Did rampant capitalism kill 'pride in the job'?

[ohmyliver]

I'm using video games as an example.

Look at my post count, do you think I'm in a position to judge excessive internet use?

Yes, so was I. Half life is a computer game you know. Also Orang utan specifically said 'internet'.

In pre-computer game times, the children who now sit their rooms would be outside playing.

really? so things like model railways weren't at all popular with pre computer game kids?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

When I was a kid, the older generation said sitting around watching tv would rot our brains. They'd grown up without tvs, and they thought tvs were the devil's tool, so to speak.

Destroyer of youth.

 

[spring-peeper]

but a job is just a way to get money. i wouldn't work if i didn't have to.
i think you need to think a little more about the myriad other reasons one might have for not enjoying your job and watching the clock til it's time to go home.

There used to be a pride in your job - a sense that you and your co-workers were working together to make your company the best. (take a look at the thread title) This pride no longer seems to exist. Maybe you are too young to remember this.

 

[spring-peeper]

When I was a kid, the older generation said sitting around watching tv would rot our brains. They'd grown up without tvs, and they thought tvs were the devil's tool, so to speak.

Destroyer of youth.

and, not only were they right, but we went on to improve the technology so that our children now also have video games and cell phones.

We are the destroyers of our own youth.

 

[ohmyliver]

There used to be a pride in your job - a sense that you and your co-workers were working together to make your company the best. (take a look at the thread title) This pride no longer seems to exist. Maybe you are too young to remember this.

Only for some. It still exists for some. It would be interesting to see how this proportion has changed.

 

[butchersapron]

There used to be a pride in your job - a sense that you and your co-workers were working together to make your company the best. (take a look at the thread title) This pride no longer seems to exist. Maybe you are too young to remember this.

There is no way on earth that you can say that this was a) universal and b) that pride in doing in your own job = pride in the company, in the boss etc. You sound like you're living in some rose-tinted advert frankly. People have always hated being forced to work - that's why there been sabotage, wrecking etc as long as work has existed. It's no good confusing the conditions of a relatively priveliged skilled sub-section of the working population with thw wider workforce.

 

[cesare]

There used to be a pride in your job - a sense that you and your co-workers were working together to make your company the best. (take a look at the thread title) This pride no longer seems to exist. Maybe you are too young to remember this.

You're older than me (I think, I'm nearly 48) but not that much older than me. I don't particularly recognise this work ethic you're painting. But then, I was working in retail. I expect there are differences across sectors.

Johnny, re your point about being made to go outside and play and only being allowed to watch TV a limited amount - yes, same here.

 

[kyser_soze]

No, I disagree.

Video games and the internet have lead to many of our societies malaise. It leads to anti-social behavior. For a while, the internet was the number one reason for divorce. I'm not sure if that has changed. One mate on the internet tends to alienate the other.

Out of curiosity, how do you think that sitting in your room playing Vice City would have helped you become more socially active?

Bollocks, sorry. This kind of mono-causal thinking has been around since the theatre - all the internet does is fill a pre-existing blame-gap. Go back 4 centuries and it was theatre that was the source of society's ills, from encouraging fornication to taking the lords name in vain.

Every new medium, or newly popular medium, gets the same response. Playing video games doesn't lead to anti-social behaviour - lax parenting (for example using the TV as a baby sitter), poverty, peer pressure (much of what we now lambast as 'anti-social behaviour' was previously seen as acceptable 'japes' for kids, for example the game 'knock down ginger')...there are a host of reasons why kids can become anti-social that were there before the internet.

 

[Orang Utan]

and, not only were they right, but we went on to improve the technology so that our children now also have video games and cell phones.

We are the destroyers of our own youth.

what nonsense you speak

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm using video games as an example.

no you're not, you're saying they've destroyed the morals of our workforce. You said 'Personally, I blame it on video games'

 

[Orang Utan]

No, I disagree.

Video games and the internet have lead to many of our societies malaise. It leads to anti-social behavior. For a while, the internet was the number one reason for divorce. I'm not sure if that has changed. One mate on the internet tends to alienate the other.

Out of curiosity, how do you think that sitting in your room playing Vice City would have helped you become more socially active?

there's bulletin boards like this, there's dating sites, there's specialist interest sites - all things that get people out of the house and meeting like-minded people. the internet promotes 'pro-social' behaviour if anything.

 

[Orang Utan]

I suspect that it may have something to do with the union mentality. "You can't fire me, I'm union."

Why bother doing even a half-arsed job if you know that you will still be getting your paycheque?

wut?

 

[butchersapron]

I suspect that it may have something to do with the union mentality. "You can't fire me, I'm union."

Why bother doing even a half-arsed job if you know that you will still be getting your paycheque?

Depsite union density and membership rates dropping in the countries we're talking about whilst the shocking degeneration you identify took place? I suppose unions are behind computer games too?

 

[PeterTCA]

In days of old I used to drink my liquor in a Coal Miner's Club in Yorkshire. It was a decent place to go to. Full of that proud proletarian spirit. A year after the big strike ended I went back. I was almost empty on a Saturday lunch time. The Snooker table was occupied by a crowd of menacing, foul-mouthed youths. An old-timer told me that that sort of behaviour would never have happened three year's previously . In those days they would likely be apprentices and the men would certainly have kept them in line.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

and, not only were they right, but we went on to improve the technology so that our children now also have video games and cell phones.

We are the destroyers of our own youth.

I'll bet you watched tv.


Are you destroyed?

 

[mentalchik]

There used to be a pride in your job - a sense that you and your co-workers were working together to make your company the best. (take a look at the thread title) This pride no longer seems to exist. Maybe you are too young to remember this.

Make 'your' company the best ? It doesn't 'belong' to the workers.....think you are looking back with rose coloured specs here a bit.......

I work for a big corporation and although do my job well i am certainly under no illusions that we are anything but numbers on a sheet (especially at the bottom rungs of the ladder as i am)......they just want the most amount of work, for the least amount of pay and maximum profits....i work to earn a living and that's all !

and, not only were they right, but we went on to improve the technology so that our children now also have video games and cell phones.

We are the destroyers of our own youth.

Bit melodramatic !

 

[Orang Utan]

spot on mc!

 

[spring-peeper]

I'll bet you watched tv.


Are you destroyed?

Totally, completely and utterly, you?

 

[spring-peeper]

Make 'your' company the best ? It doesn't 'belong' to the workers.....think you are looking back with rose coloured specs here a bit.......

I guess that they don't do the same type of team-building exercises that I've attended.

I work for a big corporation and although do my job well i am certainly under no illusions that we are anything but numbers on a sheet (especially at the bottom rungs of the ladder as i am)......they just want the most amount of work, for the least amount of pay and maximum profits....i work to earn a living and that's all !

ah - but each employee has a responsibility to do their part to keep the company going. Errors and sloppiness can result in a loss of income for the company and a loss of a job for you.

 

[spring-peeper]

Depsite union density and membership rates dropping in the countries we're talking about whilst the shocking degeneration you identify took place? I suppose unions are behind computer games too?

YEAH!!!

The unions are loosing power!!!!

 

[Orang Utan]

YEAH!!!

The unions are loosing power!!!!

oh, so you're an anti-union luddite ignoramus - oh the irony

 

[Orang Utan]

I guess that they don't do the same type of team-building exercises that I've attended.

you are a drone. you have been brainwashed.

 

[spring-peeper]

you are a drone. you have been brainwashed.

No, I have a good work ethic. I take pride in my job.

 

[Orang Utan]

so do many union members.

 

[spring-peeper]

oh, so you're an anti-union luddite ignoramus - oh the irony

omg - you didn't know this?!?

where have you been?

 

[Orang Utan]

lickspittle

 

[butchersapron]

Oh god, you're shit at wind ups too.

edit:not OU

 

[mentalchik]

I guess that they don't do the same type of team-building exercises that I've attended.



ah - but each employee has a responsibility to do their part to keep the company going. Errors and sloppiness can result in a loss of income for the company and a loss of a job for you.

Er, when last year they made rafts of people redundant and cut staffing levels back to the bone it was nothing to do with errors or sloppiness and all to do with squeezing more profit out of it. We are even more busy than last year, no problem with custom in any shape or form...it's all about being grateful you have a job......they don't care about us one jot.........

 

[spring-peeper]

so do many union members.

Some do, most don't.

I'm willing to concede that your unionized employees are different from those here, though.

Here, from my experiences, things are different.

 

[Orang Utan]

Oh god, you're shit at wind ups too.

edit:not OU

it might apply to me as well to be fair