Off topic & small talk: Chatterbox (Page 1070)

frapi07 wrote on 02/20/2024 19:24:
So someone who works TC and complains about the lack of money is not normal in the head. I don't know anyone who works so little and complains about the money. Work-life balance doesn't necessarily have to mean TC. A 4-day week is also possible. You work full-time. It works particularly well if you work 37/38 hours a week. You just work 2 hours more a day, but then you have 3 days off at the end. It can even work well in craft businesses. There were some companies that tested this and were satisfied with it. Not only employees were satisfied, but also employers.

What reprisals? Well, imagine that your supervisor suddenly comes up with the idea of giving you a task for which you are underqualified. I don't mean something like "make me 3 copies" or something like that, but something like "clean the microwave in my office, it looks unappetizing again". I think you're at an age where you wouldn't just put up with it and would fight it. But would you have been like that in your early days (i.e. when you were 18-23 years old) or would you have done it without objection and kept your mouth shut because otherwise you would have feared reprisals (e.g. not being taken on, demotion, etc.)? The way you wrote your post earlier made it sound as if you had done this task. If that's the case, then congratulations. Not everyone has that kind of patience. Today, however, you have the opportunity to defend yourself against something like this and speak your mind. Is that mimimi because you don't put up with everything?

When I was a working student at Company X, I often kept my mouth shut because I was afraid of reprisals. We had a very young HR manager. She came to this company straight from university and gained her first work experience as an HR manager. She was also very forgetful because of this. I often had to remind her of things and chase after her. Once I forgot to do a task. It can happen. We're all human and not robots. But she was cheeky enough to call me unreliable. I was about to mention to her the umpteen times she had forgotten things. In the end, I kept my mouth shut. If I had opened my mouth, I would certainly have lost my job. Not that it was a super great job, but at least I was able to cover my overheads.

This post has been translated automatically

This post has been translated automatically

Blubbo33 wrote on 20.02.2024 at 20:38:

I know enough who would like to have work life balance with full pay !

Your examples work at BMW Mercedes or VW but son little krauter can't hire x as many as he wants to cover 5 days!

Every trainee does work that is not great and I think it is rather the minority that seriously has to clean the toilet or do something similarly humiliating every day!

Today it is already the case that trainees refuse to sweep the workshop because they think they are mechatronics engineers and not cleaning ladies!

In my opinion, society is becoming more and more effeminate, everything and everyone is being sued for trivialities!

Similar to basic military service or a social year! I have to decide for myself what I want and tears roll down my eyes!

Everyone is the architect of their own fortune, that doesn't apply to everyone but to most people!

This post has been translated automatically

This post has been translated automatically

Saphira wrote on 21.02.2024 at 01:11: I don't think Blubbo means that he generally prefers ways of working like in the Middle Ages or 100 years ago, but that even today, as always, performance is important and you simply start small at the beginning. Starting small also means doing less beautiful work. I think that's completely normal and I've experienced it that way too. Not cleaning toilets or anything like that, but doing things that were pretty dull. That's enough to make you uncomfortable. You just have to get through it. Especially as you can't do everything at the beginning, you get trained and establish yourself bit by bit. Anyone who goes through this in their dream job is blessed, but you can also achieve a certain level of satisfaction in jobs that don't necessarily fulfill you. And it's true that everyone is the architect of their own happiness. I would have liked to be an astronaut or a parapsychologist, but I didn't feel like studying. So I ended up in the office. 😃

Unfortunately, they are actually becoming more and more common and it seems to me like a plague ... the young professionals with insane demands while avoiding work as much as possible. They just sit down and watch cat videos or their favorite series on their cell phones and are completely exhausted after just 4 hours. This didn't really happen in the past and people now look much more closely at job interviews. Of course, you can't completely rule out the possibility of one of them slipping through the cracks, but if they do, they'll be dismissed after a while. I recently had an interesting conversation with a hairdresser who told me about a job interview in which a young woman focused almost exclusively on work-life balance. She had only invited the applicant because she had already indicated this in her letter of application as a decisive criterion for her possible employment. She did it out of curiosity.

a 4-day week is great if companies can afford it. I don't begrudge it to anyone who deserves it. But it only works with committed and motivated employees. The overall atmosphere has to be right. It's also great that the trend is perhaps going in that direction, I haven't read up on it yet, but it's also a fact that an unhealthy trend has been emerging for some years among many young people who perhaps didn't just grow up overprotected in rooms with rounded corners, had a helicopter mother, never had to lift a finger in the household, but have also learned through social media, TV and the like, and not least through nursery and school, that their current state of mind must be one of global proportions and must be observed, celebrated and appreciated accordingly. I wouldn't want someone like that in my company.

Fortunately, however, there are also normal young professionals who are happy about their job and are committed. These are usually the ones with real plans for the future.

This post has been translated automatically

frapi07 wrote on 02/21/2024 02:31 PM:


I realize that Blubbo doesn't prefer that. I asked the question anyway because he complains about the attitude and work ethic of the "new generation" and calls them a mimimi society. It is thanks to people who have fought for more rights in the past that we no longer have to work on Saturdays or that we have other basic rights.

I'm not saying that you can't do annoying work during training. If it's part of the day-to-day business, then I don't see anything wrong with it. But the kind of tasks Langhans described (sharpening pencils for colleagues) go too far in my opinion and are considered degradation. Anyone who thinks that this can't happen in 2024 is very much mistaken. That's why I think it's good that some people are standing up to it. I wouldn't see it as "mimimi".

As I said, I personally haven't done any training, but I have done a few internships. I once had to clean the shelves in the warehouse as "punishment work". Needless to say, they were extremely dusty and I wasn't provided with rubber gloves, right? The water and the cloth were so dirty after 2 wipes. I had 3 weeks to do this. My internship lasted another 3 weeks. So this was done deliberately to degrade me. I did it for 2 days, but by the 3rd day I didn't feel like it anymore because I was doing it for free. I went to the boss and told him the truth. Of course he couldn't favor an intern over a long-term employee. Today I would act differently and demote the people who think they have to demote me. I could have denounced it all. They violated a number of regulations. The shelves were easily 5 meters high, so I also had to work with a ladder. Without a helmet and without any safety precautions. I actually regret putting up with it all, but at the time I was upset and sad about something else, which is why I wasn't fully mentally present.

I can agree that the condition of the trainees is no longer the same. But you have to remember that even in schools people are looking at cell phones and the like. So it's not surprising that those in training have to struggle with this. Incidentally, this phenomenon can also be seen in private. At a family party, many people are on their cell phones after a few hours at the latest. That didn't used to be the case either.

Many companies can afford a 4-day week. Many are just afraid of it. Just like working from home. Working from home has many advantages, and not just for the employee. Energy costs, cleaning costs etc. can be listed. Back to the 4-day week: companies are "struggling" with the working model because a) it costs a little more effort and b) because the majority of all companies/customers still have a 5-day week. The whole thing has little to do with costs (apart from planning).

This post has been translated automatically

This post has been translated automatically

Stromberg wrote on 02/21/2024 08:10:

It just varies from company to company...

With us, for example, you could say that it would not be possible for colleagues who have small projects / construction sites of about one day.
Even if they were to work 4 x 10 hours, it would not be feasible to serve a customer on Mondays, for example, until 3 p.m., then drive to the next one for 2 hours, continue there the next day and so on. The customers won't put up with that, apart from the unnecessary travel times.

In the area of longer construction sites, where colleagues are at the same customer for at least 2 weeks, it would be possible and possibly even more productive, because set-up and travel times would only occur on 4 instead of 5 days with the same working hours.

I don't see fewer hours with full wage compensation at all, as the costs incurred per productive hour would then increase so much that prices would no longer be competitive, at least at present.

This post has been translated automatically

frapi07 wrote on February 21st, 2024 at 9:04 pm:

As I already wrote: " The companies are "struggling" with the working model because a) it costs a little more effort and b) because the majority of all companies/customers still have a 5-day week . The whole thing has little to do with costs (apart from planning)."

On the other hand, it would be a foolish idea to accept a 2-hour journey for the customer anyway. It's only worth it for larger construction sites. For smaller jobs it makes no sense, or does a craft business accept small jobs that involve such a long journey? How high are the travel costs then? It's not just about the fuel, but also about the hours it takes to get there.

This post has been translated automatically

This post has been translated automatically