(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Not Participating [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-02-27  

Help Wanted sign from silverfinger on E-Bay

We are seeing record low unemployment and rising wages with record low workforce participation. There are many reasons for this, but I think there is an important one that does not get in the press. Corporations and public institutions have made work less satisfying. Yes, most of us are “working for a living”, but our work and career are important to our self image and to our sense of well-being. Modern software and new regulations have made workers more productive at the expense of worker’s initiative and control of their own efforts. Work is less satisfying.

Teachers teach under tighter controls with increasing regulation and rules about class content. Do there need to be so many meetings? Teachers pride themselves on presenting effective, imaginative content that really connects with the students. This is being taken away.

Doctors work under tighter schedules with more documentation requirements. Is 15 minutes really enough to talk to your patient every year? Should so much of the day be taken up meeting corporate and regulatory requirements? The satisfaction of truly helping patients is being taken away.

Our engineering manager told a fellow engineer “Herman, I don’t want you to work on this design till you feel good about it. Do it so it’s good enough and go on to the next thing.” An engineer’s pride in creating something new is being taken away.

For hourly workers, the schedules are tighter and the demands are more extreme. Flexibility regarding the work is being reduced and individual initiative is not encouraged. In some cases, a worker seems to be supporting a machine instead of the other way around. The satisfaction is being taken away.

One side of the workforce-participation issue is that workers are retiring earlier. Once a worker has enough savings or pension, there’s no reason to keep going. It’s time to get away from the stress and frustration. In the words of historic blues man, Robert Johnson “I’m gonna leave here running.” There needs to be a place for flexibility and initiative if workers are to be encouraged.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/27/2155285/-Not-Participating

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/