What is your opinion on American "work culture" and working conditions?

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It depends on what level of management you are talking about. I would agree with you that the company C.E.O. usually doesn’t get canned.

Middles managers are toast. The ones I know routinely save at least HALF of their salary each paycheck because they KNOW that they will, in all likelihood, be let go sooner rather than later.

Assistants are easily replaceable.

Middle managers and assistants should KNOW that they will probably lose their jobs many times over the course of their working careers. It should not come as a surprise, and they should have saved enough of their paychecks to hold them over until they find another job.

If they don’t like living this way, they should consider getting more education and becoming one of the workers (with a certificate) or techies (with a degree), who are usually safe from layoff because they are hard to replace.
 
My point is that the person at the bottom of a business has little to do with the success of that business. Yet, when it comes to job-cutting time, these folks are the first to go. Regardless of who truly is to blame for the business’s success.
IF a CEO is to blame, the CEO should be fired.
 
Canvas said:
Minimum wage should be set to a certain decent wage, and then automatically indexed to inflation like Social Security.

Companies that eliminate jobs by computers or other machines should have a tax penalty to help pay for benefits of low paid, underemployed or unemployed workers.
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Doesn’t a tax on automation penalized the bottom rung workers who make automation products?
 
The main concern I have right now is that our economy is set up right now, so there are only so many skilled jobs. We have too many people going to college compared to jobs that need college. There’s been an increase in recent years in the proportion of jobs on the market that are low paid service level jobs, and we’ve often seen that skilled jobs are cut and replaced with unskilled lower paid jobs. If more people go to college, then employers just start requiring grad school or unpaid internships along with college.

I simply do not think we have the economic setup to get everyone who needs a job to support themselves an education that will get them a better paid job. I also think the overfocus on education pushes us to continue delaying adulthood, and harms those who don’t have a situation where they can be supported by family for 5+ years after 18 while they get started in life.
 
Working conditions are overall good in the U.S., but we need to stay vigilant, and there’s room for improvement.

Wage theft remains a significant problem. The amount of our salaries that feed the Health Insurance Beast is egregious. Finally, I’m a middle class white woman and have been at the receiving end of discrimination, once for religion and twice quite overtly for gender. I can’t imagine what more marginalized populations deal with.
 
The bond and stock market may rival for the flavor of the week in superiority and here in the United States working harder not smarter is still the mantra of the old rugged individualist. The old ways are still considered the best, hard work but always on someone else’s back while Wall Street is currently flourishing. The rich in the era of Trump are richer and that my friends is truth.

Clean energy, cutting edge technology in medicine and bionics (total blindness should be a thing of the past, paraplegics could be walking) no health care crisis, agriculture without the use of pesticides and a lot more. A lot of this is already accomplished since the 1950’s in one of the smallest country’s in the world, lsrael. It’s not that they have never failed at anything, it’s that they never stopped trying…they had to, they returned to a desolate land and now they will probably have a water surplus in 5 years, mind you in a desert no less.

And we’re rooting for coal. Wake up!~Get a grip. Where are our innovators? Paying off student debt in an entry level job where wages and salaries have been stagnant for nearly a decade. Even our doctors cannot afford their malpractice insurance, and the nursing shortage never ends because corporations will provide more staff in a car part assembly line at General Mothers than they will in a hospital taking care of humans.

Priorities need a wake up call.
 
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There’s one guy - 40 years old - wife just had a baby-
Her second baby in three years -
Well, he’s only taking two weeks off -
Not the usual 2 months paid leave -
Another guy just came back after a 2 months leave -
I told about my coworker only taking 2 weeks -
“ is he crazy “ ? ?

No. He’s scared he’ll be replaced - or lose his job -
A real proud worker type -
who insults other coworkers behind their back -
because no one is as good as him -
and he’s right 110% of the time -
and he’ll be missing out on some of the O.T - ( 4-5 hours )

And from what I hear…there’s trouble at home…
 
I know several people who are afraid to take vacation or stay home when sick since they are afraid of not having a job when they get back.
 
RCIAGraduate said:
Hello, since today is/was Labor Day, I decided to create a post asking about your opinion on America’s “work culture” and working conditions.
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My grandfathers came to America because they were interested in working hard and earning a decent living.

If they wanted to be slackers, they would have stayed in Europe where they were at.

As their descendants, hard work in baked into the genes of current Americans. Its just part of our nature, why America is a world leader and European nations aren’t.

A leopard can’t change his spots, as the Bible points out.
 
Some people live to work and some people work to live. And for some it is the same thing. For some, to live is to work. I was reading a book about the founder of Polaroid Corporation, Edwin Land. He could not stand being idle. He would wake up in the middle of the night with a new idea and immediately go down to the office to flesh it out, often calling his managers on the phone and asking them to come in too.

But I know some thirty year olds who are still living in their parent’s homes and not even looking for work, at a time when nearly every employer is looking for workers. Obviously they are not living to work.
 
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I have to admit, working at a lot of lower end jobs was demoralizing.

Most stuff I’ve worked, management didn’t pay a lot of attention to the employees. If you worked hard, what you could expect was to get more work for the same pay because they’d rely on you to make up for the slackers. You weren’t getting raises or promotions certainly - or if you did, it was so they could put you on the minimum legal salary and then expect you to work 60-80h a week. Trying to get a second job or go to school would lead to your hours being cut in favor of someone who had open availability (I had to fight frequently just to get off enough time to go to Mass).

It’s good to work hard, but it’s hard for most people to motivate themselves to do it if what they’re getting is the same as the people who show up and do the bare minimum.
 
I was a union electrician, working in the private sector. I’m grateful for the training I received during my apprenticeship, at no cost to me, paid for collectively through our dues. I’m grateful for my employer of nearly 30 years. I worked hard, and they compensated me well and kept me working, profitably for both of us. I’m grateful for the good wages, health insurance, safe job conditions, and my pension. I’m saddened and worried when I see people in government and business who constantly seek to weaken unions, and the better wages, job and living conditions we worked hard to establish. As a retiree, I’m also worried when I see pension agreements renegotiated.
 
Augustinian said:
Its just part of our nature, why America is a world leader and European nations aren’t.
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World leader in what? Economic prosperity? God doesn’t care about that, and we too must keep it in perspective. The ultimate goal is to love God and save our souls, so if we are going to strive to be a world leader in something, it should be that. Everything else is just a means to get there.

Of course money is important, but as a society we put such an emphasis on “working hard” that it overshadows the whole purpose of doing so.
 
So…are you saying that other nations are leading the world in evangelism?

I know that Africa is seeing a lot of spiritual revival, but I’m guessing that is because of the threat of terrorism and death. Hardships always have a way of making people get very serious about God and eternity.

But Europe? From everything I’ve read, Europe is even more post-Christian than the U.S… Asia–I don’t know much about their Christian status, but it seems that I’ve read that they are still mainly Buddhist, Shinto, and other religions other than Christianity.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Christians still send a lot of missionaries, charity workers and aid, and development programs out to a lot of nations. So even if we’re not leading the way in Christianity outreach to the world, we’re certainly not slacking.
 
I’m not comparing the US to other countries in evangelism. I’m just saying that Americans put so much emphasis on working hard, on being the world leader in material things, but for what? What do we gain by sacrificing time with family, friends, less stressful existence, and even time with God in some cases due to work schedules? If all this sacrifice somehow helped us on our path to salvation, it would be worth it. But for the sake of stuff, a higher position with the company, more money? Not worth it. So being a world leader, as the term is usually used, really doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.
 
When you read various historical accounts of American life since the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, you will see that Americans have always worked hard, from sunrise to sunset.

The famous “Little House” books make it very clear that the Ingalls family, and also the Wilder family, worked constantly, and this was the norm for Americans during that “pioneer” time. Even their “down-time” was characterized by useful activity–reading a book aloud, singing, reciting poetry, talking, sewing, making bullets ¶, or tending a baby or small child.

And yet–in spite of the grind of almost constant work, these families stayed close to God and each other. There was much love and laughter and constant recognition of God’s Goodness.
Playtime, when it came, was all the sweeter because of the hard work that came before it.

I don’t think that hard work has to hurt anyone’s relationship with God. Many farmers find ways to pray while they are in the fields. Many of us stay close to God throughout our busy days. I am lucky to work in a hospital lab, and when I see the wonder of God’s creation–the intricacy of a human body and the amazing ways in which God has provided us with healing ability; e.g. antibiotics–I find my myself praising Him.

My older daughter works long hours at several gigs in the entertainment industry, and she still finds time to have a Quiet Time with God every day, and share her insights with me and her friends. And one of her habits is to pray before every show–not in such a way as to make a show of it in front of the performers, but quietly, in the dark wings of the stage. God is there, and she recognizes Him and asks for His blessings on the show and all involved. Who knows how God is answering those invisible prayers?

Yes, work DOES most definitely help us on our path to salvation! Yes, striving to serve God in our jobs and daily work DOES help to bring about His will for this world in the grand scheme of things! Our work is not just a useless or harmful waste of time–GOD has placed us where He wills us to be, and He is trusting us to take the “talents” He gives us–1 “talent”, 5 “talents”, or 10 “talents”, and work to MULTIPLY those “talents” for Him and His Kingdom!

The Bible says “But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you, so that you may behave properly towards outsiders and be dependent on no one.” (I Thess. 4: 10B-12)

There is a lovely chapter in Little Women where the sisters ask their mother for permission to take a vacation from work during the summer. Marmee agrees, with a knowing smile–she knows that “All Play and No Work” is NOT a satisfying way to live. Sure enough, the week goes downhill from the very first day, and by the end of the week, the sisters pledge to go to work right away at useful tasks. Marmee makes a beautiful speech about the value of hard work, and describes how, at the end of life, it is a comfort to think back on days well spent.

So yes, this is the American Way–hard work in service to God, family, and others, and I am proud to be an American.
 
I’ve had a lot of different jobs in my lifetime, from the menial to the managerial. I didn’t find any of them to be useless or boring or beneath me. There is something to be learned even from the so called unskilled jobs. I didn’t hate any of them, except for one, and that was because the boss seemed intent on personal putdowns. But the job itself was interesting and I learned a lot from it. But I quit and moved to a different city because of the boss.
My parents had the expectation that by age 12 the kids could do odd jobs for the neighbors for pay: mowing, babysitting, picking fruit, cleaning, painting, etc. My brother had a newspaper route at age 14. By age 16 we all had summer jobs; and during the school year we at least had weekend work.

I worry about some of my younger relatives because them seem to be clueless about the fact that it takes money to live. From the time they go to bed from one night to the next, everything takes money: Somebody paid for the mattress, the bed, the sheets. Somebody pays for the heating or cooling, the hot water, the food, the car, the gas, the electricity, etc. Sometimes I get the impression that they think this all occurs just by magic or divine Providence. It doesn’t. Somebody pays for everything.
 
Peeps said:
So yes, this is the American Way–hard work in service to God, family, and others, and I am proud to be an American.
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I agree with you there - this is the American way.

I also agree that we can certainly serve God through work, and work can also be a prayer in a way. Most people today though don’t just work so they can have the necessities of life and don’t rely on anyone (the latter being another American concept by the way). Many people work to the detriment of their wellbeing or their family, just so they can have the standard of living they are used to. For example, how many working mothers dream of staying home but say they have no choice? For some I’m sure that’s the case, but others could totally stay home if they would move to a smaller house, bought modest used cars, replaced their family vacation with a camping trip, and just got used to living with less stuff.

Or what about people who work on Sundays in places of business that can easily close that day, such as department stores? What kind of a clothing emergency that can’t wait till Monday necessitates a department store to stay open and require its employees to work?

What about people who go to work sick, not only because they have very limited sick time, but also because an employee who calls in sick a lot is looked down upon as someone who doesn’t “work hard.” I’m not talking about being absent 30% of the time, I’m talking taking a couple extra days to get better rather than rushing in the day your fever breaks.

Of course, working less has its price like I said before - if you work less you have to live with less. In my opinion, what most people consider “comfortable” is way too much.

And I’m one of those people, don’t get me wrong. I work a job I hate because pursuing my interests would pay way less, and I want to make sure my son doesn’t lack the comforts we are used to (nothing extravagant by today’s standards) while I pursue my career. But honestly, I can’t wait to downsize. I used to work for Catholic charities years ago, making less than half of what I do now, and I could barely afford produce, but I felt so much free back then. Somehow the more I made, the more enslaved felt (and I really don’t make that much considering California cost of living, believe me). There is definitely a certain freedom in living more simply, and I think people in other countries might be more familiar with it.
 
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