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 #2 (permalink) Sun Feb 17, 2008 17:21 pm How much is your work worth? |
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| Why do you think the worker did not work at full speed? Because he felt underpaid, underestimated - these feelings do not make for best performance. His employer, after noticing his bad perfomance should talk to him about a pay rise, or, if its impossibe he should give him a notice. |
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Lost_Soul
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
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Location: South Park, Colorado, USA
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| #3 (permalink) Sun Feb 17, 2008 18:20 pm How much is your work worth? |
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| lost_soul wrote: |
| Why do you think the worker did not work at full speed? Because he felt underpaid, underestimated - these feelings do not make for best performance. His employer, after noticing his bad perfomance should talk to him about a pay rise, or, if its impossibe he should give him a notice. |
You find those people everywhere, and in some countries more than in others. In Ireland people complain in a more subtle way than in Germany, but at the same time they don't put as much effort into their work.
In my opinion, a guy like the one Jamie described should be given the boot on the spot. Those people will never be satisfied regardless of their pay, and discontent is an evil disease to spread amongst coworkers. I believe that you can be content with whatever money you earn, and I also believe that you can make more money if you put your back into it.
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 Ralf
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| #4 (permalink) Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:36 am How much is your work worth? |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: |
A few days ago, I was in a fast food restaurant, when I heard one of the clerks complaining to his coworkers that the job pays him only enough money to fill the gasoline tank of his car. He kept repeating, "GAS MONEY! That's ALL!" He stood there shouting this, while the coworkers he was talking to were putting a lot of energy into their work.
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Oops,i'd say that clerk is great as you know i probably would just get about 40 apples per day with my day-salary. :shock:
edwin
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Edwin
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| #5 (permalink) Mon Feb 18, 2008 4:46 am How much is your work worth? |
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| lost_soul wrote: |
| Why do you think the worker did not work at full speed? Because he felt underpaid, underestimated - these feelings do not make for best performance. His employer, after noticing his bad perfomance should talk to him about a pay rise, or, if its impossibe he should give him a notice. |
I know EXACTLY why he didn't work at full speed, because I went through a similar phase at his age. He has been miseducated in school by people who have never been anywhere but school, first as students and then as teachers. They know nothing about economics or business, except that they have some vague Marxist notion that all business exploits people and should not make a profit. He has been trained in "activism" but not in personal responsibility. So this makes him a loud-mouthed, inattentive slow worker, who doesn't deserve even the pay he's getting. He probably has also been conditioned to think that everything that happens to him that he doesn't like is caused by racism. He will probably be fired and blame it on racism and capitalism, while his coworkers will move on to better jobs elsewhere, based on good recommendations by their boss at the fast food place.
He is probably thinking of it as a dead-end job, because there's really nowhere for most of the workers to advance in a place like that. The other people are thinking of it as the first step to a better job.
Basically, he came in as a brat to begin with. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #6 (permalink) Mon Feb 18, 2008 15:24 pm How much is your work worth? |
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| edwin wrote: |
Oops,i'd say that clerk is great as you know i probably would just get about 40 apples per day with my day-salary. :shock:
edwin |
Funny thought, isn't it?! 40 apples would set you back just about 20 euros in most western European places. 20 euros is what a student earns in 3 hours filling shelves in a supermarket. 20 euros will buy you 4 meals at a Chinese takeaway. And 20 euros will get you petrol money to cover 100 miles in Europe, and more than double the range in America. In any case, it should be more than enough to commute to work and back home.
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Ralf
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| #7 (permalink) Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:49 am How much is your work worth? |
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Ralf,i was not joking...of course those apples are a little big,like 0.15~0.2kg per.
Edwin
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Edwin
I'm here quite often ;-)
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| #8 (permalink) Tue Feb 19, 2008 16:04 pm How much is your work worth? |
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| edwin wrote: |
Ralf,i was not joking...of course those apples are a little big,like 0.15~0.2kg per.
Edwin |
Oops, those apples are smaller than I thought :shock: In this case, you'd only get 12-15 euros for your day's work...
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Ralf
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| #9 (permalink) Tue Feb 19, 2008 23:06 pm How much is your work worth? |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: |
| lost_soul wrote: |
| Why do you think the worker did not work at full speed? Because he felt underpaid, underestimated - these feelings do not make for best performance. His employer, after noticing his bad perfomance should talk to him about a pay rise, or, if its impossibe he should give him a notice. |
I know EXACTLY why he didn't work at full speed, because I went through a similar phase at his age. He has been miseducated in school by people who have never been anywhere but school, first as students and then as teachers. They know nothing about economics or business, except that they have some vague Marxist notion that all business exploits people and should not make a profit. He has been trained in "activism" but not in personal responsibility. So this makes him a loud-mouthed, inattentive slow worker, who doesn't deserve even the pay he's getting. He probably has also been conditioned to think that everything that happens to him that he doesn't like is caused by racism. He will probably be fired and blame it on racism and capitalism, while his coworkers will move on to better jobs elsewhere, based on good recommendations by their boss at the fast food place.
He is probably thinking of it as a dead-end job, because there's really nowhere for most of the workers to advance in a place like that. The other people are thinking of it as the first step to a better job.
Basically, he came in as a brat to begin with. |
Are you serious? How could you POSSIBLY know all of that about a person you have never even met? Also, the fact that you would accuse him of thinking everyone is a racist without having even met him, says something about how you look at the world. I'm sorry to say, but I feel like your rant is a little over the top, and that you are ASSUMING a lot.
I'm not saying I think he is a great guy, but I have no clue why you would take it so far. |
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Openenglish
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| #10 (permalink) Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:37 am How much is your work worth? |
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| Ralf wrote: |
| In this case, you'd only get 12-15 euros for your day's work... |
Yes,i would only get about 40 RMB one day(The exchange rate:7.1407￥=1US$).So Ralf,what's the average salary(per day) in European countries?
Thanks,
Edwin
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Edwin
I'm here quite often ;-)
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| #11 (permalink) Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:00 am How much is your work worth? |
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| openenglish wrote: |
Are you serious? How could you POSSIBLY know all of that about a person you have never even met? Also, the fact that you would accuse him of thinking everyone is a racist without having even met him, says something about how you look at the world. I'm sorry to say, but I feel like your rant is a little over the top, and that you are ASSUMING a lot.
I'm not saying I think he is a great guy, but I have no clue why you would take it so far. |
Yes, I'm very serious. Probably not everything I said is completely true about that one individual, but I would bet that 80% of it is true.
Every human being is an individual, but most individuals are not completely or even mostly unique. A lot of what they do is determined by their education, their upbringing and factors in their environment. I know his behavior very intimately, because I had a similar education about jobs and companies in the same school culture that he did. It produced in me the same false belief that I was being "exploited" by "rich people" who did not pay me "fairly" for not having any skills. It also gave me the same irrational sense of entitlement. So I know that part because I've lived in his head.
As for the part about racism accusations, I insist that there's at least a 50% chance that if he's fired he will blame it on racism. People who work badly like that, and complain that way, generally don't see that their own behavior causes a lot of their "bad luck". They blame it on other people. (Visit a prison some time, and you'll get to hear a lot of that.) In the US, a white alcoholic who is demoted or fired is liable to claim bogusly that his boss only gives good jobs to his friends, or that someone else is sleeping with the boss, or (and this is common) that he was replaced with someone incompetent due to a racial preference program. Very often, white women blame their firings, demotions or lack of success on sexism, even though other women may be succeeding in the same situation. An American worker of a racial minority can use all the excuses the white worker has, but he can also use the racism excuse. Some of the people will claim racism even against managers, teachers, police officers or judges of their own race! I've seen enough situations where some lazy person claims to be a victim of racism -- while other people of his own race step in to defend the accused manager or teacher -- that I can predict in a group which person is liable to do that.
As with any type of conjecture, I can't be right 100% of the time, but long experience makes it possible for me to be right with that kind of guy the majority of the time. And, of course, people can change, so what was true last month might not be true two months from now.
By the way, on a flight to London from the US, I was able to detect with about 85% accuracy who was British and who was American just by the position of their lips when they weren't talking. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 6552
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #12 (permalink) Wed Feb 20, 2008 13:51 pm How much is your work worth? |
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| edwin wrote: |
| Ralf wrote: |
| In this case, you'd only get 12-15 euros for your day's work... |
Yes,i would only get about 40 RMB one day(The exchange rate:7.1407￥=1US$).So Ralf,what's the average salary(per day) in European countries?
Thanks,
Edwin |
Hi Edwin,
Think of a student whose job it is to pile apples on a shelf. He'd earn about 8 dollars per hour. Unfortunately, 8 dollars are only worth 6 dollars in western Europe due to higher costs of living (reduced purchasing power). Your rent is at least 100 dollars per week (for a 1 room appartment), a meal you cook is at least 2 dollars, a beer is 6 dollars in a pub and going to the cinema sets you back 10-12 dollars. So making 64 bucks (before tax) a day is not great, but it serves to keep you fed and warm.
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Ralf
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| #13 (permalink) Wed Feb 20, 2008 14:00 pm How much is your work worth? |
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| Ralf wrote: |
| So making 64 bucks (before tax) a day is not great, but it serves to keep you fed and warm. |
And it stretches farther if you live with your family or roommates, but the best thing is that it is a low enough salary to motivate you to improve your skills and get something better. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #14 (permalink) Fri Feb 22, 2008 6:45 am How much is your work worth? |
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i was underpaid before, when i was working in a restuarant. i was paid 7 dollars/hour by cash, and they never raised my wage before i left. i worked in that restuarant for about 4 months.
anywhere else paid me more (the highest payment was 12 dollars/hour).
i knew that i was underpaid but i didn't complain. instead, i had very good relationship with my boss (even though she disappointed me) and my coworkers. and of course, most importantly, i was always polite to my customers. lots of people didn't want me to leave, including some of the chefs.
i could totally act like the guy Jaimie is talking about, but i knew that it wouldn't help. i figured that if i want my wage raised, i should worked harder and get myself noticed and i did that. only my boss was being cheap. = = b so, i just left.
i am good at my job and i know i can get water job anywhere, so there's no need for me to mess around when i am working. and why am i good at my job?? it is because that i respect my job and i enjoy it. |
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Underdog
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