tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post7742971561652303331..comments2023-10-29T11:15:37.625-04:00Comments on sleeping alone and starting out early: Update: a moment of silence (and outrage) for (former) MIT employeesJenna McWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767988531102621970noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post-22465902382439915142009-03-14T13:13:00.000-04:002009-03-14T13:13:00.000-04:00No. Employment is not one-sided. Just as you don...No. Employment is not one-sided. Just as you don't just serve at the pleasure of your employer, your employer doesn't only serve you. The employer-employee relationship should be one of mutual respect and care--not one of non-communicative hierarchical bullshit. Nothing really positive ever happens in environments like that unless of course such an environment inspires people to step outside of the status quo. That's where new ideas come from. That's where progress occurs. <BR/><BR/>Sure when your employer is stealing you blind and reaking havoc on the system, they probably benefit in the short term with money and power. But it's not an intrinsically valuable benfit. In the end it causes the system to unravel. Intrinsic benefit comes from mutual respect and allowance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post-66741874415627242612009-02-27T12:29:00.000-05:002009-02-27T12:29:00.000-05:00http://littleacorntoys.blogspot.com/http://littleacorntoys.blogspot.com/Little Acorn Toyshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03925884772101622708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post-20868034393622782152009-02-25T02:43:00.000-05:002009-02-25T02:43:00.000-05:00I hate the whole layoff thing at MIT. But the trut...I hate the whole layoff thing at MIT. But the truth is employment is NOT one-sided. We serve at the pleasure of Susan Hockfield, or any number of supervisors and managers. In an ideal world cuts would somehow not involve people losing jobs. <BR/><BR/>We live in a far-from-ideal world.<BR/><BR/>On the subject of secrecy: I don't want to know what my coworkers make. It's an ego thing. I don't want to know if they're making more than I do and I don't want them to know if I'm making more. It's too late once I've accepted the job to negotiate, so it's just injury without redress. As far as I know, MIT doesn't have any specific rules about revealing salary information. We just don't do it because...well, it's just...uncomfortable.Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02094649825624128623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post-91214710892648163902009-02-25T00:07:00.000-05:002009-02-25T00:07:00.000-05:00I suppose it‘s obvious to point out that knowledge...I suppose it‘s obvious to point out that knowledge is power. If you know how much your co-worker makes, and it's more than you, and unfairly/unreasonably so, you have a right to argue for equal pay. If you know you’re about to get laid off, what’s to stop you from finding a job before it happens? Then you have the power and your employer is left looking for someone last minute to fill a position that‘s about to be laid-off. <BR/><BR/>Codes of silence limit power, which limits independence. And we know that with independence comes sense of self; and with sense of self comes opinions. And opinions lead to headaches. So, with less headaches and unnecessary opinions floating around comes a work-force ready to follow directions without asking questions--or without knowing they should even be asking them to begin with. <BR/><BR/>Such codes of silence are representative of the lack of transparency spread foot-loose across industry and government, which has of late become most glaringly and most apparently irresponsible on the part of those who were entrusted with the power to make decisions. Near unforgivable. <BR/><BR/>MIT's current situation is a microcosm of what is happening and has been happening ideologically and economically all across this country. And all in order to avoid the truth, to avoid headaches, to cut corners, get rich fast, to treat symptoms and not causes. But with this irresponsibility so has come chaos--an unraveling. It represents a pragmatist philosophy; one that most arrogantly strikes down any idea containing a long-term solution if it seems the slightest at first uncomfortable or even close to leaving the policies of instant-gratification, such that our prior presidency so enjoyed.<BR/><BR/>Let me climb back down out of the clouds and be more specific. When I worked for a city government they told me they couldn't give me a raise due to budget cuts and that I’d have to start at $7.25 an hour because that’s all they could afford. Later I found out men hired on at the same time or even later than I were paid $1-2 more per hour for the same work (perhaps I should mention that I am a woman). I ended up quitting and getting a better job elsewhere, leaving their broken system behind (if only to move to another one). I suppose, in retrospect, there were avenues I could have taken for recourse. But they forbade us to discuss our wages with anyone, so if I were to complain it would be obvious I did so...a direct violation. It's like some Catch-22. <BR/><BR/>But what is the harm in knowing? What is the harm in transparency? Why can’t people just be open about what’s going on and face the subsequent consequences? Otherwise your system suffers from scurvy by lack of truth, and all the old lies open up and the system’s contents bleed out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post-82412953633413726912009-02-24T23:03:00.000-05:002009-02-24T23:03:00.000-05:00This is just the beginning! Some rather humorous ...This is just the beginning! Some rather humorous accounts of people loosing their jobs at http://www.fmylife.com/Daniel Hickeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09885916528215868949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post-80191124085055308462009-02-24T22:21:00.000-05:002009-02-24T22:21:00.000-05:00Yeah...today was rough.To be perfectly honest, I d...Yeah...today was rough.<BR/><BR/>To be perfectly honest, I don't even want to know what it'll be like if I survive the next three years worth of cuts.Graveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14642243597030755770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4343773643758367735.post-86606905870016275272009-02-24T21:39:00.000-05:002009-02-24T21:39:00.000-05:00Nice link. I'm so shaken up I can't even read this...Nice link. I'm so shaken up I can't even read this...Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02094649825624128623noreply@blogger.com