As employers push efficiency, the daily grind wears down workers

[Matt Collins]

Unless you're the one doing the movers' job (carrying and setting up boards, mics, etc), you're not doing tons of labor. (no, adjusting the pots and faders doesn't count as "tons of labor")

You've never worked in the concert industry have you?

LOL! I used to be something akin to a sound engineer, I'm sure many others have done that sort of work as well. And you consider printing to be physical labor to an extent that it should be mentioned? I've done my share of that as well, and don't consider it to be physical labor.

Well that's because you don't know what you're talking about and are making assumptions.

 

[TheTexan]

This guy's daily grind doesn't seem so bad



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Melnichenko

*cough* banker *cough*

 

[heavenlyboy34]

You've never worked in the concert industry have you?

As a student engineer, yes. It's a skilled job, but not "tons of labor". The more you talk the more reasons you give me to doubt your credibility, you know.

 

[MelissaWV]

As for the skilled job thing, there is a high demand for physicians and specialists of many sorts (especially as many retire and not so many rise up to replace them). There is a primary care physician shortage in many areas that is going to become a major problem.

Now, if you have what it takes, you pass your classes, you don't mind the demands, you gamble on your student loans and are able to stay afloat long enough to start your practice someday, and you aren't sued into oblivion, you're right: you have pretty good job security.

Incidentally, regarding foreign workers, some of them were physicians or even surgeons back home. There isn't parity between the US and their home country, though, so literally some of them are working min wage jobs while they are trying to get licensed. Food for thought.

 

[Matt Collins]

As a student engineer, yes. It's a skilled job, but not "tons of labor". The more you talk the more reasons you give me to doubt your credibility, you know.

Not sure what kind of cush gigs you had, but even as a seasoned experienced A1, many of my gigs are still strenuous manual labor.

 

[MelissaWV]

Stop picking on Collins.

That chiseled physique did not make itself.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Not sure what kind of cush gigs you had, but even as a seasoned experienced A1, many of my gigs are still strenuous manual labor.

Like what? Unless you got suckered into doing the job that the setup crew is supposed to do, there isn't strenuous manual labor in sound engineering.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Stop picking on Collins.

That chiseled physique did not make itself.

LMFAO!!!!

 

[Matt Collins]

Like what? Unless you got suckered into doing the job that the setup crew is supposed to do, there isn't strenuous manual labor in sound engineering.

Sometimes, but often not.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

Some of those places are friggin ruthless. They'll work you until you need surgery to repair your joints. Then they'll pay for the surgery, and give you a different job that will ruin your joints that still work. They view repetitive strain injuries and surgery as part of labor costs. Some of them might pay well compared to other available jobs, but the employees are trading money for their physical health. Many get trapped in such jobs by buying things on credit before they realize their body is being damaged to such an extent.

Work doesn't destroy your joints. Runners pound their knees every day, sometimes twice a day, and yet despite the myth that they're destroying their joints, they are healthier than other people because they take care of themselves. Poor health destroys joints. Your joints are designed to handle a lot more pressure than people give them credit for. It's when you mix hard work with a poor lifestyle that gives you bad joints.

 

[KrokHead]

Great article, sadly these days the ball is in the employer's court. If you don't want to work there are countless people who will. Employers have no loyalty to employees simply because they don't have to. If a lot of people are hiring, then suddenly they'll play ball and have better benefits and bonuses.

Employers are shitheads. You only get a substantial raise if someone else is going to hire you, and if they catch you looking for work elsewhere they'll cut you loose and you'll be unattractive to hire.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Sometimes, but often not.

So you consistently let the roadies and setup crew trick you into doing their job? lolz No wonder you're popular-you're a sucker! (traditionally, the engineer's job is routing signals and monitoring levels, you know...not that it's simple or easy-I was never good at routing-but that's what it is)

 

[Origanalist]

Great article, sadly these days the ball is in the employer's court. If you don't want to work there are countless people who will. Employers have no loyalty to employees simply because they don't have to. If a lot of people are hiring, then suddenly they'll play ball and have better benefits and bonuses.

Employers are shitheads. You only get a substantial raise if someone else is going to hire you, and if they catch you looking for work elsewhere they'll cut you loose and you'll be unattractive to hire.

Have you ever run a business?

 

[Carson]

Best reply in the thread.

 

[abacabb]

Have you ever run a business?

Have you ever worked for one?

It's definitely true that companies generally treat people like commodities, manipulate them on a personal level, and only give you a raise when you have a better offer on the table.

 

[Sullivan*]

Boo fuckity hoo !

Mr $32 an hour UPS driver, that $190 a day in over time pay must be so horrible

Do you happen to know how hard the guys at the distribution center work to unload the semi trailers that come in non-stop every day? The drivers do the exact same thing, only each package has to be personally walked to someones door, sometimes you have to get a signature, other times some derpy asshat leaves his aggressive lab in the front yard (only path to the only door reasonably accessible), and then there's the douche bags that bitch you up and down because some other douche bag in a brown polyester uniform pushed in a corner on a box of useless shit he ordered last year.

The drivers making more money than the loading bay workers, for sure, but in a much less controlled environment, and in some derpy costume the executives force you to wear for liability reasons (there exist good reasons for the uniform, surely, however that's not why corporate mandates it.)

/rant

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

Work doesn't destroy your joints.

I've watched it happen, in the exact circumstances I described. Have you ever had a repetitive strain injury? Ever work for a japanese transplant company, heavy on kaizan, as we are talking about? Working too hard, too fast, with too much weight, too much repetition, will absolutely destroy your joints. I know a lot of people who had surgery as a result, and none of them would want surgery if they didn't need it. Nor would the company pay for it if they didn't see it as part of their costs. The bold part is important. They aren't paying for unneeded surgeries and giving hobbled people, who don't eat well, new jobs when they refuse to perform their current jobs. It's a business strategy.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

The only problem with repairing and building railroads is that there is not fixed work time.You are home for 2 months than gone for 4-5 without rest than home again until the weather improves or some other team does their job first.My cousin is a chief engineer in one,and so far he has only mentioned only once a work accident where one of the rails fell and hit a worker and broke his hip but every field work has risk involved and working on rails is not a very dangerous work place with machinery today doing most of the hardest work that was done by workers in the past.

Reminds me of how Jon Henry fought the steam engine. Seems silly now that he would work to death to defeat this new technology which improves people's lives.

 

[Origanalist]

Have you ever worked for one?

It's definitely true that companies generally treat people like commodities, manipulate them on a personal level, and only give you a raise when you have a better offer on the table.

I have done both. It helps if you've walked both sides of the debate.

 

[Carson]

These guys should look back to the Industrial Revolution to see what it REALLY meant to be pushed for efficiency

I think that is their point. We are being pushed back in time to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and are no longer pushing forward into a better future.

When I was in school they talked about a goal of a 32 hour work week like some other countries had at the time. Though they most certainly didn't describe it in such a way as has come about.

I could go on about how they whacked the children we were about to have with abortions and birth control because there wasn't going to be enough room. At the same time they were opening the floodgates to illegal and legal immigration. That surly has aided in the driving down of wages and living conditions.