Comments on: My take on the crisis

By: Carol

Carol — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:26:50 +0000

Hi Steven,

My comment was about your comment and Tom’s. It wasn’t related to your post.
Indeed there are many useless jobs, jobs given as favors to friends and family, jobs that mean nothing and bring no cash in whatsoever and they should be transformed.
People holding jobs like that – or people giving those jobs away – are taking advantage of the system and manipulate at their best interest.

Let’s also talk about the jobs being dumped on a single person so they can spare some extra money.
It is also an issue worth debating. People would do their jobs a lot better and more productive IF they could just do what they were hired for.

So again, i agree with you. It was just a point on people hanging on their jobs for security reasons and my way to justify that.

And Steven, start your own party man! I am sure you’ll do better than 70% of all our politicians put together.

It’s all about the big picture and long term results, right? We do tend to take shortcuts whenever we please.

By: Steven

Steven — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:29:07 +0000

Hi Carol,

thx for you sweet thoughts!

1 thing I like to stress out is that there’s a big difference (at least in my mind) between a non-optimal job and a useless job.
In a non-optimal job, the job in the end isn’t something for you. Because you can do better, you don’t like it, wrong skills, not enough value for you personal, .. you get it.
A useless job, is a job for the sake of it. A job than can be easily expelled, because it makes more sense that it isn’t there. Like some government jobs. Or in a way, like the automobile sector (because the investments to keep these jobs here are simply too high).

The non-optimal job is something you easily cling on. Sometimes you don’t know it’s not optimal. Or you don’t want too see it. Or you fear the economical consequences. Or it could lead you to something else. There’s so many things possible ..
Although important, this is not what my post is about. I think this is free market as well to be blunt: companies, employees, .. can sort this out for themselves. If it doesn’t work out, it will end.

The useless jobs on the other end are important in a macro economical context. These jobs need to be transformed in useful jobs that support the economy. It is my believe this is possible, or at least to a bigger extend than today. But it needs some radical thinking and decisions.

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:11:07 +0000

Steven, not everybody is rigid when it comes down to work far away from home, being long hours on the road and so on. You know very well that I did that for a lot longer than i thought i could…and yes, at some point is not fun anymore…and yes to Tom too…we do hang on on our jobs for security reasons more than we’d like to admit.

Here’s my excuse for hanging on one: if you haven’t got a decent income and have lots of bills to pay, loans, have taxes to pay, you will sacrifice your last drop of energy and sanity to make sure you are not getting in troubles. You do not want to be yet another victim of the system

When you struggle with something like this, you will start thinking small and the last thing you care is if your job is worth doing or not. You’re just doing it.
For some of us this is called survival.

I can’t argue with any of your points in the post; I agree with them all.
All i want to say is that i wish more people would have the courage to voice their thoughts the way you do and take the time to analyze their thoughts with objectivity and decency….the way you just did.

By: links for 2009-06-12 « Boskabout

links for 2009-06-12 « Boskabout — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:05:07 +0000

[...] My take on the crisis | Some minor issues A friend of mine had it right on the money when he said that If you can teach your company more than it can teaches you… it’s time to go. And you know what… he’s right. (tags: crisis solution belgium) [...]

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:56:28 +0000

Ok, I hear you. It’s not ok to do a useless job, but it depends on the definition of useless really. If there’s a market for it, it’s probably not useless, right?
But if there in fact isn’t a market for it, and if it’s a job created for the sake of it, by the government for instance .. than I do believe that’s a ‘lost’ job, en indeed should be avoided.

By: Tom Vanlerberghe

Tom Vanlerberghe — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:07:06 +0000

I don’t really believe in a free market where labour is ‘lost’. If a job is unnecessary, they should cut it, just because that labour could be used for better purposes somewhere else. It’s just not right when people force companies to keep labour even though they don’t need it, even when it’s governement supported.
If you look around, there’s plenty of work, especially since we opened all borders. People just have to be flexible. Look at the mobility in the States. Some-one will move accross three states with his family just because of work. Here we want to find a job withing 50km or it’s too far. Belgium is very rigid when it comes to jobflexibilty and they are too hung up onto securities that still come from the beginning of the previous century… that’s not right.

You’re right though that labour should be made more cheap in Belgium.

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:29:50 +0000

Hi Tom, thx for your reply.
I agree on the job security behavior, It’s human nature I guess. Indeed it’s important to keep an eye on where you’re going. Sometimes you need to leave the comfort zone as we call it. That’s what I did at the beginning of the year. These Days was (and still is) a great company, but for me personally, I wasn’t moving anymore. That’s why I switched to Nascom.

On the first part of your reply. I don’t agree unnecessary jobs and greedy companies are always a bad thing. As long as this helps the economy, in a way, it doesn’t harm, does it? But I do agree these aren’t the things the government has to invest in. If the free market can pull this off: fine by me. If the government is paying for it, it’s just a waste.

By: Tom Vanlerberghe

Tom Vanlerberghe — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:01:14 +0000

In a way you’re right. What about people’s jobs? It means spending, it means income.
And not that I’m questioning your words, history showed that there’s no real answer. But what about unnecessary jobs. Closing car factories also means losing jobs, losing ways of spending money.

Companies are to blame, they are greedy, can’t resist the pressure of the board of directors, shareholders,… but the employees have an important also have a very important role to play: “Know when it’s done.”
If you work somewhere and you know that it’s not going well… how naieve are you to suppose that you can keep on working like you used to? A lot of employees just aren’t flexible enough, they cling on jobs for dear life like no other. And why? Because there’s no work? No probably because they don’t want to look for another job, because that insecurity means sleepless nights.

The way people hold on to jobs these days is just unhealthy. A friend of mine had it right on the money when he said that If you can teach your company more than it can teaches you… it’s time to go. And you know what… he’s right. But people love security don’t they…