top 100 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 49 points 1 year ago (8 children)

That's fucked up. Here in the UK, I work a low level job and my wages aren't great, but I get 4 weeks paid leave and am encouraged to take it. I also get up to 6 months paid sick leave, though I need a note from my doctor after a week. I think after 6 months I still get paid half wage. The sick leave thing isn't government mandated, but it's not uncommon, and I'm strongly encouraged to use it if I'm not well. Makes sense, you don't want sick employees bringing germs into work and making everyone else ill.

I don't have kids, but I'm pretty sure paid maternity /paternity leave is pretty decent too.

  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

    Yeah, here in the US you are basically forced to come in. The only exception for this was Covid.

    In various industries, there is a refrain that "You come in sick and tired, otherwise you're fired".

    If you live in a "At will employment" (read: Terminate at will) state, you are even more screwed.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Nono, "At will employment" is terminate at will.

    "Right to work" is the union busting law that prevents collective bargaining agreements

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Yeah I've heard that about the US. Seems crazy to me, a bad flu bug could really screw your workforce, and sick people are going to be much less effective workers. Not to mention public-facing positions - as a customer I do not want some nasty virus free with my product! Also, people tend to work harder and have more loyalty towards an employer that they feel respects and looks after them.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago*

    Unless you're in a position that requires a level of college education and experience, employers consider you expendable. Infamously, Amazon had internal policies that encouraged abusing new hires as much as possible and firing at the first sign of defiance - they bet that there would be a stream of new hires right as they left the door.

    When I worked at a pharmacy, I wasn't given much leeway, even though I was directly interfacing with high-risk populations that I didn't want to infect (or be infected by). The best I could do was buy a pack of N95s (with my own money), and use our expendable gloves as often as possible. I still got sick and was forced to show (In the middle of fucking 2022).

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 78 points 1 year ago (14 children)

    If it's any consolation, there's also no law that mandates that we get breaks either!

    Like, at all. No lunch. No 15 minutes. Now, most companies DO "offer" breaks. But they don't have to. Except in a couple states (Less than 10, last I checked.)

    Combine that with "at-will" employment without contracts, that means in most of the USA you could be asked to work for 36 hours straight with no breaks and be fired for looking tired.

  • source
  • hideshow 14 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    What is the normal break/lunch time provided? 15m sounds like torture. You would have to swallow your food and can't even digest it before you are back working

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    I get a 15 minute break at 9:00 and 30 minutes lunch (unpaid) at 12:00. Work starts at 6:30 and ends at 15:00. Mon - Fri

    Georgia, USA factory worker

    Until September we had been 6:30 - 17:00, Mon - Thu, with 10 minutes break at 10:00, 30 minutes lunch (unpaid) at 12:00, and 10 minutes break at 14:00.

    Fuck corporate meddling and I hope they really enjoy the crash in production. This is the 3rd time they have tried to force us into a 5 day schedule in the 8 years I've been employed there, both other times reverting back to 4 10s within a few months due to lost output.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    While possibly true, in reality an employer doing this struggles to keep reliable and quality staff. They would likely calculate that hiring and training expenses, poor output, and other issues are a higher cost than the cost of offering 15 minute breaks and some amount of benefits.

    At least that's how it should work.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 9 child comments
  • [–] 29 points 1 year ago*

    How it should work if companies cared about anything beyond the next quarterly report.

    After my former employer's economic forecast did an abrupt sharp downturn, I went from being a highly desirable employee to extremely undesirable in the space of less than a week. Add to that a performance limiting on-the-job injury and being the highest paid person in my department.

    Guess who was terminated the day before their stock and annual bonus was to be awarded.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    it still shifts the power into the hands of the employer, like providing basic acceptable working conditions becomes a perk, when it's just something that should be universal and normalized.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    It hasn't been like that for most of human history, and the standard of working conditions that I am guessing you're thinking of is not even experienced by most humans alive today.

    I think ideal working conditions should be society's aspiration and would hopefully pay for itself through superior output. But if businesses can compete unfairly this may not be true. For that reason we should break up companies that get so large as to control entire markets and force them to compete again.

    Sadly

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    That's more true in the more skilled the job is.

    In entry level jobs where people are desperate, it gets a lot less favorable for the employee.

    Really it's the same argument as a minimum wage

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 203 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    The US are 50 3rd world countries stacked in a trench coat, pretending to be the world's greatest country.

  • source
  • hideshow 9 child comments
  • [–] [S] 113 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    And the trench coat was manufactuered in China.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 47 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    48, and also New York and California who are happy to pretend to be.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 99 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Yeah but you guys have your own kind of mustard, and tomato sauce, and the epstein ballroom, and those ridiculous big cars. It's surely the greatest country in the world.

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Don't you send me down a mustard rabbit hole at 2:30 in the morning you sonofabitch

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That's what you get when your government and representatives are all owned by corporates, and works exclusively for the benefit of those corporates. Lobbying works only for corporates, and not the people, and should be illegal. People should stop voting for those who fail to deliver in their FIRST term. No second terms for failures!
    But American people are undereducated, low information, partisan and a very high proportion vote in a racist way, where rather than vote for their own best interests, they vote for their neighbors worst interests. Thus, they get what they deserve, but unfortunately the worst of us, the divisive politicians profit.

    We need to remove money from politics, make lobbying illegal and subject to capital punishment, and politicians found to be selling out our trust, liable to capital punishment also. They are worse than traitors in a war, so the punishment MUST be severe. Politicians should also be personally liable when they fail to keep their election promises, and LYING to the public needs to be punished harshly too. ALL politicians should be audited before, during and after their terms. Finally, there need to be term and age limits. Rich 80-90 year olds, are NOT representative of the people, and do NOT have the same concerns as the rest of us.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago

    'Wow, really? Cause you never think of those other three as having their shit together'

  • source
  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    That's because America is fucked...

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Representatives have long since stopped caring about their constituents. Wages are being undercut at home and abroad. Foreign countries get money while benefits are cut at home. The population is fed porn, junk food and drugs. America isn't America anymore. It's a military-industrial golem.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago

    America is just non stop winning!

  • source
  • [–] 31 points 1 year ago (10 children)

    Not to apologize for shitty US labor regulations, but in some places these rules aren't enforced rigorously if at all, so this data shouldn't be taken at face value. For example I doubt Saudi or Qatari slaves are getting days off.

  • source
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • [–] 36 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    Does this put your standard US citizen on the same level as Saudi or Qatari slave?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] -4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I've never heard of white Americans having their passports stolen as a job requirement

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] [S] 20 points 1 year ago*

    Americans are ripped off the streets and sent to foreign prisons with no judges involved.

    Passports, birth certificates, DL ... none of them matters with the ICE facial recognition app.

    They skip the "take your passport" part entirely.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Except the US, those are tiny island countries too.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 44 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    The US is a trash heap that worships an orange pedo, what do you expect?

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago*

    Greatest Country in the World! /s

    The sad part is, that it could be.

  • source
  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Back in British Colonial rule they sent their criminals to Australia. The ones they couldn't catch escaped to the USA. /s

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    There's a bit of nuance in the article:

    There is no federal or state statutory minimum paid vacation or paid public holidays. Paid leave is at the discretion of the employers to their employees.[202][203] According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 77% of private employers offer paid vacation to their employees; full-time employees earn on average 10 vacation days after one year of service.[204] Similarly, 77% of private employers give their employees paid time off during public holidays, on average 8 holidays per year.[204][205] Some employers offer no vacation at all.[206] The average number of paid vacation days offered by private employers is 10 days after 1 year of service, 14 days after 5 years, 17 days after 10 years, and 20 days after 20 years.[204][207] A number of states and non-states in the United States have instituted some form of paid leave with 10 states (California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts) along with the District of Columbia having mandatory paid family leave while 4 other states have a system but it is not yet active (Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota and Maine). Voluntary leave is in 8 states (Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Virginia, New Hampshire and Vermont).

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That makes it even worse

    Similarly, 77% of private employers give their employees paid time off during public holidays

    ...what? They are called public holidays

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Yeah, there are a lot of comparisons like these that at least partially break down when you don't consider the way the US is set up, re state governments.

    Another big example is minimum wage. While the federal minimum is $7.25, it is a very small minority of places where it's even possible to find (above-board, of course; if you work under the table, all bets are off) work at that low a wage, both because of the above (state minimum is higher) and because other market forces essentially negate it as the minimum, even in most places where $7.25 is in fact the legal minimum wage.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    But they're so free! Haven't you heard how free they are?! FREE!

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Not even slightly surprised to see the US on that list... America hates it's workers.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    The USA is the richest third world country on the planet.

  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    First world = capitalism

    Second world = communism

    Third world = all the rest

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Yes, but a lot of people see it as wealthy somewhat wealthy and poor

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    It is pretty funny as someone from a (supposed) "third world shithole" hearing these guys hurling these insults at the US while my country is trying the best to improve our lives and get out of the US stranglehold.

    Also funny is seeing Europe slowly realize that they are "vassal states" of the US.

    Maybe one day they will be really aware that most of their wealth came from exploiting the so called "third world" but, sadly, I think these guys will need to fall from the horses before realizing it.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Europe got its wealth from the Global South. Colonial exploitation bankrolled the industrial revolution and Enlightenment era. A certain threshold of wealth and urbanization is needed for that progress to occur and "poor" countries paid for it with their bodies and blood.

    That wealth (75% of global gold reserves) was transferred to the US during WW2 as they were in a geographic position to not face any significant infrastructure loss while raking in money selling arms to their allies.

    If you're asking for introspection from either faction mentioned here, dont hold your breath. Its hard enough to find here, let alone in a direct discussion with ordinary people out in the street. People struggle with the idea of being born in the West amounting to being born on third base (and I say this as someone born there) so we're a long way from any kind of deeper understanding, humility or gratitude.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    What? You think the coal miners from the 19th century were exploiting anyone?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago*

    This is at the state, not individual, level. The coal miners certainly thought they were better off than people living in the Global South (and more worthy of individual rights). They also enjoyed infrastructure developments paid for by their state's exploitation.

    So yes, they did have a form of privilege, on a global scale.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I thank Trump for going mask off and just showing the world how fucked up the country is and that the US is not a friend. If Europe and the rest of the world would finally stop ignoring him or treating him as some kind of entertainment but see him for the US representative he really is, the world might make a gigantic leap.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    How can this be? According to MAGA (and also Bernie Sanders BTW) the USA is the greatest country in the world.

    /s obvsly

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I'm sure that's actually enforced in all those countries too.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I was encouraged (and it kind of felt forced) to take leave recently because I have so much banked 🇦🇺

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Likewise. And if I don't use it, they have to pay it back to me hour by hour when I resign. With long service leave on top I could feasibly just take a half a year off if I have enough notice.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Everyone is missing the point here. These are state laws. Kit federal laws. Including breaks.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Micronesia and a country operated by a micropenis. Yes I'm just being rude but out of frustration at the situation and the lives it is costing.

  • source
  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Americans are fine with it.

    If not, they’d do something about it.

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    "Slaves were fine with being slaves, otherwise they'd do something about it" ass take

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Instead they whine online about immigrants.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments