View Full Version : Bernie’s World
I see Senator Sanders is proposing an eight hour reduction to the work week, with “no reduction in pay”. Grand economic theorist that he is, he doesn’t go into much detail on how this would affect the economy. Realistically, I would think the increased unit labor cost would tend to drive jobs overseas, increase investments in automation and significantly increase youth unemployment.
Oh, no worries. If every business just cut back their operations by 20% while simultaneously adjusting pricing to increase inflation by an equal amount everything will be fine.
I agree it's crazy to see Bernie channeling his inner Richard Nixon.
Other than government workers, I'd think private enterprise can determine the length of work week and commensurate pay with out making it official? There must be more to it. There are days when I get the feeling that the work from home trend has already affected work quality, if not actual productive hours. Playing Frisbee with Fido doesn't count as work.
I realize a lot of office-type jobs don’t have quantifiable goals. Thankfully mine does. So as long as I meet those goals my boss doesn’t give a crap how long I work or when. That allows me to do things like go to doctor’s appointments during the workday. Or volunteer weekly at the local animal shelter for a couple hours. My assistant is in a similar situation. I don’t care when she works. I just care that she gets all the ‘paper’work processed in a timely fashion. She cuts out at around 3;00 every day to go get her kids from school, makes them dinner annd helps with homework, etc, and then works later in the evening. When I log on in the morning I have a bunch of emails from her sending out policies and such at 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 in the evening.
catherine
3-22-24, 11:16pm
I truly think that there is a lot of wasted time during the day, and that reduced hours don't necessarily mean reduced productivity. Probably the opposite. I wonder if there is typically less productivity in companies that have summer hours.
Well, the freight doesn’t stop moving so a 32 hour week wouldn’t work for my industry. Plus when the customers expect you to be in the office from 8-5, companies would have to hire additional people to make up the difference. Wouldn’t work.
ToomuchStuff
3-23-24, 10:31am
Are you sure he wasn't just proposing this for Congress?
My county did this last year, promising us no reduction in services….
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/workers-for-san-juan-county-are-getting-a-32-hour-work-week/
iris lilies
3-23-24, 12:43pm
My county did this last year, promising us no reduction in services….
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/workers-for-san-juan-county-are-getting-a-32-hour-work-week/
that is cool. I’m always happy to see other jurisdictions try this stuff. I was thrilled with the idea of Oregon and Colorado going to Universal healthcare, but hunh, that did not happen… I wanted to see how those experiments worked on a statewide level.
I do not see how reduction in work hours for existing employees can work when every business I know is begging for employees, including municipalities. How can you take an already reduced workforce and reduce them even more? Does not compute.
My county did this last year, promising us no reduction in services….
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/workers-for-san-juan-county-are-getting-a-32-hour-work-week/
Wouldn’t this require hiring more essential services employees to maintain the same coverage? Personnel costs are usually the biggest driver of local government budgets, so it’s hard for me to see how they aren’t asking taxpayers to contribute more to their employees’ leisure.
I agree it's crazy to see Bernie channeling his inner Richard Nixon.
Dumb, dishonest economic policies know no party affiliation. Price controls, trillion dollar coins, rent controls, modern monetary theory, old New Deals and new New Deals are all stupid in their own way. This detracts nothing from the stupidity of Bernie’s proposal.
In my corporate life, salaried people were pretty much expected to work a more than 40 hour work week and have some corresponding productivity to meet their objectives in job reviews. It was common for people to forfeit allocated vacations. Some seemed to get by with less but were likely targets for routine work force reductions and unlikely candidates for promotions. My supervisor for a time had this posted in his office. I don't think anything Bernie could do would change that. Real or perceived, I always had the impression my friends in government work did not share the same perspective.
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”
catherine
3-24-24, 12:33pm
In my corporate life, salaried people were pretty much expected to work a more than 40 hour work week and have some corresponding productivity to meet their objectives in job reviews. It was common for people to forfeit allocated vacations. Some seemed to get by with less but were likely targets for routine work force reductions and unlikely candidates for promotions. My supervisor for a time had this posted in his office. I don't think anything Bernie could do would change that. Real or perceived, I always had the impression my friends in government work did not share the same perspective.
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”
Yes, that scenario is true, in the US at least. In the EU, people have a better work-life balance. I quit my job to go freelance because I was working 70 hours a week. But now, with people working remotely and the ubiquity of technology, you are still "on" 24/7. DH has been out of the corporate workforce for decades, and he can't wrap his head around the fact that I'll be emailing a client on Saturday morning.
I believe that this is a uniquely American phenomenon. I remember one time a big pharma client wanted to do research in France between Christmas and New Year's. We told them that it would not be possible. No one there would agree to do an interview. The client said, "Just pay them more." We couldn't make them understand that in some places money won't always get you exactly what you want.
I'm not exactly sure how Bernie's plan would work either, but like all of his aspirational proposals, you have to start somewhere. Maybe when the Millenials get into Congress things will change. They seem to have less of the "live to work" mentality.
I'm not exactly sure how Bernie's plan would work either, but like all of his aspirational proposals, you have to start somewhere. Maybe when the Millenials get into Congress things will change. They seem to have less of the "live to work" mentality.
I also had excellent benefits with a small fixed pension and medical insurance partially paid when took early retirement at 56. My work was challenging and interesting in glass is half full side of things. I sometimes wonder if the modern millennial "live to work" ethics includes a much longer time in the workforce and different terms of corporate loyalty.
Wouldn’t this require hiring more essential services employees to maintain the same coverage? Personnel costs are usually the biggest driver of local government budgets, so it’s hard for me to see how they aren’t asking taxpayers to contribute more to their employees’ leisure.
Indeed, there seem to be some serious structural problems with the plan....
iris lilies
3-24-24, 1:55pm
Yes, that scenario is true, in the US at least. In the EU, people have a better work-life balance. I quit my job to go freelance because I was working 70 hours a week. But now, with people working remotely and the ubiquity of technology, you are still "on" 24/7. DH has been out of the corporate workforce for decades, and he can't wrap his head around the fact that I'll be emailing a client on Saturday morning.
I believe that this is a uniquely American phenomenon. I remember one time a big pharma client wanted to do research in France between Christmas and New Year's. We told them that it would not be possible. No one there would agree to do an interview. The client said, "Just pay them more." We couldn't make them understand that in some places money won't always get you exactly what you want.
I'm not exactly sure how Bernie's plan would work either, but like all of his aspirational proposals, you have to start somewhere. Maybe when the Millenials get into Congress things will cchange. They seem to have less of the "live to work" mentality.
yes! And let the “somewhere” be not in my state. I am completely on board in carrying out the social experiments in states other than mine.
Indeed, there seem to be some serious structural problems with the plan....
To maintain the same level of coverage, you would need to increase head count by 25%. It’s hard to imagine you could offset the increase in wages and associated benefits by decreasing the hours the public could access sevices at the courts, register of deeds, parks, etc. Even if the taxpayers were willing to pay more for what would probably be decremented services, the credit rating agencies might well look askance at a structural increase in the annual budget.
yes! And let the “somewhere” be not in my state. I am completely on board in carrying out the social experiments in states other than mine.
Sometimes the laboratories of democracy create monsters.
iris lilies
3-24-24, 2:08pm
Sometimes the laboratories of democracy create monsters.
Hunh…unintended consequences of do-gooding. Who knew there could be such a thing?
Hunh…unintended consequences of do-gooding. Who knew there could be such a thing?
All those people fleeing California?
ApatheticNoMore
3-24-24, 3:03pm
In my corporate life, salaried people were pretty much expected to work a more than 40 hour work week
So I've almost always been salaried (was salaried non-exempt at one job, which is salaried but you get overtime pay after 40, I know most people don't understand that is a thing, but it actually is a thing, salaried and exempt are not equivalent). But anyway, mostly I've been salaried exempt (from overtime) and almost noone has worked me over 40 hours except briefly for a push.
Dumb, dishonest economic policies know no party affiliation. Price controls, trillion dollar coins, rent controls, modern monetary theory, old New Deals and new New Deals are all stupid in their own way. This detracts nothing from the stupidity of Bernie’s proposal.
And multi trillion dollar tax cuts for rich people from the ‘fiscal responsibility’ party. Don’t forget about that mega maga idiocy.
My county did this last year, promising us no reduction in services….
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/workers-for-san-juan-county-are-getting-a-32-hour-work-week/
LWV Report from the County Council meeting this week:
County staff reviewed the initial impact of the 32-hour work week six months in. The move addressed the fiscal conundrum of rising costs and wages that would have cost about $1 million. An employee survey showed that 67% of employees had increased satisfaction with more flexibility and better work life balance. Separations dropped 46%; the county saw its largest ever increase in applicants for open positions with 78% citing the 32-hour workweek as a plus. Total hours worked by county staff dropped only 8%, because staff took 31% less sick leave and vacant positions were filled. Some 12% of staff felt stressed by having the same amount of work but less time to do it. They need to look at a universal schedule and measure key performance indicators for the one-year review.
LWV Report from the County Council meeting this week:
Wow! Interesting findings. I've been reading Slow Productivity by Cal Newport which talks about the importance of time off. Also, last week I saw a CBS Sunday Morning segment on "laziness" (It featured, in part, the "lazy" practices of The Institute for Advanced Study which has produced an impressive number of Nobel Laureates.) One of the reasons I ditched the corporate life was because I wanted to be accountable only for what I produce--not for how much time I put in.
iris lilies
5-3-24, 6:04pm
that is cool. I’m always happy to see other jurisdictions try this stuff. I was thrilled with the idea of Oregon and Colorado going to Universal healthcare, but hunh, that did not happen… I wanted to see how those experiments worked on a statewide level.
I do not see how reduction in work hours for existing employees can work when every business I know is begging for employees, including municipalities. How can you take an already reduced workforce and reduce them even more? Does not compute.
oh yeah, Cane Corsos are a trend And then they are not generally family dogs especially from breeders who haven’t been doing it for decades and are well-known in the dog world. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go the way of Dobermans, then Rottweiler, now pitbull in being collected by tough guy ghetto folks.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2025 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.