These assumptions are no longer valid. A great many essential services that are tightly bound to other essential services are cracking as the competent decide (or realize) they're done with the rat-race.
-Murray
Thursday, June 08, 2023
What Happens When The Competent Opt Out?
What happens with the competent retire, burn out or opt out? It's a question few bother to ask because the base assumption is that there is an essentially limitless pool of competent people who can be tapped or trained to replace those who retire, burn out or opt out, i.e. quit in favor of a lifestyle that doesn't require much in the way of income or stress.
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I was going to reference Atlas Shrugged before I even hit the "MORE" link, but saw that Zerohedge already had referenced "Galt's Gulch..." A mashup of "Atlas Shrugged" and "1984" is happening in real time, right before our eyes, and yet people are more concerned with sportzball and Netflix...
ReplyDelete"What happens with the competent retire, burn out or opt out? "
ReplyDeleteThey read Atlas Shrugged and quit.
That’s a primary reason I took early
ReplyDeleteRetirement. People interviewed with the correct credentials, and hired, but didn’t have enough sense to tie their own shoes.
Who is John Galt?
ReplyDeleteI am John Galt
DeleteYou ' re all a buncha fucking slaves !!! feel free to listen , to more of my ranting . Live , dinner key auditorium , Miami 1969 . " I am John Galt " ...... Yup
DeleteMost of our guys had been with the company for 7 plus years. So many have left since christmas that now 65% of the staff have under 6 months with the company and 50% only got their operator ticket in the last 6 months.
ReplyDeleteExile1981
You will get 3rd world quality and skills at full retail price
ReplyDelete^^^^THIS^^^^
DeleteYou're already getting that-most new hires are not native-born.
DeleteSeeing the effects of this almost literally everywhere. Went to drop off some chainsaw chains last week at the place where I have bought every single chain saw, had every single saw serviced, and get all of my parts and supplies from, for the past 20 year. You know what they told me? 'we don't sharpen chains any more'. Just like that; no more service, sorry.
ReplyDeleteNow I've got to buy the machine and learn to do it myself. And I'm encountering the same freakin thing, getting the truck fixed, shoot even buying groceries. Idiocracy, by succession, by retirement, by default.
Just buy the correct file and do it yourself. Takes less than 10 minutes one you get the hang of it. It's not hard to learn given the amount of youtube videos showing you how.
DeleteJUST MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE RIGHT SIZE AND STYLE OF FILE!!!
I sharpen all my chains and have never owned a machine to do it.
But he's had the guy with the machine do it for 20 years!
DeleteNext thing you know, the Quickie Lube he's been using for 30 years will close down, and who do you know that owns a pit and a barrel of oil with a pump that dials in the right amount of oil?
I'm the guy who owned the lube center and car wash for the last 28 years. I sold 4 years sooner then I wanted because I was tired of the whining and entitlement from customers, lack of employees and lack of products from the covid dictates. I can't go anywhere now without running into a customer who complains to me about the lack of service and experienced help. The majority of the whining and entitlement started under Obama and got extremely bad under biden.
DeleteA cheapo Chicago Electric sharpens all my Stihl blades just fine. Chinesium plastic, got submerged in flooding, but it's been doing the job for years.
Delete- Arc
yeah. kind of funny how they might have bitched at you, but after you leave they have to hire two people to do the work you did by yourself. or the company goes tits up in less than a year after you gone. dave in pa.
ReplyDeleteI'll take my White Privilege and the modern civilization it built and mozy right on down the road.
ReplyDeleteWhen the lights go out I'm going to start a pool to see how long it takes for Shanikwa and her Baby Daddy to demand they get turned back on.
Then I'm going to tell them to Fuck Off.
There are little file fixtures to help you keep your angle and depth consistent. After a while, you won’t even need that. Dirt and nails are your enemy
ReplyDeleteI think I used the guide twice before I got it down. The whole secret is the angle, and the tooth will give that to you.
DeleteI tried to find a YouTube video I liked and couldn't find one. Most guys make it too complicated or take too much time to explain how to do it. Like Ken said, it's not that hard if you understand how a saw chain cuts. If you're not sure about that, it would be a good place to start. There are good videos on the subject on YouTube.
DeleteThat said,
1- I don't use a file guide. With a little practice and good eyesight you don't need one.
2- Most importantly, keep the file level and stroke straight when filing; don't 'rock' the file as you sharpen across the face of the cutters.
3- Learn the proper depth to file. It's what they call the 80/20 rule; 80% filing the tooth, 20% of the file above the top of the tooth.
4- Keep an eye on the raker height. They won't need to be filed but maybe three times in a chain's lifetime, but their height determines how much the cutters cut.
5- The best development in saw chain ever is when they started etching the proper file angle on the back of the tooth. When they started doing that it made filing a saw properly so much easier.
I'd say if you're just learning it might help to hold the bar in a bench vice, where the saw will be held steady and you can get a close look at what you're doing. Then eventually you'll feel comfortable filing on a pickup tailgate or with the saw on the ground. I also know fallers who pretty much hold the saw in their lap with the end of the guide bar resting on their shoulder. Pretty cool.
I hope this helps.
Steve's Small Engine Saloon has videos on how to do it. They're short and sweet.
DeleteI do my sharpening at home using a bench vice like you described. If I'm working away from the house, I carry a spare chain or two with me and touch them up after I get home. If I absolutely have to sharpen one before I get home, I stick a plastic feller's wedge between the bar and chain at the bottom of the bar to hold the chain steady.
I should add: Using a file handle really helps make it easier. I much prefer Oregon wooden handles that are hard to find, but most shops can get them for you if you ask. I think the two that I've got are going on 40 years old.
DeleteKen-
DeleteMost people don't realize fallers don't sharpen their saws in the woods. They pack spare chains with them and machine grind their chisel chains on their Silvey grinders when they get home at night. Those guys only cut seven hours a day, but when they get home they've still got at least three hours of saw work to do. Or like my favorite cutter used to say, "At least a twelve pack's worth of work".
I'm in that cohort. The money was great, really enjoyed my work, the grief... not so much.
ReplyDeleteMy only regret is not bailing out 7 years sooner.
Damn right! There is more to life than money.
Delete“ Damn right! There is more to life than money.”
DeleteOh yes, (((My Fellow White)))
I'm a comms engineer. Think routers, switches, moving credit card info & sales info around on the internet but doing it in a way that won't be hackable.
ReplyDeleteGuess what there are no more of? People like me who can do this kind of work. The competent are indeed retiring. I used to be able to setup a new office in 8 hours. Now it takes 8 months b/c of the incompetence at every level.
Stupidity is rampant. And dealing with stupid people is dangerous b/c you can't jail them for it.
The only real answer is IMO restriction of access to technology. Like phones. They make dumb people REALLY dumb. Smart people can use phones & the Internet to accomplish things. But most people just rot their brains on it. Left and right wingers alike hide in echo chambers. There's shit the left does I hate. There's shit the right does I hate. But I am hard pressed to find a leftist or conservative who will admit the evils of their own party.
yeah, my boss used me to setup his MRI centers there for a while. I set up like 12 for him before he sold out to a larger firm/company/group of assholes.
Deletethey ran the whole section doing MRI into the ground inside of 4 years.
a lot of people got the shaft- no paychecks at the end.
I left when they where starting to screw over suppliers. never a good sign.
dave in pa.
I am past retirement age but still working as I still love doing my job. However, our HR person darned near had a stroke when one of my co-workers and I were talking about retirement because she knew it would be very difficult to replace us. Plus, if we retired about 60 years of combined industry experience would walk out the door. A lot of industries are in the same boat.
ReplyDeleteI opted out about six weeks ago. I feel great! Sold the house, left Seattle to it's own devices. I left the state two weeks ago. I am moving to a place with people who share my values, and am willing to take a substantial pay cut to do it. In fact, I want to minimize my taxable income for some time.
ReplyDeleteWhen the big regional health system took over my local hospital in 2013, we had an exodus. On one day toward the end of 2015 (due to pension changes), about 450 people retired out of a total staff of about 5000. The pandemic continued the hemorrhaging. We now have an entire floor closed (out of 7) for lack of staff, and I can recognize perhaps 5% of the nurses after having been at this place for 27 years. Many of the nurses have under 3 years of experience, which is about how long the best ones last before moving on to greener pastures.
ReplyDeleteThis article and the comments only validate what I've been saying for a few years now:
ReplyDelete"They're going to miss us when we're gone."
Heh.
As the shirt says: "I'm Old and I Know Things."
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm taking my white knowing things "privilege" with me.
Good luck with your third world "paradise". LOL!
Machinist, vocationaly trained in the 70s, I build any idea you got with no help.
ReplyDeleteWe have a dozen hires in our design/engineering staff but every thing is done by commitee, no one wants to take resposibility.
Computers are wonderful helpers but they need humans to get them to do things right. Logic is sorely missing today. Part Programming is an art, an old school machinist has great fun with it, they always think about the shortest distance.
My favorite machine is just a simple servo controlled 2 axis knee mill with an Accurite programmer. The Geometry Calculator is the pinnicle of machinist license, nothing is unsolvable.
I try teaching the youngins' but they have no geometry in the mind, they dont understand left-right, up-down; or,as may be said here, always know your six.
Hell, just trying to get them to understand the difference between Absolute and Incremental is a chore.
Soon I give up, Im 62 and eyeballing the early exit, I got mine, just trying to find the lowest tax situation, buy a house, and play with my toys.
daddy-o
Coming up on a year and a half of "retirement" here in Happy Valley. I felt guilty at first for not being a "productive" part of the workforce but now sit on the porch with my coffee listening to the farm wake up in the morning and watch all the "productive workers" fly down the road to make it to "work" on time. I still work 10-12 hours a day around here, but it is MY 10-12 hours, doing what "I" need to get done.
ReplyDeleteHTR
The real horror of this is in government, there is no or at least a very delayed implosion, like 70 years with the USSR. Look at Venezuela, their state oil co is a wreak due to political appointments, but it still goes on.
ReplyDeleteI worked for a local school district in FL, their corruption was so blatantly obvious I was amazed, even after my last yrs in the Army doing Logy stuff in Iraq. They didn't care, they openly took favors from contractors, many were paid consultants of the contractors they 'supervised'.
Just work to end, completely and totally, government orgs, they don't need to be reformed, just eliminated.
I retired early at just under 63 1/2 years old. I just could not take the group of idiotic, no talent script kiddies that were populating the industry. A few months before I left, the senior director of our group told me that she had met many people that made grand promises but were never able to follow through. On the other hand, I tackled "impossible" problems and made good on everything I promised. The story of my life.
ReplyDeleteI don't miss the whining and bullshit one iota. Never been happier in my entire life, even though I have had to cut back because of the cut in income. Some sacrifices are worth it.
Get my first SS check in a few days. Didn't want to but was shown the door because Covid. Now the place that decided that my services were no longer needed is getting along fine as they are still making the products I designed and engineered. But industry dominating products is not what they are going to miss the most. It is the amount of mentoring and teaching that went on behind the scenes. I was shown the ropes by old school engineers, machinists and mill wrights and was just paying it forward. Now I do that at the local University to budding engineers. My psyche is better, stress is lower and rise and shine is because I want to as opposed to have too.
ReplyDeleteSpin Drift
I'm 65 next month. I was forced into retirement ten yrs ago. I still very much want to work. But I look around and I talk to employers near every day. I also talk to employees.
ReplyDeleteWhat I see and hear tells me to not take a job. The incompetence is widespread and is overwhelming. 'Dumb insolence' is how I describe today's worker.
There are a few who know more than average. They surprise me simply because they are so few.
I would self-employ but I think not with increasing government BS and stifled economy.
(A sour economy presents opportunity but one can easily run aground.)
I see a lot of older guys working a hustle. Low overhead, stay under the radar. We're returning to a gig economy. That's not in itself a bad thing. But it represents a monumental loss of knowledge as each goes their own way. And it is in response to overbearing government.
A group of us was talking about this just last night. It revolved around road construction and the like, old school cat skinners versus new school operators. Men who could eye ball a cut and know it was two inches off grade. Me, I'm past retirement age with my own business that keeps us comfortable. Social Security check just goes straight to a savings account. I'll probably keep it up until I look my age. It's amusing, now, to hear people years younger complaining to me about being old and how, someday, I'll understand.
ReplyDeleteI discussed this with the Wall*Mart greeter this morning at just after 6am.
ReplyDeleteI am a semi-retired Physical Therapist, so I asked him about his limp.
The old boy is probably around 60, he tells me he got repetitive stress working the lumber mill.
He said they hired eight kids as replacements to do his job, but they need all week to accomplish his one day of work.
.
He doesn't seem the exaggerating type.