Before I begin, I know that not every single person making a significant income sacrifices everything to achieve it, especially at the expense of their staff, but most employers work their employees to death to achieve that status.
America, the home of making the impossible possible. You really do get every opportunity out here. You'll have to know how to work the people you're dealing with to ultimately achieve what you want to achieve (I suggest reading up on psychology). :)
However, not every single person is as motivated or is capable of being motivated to the extent that some of us are. It's important not to exploit these people.
Capitalism dominates us, but why? What's the difference in pocketing $250,000, $350,000, $500,000 or even a million/year. I can answer that algebraically of course, but to what extent are we doing this? I've seen people demand horrific hours out of employees even going as far as requiring for the employee to be available 24 hours/day.
I was offered a job like that once. Just as we were about to shake hands, he smiled and said, "make sure to bring your sleeping bag." I walked out.
I read an interesting article about the interns working at Goldman Sachs; the company released a memo stating that interns can't work more than 20 hours/day. Why would you want to? Besides money, what makes that job so appealing?
If you read my previous articles, you'll know my stance on religion (or the lack of), but I've seen some truly eye-opening things happen even behind church doors. I had dinner with a wealthy individual at a church meeting (he invited me). There was an influential speaker and by the end of the dinner was a raffle. Mind you, this person preaches to everyone how religious he is, but that's not what I saw. He twisted the card, spat on it, almost did anything and everything to attempt to win one of the prizes. It was the first time that I can truthfully say that I personally witnessed greed materialize in someone's eyes. You could tell that he was completely consumed by it.
The drawing occurs and he wins...just not the prize that he wanted. For the next half-hour he complained about not winning the top prize. I wanted to tell him two things, "never speak about how religious you are and how everyone should go to church and pray as much you," and "if you were such a God-loving/fearing individual and you followed the teachings of the holy document, then why didn't you not only give your card to someone else, but also volunteer a prize of your own." That's what a good, faithful follower would do.
Had to get that out so that you can understand the frustration that I'm dealing with.
What happens in the American work-system? You go to work as early as you can, you work as late as you can and you try to offer unpaid work so that the company could see your diligence and promote you to work even harder, spend even less time with your family, or experience anything that truly satisfies the psyche. I understand that many employees become addicted to the rewards, promotions and of course the money, but that portion satisfies one part of their life. And you wonder why so many American's regret not spending more time with their children and why so many books come out by aging billionaires warning the younger generation to not get consumed by greed; after-all, they were there.
Most businesses offer vacation. When a business offers anything extra, it literally makes headline news...now that's sad. In Germany, companies (or the particular one that I'm thinking about) know that the employees are working human beings. They're there to achieve the same goal as you: to make money to feed their families and if lucky, enjoy life.
The difference is, you knew how to open up a business and they didn't. That doesn't make them of any lesser importance. You all are working towards a common business goal and that's to improve company growth.
So what happens when you make it? You get greedy like the rest of these American and even Asian millionaires or even billionaires and you turn to stats. What's this person worth to the company? Can I hire someone cheaper to do the same amount of work and pay them less?
I respect Europe for placing a cap on how much a person can make, but it shouldn't need to be done that way. Individuals should cap their own pay. If you don't understand why, don't look for an explanation here; I'm frankly amazed you read this far.
The list below is for companies that have made a name of themselves. Nothing extravagant, but not a start-up. I understand the financial struggle with start-ups and that could be an article of it's own.
Here's the list of how I think employees should be treated at work.
- Full time should be 30hrs/week or 6 hrs/day
- Breakfast and lunch should be offered by the business
- 10 minute breaks should be allowed for each hour worked
- With a 30 minute break after 3 hours
- Every business should close no later than 5:00pm
- After 5:00pm, it should be illegal for an employer to contact an employee and demand work.
- School should be encouraged and paid for by the business as long as an effort is put in
- School-reimbursement should be extended to employee's children.
- Unlimited vacations but a minimum of 1 month off each year.
- For the stronger companies, 2 years paid maternity-leave for the father and the mother
America, the home of making the impossible possible. You really do get every opportunity out here. You'll have to know how to work the people you're dealing with to ultimately achieve what you want to achieve (I suggest reading up on psychology). :)
However, not every single person is as motivated or is capable of being motivated to the extent that some of us are. It's important not to exploit these people.
Capitalism dominates us, but why? What's the difference in pocketing $250,000, $350,000, $500,000 or even a million/year. I can answer that algebraically of course, but to what extent are we doing this? I've seen people demand horrific hours out of employees even going as far as requiring for the employee to be available 24 hours/day.
I was offered a job like that once. Just as we were about to shake hands, he smiled and said, "make sure to bring your sleeping bag." I walked out.
I read an interesting article about the interns working at Goldman Sachs; the company released a memo stating that interns can't work more than 20 hours/day. Why would you want to? Besides money, what makes that job so appealing?
If you read my previous articles, you'll know my stance on religion (or the lack of), but I've seen some truly eye-opening things happen even behind church doors. I had dinner with a wealthy individual at a church meeting (he invited me). There was an influential speaker and by the end of the dinner was a raffle. Mind you, this person preaches to everyone how religious he is, but that's not what I saw. He twisted the card, spat on it, almost did anything and everything to attempt to win one of the prizes. It was the first time that I can truthfully say that I personally witnessed greed materialize in someone's eyes. You could tell that he was completely consumed by it.
The drawing occurs and he wins...just not the prize that he wanted. For the next half-hour he complained about not winning the top prize. I wanted to tell him two things, "never speak about how religious you are and how everyone should go to church and pray as much you," and "if you were such a God-loving/fearing individual and you followed the teachings of the holy document, then why didn't you not only give your card to someone else, but also volunteer a prize of your own." That's what a good, faithful follower would do.
Had to get that out so that you can understand the frustration that I'm dealing with.
What happens in the American work-system? You go to work as early as you can, you work as late as you can and you try to offer unpaid work so that the company could see your diligence and promote you to work even harder, spend even less time with your family, or experience anything that truly satisfies the psyche. I understand that many employees become addicted to the rewards, promotions and of course the money, but that portion satisfies one part of their life. And you wonder why so many American's regret not spending more time with their children and why so many books come out by aging billionaires warning the younger generation to not get consumed by greed; after-all, they were there.
Most businesses offer vacation. When a business offers anything extra, it literally makes headline news...now that's sad. In Germany, companies (or the particular one that I'm thinking about) know that the employees are working human beings. They're there to achieve the same goal as you: to make money to feed their families and if lucky, enjoy life.
The difference is, you knew how to open up a business and they didn't. That doesn't make them of any lesser importance. You all are working towards a common business goal and that's to improve company growth.
So what happens when you make it? You get greedy like the rest of these American and even Asian millionaires or even billionaires and you turn to stats. What's this person worth to the company? Can I hire someone cheaper to do the same amount of work and pay them less?
I respect Europe for placing a cap on how much a person can make, but it shouldn't need to be done that way. Individuals should cap their own pay. If you don't understand why, don't look for an explanation here; I'm frankly amazed you read this far.
The list below is for companies that have made a name of themselves. Nothing extravagant, but not a start-up. I understand the financial struggle with start-ups and that could be an article of it's own.
Here's the list of how I think employees should be treated at work.
- Full time should be 30hrs/week or 6 hrs/day
- Breakfast and lunch should be offered by the business
- 10 minute breaks should be allowed for each hour worked
- With a 30 minute break after 3 hours
- Every business should close no later than 5:00pm
- After 5:00pm, it should be illegal for an employer to contact an employee and demand work.
- School should be encouraged and paid for by the business as long as an effort is put in
- School-reimbursement should be extended to employee's children.
- Unlimited vacations but a minimum of 1 month off each year.
- For the stronger companies, 2 years paid maternity-leave for the father and the mother
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