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The work shy and bone idle....


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 Some of my colleagues are so fucking unbelievable. Let me sum them up (maths joke):

First, there is this supermodel wanna-be chick. Yeah, okay, she is pretty hot, but damn is she completely useless. The girl is constantly fixing her hair or putting on makeup. She is extremely self-centered and has never once considered the needs or wants of anyone but herself. She is as dumb as a box of rocks, and I still find it surprising that she has enough brain power to continue to breathe.

The next chick is completely the opposite. She might even be one of the smartest people on the planet. Her career opportunities are endless, and yet she is here with us. She is a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. I'm not sure she even showers, much less shaves her "womanly" parts. .

But the jewel of the crowd has got to be the fucking stoner. And this guy is more than just your average pothead. In fact, he is baked before he comes to work, during work, and I'm sure after work. He probably hasn't been sober anytime in the last ten years, and he's only 22. He dresses like a beatnik throwback from the 1960's, and to make things worse, he brings his big fucking dog to work. Every fucking day I have to look at this huge Great Dane walk around half-stoned from the second-hand smoke. Hell, sometimes I even think it's trying to talk with its constant bellowing. Also, both of them are constantly hungry, requiring multiple stops to McDonalds and Burger King, every single fucking day.

Anyway, I drive these fucktards around in my van and we solve mysteries and shit.

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12 hours ago, Perkin Flump said:

The caste system in India is truly mental & an echo of how the British Empire screwed an entire Subcontinent up. Looking at Cricketers Faroukh Engineer & Vijay Merchant are two examples of how a job title became more important than your actual identity & if you were not of a caste entitled to follow those careers then you are doomed to eternal impoverishment irrespective of your actual skills & capabilities.

Absolutely mental to live in a society where your trade is your surname. Can't get my head around it. 

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Absolutely mental to live in a society where your trade is your surname. Can't get my head around it. 
It used to be a very normal thing. Just think about popular surnames around the world: Smith, Müller, Hoxha...

What I find far more bizarre is naming your child after a profession. Mason, Tyler, Taylor, Cooper, Fletcher, Hunter, Chandler, Marshall, Tucker, et cetera.
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I worked for 6 yrs in the civil service for a government agency, and I couldn't believe the laziness,  and workshy easy life culture that existed in they made the council look hard working,

Days of disappearing out in a motor and then seat back and sleep wasn't uncommon, 

I thought I'd never bore of it but I did , I realised it was encouraging laziness, so eventually left, 

Though it was mentioned to me on many occasions that this was a job for life and an easy way to see our my time before retirement

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When I first read this topic I had a nagging feeling about a quote I'd seen from Slavoj Zizek about the idea of a paradise of not working. 

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There is a possibility, a hope, that we will work less. Yet, many new stupid forms of amusement might fill our free time. I still believe in work and creativity. If we do not have enough things to do, even if we will feel happy just sitting, watching films and drinking, it will be a very stupid existence. It will soon get dire.

Not working is great if you have something meaningful to fill your time with but the idea of just swapping a boring cubicle job for sitting in your home wasting your time then it's surely worse.  When you hear advocates of UBI and other such schemes it's always assumed that everyone will spend the time they get back from working doing amazing life affirming things but in reality many will just float into a life of boredom, video games, television and vapid nothingness.

Also, there is value in working hard.  Being hard working is a good quality in a person.  I genuinely think it makes you a better person, a better member of your family, a better person for people around you.

In conclusion, forced labour camps begin work at 5pm.  

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On 13/06/2021 at 10:27, hk blues said:

Definitely not a British thing.

Way worse where I am - no word of a lie but people actually use their job type as part of their name. Obviously, only if their job is what they consider 'respectable'. Example - Engineer Lenny; Teacher Joan etc. It's only a small percentage but...

Worst example was one of my son's classmate's mother. She prefixed her name with Engineer. I asked her about her job and she said "Oh no, I don't work as an Engineer, I'm a housewife and always have been but I majored in Engineering at University". It infuriated me more than it should have but what an absolute boot of a woman to do that.

I wish I was brave enough to call her Housewife Mary or whatever her name is. I'm actually getting angry typing this!

 

That's not any different to people sticking Dr before their name or MSci after it tbh.

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22 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

When I first read this topic I had a nagging feeling about a quote I'd seen from Slavoj Zizek about the idea of a paradise of not working. 

Not working is great if you have something meaningful to fill your time with but the idea of just swapping a boring cubicle job for sitting in your home wasting your time then it's surely worse.  When you hear advocates of UBI and other such schemes it's always assumed that everyone will spend the time they get back from working doing amazing life affirming things but in reality many will just float into a life of boredom, video games, television and vapid nothingness.

Also, there is value in working hard.  Being hard working is a good quality in a person.  I genuinely think it makes you a better person, a better member of your family, a better person for people around you.

In conclusion, forced labour camps begin work at 5pm.  

Putting aside the deliberate sarcasm, I think you make a valid point; I think it’s about finding a balance.

I’m retiring at Christmas, just a few months ahead of my 67th birthday.  In many ways I’m really looking forward to it, yet I’m very wary of not having enough to keep my mind occupied.  My job is pretty full on and going from that to doing relatively little will take some adjusting.

 

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1 hour ago, ICTChris said:

When I first read this topic I had a nagging feeling about a quote I'd seen from Slavoj Zizek about the idea of a paradise of not working. 

Not working is great if you have something meaningful to fill your time with but the idea of just swapping a boring cubicle job for sitting in your home wasting your time then it's surely worse.  When you hear advocates of UBI and other such schemes it's always assumed that everyone will spend the time they get back from working doing amazing life affirming things but in reality many will just float into a life of boredom, video games, television and vapid nothingness.

Also, there is value in working hard.  Being hard working is a good quality in a person.  I genuinely think it makes you a better person, a better member of your family, a better person for people around you.

In conclusion, forced labour camps begin work at 5pm.  

I'd take sitting at home over sitting in an office every time.

Is there really value in 'working hard' just for the sake of it? I suppose that's up to the individual, but I dislike how 'working hard' is usually only seen in terms of paid employment. If someone is learning an instrument and spends hours a day at it, they are working hard. If someone enjoys hiking they are 'working hard'. Also, how is sitting at home in front of a screen watching TV or playing video games all that different from sitting in front of a screen sending emails, entering data in to spreadsheets and typing Word document? Personal perspective is the main difference there I think, but they aren't really all that different.

If there was something like UBI, it's up to people to fill their time. I feel sorry for anyone that would sit around all day and watch TV and/or play video games, but I don't see that as am argument against such schemes. The main advantage would be choice; if someone was so devoid of imagination that they need paid employment to operate, they could still do that.

Also there is often a perception that simply doing paid employment is somehow 'working hard'. Sitting down all day in front of a computer isn't my idea of 'hard work'. Driving a car or van around is exactly 'hard work' to me. I suppose physical jobs require you to 'work hard', but that's more the nature of the role than the desire to 'work hard'. I think 'hard work' is conflated with paid employment, and we often see politicians jump on that to drive their capitalist bullshit, demonising those who are unemployed.

Edited by DA Baracus
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On 11/06/2021 at 18:47, parsforlife said:

Traditional heavy industry certainly wasn’t about employers looking after employees.  You were just a lump of meat to get the job done and if you died as a result of their lax heath and safety they just employed someone else, probably raging about the lost production.

Maybe employees looked out for each other more tho.

I was out of work for a little while and it was hell.  Didn’t even have to deal with financial worry as i was living at home, had been working decent hours and knew that the job I was in would start giving me shifts again in a few months.

Ask any snidey c**t who looks down on the unemployed if they’d want to swap.  The cushy life of handouts they claim they are living suddenly doesn’t exist.

Totally relate to both these points. My first experience of work as a wee quiet boy in manual labour (early 80s) was very instructive in how guys can look after each other. We had some men who, quite frankly, were virtually unemployable through no fault of their own  - but everybody helped maintain the pretence that they were productive (whilst taking the piss, naturally).

I've often thought management knew, and turned a blind eye.

No doubt there would be some who would see this as dishonest, lazy etc. I thought it was quite honorable.

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1 hour ago, ICTChris said:

Not working is great if you have something meaningful to fill your time with but the idea of just swapping a boring cubicle job for sitting in your home wasting your time then it's surely worse.  When you hear advocates of UBI and other such schemes it's always assumed that everyone will spend the time they get back from working doing amazing life affirming things but in reality many will just float into a life of boredom, video games, television and vapid nothingness.

Who exactly appointed you or anyone else to decide what counts as 'meaningful' and what counts as 'vapid nothingness' in someone else's life? I'd say that cricket is the height of vapid nothingness and yet it is a spectator sport with professional employees.

Your bourgeois values system is fucking irrelevant in a society that moves beyond commoditising every waking hour of someone's day. 

Quote

Also, there is value in working hard.  Being hard working is a good quality in a person.  I genuinely think it makes you a better person, a better member of your family, a better person for people around you.

The tangible value of 'working hard' being siphoned away exclusively by the CEO at the top of your organisation, while you tell yourself fairy stories that you're somehow a better person for making a 2% productivity gain rather than your colleagues. 

B4B69545-A189-453C-97FC-1DCCF933CE23.png.7604d4bf06687ba0612974bc06b69402.png

Quote

In conclusion, forced labour camps begin work at 5pm.  

The gulag system that you belong to would be more of a 24/7 operation. 

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Ive heard the discussions over the years of 'these work shy scroungers' and having experience of long term unemployment I thin its extremely unfair to tar everybody long term unemployed with the same brish as between the 2013 and the end of 2014 my self confidence was pretty much non existant. I was doing wee bits of volunteer work and getting involved in community projects but starting at BT gave me a platform to turn my life around and get myself to the best place ive ever been mentally and spiritually. When my confidence was non existant i knew a few folk who shall remain nameless who were happy to claim dole money and cross of days on a calendar and would take the piss out of people who were really timid when they got money from the dole or work. I would ask on occassion if they wanted to work and mentioned ways of getting into work through employment agencies, college etc and i would get a response of 'Nah i cannae be bothered doing that' I would look at getting people like this in work by sending them to recruitment agencies and if they dropped out due to this attitude of 'i cannae be bothered' then you take away their money and replace it with the smart card thing they were talking about bringing in a few years ago but you made it so you could only get basics off it so no drugs, alcohol, fags, games that sort of things as its unfair if you have somebody who is trying by going to agencies or college unable to maybe go for a pint and you have your chancers taking the piss. Now the chancers are minimal but they are still frustrating as im going to do my hnc at college in september and at times i feel as if im not getting as many opportunities as i maybe should be although covid is partially to blame for that

Edited by Chris McDonald
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1 hour ago, DA Baracus said:

I'd take sitting at home over sitting in an office every time.

Is there really value in 'working hard' just for the sake of it? I suppose that's up to the individual, but I dislike how 'working hard' is usually only seen in terms of paid employment. If someone is learning an instrument and spends hours a day at it, they are working hard. If someone enjoys hiking they are 'working hard'. Also, how is sitting at home in front of a screen watching TV or playing video games all that different from sitting in front of a screen sending emails, entering data in to spreadsheets and typing Word document? Personal perspective is the main difference there I think, but they aren't really all that different.

If there was something like UBI, it's up to people to fill their time. I feel sorry for anyone that would sit around all day and watch TV and/or play video games, but I don't see that as am argument against such schemes. The main advantage would be choice; if someone was so devoid of imagination that they need paid employment to operate, they could still do that.

Also there is often a perception that simply doing paid employment is somehow 'working hard'. Sitting down all day in front of a computer isn't my idea of 'hard work'. Driving a car or van around is exactly 'hard work' to me. I suppose physical jobs require you to 'work hard', but that's more the nature of the role than the desire to 'work hard'. I think 'hard work' is conflated with paid employment, and we often see politicians jump on that to drive their capitalist bullshit, demonising those who are unemployed.

If you did have universal basic income and didn't need to work, would you actually learn a new language, or skill or instrument? After all, what's stopping you from doing those things currently? Why would you need to stop working to find time for a hobby?

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There's more to valuing hard work than just being brainwashed by exploitative capitalists. 

Hunter gatherers or subsistence farmers would starve if they just couldn't be bothered.  They've also good reason to be concerned about free riders. 

There will be deep cultural roots, if not maybe even some evolutionary hard wiring, that cause hard work to be generally viewed as a virtue and idleness a vice. 

It's industrialised societies where there is an opportunity to be idle with little consequence.  Capital owners have learned this lesson pretty well but have a vested interest in keeping pre industrial norms in place for the drones. 

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15 minutes ago, Sweet Pete said:

If you did have universal basic income and didn't need to work, would you actually learn a new language, or skill or instrument? After all, what's stopping you from doing those things currently? Why would you need to stop working to find time for a hobby?

Amongst other things, yes I would.

What's stopping me now is burnout, lack of time and mental issues.

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41 minutes ago, Chris McDonald said:

Ive heard the discussions over the years of 'these work shy scroungers' and having experience of long term unemployment I thin its extremely unfair to tar everybody long term unemployed with the same brish as between the 2013 and the end of 2014 my self confidence was pretty much non existant. I was doing wee bits of volunteer work and getting involved in community projects but starting at BT gave me a platform to turn my life around and get myself to the best place ive ever been mentally and spiritually. When my confidence was non existant i knew a few folk who shall remain nameless who were happy to claim dole money and cross of days on a calendar and would take the piss out of people who were really timid when they got money from the dole or work. I would ask on occassion if they wanted to work and mentioned ways of getting into work through employment agencies, college etc and i would get a response of 'Nah i cannae be bothered doing that' I would look at getting people like this in work by sending them to recruitment agencies and if they dropped out due to this attitude of 'i cannae be bothered' then you take away their money and replace it with the smart card thing they were talking about bringing in a few years ago but you made it so you could only get basics off it so no drugs, alcohol, fags, games that sort of things as its unfair if you have somebody who is trying by going to agencies or college unable to maybe go for a pint and you have your chancers taking the piss. Now the chancers are minimal but they are still frustrating as im going to do my hnc at college in september and at times i feel as if im not getting as many opportunities as i maybe should be although covid is partially to blame for that

The unemployed don't deserve anything unless they act in a very specific way is what you're saying. They must take any job and they dare not exercise their freedom of choice to turn one down?

A horrible Tory attitude that I don't agree with at all.

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If you did have universal basic income and didn't need to work, would you actually learn a new language, or skill or instrument? After all, what's stopping you from doing those things currently? Why would you need to stop working to find time for a hobby?
My mother always said that only boring people are bored, and I somewhat agree with her.

When I was on furlough I never had enough time in the day to do everything I wanted. Since going back to work I've had to drop a lot of things, including the P&B chess league as I don't have enough time.

I can't wait to retire.
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