College kids - get off your high horses already.

[2/325Falcon]

[ QUOTE ]
On more than one occassion, I made points in class from the point of view of a wage-employee, since I worked in a call center before I started my MBA. I think I was the only one in the room who had that experience - I even asked if anyone else could relate, and nobody could.

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I'm surprised that these Gordon Gekko wannabes didn't just laugh at you and tell you your old job should have been outsourced to India.

[KaneKungFu123]

dlk9s,

You didnt answer the question. They said that cutting employees will save money. This hurts your feelings, but what is your alternative?

[KaneKungFu123]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
On more than one occassion, I made points in class from the point of view of a wage-employee, since I worked in a call center before I started my MBA. I think I was the only one in the room who had that experience - I even asked if anyone else could relate, and nobody could.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm surprised that these Gordon Gekko wannabes didn't just laugh at you and tell you your old job should have been outsourced to India.

[/ QUOTE ]
Why shouldnt a business outsource to India? Why are Americans more deserving of a job then an Indian?

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
dlk9s,

You didnt answer the question. They said that cutting employees will save money. This hurts your feelings, but what is your alternative?

[/ QUOTE ]The answer is not always "fire more people". There could literally be hundreds of things causing a company to either lose money or not make more money than they already are.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
On more than one occassion, I made points in class from the point of view of a wage-employee, since I worked in a call center before I started my MBA. I think I was the only one in the room who had that experience - I even asked if anyone else could relate, and nobody could.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm surprised that these Gordon Gekko wannabes didn't just laugh at you and tell you your old job should have been outsourced to India.

[/ QUOTE ]
Why shouldnt a business outsource to India? Why are Americans more deserving of a job then an Indian?

[/ QUOTE ] I don't think anyone is saying that Americans are more deserving, they are just pointing out they naivity of some MBA students. They seem to think that outsourcing is the only solution to solving a companies problem.

[Blarg]

Thanks for that. It too often gets accepted that management can do no wrong no matter how incompetent or overpaid, and that employees are the source of all loss of profitability, no matter how competent or underpaid. It's an extremely class-oriented way of looking at something that is generally all about something else -- the inability of people to run their companies either sensibly or with any vision at all.

I've been at so many companies that looked like it was clearly only a matter of time till they crashed hard. And many did. And I've rarely worked anywhere that wasn't run in some ways that were obviously stupid to anyone paying a lick of attention.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
And I've rarely worked anywhere that wasn't run in some ways that were obviously stupid to anyone paying a lick of attention.

[/ QUOTE ] This cracks me up because everyone thinks there idea/opinion on how things should be done is the best way [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

In reality there is no one perfect way to run a company. You just try to do as much as you can to make a company as profitable/successful as you can. Nothing goes smoothly, which coincidently is something most college students don't realize about the working world.

[Jordan Olsommer]

[ QUOTE ]
With specific regard to unions and the derisive comments of some about union employees, it puzzles me that some of the biggest believers in the free market are so dismissive of the desire to unionize...From a worker's perspective, being in a union serves their own 'enlightened self interest,' to use the phrase so loved by free-market defenders.

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Nobody who is for free-market capitalism is automatically 100% against unions in all cases. However, in nearly all cases, where it exists, a union is almost always a monopoly. Now, nobody who is for free-market capitalism is automatically 100% against monopolies in all cases either, however no monopoly can survive in a free market for very long without government support, and unions are no different in this regard.

People who believe in free-market capitalism are not "dismissive of the desire to unionize" - they just don't like government-supported monopolies, whether they be in the form of the UAW or the USPS.

[ggbman]

NT,

There are any times where high school/college kids will attempt to have an advanced understanding of something when in reality, their only knowledge comes from the views their parents raised them with or what they hear/read.

However, you seem to think this is a quality exclusive to college kids. It might be more prevalent amongst them since they are less amture than adults in general, but tons of people like to think they know about what they are talking about. To use the best example i can think of offhand... (and hopefully this doesn't really violate the no poker policy here) When some of my parents friends found out i played poker consistently, many of them tried to offer advice, despite never playing winning poker. They assumed that they understood how to apply risk/reward situations to poker despite not understanding variance or even any fundamental apect of the game. It's the best example i can think of from my life, but in reality everyone likes to think they know what they are talking about.

The sweeping generalization you make that college kids don't really know how to work is dumb. I often find older people who like to belittle the work done by students, and who think their work is sooo much harder. It's part of human nature to think you're accomplishments are more significant or whatever. However, any college kids who maintains good grades and has a job for 20 hours a week to put themselves through school knows as much about hard work as you. In high school, between school, homework, work, etc... I work even harder now, as do many people i know. Making sweeping generalizations is not the way to convey the point you wanted to make, because it makes you come off like you are unable to differentiate situations and must lump huge groups of people together when it's not appropriate to do so.

Gabe

[Utah]

Another comment on unions:

There is a MUCH better way to structure a labor force without a union, which works awesomely for the employees and company - this is through a real profit sharing plan.

When I was 18 I worked in the factory of Andersen Windows. Andersen Windows had the best profit sharing plan anywhere. The year I worked in the factory they paid a year-end profit sharing bonus to the factory workers of 82% of their annual salary!! The employees loved coming to work each day, they loved the company, took great pride in the work they did, and nearly worshipped the management team. You would have gotten killed mentioning a union on the factory floor.

Oh, and the employees own a big chunk of the company.

And, of course, Andersen Windows was #1 in their market by a long shot and simply slaughtered the competition.

http://www.designbiz.com/Biz/bizProf...ompanyID=84936