Comments on: How to Look Good at the Cost of Your Successor (Please Don’t!)–Part 3

By: Christoph Roser

Christoph Roser — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 09:32:32 +0000

Yes, you are right. For some companies, a worker is more like a rental car. You get your fun out of it, and don’t care to abuse the engine or tires. After that, not your problem.
(Side note: I treat both my employees and my rental cars better than that!)

By: Andrey Abutin

Andrey Abutin — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 20:37:47 +0000

“Workers are seen as replaceable machines”

I disagree. Machines are expensive, whereas workers are seen as a disposable wear item. That’s why I used the car engine and oil analogy. Repairing or replacing an engine completely is extremely expensive, while oil is relatively cheap and is meant to be drained and replaced regularly. 🙂

For what it’s worth, the pandemic has been a huge blessing for many american workers. It closed the borders to immigration and its horribly corrosive effect on wages and bargaining power. Some employers still haven’t got it, but many are beginning to accept that they can’t treat their employees worse than the Russian army treats its conscripts.

By: Christoph Roser

Christoph Roser — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 08:27:02 +0000

The working culture in the USA is often broken. Workers are seen as replaceable machines, whereas in Europe the workplace is also a social entity. We have job security (it is hard to fire people), maternity leave, sick leave, unions, public healthcare, and many other things that are often sorely missing in the USA. It benefits the wealthy at the expense of the lower and middle class. Working conditions are usually much better in Europe.

By: Andrey Abutin

Andrey Abutin — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 18:06:01 +0000

A lot of industries here in USA are finding out the hard way the cost of having a demotivated and demoralized workforce. It doesn’t help that companies like McDonalds and Amazon pioneered the business model where workers are a consumable wear item rather than an investment, kind of like oil in a car engine that gets replaced once a year or more often.

Sadly, by the time the problem becomes too obvious to ignore, it’s far too late to fix it when everyone that was any good has left the company and the only people left on the floor either don’t care anymore or too new to know much.

Healthcare and airlines in particular are finding out the hard way that replacing ground level staff is a lot more complicated than hiring new bodies at a local jack in the box.