Current Events > How Job Security died... and Nobody Seemed to even care.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DbiPqu5e3s

Short version...Jobs are not what they used to be the average time an employee spends with their company is now at the lowest level ever, and thats by design.

We have gone from full time to part time, to casual, to gig work, lowering the expectation of a long-term professional relationship every step of the way.

If this didnt do enough, studies have shown that many workplaces are now intentionally promoting the fear of job losses in an attempt to motivate workers and keep cost down, but this is usually a really dumb idea. The death of job security is bad for workers AND bad for companies But nobody cares anymore Up until the 1980s it wasnt unusual for workers to spend their entire professional careers working with just ONE company.

Company loyalty was highly valued by both employers and employees, and the threat of getting laid off or fired was incredibly low. If you ever watch old films and see someone getting fired as a major plot point, just remember it actually was a big deal back then. But according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those days are long gone The average tenure of young employees these days is less than a third of the baby boomers exiting the workforce.

I dont want to sound too old here, but back in my day people actually cared about losing their job, but today getting fired or laid off from your company just makes good content to post on Tik Tok. This is a bad trend for companies, because it takes away their biggest stick. The fear of getting fired is always going to be a motivator in the workplace, there really is no way around that, if you dont do your job or cause too much trouble for the company you are going to lose your job along with the pay and benefits that come with it.

But as the great Peter Gibbons would say that will only make someone work just hard enough to not get fired. The death of job security means that people just EXPECT to lose their job at some point in their career these days, but there are three big reasons why it was allowed to get this bad, and three reasons why nobody really cares anymore

Long version is the rest of the video but once more, greed has put everything in a death spiral race to the bottom .

I admit I took this from someone's youtube reaction but it establishes how bad it is here. " I am a baker for Panera Bread, and our entire identity is clean food on bread baked from fresh dough that's delivered every day. Bread is in our name, it's on our logo, it's our whole persona. Unfortunately, I am in one of the final few markets that can even claim this. Most have moved to frozen bread and laid off their bakers entirely. When a company is so intent on lowering costs that it compromises its whole ethos to save a buck, you know you're not safe. I am counting down the days until I lose my job. The real tragedy is that my actual cafe loves me and my boss is trying very hard to get me raises and keep me on board. It's the happiest I've ever been at a job and I hate to lose it. My boss has said that if he's even allowed to keep one baker (there are three of us), he's going to support me. Even so, I may not have a choice but to leave. So much of our product has been deleted or simplified (ie: pastries, previously hand-mixed or at least shaped by hand, are now exclusively freezer-to-oven). This has drastically reduced the number of hours it takes to pull off a day's bake, meaning I can't even get full-time hours out of the job anymore. Any further reduction (from using frozen bread) and I just can't pay my bills. That's the corporate hellscape we're living in, though."

When the majority of pepole are just disposable cogs how they expect anyone to have anything but loathing and contempt for most things?

And, this might as well be the other part of the video even if its not the same guy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWXmfrXNwqw

Er...bump?

That's why you should never have an allegiance to any job. You can appreciate a job and even enjoy a job, but if something better rises up, don't get nostalgic. You work for money. Whomever pays you the most, likely values you more.

Now the grass isn't always greener and you may miss friends and coworkers, or the routine, or whatever. But remember, no company gives a fuck about you unless it's a mom and pop set up. You're replaceable to them.

My employer used to casually fire people twenty years ago. I've been there for twenty-two, so I was there and saw it myself. Today they're more reluctant to fire people, even when it's obvious that they should be fired.

As an example, two decades ago if we hired you we expected you at work every single day for your first three months, in which time if you called off you could expect to be let go, but today new hires call off multiple times in their probationary period and nobody says a word. We just had one that was a no-call-no-show during her orientation week, still employed, and called off twice more two weeks in, can't physically do the job, and had no fewer than four accidents (injuries or potential injuries) in two weeks. She's still being given chances, not fired.

My current job gave their advantage away by admitting that the only reason they could handle the current workload is because they hired so many new people, which told anybody listening that they can't afford to let anybody go

I work for the government and they got rid of permanent positions a few years before I joined. I'm on 6 year long terms

Which is great for the government if they want to make sure people are productive. But is also terrible for the government since that and pensions (probably also rip soon) were the main reasons people cared about federal jobs in the first place instead of going to industry where they could make >2x more money (and also probably smoke marijuana). So of course they're now experiencing a brain drain in the technical areas, and are now dropping degree requirements for IT workers.

the billionaire class is going to kill this country before facism does , their endless greed cannot be sated and they refuse to be happy with what they've got, it's not enough to own so much wealth they could fund a third world country, it's not enough to have so much influence they can interfere in elections out in the open, it's not enough they can kill people and view that as more cost effective than having standards they'll always want more and when they don't get it they get angry and lash out in even more destructive ways

tremain07 posted...

the billionaire class is going to kill this country before facism does

Ehhhh I don't know about this

Fascists are willing to die for fascism whereas billionaires are not willing to die to make money, and are thus more willing to back down if they absolutely have to in order to keep making money

Billionaires require living people taking part in whatever makes them a billionaire to stay a billionaire

To a fascist, less people being alive means less people you have to control

Been at my job since June 28th 1999.

My employer is top notch. Good pay for the area, though not the highest but we have an amazing benefits package. Insurance was free the first 20 years I was here, last 5 years I have been paying $20 a month. That is awesome and the insurance is REALLY good.

They contribute 200% of what I put in my retirement up to a max amount. It has been very good. I get tons of time off. Almost 6 weeks paid vacation a year. Plus on OT you can take it as comp time and just take comp time later and have time off without dipping into your vacation. We get 18 paid sick days a year on top of our vacation.

There are other perks too but I dig the place and for having to have a job I enjoy it. I have the schedule I want, I have the day off I want, good pay that has allowed me to live comfortably and when I got sick 10 years ago and had my issues they were very understanding and I was glad to have all that sick leave piled up.

So while the average time across the board an employee spends at a company might be down I'm very happy where I am and I'm invested for the long haul.

Side note my dad just retired at the end of March after 40+ years with John Deere. Good long term jobs still exist.

tremain07 posted...

the billionaire class is going to kill this country before facism does , their endless greed cannot be sated and they refuse to be happy with what they've got, it's not enough to own so much wealth they could fund a third world country, it's not enough to have so much influence they can interfere in elections out in the open, it's not enough they can kill people and view that as more cost effective than having standards they'll always want more and when they don't get it they get angry and lash out in even more destructive ways

You're not wrong about billionaires being shit, but I think it'd be remiss not to further elaborate on the root cause. It's not that a bunch of greedy monsters all independently managed to climb their way to the top., it's that we have a system that selects for the worst people, pushes them to be shittier, and rewards them for it. It's not about the specific billionaires that happen to exist, it's the entire position of billionaire existing and how they're treated.

pjnelson posted...

As an example, two decades ago if we hired you we expected you at work every single day for your first three months, in which time if you called off you could expect to be let go, but today new hires call off multiple times in their probationary period and nobody says a word. We just had one that was a no-call-no-show during her orientation week, still employed, and called off twice more two weeks in, can't physically do the job, and had no fewer than four accidents (injuries or potential injuries) in two weeks. She's still being given chances, not fired.

It's a product of the newer generation of workers simply not caring for the scraps businesses throw their way. There just isn't an incentive to "put the company first". Instead it is the company that has to accede to workers saying "my personal life comes first, you're just a supplement".

It's because companies simply do not want to pay a premium for dedicated talent. They'll cut jobs and slough the workload off onto foreign data centers or contract workers with little experience outside of their one programmed behavior. To put it into video game terms, it's how you end up with Redfall.

Hell, my own first job was like that. The manager was all glowing smiles and compliments about the job I was doing up until it was time for the written performance reviews which were directly tied to pay raises. Suddenly I got mediocre marks across the board and a lower raise. Despite doing the job of two other people due to youthful enthusiasm the guy couldn't even be bothered to throw a few extra percentage points my way in increased wages. I so quickly and dramatically switched gears to "do just enough work to avoid being fired" that he straight up asked me one day, "What happened? You used to do such good work!" I was too inexperienced at the time to communicate the idea that I should then be paid like I do good work, that I wasn't running a charity for him.

Mathematically it SHOULD be in a company's best interests to pay dedicated talent more. If they need two employees to do a job otherwise then even if they gave one talented person 5% more each year in raises it would take 20 years before that person was paid the same as two entry level employees. By then you have a worker that would be worth 10 entry level employees, at least. Also, 5% isn't even a lot, just insuring that they cumulatively pull a bit further ahead of inflation every year.

You're not wrong about billionaires being s***, but I think it'd be remiss not to further elaborate on the root cause. It's not that a bunch of greedy monsters all independently managed to climb their way to the top., it's that we have a system that selects for the worst people, pushes them to be s***tier, and rewards them for it. It's not about the specific billionaires that happen to exist, it's the entire position of billionaire existing and how they're treated.

The only solution to that is to force all the most powerful pepole in the world to give up there power and make everyone agree to a less corrupt system by force...to say that's a uphill battle is putting it lightly.

Necronmon posted...

The only solution to that is to force all the most powerful pepole in the world to give up there power and make everyone agree to a less corrupt system by force...to say that's a uphill battle is putting it lightly.

Yeah I get that it's not very realistic, but we still need to take whatever baby steps we can. Culturally treating them closer to what they deserve instead of putting them on a pedestal as geniuses would be a start.

It takes a hard crash of the economic system or industry in question to even have an opportunity for change like that. Even when the billionaires at the head of a venture screw things up for everyone they tend to get their own personal "golden parachute".

Idc, jobs with low security have been generally limited to overpaid, low value, and non essential white collar jobs in recent years. Who are also mostly the ones you see complaining on platforms like tik tok.

Being tied down to a single job in a single city for most of your life doesn't appeal to me. But I can see why it would for others.

And either quitting, or being fired and not caring about either is a bigger privilege than people think. I why I prefer the market now to what it was in the past. Or whatever age people consider to be the golden age of employment.

archizzy posted...

Been at my job since June 28th 1999.

My employer is top notch. Good pay for the area, though not the highest but we have an amazing benefits package. Insurance was free the first 20 years I was here, last 5 years I have been paying $20 a month. That is awesome and the insurance is REALLY good.

They contribute 200% of what I put in my retirement up to a max amount. It has been very good. I get tons of time off. Almost 6 weeks paid vacation a year. Plus on OT you can take it as comp time and just take comp time later and have time off without dipping into your vacation. We get 18 paid sick days a year on top of our vacation.

There are other perks too but I dig the place and for having to have a job I enjoy it. I have the schedule I want, I have the day off I want, good pay that has allowed me to live comfortably and when I got sick 10 years ago and had my issues they were very understanding and I was glad to have all that sick leave piled up.

So while the average time across the board an employee spends at a company might be down I'm very happy where I am and I'm invested for the long haul.

Side note my dad just retired at the end of March after 40+ years with John Deere. Good long term jobs still exist.

They do, but the amount of money you are making now, chances are you could make nearly double elsewhere. Now, if you found a balance in your life and enjoy what your doing, working for the company your working for and being in the area you are in, then I'm really happy for you.

Meanwhile I'm taking the other road. I'm going to job hop until I create value in myself of at least 150-200k, and then slowly start to settle down in a single area for 120-130k of my choosing.

"The Century of the Self" by Adam Curtis is worth watching.

Heck, pretty much all his stuff is worth watching.

Ive noticed my employer tends to hire from outside before promoting and the pay is pretty stagnant. People say my tenure and loyalty look good on resumes but I have to wonder about that.

The best way to get raises in my industry (software development) has been to jump to a different company.

i was laid off from my last job. shortly before that I had asked for the year end raise they had promised me when I started and been denied

so by the time I got laid off I already had an interview lined up for what would eventually be my job nowwhich ended up being almost a 25% raise

but yeah in tech theres this feeling you could get laid off at any time right now, but at least in my experience the knowledge that thats not that much of a deterrent from being hired elsewhere

I think Im too old school for my own good, because somehow I got it in my head that if I stick with something long enough, itll work out really well.

And thats how I ended up working a shitty job for almost fifteen years.

Though, in fairness, its not like I had tons of opportunities that I was turning down or anything so I didnt really have much of a choice

Lack of opportunity is definitely my biggest issue right now. If I look on Indeed, I dont really find much that Im qualified for that also meets my salary, commute, and schedule needs so its like.. rock and a hard place

rexcrk posted...

I think Im too old school for my own good, because somehow I got it in my head that if I stick with something long enough, itll work out really well.

And thats how I ended up working a shitty job for almost fifteen years.

Yeah, I used to be in that mindset too. I've come to realize that I guess I'm not promotion material (never got officially promoted, last job tried to screw me over by letting me do managerial duties but not actually updating my pay to reflect that) and I mentally can't stand a job past a certain point (lately it's been roughly one year).

I'm in a position now where I don't want to *go* to work anymore, I'd rather stay at home and make money because it's so mentally draining to drive to work almost every day, work my ass off in 8 hour shifts out of threats I'd lose my job while others can get away with slacking off all day (and I'd still not be good enough because surprise, one man can't do everything), and barely enough free time to spend for myself.

"The Century of the Self" by Adam Curtis is worth watching.

Heck, pretty much all his stuff is worth watching.

The thing that's becoming grim that's not being outright said is that...with AI taking so many jobs the majority of what's left depends on how much charisma you have to market and for those who are not " sexy" and just don't have the best Charisma its becoming more and more clear how screwed people like that really are in a society that really is only seeing strength and charisma as the only things that make up a person's worth.

I worked for a company for years and they laid me off and hired a replacement a month later for cheaper. They dont care about you, no matter what company you work for or what they say.

Everyone is replaceable, No job is above being replaced, Just some people get more perks then others

Its part of why big Businesses have been doing their best to kill unions, worker protections and rights and such