any happier.

And yet the 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps' type of Tory mindset still expects people to slave away for tiny incremental levels of 'career progression' in the way that people, generally speaking, were more willing to do decades ago when consumerism hadn't gone so wildly out of control and people were more motivated to 'stick in at work' for the purpose of being able to obtain things that seemed exotic then - holidays, cars, home comforts etc.

Some half-formed late evening thoughts there. Fuck it - post.

[jamiefairlie]

I think Covid had a lot do with it. Kind of disrupted the status quo and people went hang on a minute I like this. Then the panic to get them back into their kennels has pissed a lot of people off. The emperor's new clothes of employment has been laid bare and people are rightly balancing it and saying fuck off to it.

[PlanktonSideburns]

This.

My boss is only on a few thousand a year more than me and has a much more stressful job. Who'd want to manage people? Have you met them? They're awful.

I'm in retail, so my immediate bosses have
Loads more work, don't take breaks, lots of things to do outside paid hours, and get about 2 quid and hour extra

[ZoyzaSorris]

Who'd have thought everyone repeatedly catching a virus that damages blood vessels and mitochondria throughout the body and brain, disrupts the immune system and persists in immune privileged sites could cause increases in people unable to work? Sorry, I mean it's obviously all the fault of a few weeks of having to stay at home years ago.

[LordMorgan]

Completely agree with what clatty said

Back in the day, it seemed if not my mum and dad specifically, but to a certain extent their group of friends always wanting more
So to get more they had to to work their arse off

Myself personally, I've never ever had that drive , I was never and have never been interested in getting to the next level
I'm a delivery driver. For a pharmacy( 3 days a week) and at the weekends for the Royal Mail
I go in and I do my shift then I come home

I have friends tho, that must be on better money, but their lifestyle shows no outwardly signs that it's much better or exuberant than mine
Yet, they are absolutely stressed to fuck.
They take their work home with them
They are still working way into the evening trying just to get ahead for the next day to do it all over again

I just ask myself why
I'm kinda glad I decided somewhere in my life to fuck that off.

[shoulders]

Who'd have thought everyone repeatedly catching a virus that damages blood vessels and mitochondria throughout the body and brain, disrupts the immune system and persists in immune privileged sites could cause increases in people unable to work? Sorry, I mean it's obviously all the fault of a few weeks of having to stay at home years ago.

I mentioned that but it was ignored.

[shiftwork2]

Long shoulders-overlooking.

[shoulders]

Yes my struggles are in many ways parallel to the victims of stretchy Covid.

[superthunderstingcar]

And yet the 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps' type of Tory mindset still expects people to slave away for tiny incremental levels of 'career progression' in the way that people, generally speaking, were more willing to do decades ago when consumerism hadn't gone so wildly out of control and people were more motivated to 'stick in at work' for the purpose of being able to obtain things that seemed exotic then - holidays, cars, home comforts etc.

Also pensions based on their salary level at the end of their careers, which basically don't exist any more except at the very top levels of management.

[monkfromhavana]

This.

My boss is only on a few thousand a year more than me and has a much more stressful job. Who'd want to manage people? Have you met them? They're awful.

Me too, they keep trying to sell me on the idea of "progression" and "doing something more exciting" than the mundane stuff I do.... The exciting stuff they speak of is putting different numbers in a different spreadsheet, but with someone breathing down your neck to get it done and get it done right or else.

[ZoyzaSorris]

I mentioned that but it was ignored.

Yeah don't worry I noticed and appreciated that and also noticed the silence, seems SARS-2 is the elephant in the room that must not be named (instead some people staying at home and going for a few walks for a handful of weeks years ago has become the go-to and highly unconvincing explanation for why everyone is increasingly ill and society is straining at the seams, very odd to witness)

[Cloud]

The "long term sick" graph on that article says it all surely?  It's fine until 2019-2020 then off up it shoots.  Too many people fucked up by long covid.  Simple enough really.  Question is whether we finally find a way to get rid of it or if humanity just gets to watch its own death in slow motion.

I'm sure there is an element of "can't be arsed" too though.  I don't know how people can afford it especially under Tory "encouragement" to work but hey if they can, more power to them.  Some might be like a friend of mine who lived very frugally rather than doing regular car, phone or computer upgrades, watched every penny and put tons into savings and was able to mostly fuck it off at 40 (he does like 10 hours a week still) as he realised the pressures of the workplace were damaging his mental health more than it was worth.

As I understand it, some countries have embraced it and just have a basic income system whether you're working or not.  Imagine.

I unfortunately have a long term bad habit of spending and consuming and very little savings as a result (and a few travelling ambitions etc to save for) so unless the system changes, won't be dropping out of the daily grind any time soon.

[Alberon]

The COVID furlough definitely got a lot of people to re-evaluate their lives and I think that's at least as important as Long COVID, but otherwise it's a convenient excuse for, I think, far more fundamental problems with modern life.

Stressed to fuck over pressure of work and bills? Why would that lead to long term sickness? Get out of bed, wage slaves!

[shoulders]

As I understand it, some countries have embraced it and just have a basic income system whether you're working or not.  Imagine.

Iran and that's it, as far as I know.

Alaska is probably the next nearest example I can think of which has an oil dividend that works like a basic income. A red state living off handouts indeed.

[Shaxberd]

Me too, they keep trying to sell me on the idea of "progression" and "doing something more exciting" than the mundane stuff I do.... The exciting stuff they speak of is putting different numbers in a different spreadsheet, but with someone breathing down your neck to get it done and get it done right or else.

I've been pondering a change of career, not with much seriousness, and one thing that's struck me is that a lot of the "interesting" jobs pay absolute peanuts.

I always wanted to do something related to history, that's my real passion - but to be an archivist or a curator or a librarian, you'll need a specialist MA and still won't earn more than 30k unless you live in London.

My girlfriend runs her own business making clothing. It's her passion, and what her and her team make is beautiful, but after costs of materials and labour there's precious little profit left over, she's commented that it's very hard to get anywhere in that industry if you're not already loaded because until you get big you're just haemorrhaging money.

The money in most places seems to be not in work but in managing the people who do the actual hands on stuff, which feels a little counter intuitive in terms of job satisfaction. I suppose that's why they try and incentivise you with extra pay.

[Buelligan]

Still, the royal family work awfully hard.

[Cloud]

Iran and that's it, as far as I know.

Alaska is probably the next nearest example I can think of which has an oil dividend that works like a basic income. A red state living off handouts indeed.

Norway?  I think they have something along those lines.

[shoulders]

Norway's is conditonal ( requirement to look for what they class as being work) and not a basic income as is understood, it is nearer to a complete welfare state though.

[monkfromhavana]

Sat at my work table at home and I have done fuck all work today. CBA.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Alaskas oil dividend is about 1,312 dollars per year, better than a kick up the arse, but maybe not enough to get you through the year

[Buelligan]

Several, many, many, times I've been asked to work, doing the skivvying, for people.  They offer payment on the black, less than minimum wage, no holiday, no sick, no pension, no nothing and when I say no, they seem positively offended.

They sit in their dirty neglected houses, eating cake and complaining how no one wants to work any more.

And they're right.  They should wash their fucking windows.  Lazy cunts.

[Endicott]

Norway has at least saved and invested its oil money and then ring fenced it so gov can't give it all away.

[bgmnts]

And they're right.  They should wash their fucking windows.  Lazy cunts.

No time to wash your own dishes, clean your windows, or hoover your carpet when spend 12 hours a day pushing digits around to make some megarichcunt more megarich.

That's what the plebs and forrins are for.

[Kankurette]

I like being a freelance translator but the pay is...up and down. I'm not poor but I'm not coining it in.

[jamiefairlie]

Norway has at least saved and invested its oil money and then ring fenced it so gov can't give it all away.

I know, they should have given it all to England like their near neighbours. Imagine keeping it all to themselves the selfish bastards.

[ZoyzaSorris]

The COVID furlough definitely got a lot of people to re-evaluate their lives and I think that's at least as important as Long COVID, but otherwise it's a convenient excuse for, I think, far more fundamental problems with modern life.

Stressed to fuck over pressure of work and bills? Why would that lead to long term sickness? Get out of bed, wage slaves!

Oh I've no doubt that we are also seeing the results of decaying end stage neoliberal society coming through in this, but the huge rise in people not working (temporarily or permanently) for health reasons, and the ubiquity of a novel endemic virus with widely-evidenced long term health implications way beyond what we might call long Covid, are not just coincidental, despite the fact there seems to be an omertà on linking the two.

[confettiinmyhair]

I changed careers in my late twenties and pretty much benefited from working my arse off in the early part of my career to get to a place where I can specialise and choose how I work. It's weird because some days nothing really happens. I think I more enjoyed the hustle of minimum wage and doing 7 days weeks alongside unpaid placements. It's almost like the journey was more exciting than the end result.

[Incy Wincy Mincey]

When I was about 14 or 15, I got shunted off on a "work experience" week at the local council - they found out I could use a computer to some degree so I spent the time updating records.

This happened to me too. I spent half the week putting up the Christmas decorations.

Only other thing I remember was the bloke showing me their computer system shutting down an email from a colleague entitled "Check these fuckers out!!!" with astonishing speed.