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Like, why hire an expensive American Mechanical Engineer when you can hire a cheaper Filipino one?
Yeah, the problem with the world is the low ethics and greed of the American corporation. And greedy CEO's.
I once worked at a company and said if there was too much productivity one day then there would be problems with lots of unemployment. That day has come with companies making their workers overwork and do the jobs of many.
If someone is willing to do the same job for less money, where's the problem?
People start businesses for profit....not to create jobs. Jobs are a side effect of profit.
I have seen the exact opposite. Fewer workers given more overtime is becoming the norm in my industry, although it had always been this way to some extent during peek times. The reason is, benefits such as health insurance are very expensive, so by hiring fewer workers and paying overtime, they save.
Having more workers working part time hours saves them much more since they are now not paying OT and not paying benefits.
Having more workers working part time hours saves them much more since they are now not paying OT and not paying benefits.
I think this method is really only successful in certain jobs and sectors.
My mom has this happening in her phone job with an airline. It happens some in my company with her our phone jobs.
But really for the professional jobs that I see across my department (developers, systems analysts, business analysts, product managers, implementation analysts, QA, architects, etc) the part time shared with many workers does not cut it.
Of course no need for OT-- all of the jobs are pretty much salaried. But we do understand true capacity and we balance not hiring or hiring with what we have to deliver for releases as well as maintenance.
But really for the professional jobs that I see across my department (developers, systems analysts, business analysts, product managers, implementation analysts, QA, architects, etc) the part time shared with many workers does not cut it.
Of course no need for OT-- all of the jobs are pretty much salaried.
Not paying them OT if they are not in mgmt roles is now illegal.
Americans love to consume, but they are very flippant about what they will consume with actual higher quality equaling higher costs.
I went to a department store the other day--not as nice as Neiman Marcus but not rock bottom either. I was looking for shoes. EVERY single womens shoe I picked up was Made in China. Didn't matter if it was on clearance for 11.95 or if it cost 109.95. The leather in the 109.95 may have been somewhat nicer but it was all made in china.
On the other hand when I was last in France (I travel quite a bit to Dublin and Paris for work), it was VERY difficult to find a shoe NOT made in France, Italy or Spain. The quality and workmanship was VERY different, but the price was also higher than 109.95 (think twice as much for a cheaper shoe on sale).
I told this to my coworkers and they were all saying-- that they may only have a few pair of dress shoes that they expect to be used for work on a day to day basis-- if they want a "fun" shoe they may pay a cheap price for a piece of crap to wear the few times out to a night club but in general they are not so consumed with buying A LOT of shoes-- the preference would be to buy a very high quality shoe and have fewer pairs. Same with clothing, etc.
One of my coworkers still carried a Hermes leather purse that was almost 30 years old that her mother used to carry. It was a very pricey bag when her mother bought it (heck they still are!), and her mother gifted it to her when she got her first professional job. The bag is classic and looks timeless. I think about my own relatives who would much prefer to go and buy cheap leather or manmade materials bags for each season versus having one exquisite expensive bag to last far longer.
We want it all-- but at WalMart prices.
I noticed I stop doing this awhile back. I look for the highest quality items I can buy and reasonably afford and I do not spend or waste money on the cheaper throwaway crap.
I don't know about women's shoes, but with men's shoes or suits (which are pretty much the only two articles of non-throw away clothing) you cannot get anything quality at department stores. You're better off going to Men's Warehouse or H&M - the quality is the same and prices significantly lower. And unless you wear a suit every day the durability really isn't worth the price. That only really changes at the high end department stores such as Neiman or Barneys.
Nothing wrong with variety. I can definitely see getting bored with using the same bag every day for the rest of your life to justify the cost - as is the case with Hermes. Most of the women I know who do spend money on bags it's usually a few hundred dollars a year, which would get you one Hermes bag every ten years. They'd probably rather have ten Coach or similar bags than one Hermes bag. Same with shoes. I mean, I have two pairs of shoes for the weekdays: a black pair and a brown pair. What need do I have for more? That's not how women think, they all have dozens of shoes. Considering how infrequently they are worn who really cares what the quality is so long as they aren't visibly cheap from ten feet away?
Actually not all exempt level jobs have to be management.
The jobs in my organization meet the following (from the FLSA exemption criteria).
That the employee is paid a weekly salary of at least $455.00/week (note that state law may require a higher salary threshold);
The employee performs office or non-manual work, which is directly related to management or general business operations of the employer or the employer's customers; and
The employee’s primary duty involves the exercise of independent judgment and discretion about matters of significance.
I don't know about women's shoes, but with men's shoes or suits (which are pretty much the only two articles of non-throw away clothing) you cannot get anything quality at department stores. You're better off going to Men's Warehouse or H&M - the quality is the same and prices significantly lower. And unless you wear a suit every day the durability really isn't worth the price. That only really changes at the high end department stores such as Neiman or Barneys.
Nothing wrong with variety. I can definitely see getting bored with using the same bag every day for the rest of your life to justify the cost - as is the case with Hermes. Most of the women I know who do spend money on bags it's usually a few hundred dollars a year, which would get you one Hermes bag every ten years. They'd probably rather have ten Coach or similar bags than one Hermes bag. Same with shoes. I mean, I have two pairs of shoes for the weekdays: a black pair and a brown pair. What need do I have for more? That's not how women think, they all have dozens of shoes. Considering how infrequently they are worn who really cares what the quality is so long as they aren't visibly cheap from ten feet away?
I see your point.
I guess it is what makes me different from most women I know here in the states. I would rather have very nice things that I know will stay in good repair for years and years and years. I never understood cheap shoes-- generally they are not comfortable, use crappy materials.
Clothes I generally buy cheaper but more substantial pieces I buy high quality that are classics to be used over and over. I spend things on accessories like nice scarves because they can change an outfit.
Many companies in the US are terminating their full timers and replacing them with FTE's (Full Time Equivalents) which are numerous part timers. Thus no benefits and plenty of turnover due to people can't afford to travel to work if they are only being scheduled 3-4 hours a day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by andywire
I have seen the exact opposite. Fewer workers given more overtime is becoming the norm in my industry, although it had always been this way to some extent during peek times. The reason is, benefits such as health insurance are very expensive, so by hiring fewer workers and paying overtime, they save.
My industry simply shifted to freelancers. Publishing had already crashed before the economy did, as the Internet changed all the rules and many print publications didn't come up with a good business model for earning money when they went online.
But once the bottom dropped out of the economy in general, things got that much worse. Now there are lots of "internships" in which publications cycle college students and recent grads through positions that used to be full-time work for editorial assistants, and the industry as a whole has shifted toward skeleton crews on-site for higher positions, with much of the writing and editing farmed out to freelancers.
Unfortunately, an ugly side of this is to bring people on who, for all intents and purposes, meet the definition of employee: They have to work on-site, using company equipment, during specific hours, as overseen by a supervisor, yet the employers insist that these folks work on a 1099 basis indefinitely. The IRS is cracking down on that, as well it should, because it's a smarmy way of getting around unemployment insurance, benefits, and responsibility for withholding taxes.
That's for the legitimate publishers, not the gazillion "start-up e-zines" that demand well-reported, well-researched articles in exchange for "exposure;" content mills like Demand Media who want to pay people insulting wages for material that will receive a basic copy-editing, with no vetting or fact-checking; outfits like Patch/AOL, who expect their editors to be on-call 24-7 and put in 70 hours a week for $30K a year; and HuffPo, which made millions of dollars and did not pay writers one thin dime for their work (and is now being sued by its bloggers after the AOL merger).
Please pardon the rant. My point is that every industry in the U.S. is falling to the same scheme: The people at the top exploiting the people at the bottom. That's why I freelance, but legitimately--meaning I am in control of how, when, and where I work.
High quality at what price. Hermes isn't really high quality as much as it is brand. I like Hermes stuff pretty much universally, but let's get real here $500+ for a wallet? Forget about it. My $20 Wilson's Leather wallet is perfectly fine even if it is just split leather sewed to ballistic nylon. Five years of my sweaty ass sitting on it and its still going strong.
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