Is there any honorability in employment anymore?

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Apologies.


How about I ask these questions to all the AKers out there :

How many of you folks out there are happy with the changes that have occurred at work in the last 5-10 years?

Have the changes helped or hurt you ?

Just curious if there are any industries that have seen improvement in their treatment at work...
The best advice I can give is: Keep a dairy. Every day.
I did and have taken 2 former employers to court winning a judgment on one and a settlement on the other then I retired. When you start pulling out dates, times and events it gets noticed and makes a difference.
You have to watch out for yourself because otherwise you're just expendable to everyone else.
 
I've always hated labor unions, but I'm getting a feeling we are entering a period and employee/employer relationship environment similar to the one that resulted in the rise of the labor union in the first place.

Time will tell.

I'm not quite sure why you feel that way.
I've been in a labor union for just over 34 years now (in the same field as the OP)

I have no delusions that they're perfect.
The flip side is this. We in labor unions enjoy better wages and benefits because of them.
What many (most ?) people don't realize is they enjoy higher wages and benefits even if they don't belong to unions .
Employers pay higher wages and benefits to keep unions out.
There has been something only slightly short of war on unions the past 20 years.
If they are eliminated (as I feel) the powers that be, want.
Union and non union employees will pay the price with lower wages and benefits.
Don't kid yourself there are white collar unions as well.
Maybe I'm crazy. I don't believe in communism.
I do believe people are entitled to an honest days pay for an honest days work with real benefits and something resembling a decent retirement after 40-50 years work.
I hope that's not too political for the forum. :idea:
 
I do believe people are entitled to an honest days pay for an honest days work with real benefits and something resembling a decent retirement after 40-50 years work.

If you really believe in that - you are a SOCIALIST. This country is not the right place for you.
 
I'm not quite sure why you feel that way.
I've been in a labor union for just over 34 years now (in the same field as the OP)

I have no delusions that they're perfect.
The flip side is this. We in labor unions enjoy better wages and benefits because of them.
What many (most ?) people don't realize is they enjoy higher wages and benefits even if they don't belong to unions .
Employers pay higher wages and benefits to keep unions out.
There has been something only slightly short of war on unions the past 20 years.
If they are eliminated (as I feel) the powers that be, want.
Union and non union employees will pay the price with lower wages and benefits.
Don't kid yourself there are white collar unions as well.
Maybe I'm crazy. I don't believe in communism.
I do believe people are entitled to an honest days pay for an honest days work with real benefits and something resembling a decent retirement after 40-50 years work.
I hope that's not too political for the forum. :idea:
Well, my last experience with labor unions is from the late 70's, so things may have changed. :)
 
I imagine that we are stretching the limits of the AK rules with the direction of the conversation...

We should try to just keep this as an anecdotal " too bad the honorability of working for a good wage has been lost "...

I'm not quite sure why you feel that way.
I've been in a labor union for just over 34 years now (in the same field as the OP)

I have no delusions that they're perfect.
The flip side is this. We in labor unions enjoy better wages and benefits because of them.
What many (most ?) people don't realize is they enjoy higher wages and benefits even if they don't belong to unions .
Employers pay higher wages and benefits to keep unions out.
There has been something only slightly short of war on unions the past 20 years.
If they are eliminated (as I feel) the powers that be, want.
Union and non union employees will pay the price with lower wages and benefits.
Don't kid yourself there are white collar unions as well.
Maybe I'm crazy. I don't believe in communism.
I do believe people are entitled to an honest days pay for an honest days work with real benefits and something resembling a decent retirement after 40-50 years work.
I hope that's not too political for the forum. :idea:

Growing up in NYC I used to hear a lot of complaining about how the unions were a blockade to getting a job, exclusionary and a clique similar to "royal families" but I must admit that first, I was younger and not yet in the workforce and second, I was on a white collar track vs the trades. So it's possible I was just hearing complaints from people who didn't make the cut.

30 years later it seems that there was "some" truth to that and the trades are now actively recruiting young people, which back in the 80's was not the case. At least in my blue collar working-class neighborhood going into a trade had a stigma of "loser that can't hack or is too dumb for college" or "it's way too hard to get into the union and it costs too much" which couldn't be further from the truth in either case, but there it is and it was and now here we are. Perception can be reality.

Employers are bad all over. On the executive track, all I saw was men and women who had worked 20 or 30 years spending little time at home, travelling to who knows where and spending way too much time in crappy motels pushed out by buyouts. "Thanks a lot Mr. Jones, for 30 years of service, but your job is being eliminated." Not really. It was being re-classified and given to a younger "contract employee" which means the kid ain't getting any benefits or overtime or vacation time.

And now I hear companies complaining that young workers have no loyalty. Well, you reap what you sow when you screwed over the parents and grandparents of the new workforce just graduating college. They are a bunch of heartless mercenaries out for themselves and out to suck the most they can out of the company for the least amount of effort. They get a job and start looking for another one before the ink on the new business card is dry. I say good for them. Modern corporate behavior created them and now they have to live with them.

The good news is that the shine is off the white collar diamond and many are seeing the trades as meaningful and rewarding work where you advance almost purely on merit. I mean, it's hard to say no to a guy or gal that can run a nice bead with a welder or build a staircase and show up on time, ready to work. I think the next generation will be better off than us Gen Xers.
 
Neighbour of mine has his own one-truck HVAC/Plumbing business.
He's trying so hard to be retired and go fishing.
But the work keeps coming his way!
Most of it within walking distance of his house.
 
Neighbour of mine has his own one-truck HVAC/Plumbing business.
He's trying so hard to be retired and go fishing.
But the work keeps coming his way!
Most of it within walking distance of his house.

My roofing repair guy (he only does repairs) complains that we (his customers) wont let him die in peace. He is, and I shit you not, 93 years old!!!! My roof is 20+ years old and should have been replaced at least 5 years ago, but every leak he's fixed had stayed fixed! Well, he doesn't do the work, but the old guy climbs up a ladder and supervises!

The point is... I'd love to let him die, but the only other time I tried someone else it was a disaster. :)
 
My work situation has definitely been better. I'm peripherally in construction as well. PM me if you want to chat, don't want to share too much publicly.
 
Maybe not anymore. I felt as a member of the Armed Forces that a country that didn't care for it's own citizens wasn't worthy of defense.

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Anatomy of the thread closing grenade... :)
 
I make a lot more money than I did in the 80s & 90s. For the answer today why the money doesn’t go as far one only needs to look at how they calculate inflation and what the Fed has done to the dollar.
 
I make a lot more money than I did in the 80s & 90s. For the answer today why the money doesn’t go as far one only needs to look at how they calculate inflation and what the Fed has done to the dollar.
Aren't you a San Fran' city mouse?
High COLA and such.
 
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