Guest neil in england Posted June 9, 2003 Share Posted June 9, 2003 When I took the kids out for the day we ventured into London's science museum, they have the apollo 10 capsule, sitting all charred and scarred on the floor of the transport exhibit hall...it, in fact, sits beneath a Lockheed 10 hanging by piano wire from the ceiling...the plaque for the apollo capsule very clearly states that of the 500 million man hours required to get the space landings up and running, a full 20% was estimated to be unpaid for volunteer overtime by the employees to get the project done... hmmm, interesting set of values back then... cheers, neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Hudson Posted June 9, 2003 Share Posted June 9, 2003 Hi Neil; Yes, interesting set of values, all focussed on a vision/dream of exploring the unknown, making history, pioneering new endeavours and adding to human knowledge. I imagine just being near such activities let alone a volunteer actually within and part of the program would have been very exciting, very desirable and sought after. On a smaller scale, how many people are driven by their passions and spend untold hours volunteering for things they believe in? Today, the term "volunteer" can mean two things: One gives freely of one's time to help others in some community way (the above situation), or, as is more common now, one is "expected" to put in unpaid, unrecognized time at one's place of work, "for free". As is clearly evident, the gulf between one's "employer" and oneself-as-employee is growing more vast as the realization dawns on employees that the term "volunteer" means precisely that: unpaid, but expected work for some distant, undefined "reward". Today's notion of volunteering is a world away from what it used to mean. People (employees) are tired of having their goodwill (willingness to "volunteer") taken advantage of while at the same time having their wages rolled back, of having increased workload or hours piled on top, of facing constant demands for increased productivity and all for the same remuneration. In many sectors, they are tired of the low wages, the lack of workplace continuity, and the absence of even a modicum of employment security in both present and future prospects. The "pension crisis" isn't a crisis which employees had a hand in. Employers, companies, organizations don't want to set aside the huge amounts of money needed to provide for decent employee pensions anymore and so are downloading those responsibilities onto the employees through "defined-contribution" plans. Pension "holidays" are taken, and the money that should be going into long-term funds, goes to daily operations. Handing over pension responsibilities to employees is fine as long as the market does well and as long as employees can contribute reasonable amounts to their own pensions, but RRSP (registered retirement pension plan - tax-deductible contributions) limits are still severly restricted at least in Canada, ($13000CAD approx per year). These days, companys rely upon "volunteerism" as part of how the work gets done. The workforce is squeezed during employement, and is under increasing pressure approaching retirement. But as I mentioned right at the beginning of this post, the aspect of all this that is so different from being involved in a project of excitement and vision, is that for most employees, the expectation that one will "volunteer" one's time for the good of the company has absolutely nothing attached to it by way of "vision" or "enterprise" or some such truly communal project. Let's face it...there is no "vision" in merely making money for the sake of it, regardless of who its for. People have to be part of the enterprise and have to feel it in their belly. Something has to be coming back...an exchange of excitement, growth and new learning, even if such is on a vastly smaller scale than the Apollo project! These days, such entwinement, often expressed as "loyalty" to one's organization is growing more rare as owners/managers seek new ways to extract more productivity from employees for little or no increase in benefit. For these reasons, "volunteerism" (work-for-free...work taken home, work on weekends, work instead of attending kid's soccer games etc) is being recognized for what it is. People are unbelievably generous with their time and never think of "reward" when passion drives them towards a goal. The present workplace expectations largely drive people in the opposite direction, and given a look at the present workplace, for good reason. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Hudson Posted June 9, 2003 Share Posted June 9, 2003 Hi Neil; Yes, interesting set of values, all focussed on a vision/dream of exploring the unknown, making history, pioneering new endeavours and adding to human knowledge. I imagine just being near such activities let alone a volunteer actually within and part of the program would have been very exciting, very desirable and sought after. On a smaller scale, how many people are driven by their passions and spend untold hours volunteering for things they believe in? Today, the term "volunteer" can mean two things: One gives freely of one's time to help others in some community way (the above situation), or, as is more common now, one is "expected" to put in unpaid, unrecognized time at one's place of work, "for free". As is clearly evident, the gulf between one's "employer" and oneself-as-employee is growing more vast as the realization dawns on employees that the term "volunteer" means precisely that: unpaid, but expected work for some distant, undefined "reward". Today's notion of volunteering is a world away from what it used to mean. People (employees) are tired of having their goodwill (willingness to "volunteer" ) taken advantage of while at the same time having their wages rolled back, of having increased workload or hours piled on top, of facing constant demands for increased productivity and all for the same remuneration. In many sectors, they are tired of the low wages, the lack of workplace continuity, and the absence of even a modicum of employment security in both present and future prospects. The "pension crisis" isn't a crisis which employees had a hand in. Employers, companies, organizations don't want to set aside the huge amounts of money needed to provide for decent employee pensions anymore and so are downloading those responsibilities onto the employees through "defined-contribution" plans. Pension "holidays" are taken, and the money that should be going into long-term funds, goes to daily operations. Handing over pension responsibilities to employees is fine as long as the market does well and as long as employees can contribute reasonable amounts to their own pensions, but RRSP (registered retirement pension plan - tax-deductible contributions) limits are still severly restricted at least in Canada, ($13000CAD approx per year). These days, companys rely upon "volunteerism" as part of how the work gets done. The workforce is squeezed during employement, and is under increasing pressure approaching retirement. But as I mentioned right at the beginning of this post, the aspect of all this that is so different from being involved in a project of excitement and vision, is that for most employees, the expectation that one will "volunteer" one's time for the good of the company has absolutely nothing attached to it by way of "vision" or "enterprise" or some such truly communal project. Let's face it...there is no "vision" in merely making money for the sake of it, regardless of who its for. People have to be part of the enterprise and have to feel it in their belly. Something has to be coming back...an exchange of excitement, growth and new learning, even if such is on a vastly smaller scale than the Apollo project! These days, such entwinement, often expressed as "loyalty" to one's organization is growing more rare as owners/managers seek new ways to extract more productivity from employees for little or no increase in benefit. For these reasons, "volunteerism" (work-for-free...work taken home, work on weekends, work instead of attending kid's soccer games etc) is being recognized for what it is. People are unbelievably generous with their time and never think of "reward" when passion drives them towards a goal. The present workplace expectations largely drive people in the opposite direction, and given a look at the present workplace, for good reason. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neil in england Posted June 10, 2003 Share Posted June 10, 2003 Good points Don, It's easy to see why, in these work environments where bosses know the 'cost of everything, value of nothing', that people only give what they have to at the office and no more, no less... I would say that Westjet seems to foster an environment close to the the old values of giving a little more, which, in my opinion is a brilliant coupe on the side of their management...but...how do you maintain that edge??? I don't know... I flew with an FO a few weeks back who told me that he had dealings with Westjet on his ski holiday in British Columbia...he had nothing but NICE things to say about the attitude in his dealings with their staff....BUT, and this is a big BUT, when I mentioned the wages of their pilots, he shuddered/grimaced and said, "whoa...no thanks, how are you supposed to live on that??" I told him that I wasn't too sure, since I'm a little out of touch with Canada's cost of living...but there you go, it seems difficult these days to have it both ways...a company with old-fashioned enthusiasm but industry-low wages...go figure.... cheers, Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Panama Jack Posted June 11, 2003 Share Posted June 11, 2003 Don, Very eloquently put. You hit the nail square on the head. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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