Venting It's Terrible. Western work attitude.

[OhWellDerp321]

Do you guys ever feel like western workplace (mostly North America) attitude is terrible?

I am particularly talking about the number of mistakes and carelessness that drives people insane.

The western attitude towards work looks at productivity in numbers. As in the number of tasks you can complete in a day. The more the better.
Yet, they don't count the number of mistakes and redos. The constant tasks of having to fix other people's mistakes and redo their tasks due to careless mistakes. Or sometimes, you lack the information to even start a task, and need clarification. Ultimately, this leads to constant interruptions, which leads to less productivity.
A task that could have been completed in 1 day could be delayed to 4 days.

In reality, they weren't more productive because all that back and forth extra communication to clarfiy things and fixing mistakes costs time and money.

Management never sees this as an issue. Until deadlines are approaching. Then they panic and don't know what to do.

This seems to be the case no matter where you work in a North American company.

The eastern work culture views work differently. They may do things slower. But they will try to do it so that the task doesn't need clarification or doesn't need to be redone 50 times.

Its not perfect either. As eastern work culture often views mistakes as terrible and not forgivable. This can also be very stressful.


Which one do you guys prefer?

 

[KillingPain267]

All work is terrible

 

[derpyderpins]

Lol what is "East" in this case? Having a lot of experience and familiarity with Korea I'll tell you they work themselves to death twice as bad as Americans and Japan is supposedly the same. I also highly doubt you want to work in China.

I have a ton of problems with modern work culture but let's be serious.

 

[starboy2k]

majority of work culture just feels like slavery, except they let you go home and watch tv…if you can even do that

 

[Pluto]

 

[cemeteryismyhome]

majority of work culture just feels like slavery, except they let you go home and watch tv…if you can even do that

Work feels like slavery. For me, when I go home, it's just to a different flavor of slavery.

 

[WhatCouldHaveBeen32]

Neither, work is terrible, why? Because you work with other people , other people that have some sort of superiority complex because of their outside of work life so most people you will ever meet are never going to be remotely friendly to you, only see you as a means to an end.

It's pointless to try for a high end job where there might be intellectual and well behaved people or to find something to do outside work hours because both of these things are not guaranteed, when you are already suicidal, everything you do is emotional charity that is more draining than anything else because it leaves you without juice to run.

You are only a husk and contrary to popular belief you don't become a robot that can do anything just because you stop feeling emotions; because you are born with a human brain and not with windows 11 so in fact it would be more akin to the people born with 0 pain receptors, it's a death sentence, a matter of time , the question is not if , it's when?

Basically my problems are that people suck and one other issue that I haven't addressed, most work is meaningless and meaningful work is either aimed at neurotypical people who don't have mental issues or people with nepotism.

 

[Life'sA6itch]

Yes please!

Work feels like slavery. For me, when I go home, it's just to a different flavor of slavery.

100%

Neither, work is terrible, why? Because you work with other people , other people that have some sort of superiority complex because of their outside of work life so most people you will ever meet are never going to be remotely friendly to you, only see you as a means to an end.

It's pointless to try for a high end job where there might be intellectual and well behaved people or to find something to do outside work hours because both of these things are not guaranteed, when you are already suicidal, everything you do is emotional charity that is more draining than anything else because it leaves you without juice to run.

You are only a husk and contrary to popular belief you don't become a robot that can do anything just because you stop feeling emotions; because you are born with a human brain and not with windows 11 so in fact it would be more akin to the people born with 0 pain receptors, it's a death sentence, a matter of time , the question is not if , it's when?

Basically my problems are that people suck and one other issue that I haven't addressed, most work is meaningless and meaningful work is either aimed at neurotypical people who don't have mental issues or people with nepotism.

 

[SmilingNoMore]

I tend to agree with different forms of slavery mentioned above. The level of enslavement could depend on the kind of organisation, management and type of job, demanding how much energy it takes from us. Some jobs are just draining, deplete us and could lead to a burnout, while others are designed to slowly kill the soul over a prolonged period of time.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I've never experienced work in the 'East' so, it's difficult to judge. I also question, alongside other members- whether it is so leisurely in the 'East'. I imagine that working in a Chinese factory say, you are expected to work quickly and accurately. I also expect the hours everywhere are horrendous.

Personally, I have created my own work around. I'm freelance. My own boss to an extent. I work slowly and leisurely- with entertainment on in the background. I likely also do a 70+ hour week when I'm busy. So- that's another question really- would you be happier to work faster and under more pressure but have more time off or, would you prefer to work pretty much double the hours for the same salary but, feel more relaxed? I prefer to work at a relaxed pace and try to do a good job. It means my job consumes my life though.

 

[OhWellDerp321]

Lol what is "East" in this case? Having a lot of experience and familiarity with Korea I'll tell you they work themselves to death twice as bad as Americans and Japan is supposedly the same. I also highly doubt you want to work in China.

I have a ton of problems with modern work culture but let's be serious.

Yeh. That's the bad side. China, Korea, and Japan. The bad side is they overwork and you are right. They sometimes do work themselves to death.
But the flip side is that they sometimes do things with more effiency the first time. But yes. Its super stressful and probably not good either.

The good side for western work culture is that they are much more forgiving. Mistakes are encouraged as part of learning. Much more relaxing. But where the stress comes from is that things are done backwards. Often, a task that should have been done properly the first time is not. Therefore leads to constant back and forth communication and wasted time.

 

[bankai]

My work is good for now. I work in IT. Work from home for four days and go to work at office for one day. Not sure what will happen in the future as our workload is getting less. I'm not sure if it's because of automation and AI or something else.

 

[derpyderpins]

Yeh. That's the bad side. China, Korea, and Japan. The bad side is they overwork and you are right. They sometimes do work themselves to death.
But the flip side is that they sometimes do things with more effiency the first time. But yes. Its super stressful and probably not good either.

The good side for western work culture is that they are much more forgiving. Mistakes are encouraged as part of learning. Much more relaxing. But where the stress comes from is that things are done backwards. Often, a task that should have been done properly the first time is not. Therefore leads to constant back and forth communication and wasted time.

The efficiency is really night and day. From everyone. Every service worker you encounter in Korea gives 100% attention to detail. It's actually pretty incredible.

But you're right that they aren't forgiving. To me, that's sad, because they normally are all working their hardest (at least with more drive than your average American) but they're quick to yell and complain if something is slightly wrong.

It's a wake-up call when you come back West and everyone is screwing everything up lol.

Sorry if I sounded snarky at first, I honestly thought you might have been referring to the "East" as like Europe, lol.

 

[OhWellDerp321]

The efficiency is really night and day. From everyone. Every service worker you encounter in Korea gives 100% attention to detail. It's actually pretty incredible.

But you're right that they aren't forgiving. To me, that's sad, because they normally are all working their hardest (at least with more drive than your average American) but they're quick to yell and complain if something is slightly wrong.

It's a wake-up call when you come back West and everyone is screwing everything up lol.

Sorry if I sounded snarky at first, I honestly thought you might have been referring to the "East" as like Europe, lol.

Oh no not at all. Europe seems different depending on the country. Some countries have a chill attitude towards working, but still manage to get stuff done.

Yep. Thats Asia. Transportation is a great example. They treat it with so much care. Its incredible how efficient transportation is in Asia. Trains are rarely ever late by one minute. HA. In North America, they don't even tell you if the lines are shut down. But the difference is that people in Asia will complain if the train is even minutes late. Which is not that big of a deal if you didn't miss anything important. But here in North America. Its the opposite. People will still accept it as "oh well. Nothing you can do". Even if the train lines are constantly out of service or delayed to no end.

 

[SilentSadness]

In this society, work is slavery by definition because you are required to work to receive your basic human rights (food, shelter, healthcare). Therefore, all work culture is terrible.

 

[alwaysalone]

It's not slavery because ultimately you can choose to work or not. Yes there are consequences if you choose not to but no one is going to show up at your door with a whip and force you back to work. Or sell your family. Can we lower the dramatics a notch or two??