
The Human Cost of the Ghost Economy - pmcpinto
https://longreads.com/2017/12/13/the-human-cost-of-the-ghost-economy/
======
subway
Great organizations hire their own janitors into full-time roles.

The short-term-profit seeking that's become pervasive in our economy heavily
discourages any hiring you can out-source (and similarly discourages any R&D
that won't pay out this quarter).

Organizations that outsource all but their "core competencies" to temp
agencies will remain fully incompetent outside their core, and due to extra
layer of employment abstraction, they have little chance of seeing a cross-
pollination between folks in the undervalued roles they outsource, and
overvalued roles they hire for.

edit: I can't help but be reminded of this interesting article:
[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/03/upshot/to-understand-
risi...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/03/upshot/to-understand-rising-
inequality-consider-the-janitors-at-two-top-companies-then-and-now.html)

~~~
seanmcdirmid
What great organizations are left that hire their own janitors as full FTEs?

~~~
Negitivefrags
We just changed from a cleaning agency to two full time cleaners and it was a
great move.

Rather than having an agency that has a specific list of things they will
clean (and nothing outside of that unless you negotiate with the agency), the
cleaners just have the goal of making the office a nice place for our staff.

That means they can feel free to use their initiative to make the office not
just clean but also tidy.

It’s made a big difference in just a few weeks.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
So you give them health insurance? That’s nice!

------
DoreenMichele
I'm pleasantly surprised to see the author comment on a positive aspect of the
experience. That is usually not done, or, worse, is done in a manner that
negates the overarching point that this a net negative.

It's a good read, but I have my reservations about pieces like this. It
wallows in the experience, making of human suffering entertainment, often for
better off people who will never experience such. Meanwhile, for all that it
provides criticisms, it doesn't suggest solutions. And that makes me
uncomfortably aware of the possibility that the article itself is one more
means for the most desperate and destitute to be used for the benefit of the
relatively comfortably well off.

------
stcredzero
To paraphrase the old paper towel ad: Is your logistics/warehouse division
breeding _Bolsheviks?_

~~~
rjbwork
I have to ask what ad this is, it sounds pretty funny from the description.

~~~
fallingfrog
[https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/11/09/is-your-
was...](https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/11/09/is-your-washroom-
breeding-bolsheviks/)

------
jorgec
"When you are poor..."

When you are poor, then every DECENT and legal job is fine.

People say that there is not job and its not true. If you find then you could
get. However, most jobs are crap but crap that its legal and decent. My first
job was 12h x 7 days, however, i enjoyed and earned money. In my second job, i
doubled my salary and so on.

There are a lot of people that simply don't want to work. Usually the first
job is crap. But most people want a perfect job without having the degree,
experience and expertise.

And if you can't find a job then join the army.

~~~
cyberpunk0
Yeah you give some horrible advice.

~~~
dang
Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN? We eventually ban
accounts that do that. Instead, if you'd read
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
and
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html)
and maybe even
[http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html](http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html)
and take the spirit of the site to heart, we'd appreciate it.

~~~
cyberpunk0
What else should I say? Telling people to just join the army OS horrible
advice? Do I need to write a 30 page novel about it?

