I've been laid off twice in my life. The frist time, I got another job in the same industry. The second time, I changed industries. I noticed some quizzical reluctance the second time around -- it was as if the manager interviewing me didn't quite believe me, that a company in my area would just shut down and lay off five hundred people, and that even though I had letters of recommendation from my superiors, I was laid off too through no fault of my own.

I actually had to explain it to him, that it was just business.. a larger company bought our smaller company, and laid everyone off, sold the physical assets, and kept the clients. (i did get the job though)

So, I know it's always been true that it's easier to get a job when you already have one. I would have hoped though, in these unprecedented times, that employers would be more understanding.

I don't know what the solution is here, you can't make business hire people they don't want after all. But on the other hand, this reluctance to hire the unemployed is one of the factors contributing to a new class of permanently unemployed folks.

Last edited by Ferretlover on Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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The unemployed must ban together. With all of the time off, thinking more extensively can occur. However, the article written above is a sign to the days of serfdom and suicide. I hope those who hold these kind of views lose their jobs too for having such an arrogant point of view.

Alright, I think I see something interesting here. This topic reminds me a lot about of my own workplace experiences, not as an unemployed person, but as someone that worked with a few slackers. The one positive thing about hard times is that presumably the slackers at most firms are going to get canned.

Now then, assuming not all slackers are brain dead or unreachable in terms of adjusting their behavior, what percentage of them are salvageable? What percentage of the workforce are slackers to begin with? What is a slacker anyway?

I am a liberal so I guess I will set the point and guess that more than half of all slackers are salvageable. I'll bet there is at least one slacker in every group of five or six employees. A slacker is someone that would rather you did their work for them, at least in part, and acts (or doesn't act, as the case may be) to encourage that to happen.

Discussion about the relative merits of slackdom are welcome. Maybe slacking is an entirely civilized routine? Maybe it is necessary in a world where many of the cultural norms in at least American life are embedded in high school, where popularity and extroverted modeling are required norms for success?

I think we are fast approaching the Philippines in job qualification requirements, saw an ad for dishwashers; must have college degree, gave specific measurements, must be attractive female, under 21, etc. When you have 10,000 people applying for every job you can afford to be picky...

Unpossible! Unions are dead and your "education" teaches you how to be an obedient, compliant, left brained "worker".
Most importantly however we are taught that if you can run someone over and get away with a profit, it is a good thing!
This is why we have internal conflict and sometimes just plain don't feel well
Have you ever seen "The Corporation"? It's kind of what our life has been reduced to!

It is somewhat logical that employers do this to save costs on hiring in the belief that invisible hand of the markets has already selected the best candidates. No need to hold an extensive job search through trash applicants of unemployed when the market has already filtered out the slackers. It is very smart but it is also dehumanizing. Being One among six billion worker bees is Not a good thing.

Hmmm- I have a lot to say on this topic. If you have ever read Dilbert and worked in engineering you know the corporate culture it shows is amazingly accurate. I have worked under abysmally demotivating conditions in a kind of white collar welfare for many years- producing nothing of value year after year. My employers and bosses having a complete lack of vision or ability to motivate. I used to be keen. I'd ask for the business plan and try to push things forward. Of course there was none. On the other hand I have worked for entrepreneurial bosses and was able to accomplish a lot. These kind of situations are exceedingly rare. I would now describe myself as something of a slacker. Someone who has lost the ability to motivate himself to work for someone else. I show up and do what I am told and get paid. No initiative offered or wanted.

Many engineering jobs have been exported to India and China. I don't know what to tell new grads. The present business climate does not support R and D. Does this mean that all the engineering talent that is laid off are slackers?

Last edited by Ferretlover on Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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In a workplace where your boss is fearfull of losing their own job, outperforming is likely to get you either pigeon-holed, or your boss will take credit for your work. Either way you lose. It shouldn't be this way, but if you've worked for a DilbertCo or university, that's pretty much the way it works.

Many years ago I worked at a trade organization with a lot of data organization problems. They had a VP who's job basically consisted of sorting and cutting/pasting data between spreadsheets. I wrote a simple database application that automated several of these processes in my spare time. The organization then eliminated my job, and repaved their parking lot.

That's true, but the converse is not true: That everyone who loses a job in this recession is a slacker.

That's the damnably idiotic thing about the managers mentioned in that article.

--Steve

There are always positions for soldiers of fortine and the like. Of course slackers really wouldn't cut it in that field.

Personally I have always been a slacker, the only that really motivates me is quick easy money... or Text deleted

Last edited by Ferretlover on Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Good call on the serfdom. It's the duty of anyone who read that article and found it arrogant to boycott all the businesses mentioned in the article, so that those businesses can feel the stigma of unemployment.

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