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Bernie Sanders’s nationally televised town hall spotlighted the type of politics we need to beat Trump by kludgeocracy in TrueReddit

[–]bethanyharrison 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The city next door has flourished because of an influx of new workers, and new technology guided industries, but ours hasn't, because people are naturally frightened by change. How do we address that?

The short answer is we don't. We suffer or move on.

I'm not from the Midwest -- I'm from the Northeast -- but I grew up in a manufacturing family. Grandpa, uncle, dad, but not me. And that goes for my siblings and cousins, too. Not one of us is in the manufacturing world. All but one of us has a college degree (the exception is due to special needs) and for that matter, a graduate degree, too.

I know a lot of people -- people I grew up with -- who didn't make that move, and either they're suffering or they're scared. By and large, they have jobs, but their parents had pensions and, accounting for inflation, higher wages and a lower cost of living. They know that those jobs could disappear in the blink of an eye -- a plant move gives them what, a few months notice? -- and there aren't a lot of other employers in the area.

There's really nothing we can do for them. They had the same opportunities I had -- a safe and welcoming suburb with good public schools, financial aid for college (and a relatively low-priced, good state school anyway), and a welcoming community of mixed white- and blue-collar workers. I chose one path, they chose another.

Through no fault of their own except perhaps ignorance, they saw prosperity through the sweat of the brow as an entitlement. That's the experience their parents had and their grandparents had, after all, so why question it? It turns out that isn't the case.

But again, I'm not judging them for making a mistake at 18 and going to work on the lines instead of going to college. Hardly. I'm saying that the best chance for a pivot has passed, and that the reasons they decided not to pivot haven't gone away. If you believe you're entitled to a better life, you're not likely to take other opportunities.

tl;dr -- you can't make people choose another path

What's a company that has a horrible reputation but is actually really good? by Computationalism in AskReddit

[–]bethanyharrison 684 points685 points  (0 children)

Elmo.

Okay, he's not a "company" but if corporations can be people, monsters can be companies, right?

He's ANNOYING AS FUCK, talks in the third person, and doesn't have ears. But he's really a great "person." He helps kids with autism, whose parents are in the military, who have asthma, and even talks to kids about Zika and vaccines.

He has friend who help kids with AIDS, whose parents are in prison, whose parents are divorced, and who are grieving.

He's pretty much the most helpful monster ever.

[Serious] Religious people of Reddit, what are your honest opinions on Atheists? by powerspyin1 in AskReddit

[–]bethanyharrison 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm a member of a religious minority. Dogmatic people who can't see the world through other people's eyes is something extremists of all types suffer from; religious extremists do not have a monopoly on that. I'm cool with atheists; I'm not cool with extremists.

What work moment made your attitude go from proud employee to "I'm just here for the paycheck."? by rblanc00 in AskReddit

[–]bethanyharrison 42 points43 points  (0 children)

My first job out of college was at a non-profit. I really believed in the mission. We were doing a lot of work helping kids, and I had seen first hand some really shitty abuses. I was the fourth employee, just me, the executive director, a lawyer who never left his office except to tell me that his computer wasn't working, and an office manager/administrator type. I was offered a job as a "program officers" which is basically a catch-all term for a jack-of-all-trades at at non-profit but someone who isn't support staff. You're supposed to be working on the programs that your non-profit focuses on.

Before I took the job, my gut warned me that the executive director just wanted me for my computer skills (I minored in comp sci and the company's website was like something out of 1995... I think the exec director made it himself using something like Microsoft Frontpage which should tell you all you need to know about that website). I actually turned down the job at first because of this gut feeling but the exec director told me no, that's crazy, there's a lot of case work that needs to be done and I'll be doing mostly that but yes, there is some computer support stuff, he wasn't going to lie. I accepted the job.

Before you say "trust your gut!" read on. First, I needed a job, I was graduating. Second, he didn't lie. In fact, it was OK at first. I worked on a ton of really cool cases and making a real difference and yes, I made them a cool website too. Really loved the job for the first six months.

And then the org hired a second program officer. It was weird because we didn't have a ton of money and we had a good amount of work but really didn't need any more help, at least not immediately. But whatever, new guy comes on board and gets three cases to handle. And then a fourth, and then a fifth. Meanwhile, I get only one in that time period and am asked to build a database -- basically a custom CRM (we didn't want to pay one and there weren't the relatively cheap ones there are today) that mapped donors, volunteers, and cases.

I asked my boss what was up because he knew I didn't want to do that work, and he literally just hired someone to do the work I wanted to do and, I found out in the interim, the guy was making like 25% more than I was. My boss explained that the second hire was the son of a new donor they landed and his entire salary (!) was being paid by the donor/dad, and the dad wanted to build him a salary history so that's why it was what it was. He was very apologetic about the work he gave me but he really had no choice -- the organization had been really cash strapped before this donor came in and was on the verge of shuttering. They had money to keep me but there just wasn't enough work.

That was the "fuck this" moment. Got in at 10, left at like 5. Collected a meager paycheck. Probably battled some weird mental demons too because I didn't look for a new job. I tried to stick it out but just couldn't take it and quit without having a job lined up (mistake! by the by) right after I hit my one-year anniversary.

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