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There's still plenty of friendships and laughter where I work, but 3M is one of the few larger corporations that still have decent pay and job security and good corporate ethics relatively speaking. Plus our particular plant makes medical products, relatively high profit margin items which allows comfortable pay without excessive pressure on productivity other places in town have.
Not all places in town are like that. My prior place of employment payed quite a bit less and they pressured for high levels of productivity from their employees and not much break time in comparison. People weren't as happy cheery there but they weren't miserable either.
It's just not competitive to make stuff in the US anymore, combined with automation and the like the chinese can and will get it done and are willing to slave away for less money.. it puts pressure on US businesses.
Co-workers in general do enjoy each other's company outside work quite a bit here in eastern south dakota.. it's not something my mother or father ever did and as an introvert I have no interest in it. Coming from Wisconsin I don't think people mingled outside of work as much in eastern WI, they were more the spend time with the family types, which is how I am. Where I am now, all the young people not already married sleep with each other.. I joke that everyone seems to sleep with everyone else... I suppose it's always been pretty normal for some people going back even decades and I'm just 'sheltered'
Co-workers in general do enjoy each other's company outside work quite a bit here in eastern south dakota.. it's not something my mother or father ever did and as an introvert I have no interest in it. Coming from Wisconsin I don't think people mingled outside of work as much in eastern WI, they were more the spend time with the family types, which is how I am. Where I am now, all the young people not already married sleep with each other.. I joke that everyone seems to sleep with everyone else... I suppose it's always been pretty normal for some people going back even decades and I'm just 'sheltered'
Sign me up at your company! Look out SD, here I come! Mama needs to get laid!
Good luck with finding that! I recently retired after over 50 years in the workforce and over the years I found precious little of what you are looking for. That's why it's called work. They have to pay you to do it. You don't have to love your job. Find something you don't hate to do, that you can do well, that has a future, then take whatever satisfaction you can from it. You don't live to work, you work to live. Truth be told, I don't know anyone who I believe really loves their work. I know one person who claimed to, but he jumped on early retirement like a dog on a bone, so how much could he have really liked it?
Good luck.
The poster below experienced fifty years of unfriendly offices, OMG!
Even though I have been fired quite a few times in my career for not fitting in with my bosses personality, I have enjoyed many of my coworkers and had real friends in many offices I worked in and even those employees who were not friends, I was friendly with.
I think office socialization did go down hill in the last five to ten years though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BuenoOffenhauser
Good luck with finding that! I recently retired after over 50 years in the workforce and over the years I found precious little of what you are looking for. That's why it's called work. They have to pay you to do it. You don't have to love your job. Find something you don't hate to do, that you can do well, that has a future, then take whatever satisfaction you can from it. You don't live to work, you work to live. Truth be told, I don't know anyone who I believe really loves their work. I know one person who claimed to, but he jumped on early retirement like a dog on a bone, so how much could he have really liked it?
Good luck.
Good luck with finding that! I recently retired after over 50 years in the workforce and over the years I found precious little of what you are looking for. That's why it's called work. They have to pay you to do it. You don't have to love your job. Find something you don't hate to do, that you can do well, that has a future, then take whatever satisfaction you can from it. You don't live to work, you work to live. Truth be told, I don't know anyone who I believe really loves their work. I know one person who claimed to, but he jumped on early retirement like a dog on a bone, so how much could he have really liked it?
Good luck.
I'm in year 30 as a teacher, prior to that I worked in industry in a factory and was a Naval Aviator. That last one did have camaraderie. Teachers try to but there are just enough backstabbers and administration stooges on staff that you have to be guarded in everything thing you do with them.
I mentioned up thread about an assembly line being soulless. It was and likely still is. The company I worked for, a major international manufacturer, mandated each shift to have a social committee, the duties of which required an end of 3-11 shift party at least ten times a year. Those events usually ended up with us young guys getting drunk, the old guys getting drunk and then fighting over a poker game and the women just getting mad.
Then, when the bad times hit — which at one time were isolated incidents of business failure mainly due to mismanagement — the spirit plummets. The problem is, this nation has been experiencing nearly two decades of massive bad times. It started when Wall Street (with acquiescence from the government) made it acceptable for corporate boards to constantly dismantle their own companies for quick profit. Instead of STABILITY being valued in the economy, quick profits from surges in stock prices became the goal. Most lower-level employees didn't really even understand what was going on in the board rooms. The general media ignored the story because it was too complicated to explain. The business press didn't see any harm in it and they are really just mouthpieces for Corporate America anyway, so they weren't about to sound an alarm.
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One case in point, today's news that Macy's will soon be laying off over 2000 workers - and the stock price shot UP.
I think it's because companies don't think they really need us anymore. The American worker is getting phased out every so slowly. Think about it. Amazon wants to use drones to do their shipping, which means over time less people will get hired for shipping jobs-- drivers, package handlers, warehouse workers, etc. One small change like that creates waves changing the little things that affect us.
IMO, it'll just be a matter of years before there are hoards of unemployed workers with degrees and skills who will not be able to get ANYTHING because a robot, drone, or some other automated system has eliminated the job. It's all about saving a buck, and we human workers cost too much to pay.
And businesses that push this too far cannot see the forest for the trees. If people are not working and making money, nobody is going to have the money to buy the products or use the services their cute little robots are providing.
Why are workplaces so soulless and unfriendly now?
Perhaps the shifts in our society and culture over the past thirty years have produced soulless and unfriendly people.
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