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What determines how your life will be?
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Also remember a lot of jobs are part time because that way the company won't have to provide benefits. A lot of people work multiple part time jobs because that's what's available to them. ☹️4
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NorthCascades wrote: »Also remember a lot of jobs are part time because that way the company won't have to provide benefits. A lot of people work multiple part time jobs because that's what's available to them. ☹️
The primary goal of a corporation is to increase the wealth of the shareholders. Employees are resources. That's why we call it the Human Resources Department. We used to call it Personnel. Well, now that (in the USA) corporations "are people," we call it HR. Employees are expendable. Like the old growth forests of our past, they are there to harvest and collect wealth from.
Employers who only hire part time workers to avoid paying benefits, employers who pay less than a living wage such that employees have to go on the public dole to survive, and employers who in so many ways mistreat employees.... They are the only reason that I think hell should exist. It doesn't, and all we have is this one spin of the wheel, so we should just recognize these practices as evil and do our best to reduce the wealth of the shareholders.
As long as I'm stirring this pot, can I please urge anyone who can to make at least a small financial contribution to your LOCAL food bank. Putting food in people's bellies is one of the greatest gifts. Giving cans of food in can drives is fine, but the food bank has resources to buy so much MORE food for equivalent dollars - please just give them money. Please.
Please.
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NorthCascades wrote: »Also remember a lot of jobs are part time because that way the company won't have to provide benefits. A lot of people work multiple part time jobs because that's what's available to them. ☹️
Genuine question: what benifit do they not provide to part time employees?
Because here in Australia they do. You get annual leave sick leave, superannuation etc in proportionate amounts.
Even casual workers who do more than a couple of hours a week get superannuation.
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paperpudding wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Also remember a lot of jobs are part time because that way the company won't have to provide benefits. A lot of people work multiple part time jobs because that's what's available to them. ☹️
Genuine question: what benifit do they not provide to part time employees?
Because here in Australia they do. You get annual leave sick leave, superannuation etc in proportionate amounts.
Even casual workers who do more than a couple of hours a week get superannuation.
Zero benefits.
No health insurance, no sick leave, no vacation time, no retirement funds. Nothing.3 -
I've realized another factor that determines how your life will be....what country were you born in?
Given the wide range of governments, laws, and societal norms, the part of the world in which you are born in/live can have a considerable impact on your likelihood to succeed in life.
I'm not JUST talking about countries that provide universal health care, family leave, etc.
I mean that it's a serious detriment to success if you are born in a country that does not guarantee equal rights for everyone, and openly suppresses certain populations.8 -
SuzySunshine99 wrote: »paperpudding wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Also remember a lot of jobs are part time because that way the company won't have to provide benefits. A lot of people work multiple part time jobs because that's what's available to them. ☹️
Genuine question: what benifit do they not provide to part time employees?
Because here in Australia they do. You get annual leave sick leave, superannuation etc in proportionate amounts.
Even casual workers who do more than a couple of hours a week get superannuation.
Zero benefits.
No health insurance, no sick leave, no vacation time, no retirement funds. Nothing.
This is the correct answer, but I'm going to amplify one tiny thing because the question came from someone in another country.
Companies and workers are each required to pay into social security (theoretically our federal safety net retirement/disability program). That applies to most part-time workers. Eventual benefits (if any) will depend on annual eligible income levels over a long period of years.
Even for the highest earners (for whom a cap on employee/employer maximum annual payment applies), they would receive a benefit amount that would be difficult to live on, if that were the only source of retirement. Some people manage it. For low wage full-time workers, it's even lower. For people with a lot of part-time-only years in the mix, the benefit is very, very low, possible zero.
Depending on the state the person lives in, a part time worker may also have very limited (at best) unemployment benefits (if fired under certain defined circumstances, say), or workers compensation benefits (which pay some costs if someone is injured on the job).
These things are very minor, not consequential as benefits, to part-time workers, as a generality. I just wanted to mention those things, because how all of this works is very different across different countries.
I agree with the general concept that part-timers get zero, as the correct general statement.3 -
Ok - well that is quite different here.
Permanant part time gets exactly same benifits as permanant full time - but in proportionate amounts to hours worked - so, for example, I would get the equivalent of 6 days Sick Leave per year if I worked part time, 6 days per week
Full time gets 10 days.
That is different to casual - casual workers get a higher hourly rate to compensate for not getting leave entitlements.
But they still get employer superannuation, unless they work only a couple of hours per week.
and all are protected by workers compensation - as well as covering your medical costs if injured at work, you are paid the equivalent of your average wages0 -
paperpudding wrote: »Ok - well that is quite different here.
Permanant part time gets exactly same benifits as permanant full time - but in proportionate amounts to hours worked - so, for example, I would get the equivalent of 6 days Sick Leave per year if I worked part time, 6 days per week
Full time gets 10 days.
Just to add one thing, there are different kinds of part time. I am most familiar with salaried part time (I have not done it, but it is available where I work and I know people at my office and elsewhere who are part time), and in those kinds of jobs you typically get benefits (although paid time off would be likely based on percentage of time you worked and vary employer to employer anyway). In general there are going to be big differences between types of jobs.
What people are talking about, of course, is federal requirements for certain benefits (that they aren't required doesn't mean no one gets them). With health insurance in particular, employers are only required to offer health insurance to employees who work more than 30 hours per week (there are other health insurance options under ACA if one does not have employer-provided insurance). Social security is based on income (some jobs don't get soc sec but other options like govt workers and pensions -- which are actually more generous than SocSec by a lot where I live). The US generally doesn't have any requirements for paid time off, that tends to be up to the employer (and will often have to do with what the employer has to offer to be competitive). There are requirements for unpaid, but they vary based on reasons for the leave and the hours you work.1 -
SuzySunshine99 wrote: »paperpudding wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Also remember a lot of jobs are part time because that way the company won't have to provide benefits. A lot of people work multiple part time jobs because that's what's available to them. ☹️
Genuine question: what benifit do they not provide to part time employees?
Because here in Australia they do. You get annual leave sick leave, superannuation etc in proportionate amounts.
Even casual workers who do more than a couple of hours a week get superannuation.
Zero benefits.
No health insurance, no sick leave, no vacation time, no retirement funds. Nothing.
This is the correct answer, but I'm going to amplify one tiny thing because the question came from someone in another country.
Companies and workers are each required to pay into social security (theoretically our federal safety net retirement/disability program). That applies to most part-time workers. Eventual benefits (if any) will depend on annual eligible income levels over a long period of years.
Even for the highest earners (for whom a cap on employee/employer maximum annual payment applies), they would receive a benefit amount that would be difficult to live on, if that were the only source of retirement. Some people manage it. For low wage full-time workers, it's even lower. For people with a lot of part-time-only years in the mix, the benefit is very, very low, possible zero.
Depending on the state the person lives in, a part time worker may also have very limited (at best) unemployment benefits (if fired under certain defined circumstances, say), or workers compensation benefits (which pay some costs if someone is injured on the job).
These things are very minor, not consequential as benefits, to part-time workers, as a generality. I just wanted to mention those things, because how all of this works is very different across different countries.
I agree with the general concept that part-timers get zero, as the correct general statement.
The reason this fact is important:
Used to be part time job meant done by a youth after school, or there wasn't enough work for full time. Now it's done to improve profits by reducing employee retention costs at the farm of poor people doing the actual work.0 -
We (as a society; actually beyond that because most societies agree on this) allow people to make money by lending money and charging interest. But there's a limit. You can charge 20% interest, not not 80 %, which is usury.
That's what minimum wage is. You can leverage other people's labor to make a profit. If you're able to use it in an innovative way you can make a lot of profit while providing a useful product or service, and opportunity. But you can't pay your people $1 an hour and make them shop at the company store.
I think people agree with both examples; the debate is a matter of degree not kind. We all want to live in a world where a rising tide floats all boats.2 -
paperpudding wrote: »Ok - well that is quite different here.
Permanant part time gets exactly same benifits as permanant full time - but in proportionate amounts to hours worked - so, for example, I would get the equivalent of 6 days Sick Leave per year if I worked part time, 6 days per week
Full time gets 10 days.
Just to add one thing, there are different kinds of part time. I am most familiar with salaried part time (I have not done it, but it is available where I work and I know people at my office and elsewhere who are part time), and in those kinds of jobs you typically get benefits (although paid time off would be likely based on percentage of time you worked and vary employer to employer anyway). In general there are going to be big differences between types of jobs.
What people are talking about, of course, is federal requirements for certain benefits (that they aren't required doesn't mean no one gets them). With health insurance in particular, employers are only required to offer health insurance to employees who work more than 30 hours per week (there are other health insurance options under ACA if one does not have employer-provided insurance). Social security is based on income (some jobs don't get soc sec but other options like govt workers and pensions -- which are actually more generous than SocSec by a lot where I live). The US generally doesn't have any requirements for paid time off, that tends to be up to the employer (and will often have to do with what the employer has to offer to be competitive). There are requirements for unpaid, but they vary based on reasons for the leave and the hours you work.
yes the whole system seems different - here in Aus you can't work permanant full time or permanant part time and NOT get annual leave, sick leave etc
All employers have to follow Award conditions and wages and those are basic requirements.
Casual is different - but the hourly rate is higher to compensate for lack of leave benifits.
and of course the whole health insurance issue is null and void - everyone is covered by medicare and if people want private health insurance on top of that they take it out themselves, is not an employer issue.
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What is casual? Like freelancing? Or being an independent contractor of sorts?0
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Casual is you dont have permanant hours.
not free lancing or contracting
Usually (but not always) somewhere where the hours are not many or are variable or intermittent.
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You know, reading through this thread, I keep seeing comparisons between the modern US with that of the 50s and 60s...
Here's the thing: as a highly developed country, the US's main economic competitors are western+central Europe, Japan and, to a lesser extent, eastern Europe and China (there's also Australia and Canada but, put together, they have ~1/6 of the US's population)... during the 50s, and even the early 60s, most of these countries were either still recovering from WW2 or communist whereas the US came out of it with its infrastructure, social order and, by and large, even demographics pretty much intact.
It's just not the same situation today.0 -
14% of employees in America's largest grocery chain are homeless or have been in the last year.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-01-11/2-out-of-3-kroger-workers-struggle-to-afford-food-housing-survey-finds
This is not the kind of world we should be living in.5 -
NorthCascades wrote: »14% of employees in America's largest grocery chain are homeless or have been in the last year.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-01-11/2-out-of-3-kroger-workers-struggle-to-afford-food-housing-survey-finds
This is not the kind of world we should be living in.
A closer look at the info in this article reveals that the survey did not use a national sample, but rather selected employees from 3 specific areas with extremely high costs of living and high rates of homelessness.
The one example it gives of an employee who has to earn recycling money to afford food was essentially working full time hours at just a few cents less than $15 per hour.
In most parts of the US, that's enough to get by.
I was making less and my wife wasn't working when I bought my first home.
This isn't a "Kroger pays too little" problem.
It's a "cost of living is too high" problem.
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Carlos_421 wrote: »This isn't a "Kroger pays too little" problem.
It's a "cost of living is too high" problem.
A distinction without a difference. People doing their party and working can't afford to buy the food Kroger sells.2 -
Yup. I know a cashier at my local Kroger and she told me that she has to shop elsewhere to be able to afford it. It just seems kind of hopeless out in the world right now. Maybe it’s just here in the U.S. Maybe it’s just me. Seemingly endless problems with no good solutions.1
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NorthCascades wrote: »Carlos_421 wrote: »This isn't a "Kroger pays too little" problem.
It's a "cost of living is too high" problem.
A distinction without a difference. People doing their party and working can't afford to buy the food Kroger sells.
If you want to actually solve the problem there's a huge difference.
If you only care about the symptoms, not so much.
Of course, treating only the symptom while ignoring the root cause simply allows the real problem to become worse and worse, creating more and more disparity.0 -
I was reading recently about the 18 Early Maladaptive Schemas. It's the theory that there are basically 18 different negative cognitive mindsets that people can acquire 1 or more of early on in life. These negative outlooks can hinder one's own success in a variety of ways. There are online quizzes you can take to see if you have any of them, and there are therapists certified in counseling people who have them. It was very interesting and made a lot of sense to me.0
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Lots of things influence your life and how it ends up.
1. Social status at birth. Rich kids vs poor kids. Rich kids are more likely to succeed, sure poor kids can, but it takes a LOT more work and a setback can be completely devastating.
2. Health. Being born with a disability or illness or acquiring one over your life time. You have to navigate a world not built for you, can't work for X company to get your first experience in industry because their buildings only have stairs, can't work full time because of health limitations, can't work at all while you have surgery and 2 years worth of physio to recover from a big accident (me). I speak from experience on this one. I was about to buy my first home when I had an accident at work, I still have not caught up to my peers almost 10 years later, I had to do all that work and training all over again. Start a career in my 30s etc. I still don't own a home.
3. Luck. Plain old luck. Not everyone gets that lucky break and for everyone who does a lot of people fail.
4. Where you live, born into poverty as a girl in a country that sells kids into sex trafficking or marriage?
5. Education
6. Hard work
And so so many other things. While hurdles can be overcome it's unrealistic to think that every single person will overcome every hurdle placed in front of them. That doesn't mean they didn't work hard, they didn't want it or they didn't deserve it. They just didn't overcome it because the same hurdles can be a lot harder for some people.2 -
I think the #1 factor is having at least one authority figure you can trust and rely on in childhood. If you don't have that, you're probably always going to be majorly broken in some way.
Oprah had a bad childhood but she also did have one competent parent (her dad) although unfortunately she didn't live with him until her teenage years.
A lot of people say stuff like "I was abused as a kid and grew up normal" without taking into account that maybe they had other mitigating factors like a non-family authority figure, grandparent, etc. they could turn to for support. They're comparing their situation to that of a person who maybe didn't have certain advantages they had.
Complex trauma literally causes the brain not to develop properly, and an improperly developed brain cannot compete with properly developed ones. For people who grew up with complex trauma without positive mitigating influences, they might be successful for a while and have friends and relationships for a while, but it always comes after them in the end. They end up homeless, jobless, alone, dying premature "deaths of despair," etc. Maybe a few outliers manage to escape it but this is generally their lot in life.1 -
LaurenMargott wrote: »Lots of things influence your life and how it ends up.
1. Social status at birth. Rich kids vs poor kids. Rich kids are more likely to succeed, sure poor kids can, but it takes a LOT more work and a setback can be completely devastating.
2. Health. Being born with a disability or illness or acquiring one over your life time. You have to navigate a world not built for you, can't work for X company to get your first experience in industry because their buildings only have stairs, can't work full time because of health limitations, can't work at all while you have surgery and 2 years worth of physio to recover from a big accident (me). I speak from experience on this one. I was about to buy my first home when I had an accident at work, I still have not caught up to my peers almost 10 years later, I had to do all that work and training all over again. Start a career in my 30s etc. I still don't own a home.
3. Luck. Plain old luck. Not everyone gets that lucky break and for everyone who does a lot of people fail.
4. Where you live, born into poverty as a girl in a country that sells kids into sex trafficking or marriage?
5. Education
6. Hard work
And so so many other things. While hurdles can be overcome it's unrealistic to think that every single person will overcome every hurdle placed in front of them. That doesn't mean they didn't work hard, they didn't want it or they didn't deserve it. They just didn't overcome it because the same hurdles can be a lot harder for some people.
This is basically my argument too but I'd describe it as 95% luck, 5% choices. Social status, health, intelligence, looks, personality, education, born into poverty, where you live, authority figure you can rely on: all of that is down to luck. Sure, your choices have some influence but it's often about noticing an opportunity and taking a chance.
Joke Hermsen has a cool book called Kairos, about the right moment vs linear time. I think her right moment is kinda what I'm referring to.
Maybe my percentages aren't 100% but it's just a lot of luck and a little choices. And I think that's why a lot of people 'fail': they had a great idea for an invention and they could've trusted the shady-looking dude to invest in them but their mother was dying and they chose to take care of her instead; they did everything right and were aiming to cure aids but then they get shot by the cops for being in the wrong place at the wrong time; they invested in cryptocurrency early but had to sell when it was worth $1000 because their daughter's debt at the casino got too high; they were a competent lawyer making $3500 an hour but then their kid died in a car accident and they couldn't find the will to live anymore...
I can go on and on but I think you get the point. Sometimes we prioritise things that are important to us so we miss opportunities. Sometimes we don't see opportunities because we're focused on something else. Sometimes our opportunities are taken from us before we can take them. Sometimes we don't live long enough. Most of it is luck imo.2
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