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The New Coffee Room

  1. TNCR
  2. General Discussion
  3. 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?

9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?

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  • 89th8 Offline
    89th8 Offline
    89th
    wrote on last edited by
    #9

    Yeah working 9-5 sucks. Add on the commute, meals, hygiene, errands, responsibilities... yeah there isn't much time left for hobbies, friends, etc. It sucks, it's called work... if you're lucky you'll find something enjoyable, or more flexible. And I'm not saying it has to be this way, but the younger generation (if I can lump them together, which is unfair), needs to be prepared better with a work ethic. I read a stat that the average age of people getting their first job keeps going up up up... you wonder how many of them had a job when they were 14.

    1 Reply Last reply
    • Doctor PhibesD Doctor Phibes

      One of the things I love about coming here is it makes me feel so young, and the reactions to this are a perfect example.

      My attitude to work has always been that if they didn't pay me, I wouldn't go. The instant they don't pay you it's not a job but a hobby, and if your job is your hobby, then you need a new hobby.

      Aqua LetiferA Offline
      Aqua LetiferA Offline
      Aqua Letifer
      wrote on last edited by
      #10

      @Doctor-Phibes said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

      One of the things I love about coming here is it makes me feel so young, and the reactions to this are a perfect example.

      My attitude to work has always been that if they didn't pay me, I wouldn't go. The instant they don't pay you it's not a job but a hobby, and if your job is your hobby, then you need a new hobby.

      That doesn't work for everybody, though. For me, turns out that when I work that way I get asked to leave in pretty short order.

      I need the work itself to be fun. Sure, meetings and co-workers and procedures and clients and invoices and all that bullshit is terrible, but as long as I like what I'm actually supposed to be doing, then I can more or less put up with the rest.

      Please love yourself.

      1 Reply Last reply
      • MikM Away
        MikM Away
        Mik
        wrote on last edited by
        #11

        Yep. I want relative autonomy and to at least appreciate the work I'm doing. It helps to like the people too, since I won't take a contract working for someone I don't care for or don't trust.

        "The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil

        1 Reply Last reply
        • Doctor PhibesD Online
          Doctor PhibesD Online
          Doctor Phibes
          wrote on last edited by
          #12

          Some of my work is genuinely fun. I like the engineering bits. I'm less keen on all the rest of it. Sitting at a computer all day isn't great.

          I was only joking

          1 Reply Last reply
          • LuFins DadL Offline
            LuFins DadL Offline
            LuFins Dad
            wrote on last edited by
            #13

            Everybody’s first jobs should be hourly.

            The Brad

            George KG AxtremusA 2 Replies Last reply
            • LuFins DadL LuFins Dad

              Everybody’s first jobs should be hourly.

              George KG Offline
              George KG Offline
              George K
              wrote on last edited by
              #14

              @LuFins-Dad said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

              Everybody’s first jobs should be hourly.

              Interesting comment. I spent about 9 months (over two summers) working in a factory that made stainless steel tubes. Of course, it was hourly work, and I was a "laborer."

              When you realize that every hour results in a few extra $$ in your paycheck, it really changes your mindset.

              "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

              The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

              1 Reply Last reply
              • Doctor PhibesD Online
                Doctor PhibesD Online
                Doctor Phibes
                wrote on last edited by
                #15

                I've never worked hourly. I did do some pretty challenging stuff in the UK - a 3-month long site inspection of a Paraquat weedkiller plant spent hundreds of feet up going up and down a plant near the River Mersey, and I got to go offshore on a north sea oil-rig, which was very educational, although again not particularly pleasant.

                The people I work with now doing this kind of work don't know they're born. The biggest danger in our office is a paper-cut.

                I was only joking

                1 Reply Last reply
                • LuFins DadL LuFins Dad

                  Everybody’s first jobs should be hourly.

                  AxtremusA Away
                  AxtremusA Away
                  Axtremus
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #16

                  @LuFins-Dad said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                  Everybody’s first jobs should be hourly.

                  It’s already true for most people in the contemporary USA anyway. Summer jobs in food services industry are hourly, baby sitting jobs are hourly. Most on-campus student jobs and paid internships are also hourly as far as I can see.

                  Not sure why that should be preferable for the “first job,” or why it’s preferable only for the “first job” but not subsequent jobs, though. :man-shrugging:

                  Manufacturing jobs (e.g., shoe making, garment factories) maybe “by pieces” rather than “by the hours.” Should that be less preferably for the “first jobs”?

                  LuFins DadL 1 Reply Last reply
                  • CopperC Offline
                    CopperC Offline
                    Copper
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #17

                    I had a few early jobs that were not hourly, caddie, paper boy and Fenway Park vendor were not hourly. Caddie pay was by 9 or 18 holes, paper boy and Fenway were commission.

                    Soda jerk, bookstore clerk and manual labor jobs were hourly.

                    I think hourly and the non-hourly were both fair methods, depending on the work.

                    LuFins DadL 1 Reply Last reply
                    • CopperC Copper

                      I had a few early jobs that were not hourly, caddie, paper boy and Fenway Park vendor were not hourly. Caddie pay was by 9 or 18 holes, paper boy and Fenway were commission.

                      Soda jerk, bookstore clerk and manual labor jobs were hourly.

                      I think hourly and the non-hourly were both fair methods, depending on the work.

                      LuFins DadL Offline
                      LuFins DadL Offline
                      LuFins Dad
                      wrote on last edited by LuFins Dad
                      #18

                      @Copper said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                      I had a few early jobs that were not hourly, caddie, paper boy and Fenway Park vendor were not hourly. Caddie pay was by 9 or 18 holes, paper boy and Fenway were commission.

                      That’s even better than hourly…You get back what you put in in both terms of work and talent.

                      The Brad

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      • AxtremusA Axtremus

                        @LuFins-Dad said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                        Everybody’s first jobs should be hourly.

                        It’s already true for most people in the contemporary USA anyway. Summer jobs in food services industry are hourly, baby sitting jobs are hourly. Most on-campus student jobs and paid internships are also hourly as far as I can see.

                        Not sure why that should be preferable for the “first job,” or why it’s preferable only for the “first job” but not subsequent jobs, though. :man-shrugging:

                        Manufacturing jobs (e.g., shoe making, garment factories) maybe “by pieces” rather than “by the hours.” Should that be less preferably for the “first jobs”?

                        LuFins DadL Offline
                        LuFins DadL Offline
                        LuFins Dad
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #19

                        @Axtremus said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                        @LuFins-Dad said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                        Everybody’s first jobs should be hourly.

                        It’s already true for most people in the contemporary USA anyway. Summer jobs in food services industry are hourly, baby sitting jobs are hourly. Most on-campus student jobs and paid internships are also hourly as far as I can see.

                        Not sure why that should be preferable for the “first job,” or why it’s preferable only for the “first job” but not subsequent jobs, though. :man-shrugging:

                        Manufacturing jobs (e.g., shoe making, garment factories) maybe “by pieces” rather than “by the hours.” Should that be less preferably for the “first jobs”?

                        Don’t care for “by pieces”, it should be hourly with bonuses based on performance levels.

                        The Brad

                        AxtremusA 1 Reply Last reply
                        • LuFins DadL LuFins Dad

                          @Axtremus said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                          @LuFins-Dad said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                          Everybody’s first jobs should be hourly.

                          It’s already true for most people in the contemporary USA anyway. Summer jobs in food services industry are hourly, baby sitting jobs are hourly. Most on-campus student jobs and paid internships are also hourly as far as I can see.

                          Not sure why that should be preferable for the “first job,” or why it’s preferable only for the “first job” but not subsequent jobs, though. :man-shrugging:

                          Manufacturing jobs (e.g., shoe making, garment factories) maybe “by pieces” rather than “by the hours.” Should that be less preferably for the “first jobs”?

                          Don’t care for “by pieces”, it should be hourly with bonuses based on performance levels.

                          AxtremusA Away
                          AxtremusA Away
                          Axtremus
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #20

                          @LuFins-Dad said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                          Don’t care for “by pieces”, it should be hourly with bonuses based on performance levels.

                          Why?

                          Oh, just thought of another job payment metric ... "by word count."
                          @Aqua-Letifer, what do you think of payment by word count?

                          Aqua LetiferA 1 Reply Last reply
                          • AxtremusA Axtremus

                            @LuFins-Dad said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                            Don’t care for “by pieces”, it should be hourly with bonuses based on performance levels.

                            Why?

                            Oh, just thought of another job payment metric ... "by word count."
                            @Aqua-Letifer, what do you think of payment by word count?

                            Aqua LetiferA Offline
                            Aqua LetiferA Offline
                            Aqua Letifer
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #21

                            @Axtremus said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                            @LuFins-Dad said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                            Don’t care for “by pieces”, it should be hourly with bonuses based on performance levels.

                            Why?

                            Oh, just thought of another job payment metric ... "by word count."
                            @Aqua-Letifer, what do you think of payment by word count?

                            It's ridiculous.

                            Please love yourself.

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            • MikM Away
                              MikM Away
                              Mik
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #22

                              That just generates words, not really content.

                              The art of brevity is underrated.

                              "The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil

                              Aqua LetiferA 1 Reply Last reply
                              • AxtremusA Away
                                AxtremusA Away
                                Axtremus
                                wrote on last edited by Axtremus
                                #23

                                I’m not surprised by your reactions to “pay by word count.”
                                I am myself not a fan of that practice.
                                Still, I brought it up because it’s still being practiced.
                                https://www.pressboardmedia.com/magazine/why-do-we-pay-writers-by-the-word

                                Many decades ago a family elder supplemented his income by writing for local newspapers, a lot of times translating poetry from one language to another and provide annotations/explanations. He was paid by word count back then.

                                Aqua LetiferA 1 Reply Last reply
                                • MikM Mik

                                  That just generates words, not really content.

                                  The art of brevity is underrated.

                                  Aqua LetiferA Offline
                                  Aqua LetiferA Offline
                                  Aqua Letifer
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #24

                                  @Mik said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                                  That just generates words, not really content.

                                  The art of brevity is underrated.

                                  Indeed. Other considerations:

                                  1. It puts the writer at motivational odds against his employer.

                                  They're going to want an article as short as possible, the writer's going to want to pad it. Never pick a cost structure that pits payer and payee against one another.

                                  1. It illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what a writer does.

                                  Say there's a widget company who hires Writer A to write a blog post with the intention of describing to would-be customers how their lives would benefit from buying one of their widgets.

                                  Writer A writes a 500-word article on how to use the company's widget as a doorstop. It's also not optimized for online use, inaccessible, and boring. The odd person who's never heard of a widget before might find this article helpful, but most site readers are going to bounce after visiting. It's going to tank.

                                  Writer B writes a 500-word article on how to use the company's widget to cut their heating bill in half, make bespoke pizzas that are cheaper and better than any pizza oven and stop all robocalls from reaching the customer. It's also expertly optimized, customer-oriented and fun to read. Far more readers are going to read the whole article and share it. As a result, the company gets the customer reach it was hoping for.

                                  What Writer B has done that Writer A and the employer haven't a clue about is (1) introduce useful novelty, which is what you want out of any creative professional because it's a money faucet and (2) understand the platform and the audience and write to both.

                                  In what universe does it make sense to have both of them be paid the same?

                                  You're an idiot if you hire a writer to write.

                                  Please love yourself.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  • AxtremusA Axtremus

                                    I’m not surprised by your reactions to “pay by word count.”
                                    I am myself not a fan of that practice.
                                    Still, I brought it up because it’s still being practiced.
                                    https://www.pressboardmedia.com/magazine/why-do-we-pay-writers-by-the-word

                                    Many decades ago a family elder supplemented his income by writing for local newspapers, a lot of times translating poetry from one language to another and provide annotations/explanations. He was paid by word count back then.

                                    Aqua LetiferA Offline
                                    Aqua LetiferA Offline
                                    Aqua Letifer
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #25

                                    @Axtremus said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                                    Still, I brought it up because it’s still being practiced.
                                    https://www.pressboardmedia.com/magazine/why-do-we-pay-writers-by-the-word

                                    Yes, I am quite aware of that.

                                    It makes more sense in a publication setting, but only so much. The problem is that what you're hiring the writer to do is very hard to quantify. You can't touch it, hear it or even "know it when you see it"—a lot of people don't, because the average age at which most of us stop developing writing skills is about 11th grade English. So pretty much everything you use as a rate method is going to have serious shortcomings.

                                    Please love yourself.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    • Doctor PhibesD Online
                                      Doctor PhibesD Online
                                      Doctor Phibes
                                      wrote on last edited by Doctor Phibes
                                      #26

                                      So, how do you feel about tipping?

                                      Is it counter-productive and confusing?

                                      I think we should tip like they do in France. It's WAY better.

                                      I was only joking

                                      taiwan_girlT Aqua LetiferA 2 Replies Last reply
                                      • Doctor PhibesD Doctor Phibes

                                        So, how do you feel about tipping?

                                        Is it counter-productive and confusing?

                                        I think we should tip like they do in France. It's WAY better.

                                        taiwan_girlT Offline
                                        taiwan_girlT Offline
                                        taiwan_girl
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #27

                                        @Doctor-Phibes 🚫 LOL

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        • Doctor PhibesD Doctor Phibes

                                          So, how do you feel about tipping?

                                          Is it counter-productive and confusing?

                                          I think we should tip like they do in France. It's WAY better.

                                          Aqua LetiferA Offline
                                          Aqua LetiferA Offline
                                          Aqua Letifer
                                          wrote on last edited by Aqua Letifer
                                          #28

                                          @Doctor-Phibes said in 9 to 5 is inconvenient! Who knew?:

                                          So, how do you feel about tipping?

                                          Is it counter-productive and confusing?

                                          I think we should tip like they do in France. It's WAY better.

                                          😄 I note your total lack of working for tips in your job history and politely suggest there's a correlation between that and your feelings on the subject.

                                          (But by the way yes of course the tipping screen bullshit is getting out of hand.)

                                          Please love yourself.

                                          Doctor PhibesD 1 Reply Last reply
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