Comments on: Worker’s Diary: No Points for Normal

By: Voidious

Voidious — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:22:46 +0000

My god, bro, great link. :-D

“It still stings to have to part with one of my dreams through no real fault of my own,” Vincent said.

Quoth the Bale, “You’re unbelievable man, you’re un-fucking-believable.”

By: Mattdude

Mattdude — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:27:44 +0000

Here’s another one!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/03/18/selling.prized.possessions.irpt/index.html

Again, I don’t fault the subjects of the stories, it’s the writers who get under my skin. Like I’m supposed to feel bad for someone because he has to part with a $20,000 fucking VIOLIN BOW.

By: Mattdude

Mattdude — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:11:52 +0000

Hey thanks Patchdude! Lol, yeah that was my “Tim Duncan” approach to debating ^_^

Actually bro I totally see where you’re coming from with regard to unreasonable deadlines. I can definitely imagine scenarios where these rules wouldn’t be appropriate, and I do agree that people should get regular raises even for just “satisfactory” performance, due to inflation, increases in the cost of living, changes in the job market, etc.

I guess I mainly envision these in situations where a deadline was reasonable, and/or the worker had previously committed to finishing a project in a certain timeframe under certain conditions (regardless of the reasonbleness of the deadline). Lots of times the rules change in the middle of the project, and that changes the situation. To some extent, I think the “expectations” come from within–we all know what we’re capable of accomplishing, and in the end we know whether or not we’ve lived up to our abilities.

Ymerej–lmao! Wow dude, that’s frickin’ great. Now I’m wondering if I’d seen that show before and it seeped into my subconscious. :)

By: Ymerej

Ymerej — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:44:06 +0000

I found some support for your argument md, go to 1:50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7b2oCYgfik

By: Voidious

Voidious — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:38:47 +0000

Mattdude, your Taoist debate tactics are just too powerful for me. You sit over there not saying anything; meanwhile, I contemplate my own previous comments, and I start seeing it your way!

Anyway, nice post. :-)

By: Voidious

Voidious — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:36:23 +0000

(Fuck, that said “career in [chosen vocation]” using less than / greater than brackets.)

By: Voidious

Voidious — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:34:46 +0000

I hear ya, bro, and was with you 100% until really contemplating the deadline / “what’s expected” work example. You really make no room for considering how aggressive the deadline or work environment is.

Under your guidelines, wouldn’t it be best for management to set REALLY absurd deadlines? If you make it, that’s normal, no raise/bonus for you; your performance may have, in fact, been outstanding. In some businesses, I bet 75% of work misses the initial deadline – so isn’t it an “above average” performer that hits every deadline?

And what about inflation? If I’m doing “as expected”, should I really get no 3% raise (in effect, getting a pay cut)? What about working in a startup, which generally have little chance to survive? The business operates as if it expects to survive, but it really is a feat if it does – no raises / stock options for those initial employees?

I couldn’t agree more about the first part, though. People seem to think it’s their god given right to have a career in and make money doing it.

Fuck all the yuppies! Now I’m off to Panera for lunch… :-)