The makerspace i was at definitely was a toxic place. My first replacement lasted 1 month, the second just quit after 8 months. There’s one employee left doing my past role and they are hiring 2 more people. Granted, the project is growing and they might just need more HR but I also remember how demanding the role was, without any sort of support. I had expressed how I felt unsupported, but they could not manage to find time to give me ONE 2h meeting a month, while I was essentially running the place. I’d go months without any sort of feedback and have to run after people to answer yes/no emails that would block my progress. I didn’t work a lot at all, only about 30h weeks. But I also essentially was always on call since the place was open 24/7 and there were classes every day. So essentially if there were any problems, I was the first person of contact. My boss would blame me when I’d push back against it, but at 25$/h… fuck that. It was so mentally draining I didn’t have time for anything else anyway.

I’m glad I got out of there. Fingers crossed I find a new job soon and it’s good for me. I have an interview in 2h, hopefully it’s the one!

Nick Reding made the point in Methland that speed is a uniquely American problem; "a Protestant work ethic" is not something any other culture celebrates, including the culture that birthed it (even the Nazis limited their speed to combat). There are any number of countries and cultures that abuse narcotics but there aren't nearly as many that abuse narcotics to get ahead in the rat race.

Americans do this because since our founding, half the country has been a culture of hard work and the other half has been inherited wealth. The Northern states were fervent religious assholes trying to grind their way to God while the Southern states were preposterously wealthy wildcatters whose wealth was predicated on chattel slavery. The end result is a culture of "if you haven't made it it's because you're not working hard enough" mixed with a culture of "if you're not working at all it's because you've made it". We've been exporting it for 100 years but the font of toxicity is right here.

I can give you the boss' eye view on all of the above. We've been dealing with the implosion of another birth center lately. One of our midwives ended up working for them because they could offer her remote work, and she had no childcare (put a pin in that). They've received millions of dollars in grants but they have employees who haven't been paid in multiple years because that money can be better spent on hustle. They have a higher profile because hustle. They attract more attention because hustle. They draw more volunteers because hustle. They're in the news because hustle. And if you're unhappy over your lack of income it's because you lack hustle. I had to make it clear to the midwife we lost (she's back to working with us in a limited capacity) that she needed to do something about this because we saw this show down in LA - "the beatings will continue until morale improves" comes out as a company-wide email ("it's so gratifying to see you all pushing through the sleep deprivation, the hunger, the pain") and then the babies start to die.

I have tried three times to get my employees benefits. We got a bunch of loans forgiven recently which means we got a lot of money back. That money is enough to buy a BMW 3-series... or pay for health insurance for my employees for 8 months. So i'm expecting my employees to "hustle" and work for me without health insurance. "benefits" cut into my profit margin about 50% and since COVID does too, "benefits" are off the table. Hustle for your own bennies, kids, it isn't even my fault that Obamacare essentially stripped out any reason for me to provide them for you, I can't even get a better deal than the marketplace. In a competitive industry a 50% cut in your profit margins is fatal. YOU WILL LOSE. As it is we're one of three birth centers that didn't collapse.

You hear a lot of talk about "work/life balance" and a lot of talk about "productivity" but nobody really wants to point out that the two are polar opposites. The better your work/life balance the worse your productivity and vice versa. Combine that with the reality that American culture has long held that you're lucky to have a job, you're a worthless worm that doesn't deserve anything so whatever you get is a blessing, the employer class should be worshipped like gods, grovel if you want a raise, grovel if you want time off, your employment is "at will" and can be terminated at any point, quit your job and get no unemployment, get fired and get no letter of recommendation. Talking to our employees about personal time is like trying to feed a squirrel - you have to hold out your hand and look away and wait because the other party is convinced you want their skin for a coin purse.

My wife had dinner with a student last night because the student basically wanted her blessing to quit her program. See, her partner has decided he wants an MS in Anthropology (or maybe Social Justice) and that's probably not going to be local and she's not going to have as good a gig as we're likely to offer her anywhere else so she's got to scuttle two years of $40k a year schooling and go back and get a nursing degree so she can actually maybe afford to have a baby some day are we sure we'll be okay if she leaves us in the lurch? And see - she's making the right move. She should have made the right move 2 years and $80k ago. The other right move would be to dump Mr. I'm A White Male Pursuing An Advanced Degree In Social Justice and lock into the only way she might possibly recoup her educational expenses but there's that pesky work/life balance again. Not that nursing is much better; I had breakfast with an old friend Sunday who's a Physician's Assistant. His hospital conglomerate was bought by another hospital conglomerate last Friday; the following monday he was informed they were going from 20 patient contacts per day to 22 with no more money and no more time, best hustle. And see, things would be better for all involved if it paid better to be in healthcare and if you ask 100 people on the street if healthcare should be more or less expensive, you will get 100 "less" answers.

Having just departed a work environment that's miles better, but still eerily similar in a few regards, I'm wondering what exactly is going on and what this all means.

It means the system is fucking broken. It's been broken - I pulled the ripcord in 2007 and haven't regretted it for a single day. But I'm lucky. I'm clever, I'm inventive, I'm broadly curious and I have the fortitude to color outside the lines. I spent my weekend hanging out with people whose lives would be absolutely gutted if their paychecks didn't come for a week because that's the system we've created. And so long as unscrupulous entrepreneurs can make "paycheck in jeopardy" a sign of achievement, beatings will continue until morale improves.

We determined last night that there is absolutely nothing we can do to improve the situation for any of our people short of lobbying to double our reimbursables. That's capitalism in a nutshell: "We'll be able to treat our employees like we'd want to be treated if we got paid twice as much." All of a sudden acquisitiveness is an empathetic virtue, St. Friedman would be so pleased. Considering we cost the state 1/5th as much as a hospital, there's plenty of reason to do it. But considering the more births we do the lower the hospitals' profits, socialist Medicaid reimbursement is a kick in the nuts to the captains of industry. We're taking money from this guy's pockets.

That guy? makes about half as much money as this guy.