Learned that at my first job - a summer job working for Telco. Eager beaver and crew of college kids. we were ‘unistalling things’ like large cables under floors in office buildings that changed hands. 25 pair cable to 50 positions. we went to work. Later, the foreman came by. Said we have XXX hours to do this job. We don’t want to get done sooner. Just a decent pace. (the union rules - waived for our summer jobs - specified how much ‘work’ per foot of cable, etc - it was all reasonably well estimated). So we slowed down a bit, got done ‘on time’ and everyone happy. Went that way the rest of the summer, taking out phones from big ‘key sets’ to home phones, disconnecting circuits and wires, etc. You had an hour for lunch, you took an hour for lunch.
Next summer job was working on Ford assembly line. Car by every 56 seconds. Putting rubber insulation on doors. Or similar. Union work rules. Enough time but you kept busy. Monotonous but most of the folks there didn’t care. They made big bucks - like $300/wk in 1970 which was very good money. But the line never stopped so you kept busy. 10 hours a day (well, evening to 2am. Fortunately only six weeks. Didn’t have to join union - but they didn’t care. replacing folks on vacations.
Last summer job was at radio/tv/station. All union shop for the technical people. same didn’t have to join the union so the regular folks could take their vacations. Good pay for the time. Kept busy but not overworked. Half the night spent playing records - LPs - one side - for the night shift with no DJ. Just music, no ads for 5 1/2 hours. Read books to keep busy.
WGY, WGFM, WRGB-TV. In mornings would help set up TV cameras - first color TV clunky cameras.
then go home for breakfast. Making evening/night shift bonus on top of union scale. No complaints.
Then graduated and went off to engineering career.
One time I had a boss who seemed to think those who stayed in the office extra hours did extra work. Pointed out specific people he noted and simply said 'it’s their problem they cannot do their work in 8 hours and take 10-12 to do it inefficiently and probably don’t want to go home to the wife and screaming kids either.
There’s lots of hustle at many jobs these days. You see Walmart stockers (and I assume its the same at ALL grocery stores) that lug a ton of food, restock shelves, re arrange stuff to make it neat…and are busy, busy busy. But $15 to $17/hr here. Same for Whole FOods. You slack off, you get canned. It’s a 40 hour/week job
Fast food is even worse, but heck, they can’t find enough workers at $15/hr but don’t give them more than 28 hours/week so they don’t have to pay benefits for ‘full time workers’. Duh! Horrible industry. Good for high school kids and entry level, seniors seeking part time work.
Other companies? Better plan on working in computer industry and just about any other thing.
Is being an auto mechanic having ‘social benefit’? nope. For refrig repair, glass repair, a/c repair, Best Buy salesperson, etc? Nope.
Put in your hours. Go home and get on the internet or join your friends to discuss social issues and what you can do. Paychecks don’t provide ‘social opportunities’ to ‘do good’ other than low paying social worker jobs or lawyers doing lots of pro bono type social cases. .
t.