Hacker News Reader

Comment by scarface74 | Hacker News Reader

Really? You think any employer “cares about their employees”?

A job is a transaction a way for me to trade labor for money and support ny addiction to food and shelter. It’s my responsibility to save accordingly always expecting a lay off.

This has been my mindset since I was 22 years old making 11/hour as a computer operator saving my overtime pay until today at 49 where I stumbled into a role at $BigTech three years ago and save/invested all of my after tax signing bonus and divest my RSUs once vested.

View on HN

A job is a transaction a way for me to trade labor for money and support ny addiction to food and shelter. It’s my responsibility to save accordingly always expecting a lay off.

I'm sorry you're being down-voted, because the frank truth is... you're exactly right. To a first approximation, 0 companies really "care about their employees" in any meaningful sense. Work is simply a transaction arrangement, where you trade some of your time for some of their money. And either party can (generally) terminate that arrangement at any time, for any reason.

That's simply reality. One can choose to accept that reality and live accordingly, or they can choose to live in a pollyanna'ish world where one doesn't have to take personal responsibility.

I think it's being downvoted because it's a little too simplistic to be meaningful. Everything we do, literally everything, we do because it makes us feel good, and therefore everything is a transaction. We provide food and shelter for ourselves because, well, we enjoy those things. We help friends and family in need because we derive pleasure from helping others and seeing our loved ones flourish.

If we all agree on that basic universal law of human behavior, we can talk about higher level meaning about the role of an employer in society beyond the simple transaction of money for labor.

We can talk about philosophy all we wish. But reality is that I can’t take the philosophy and exchange it for goods and services. Whatever you think the role of an employee should be, we have to accept reality for what is and take responsibility accordingly.

My wife and kids had no desire to talk prosaically about the role of the employee when I got laid off a decade ago.

They were assured when I told that we had 3 months worth of savings in the bank, that my resume was updated and I had a strong network and could get a job quickly - I had an offer in less than a week at another company. While now admittedly it would take longer, I’ve also reduced my expenses.

You’re 100% correct but it’s easy to dismiss because it devalues individual perception of how one thinks their company values them. Most of us aren’t special is the reality. Few are special and irreplaceable.

Have you known of any company of any size to go out of business because one person left?

I assure you that if any of us got hit by a bus tomorrow, the company would send our next of kin flowers along with “thoughts and prayers” and have an open req for our position before our body got cold.

Three months later, you would only see our name brought up in the occasional “git blame”

I was agreeing with you to be clear. Perhaps it was misconstrued.

By your definition, the only way someone "cares" about another person is if they are prepared to suffer any and every possible loss to protect said person from harm?

You mean like laying people off so the company doesn’t go out of business?

Whether the company “cares” about me is irrelevant. I need for them to put money in my account at the agreed upon intervals. I have family that “cares” about me.

Thought experiment: if the company you worked for that you thought “cared about you” told you they couldn’t pay you would that care be reciprocated and would you work for free? A 30% pay cut?

You state (or at least imply) that the fact that a company is not willing to go out of business to avoid firing someone is proof that they don't care about that person. All I can say is that you seem to have a reductionist definition of the word "care". I also wouldn't expect my friends to, say, sell their house to support me if I needed it.

I’m saying whether the company cares about me is irrelevant. The “care” from my company is not where they exist in my hierarchy of needs. That’s what my family is for. They exist solely to provide money to support my need for food and shelter.

My wife “cares” about me and I her. I know for a fact that she would make sacrifices for me even it put her in a bad spot temporarily.

I’ll leave my job at the drop of a dime and they will get rid of me as soon as they see my contribution to the bottom line isn’t beneficial to them. I would hope that the bar would be much higher for my marriage - ie “the person I want to care about me”

>You think any employer “cares about their employees”?

Employers are people. Some people are cynical and greedy, others are empathetic.

Yes, they will fire people as is some times necessary and as an employee you should plan for that. They won't make great sacrifices for you like family or very close friends might, but I've definitely had employers who wanted the best for me and made an effort to help me achieve it.

Employers are not “people”, corporations are legal entities that are specifically created to shield the people.

Any for profit (or for that matter even non profit company ) is most interested in its own survival and well being.

> Really? You think any employer “cares about their employees”?

It can actually happen sometimes, but I've never seen it outside of small structures.

Wait until they have a choice of going out of business or laying people off.

Also most small companies are investor backed. I assure you that their investors don’t care about you.

The CEO of the 1.5 million employee company I work for doesn’t know me from Adam.

But small structures are the norm, or at least very common, aren't they? There are plenty of established, small to medium businesses out there. Someone for whom this is important can certainly find a job like that within one of those.

Yes, I do. I really do care. And I know there are other founders and hiring managers who care too (except HR, they only care about the business).

re: walking uphill barefoot in snow both ways, attitude towards a financial plan is not your career; it has little to do with those who work around you.

It doesn’t matter if you “care” as a founder if you accepted VC money.

So do you “care” enough to put your company’s survival and well being beneath the needs of your employees? Do you think your employees “care” enough not to take a much better offer it becomes available? If your investors told you you need to increase your runway to stay in business would you?

I know that the people in my personal life who “care about me” will make all sorts of sacrifices for me and financial trade offs

tl;dr - you're part of the problem

Yeah, I guess I need to go to counseling to get rid of my addiction to food and shelter…

I have never been responsible for firing anyone in my life.

In what way?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com