"Self-employment places a premium on professionalism and results. Unlike offices filled with managers and employees, nobody cares about your problems, conflicts, complaints about the common-area fridge or your attendance at meetings. Once you've been self-employed for a while, and you only hire/work with other self-employed people, then you look back on conventional work places as absurdist theaters of schoolyard politics, tiresome resentments and child-parent conflicts acted out by self-absorbed adults."
steveo here---
now compare this level of absurdity and square it to equal governmental work.
More ZH comments
Well I own a corporation and have a small group of employees now, and I have run various companies on and off for 25 years. I want to comment on this.
It is not that expensive to hire people. I can hire an employee by using the various "Help Wanted" services, but finding a good employee is pretty hard. When I was a lot younger, in the 1980s, employees had more interest in coming to work to actually WORK. I am very discouraged by the American worker. I believe this is a phenomenon others have experienced.
Here are some employees I've had to deal with lately:
• The Computer geek, good with computers, age: early 20s. Is extremely "sensitive" and easily hurt feelings, any little thing and he's "hurt" poor little thing. He brings a blanket to work and does his code with his blanket on his lap. When he's feeling jovial he repeats quotes from South Park, and he spends all of his non-working hours playing video games. Many times he does not come to work, I think due to gaming all-nighters. He is a compulsive liar, always coming up with some story about why he can't come to work. I put up with it and finally he just quit without saying a word, will not answer his phone, will not return any emails. Did not even come get his final paycheck. He was probably hurt by something someone said. He lives with his mommy and daddy.
• Lady in 40s with kids, constantly texting and talking on cell phone at work. Serious text addict. I trained her and she was accurate at work but would go off and disappear and text and talk during the work day. When work slowed down she just pretended to work. A big pretender. I had to let her go.
• Well educated guy in late 30s who fashions himself as a real political expert, "plugged in" to all the phony right winger radio warmonger zionists. Has never heard of AIPAC but hey, he's plugged in, and always bringing up issues brought to him from his radio messiahs, and calling people "libs". Every thought in his head is about libs libs and libs this or that. What a waste! I told him to take a break for a few days because work got slow, and he immediately filed for unemployment. Some right winger eh.
• Lady with all kinds of food allergies and diets and phobias of every type, I could not keep track of all that. One day she was laying on the floor. I encouraged her to resign so she did.
My best employee by far is an African American very cool guy I trust 100% he is my age mid-40s and has a work ethic that is hard to come by. I'd love to sell my business, it is quite profitable, and give him a nice cut so we can both get out of the racket.
Tue, 07/03/2012 - 17:32 | 2585301 world_debt_slave
