I don’t need to know exact companies, no need to unnecessarily expose yourself or anything, but as we are a workers rights instance of Lemmy, I safely assume we are all proletarians. I for example work at a unionized grocery and I work outside. I have many complaints but I try my best to work as little as possible while getting my paycheck. Customers are usually fine but occasionally just dumb af to the point where it’s annoying(I have millions of stories) managers are very kind, only ones who were dicks left(unfortunately they probably got promoted if I remember correctly) and my coworkers are eh. Some are great to confide in and joke with, while others are rude or annoying, some are very nice but have garbage politics (libertarians who don’t understand their benefits from being in a union/don’t care enough about the differences to advocate for it). I plan on becoming a firefighter, not only for the pay, job security and union benefits, but it’s also an essential job that doesn’t exist just to create capital (no judgement to those who work in corporate environments, I’ve never done it and can’t judge it). I like my job overall but Goddamn the weather. Edit: Kinda cool to see so many people who are in tech.
I do software development, mostly working with full stack web apps.
Your telling me your not a cosmonaut?
lol dress for the job you want :)
I can’t even really describe my current responsibilities succinctly. I’m basically trying to automate and integrate business processes. Some of that is centered around ERP, some web apps (off the shelf and custom), and a bit of the usual Microsoft
officespyware suite. It’s super interesting and I like solving these types of problems to help people work on what people should actually be using their brains for (ie not menial repetitive stuff). Yet it’s very frustrating since the everyone else (workers, management, owners) basically doesn’t “believe” in digitalization nor industry best practices.I really want to start a union drive, but due to some, let’s say familial connections within the company, I’ve been more or less convinced that it’s in my personal interests not to be the spark in this case.
My family own a farm land that we work on. It’s not that big of income but ok to fulfill our basic needs and some times little bit more. I am learning programing mainly webdev and looking for work. I hope I would be able to earn more comfortably (compared to hard farm labour) once/if I start getting clients but that’s the hard part. I keep practicing and developing new skills in by working on hobby projects as a showcase for clients/employer’s one day.
Interesting background, I can safely say we don’t have many agricultural workers and the work that you are educating yourself in is also pretty interesting, all the best to you comrade
I can’t have a job. I’m a programmer, and I had no problems working when a friend and me had a startup that did not earn any money. But then, when we were getting paid for work (for another company), I couldn’t take it and quit after a week. I can’t handle the having to work a certain amount of hours per week, when there is no work. What should I do, just sit there? Never, that’s useless. Also the thing to work on was clearly useless. Everything I could get paid for is useless websites for useless companies.
The way I see it, better useless than harmful.
We live in a capitalistic society. I’m a programmer myself, and the way I see it, if we can game the system as workers, we should. The bosses do it. The investors do it. Why shouldn’t we?
I’m a code monkey who works in fintech.
I have friends who work in Fintech, at least one of whom considers themselves socialist. It’s been hard for me to reserve judgement of them considering a choice to work in a sector which I view to be on par with CIA etc in terms of producing bad social outcomes, with the presumption that they also understand the role of finance in capitalism.
Comrade, I come only with curiosity, no judgement, and honestly, I ask the following question only to better understand some people I know IRL; Would you be willing to describe your ideological relationship to your industry and your job? How do you reconcile the contradiction of directly developing the economic base of capitalism while presumably being a communist?
Thank you, and I understand if you choose not to respond.
Would you be willing to describe your ideological relationship to your industry and your job?
Completely mercenary. I started working there before I was class conscious, and pretty much the only thing keeping me from changing jobs sooner is because I’m also doing a masters degree on the side and I don’t want an unexpected change in workload to completely drown me.
How do you reconcile the contradiction of directly developing the economic base of capitalism while presumably being a communist?
By using up as much as my employer’s resources for as little work as possible. If I play my cards right, I can work six hours or even less when eight hours is expected without management knowing or caring. It’s not quite as absurd as those “day in the life of a tech worker” videos that were popular not long ago, but there is a kernel of truth in them. On a slow day, I might even sneak in work on something that isn’t for my employer.
I think its also easier for me to justify because most of the stuff I’ve worked on there never reached production because upper management shit canned it several months into development.
Finally, I think the software my employer sells is more useless societally than outright harmful. It’s wealth management software used by porkies and their financial advisors. Still not great, but at least it’s not making drones better at killing or doing spooky behavior manipulation shit for a big tech company.
Postal worker
Postal workers are usually based and very present in the unions. It seems to be one of the few jobs in which people are still actively class conscious.
They don’t call it going postal for nothing.
If I may ask, are you a government postal worker or is it for a private company?
Currently work retail. My exact job is meat clerk, which means I’m in charge of serving meat from the case and keeping the cooler wall full, then cleaning the backroom after the butchers are done. Strawpolling indicates a 9-1 lead in favour of unionizing after they’ve learned what exactly it is (which was needed in 7/10 cases). Planning to put up a bunch of posters to raise awareness, but can’t find any good ones (and I’m not really a graphic designer, although I might have to pretend).
I understand talking to coworkers, but does putting up posters not endanger your job? Surely they’ll be able to find out who did it and fire you for “unrelated” reasons. That being said I’m totally for it, good for you man.
They might. I have been rather active about talking about it, after all. But the posters are not going to be personalized (the email on them is one I created just for this purpose). And besides, this is Canada - we don’t often fire people for unionizing.
That said, I’m not too attached to this job.
Ah, makes sense. Much respect! Keep doing what you’re doing.
Awesome! I also work retail and I’m unionized, all the best to you and your coworkers in your effort to unionize! And good work on planning to put up posters, I think it will make a difference!
Any already-made posters you have handy that could be useful?
Very good question, I’ll check at work, but frankly I’d be surprised if the posters don’t have our union’s logo and local # written on it (ex. local ABC 123 branch) which you probably wouldn’t use, but if I see anything around I’d be glad to send a PM of whatever I find👍
I mean, I can probably edit those out.
I’m a red seal carpenter. Mostly concrete and framing. I work away two weeks on one week off right now for a “union” or what passes for a union around here.
I’ve been around a lot of menial work. Trolley pusher, warehouse work, pizza delivery - right now I’m settled into a very cozy corporate gig doing health insurance. It’s remote work and incredibly easy so I’m sticking with it.
Just like you I do have aspirations of getting into a job that feels more meaningful and is actually essential for my community. The one constant through all of my jobs, no matter how hard or easy they are, is that they feel pointless. I’m just a cog in the machine and don’t get to see or enjoy the output of my labor. No matter how good a job is, I just can’t be happy in the long term like that.
The one constant through all of my jobs, no matter how hard or easy they are, is that they feel pointless. I’m just a cog in the machine and don’t get to see or enjoy the output of my labor.
I feel that. Boy do I feel that
Illustration, Concept Art, and Comics
Work an easy remote job so I can contribute to open source software at least 6 hours a day :)
I guide people with their debt. It is an unending, frustrating job and it gives you a real look into how poverty and debt changes you as a person. Many people I come in contact with only think about money and what they need to pay. So much potential wasted because some instance needs money with their added fines as well. Though it must be said I also get quite a lot of people who are really bad at budgeting as well. I see 10+ cases on the daily that make enough money to be able to live comfortably, but somehow can’t find a way to pay off 3k in debt. Also, multiple people who get in debt who recently bought a new Mercedes or BMW but can’t pay off 700 euro. The vast majority is in poverty, though.
I wanted to switch so I applied to a job at the Union. After two interviews I made it to the final round but it will take place somewhere in the next week or two.
Debt is such a crazy thing in capitalist society. The fact that debt isn’t inherently visible (you can actively see a person experiencing life without a home, struggling through life without food), you can’t see how much someone is struggling financially and scraping to survive, I feel that it warps our idea of how other people get by. The answer is that they kind of don’t in a lot of scenarios, plenty of people die in debt.
1 in 5 Belgian people is in active debt and 1 in 6 Belgian people says they would be in major trouble were they to miss one paycheck.
1 in every 5 people I see in the street is having some form of financial problems. No one openly talks about their debt, payment plans or how many agencies are after their ass. It’s like a silent epidemic in this country. I sometimes wonder what would happen if everyone just stopped acting as if they are fine and have everyone showing how problematic this situation is.
That’s extremely sad. Those numbers are already horrifying and it just gets worse and worse across the imperial core. That number sits at almost 77% of Americans being in active debt and 55-64% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck and unable to afford a 500 dollar emergency expense.
Only made worse by there being no financial literacy, no teaching of budgeting, what credit is, how to navigate loans and credit, how to save, how to open/find good bank accounts. It’s a purposeful trap.
Though it must be said I also get quite a lot of people who are really bad at budgeting as well.
I think this is further evidence that we shouldn’t live in an individualistic society.
Graphic designer. I’ve worked on marketing teams most of career but after I lost my last job I tried freelancing. That was shortly before the pandemic started so that plan ended up fizzling out. I’ve been living on whatever few contracts I can land and gig work ever since.
QA engineer. Used to work mainly for front-end of various trade-related websites, currently working with more hardware oriented things. Still essentially trying to break the nice, pretty code of my developers. All in all, not a bad job, pay is decent (something like twice the average for my city), don’t have to break my back in manual or deal with customers.
Funnily enough, it was this occupation that had kept me from embracing Marxism for a long time, as I didn’t consider myself “proper” proletariat. Proletariat, I thought, were people breaking their backs in factories, construction, etc. I was just a prissy white collar, and any socialist revolution would sweep me away alongside the oligarchs, except they have better chances of escaping justice. It took a good friend to sit down and explain to me the actual definitions of proletariat and bourgeoisie, as well as class interests.
Criminal lawyer.
