Imagine this Kafkaesque scenario if you could. You call a number to apply for a job. They tell you to come in and get an application. You come in and pick up an app. The job and application are quite complex, so you have a lot of questions about the application process. However, no one is at the workplace but the secretary. It is this way since the new “Internet Model” has taken over most workplaces. Most workplaces are manned only by secretaries and maybe a security guard. No one else is there. All of the “workers” work at home and never show up for work. Supervisory staff is all at home all the time too. This is all being done to save money. Neither the secretary nor the security guard can answer any questions about the application process. They give you a phone number to call. You get home and as you are filling out the app, you call the number. You get a recording every time, and each time you leave a message. It’s now 10 days later, and no one has returned your call yet. You fill in the application and bring it back in. A few days go by. Then you get a call telling you to come in. You come in again and there’s only a secretary and a security guard again. They say you’ve been accepted for the job, but now they need just a few things from you. First, full name for a criminal background check. Next, you need to set up a Paypal account. And a few more things. You tell the secretary you have some very important questions that you need to have answered before you can work for the company. The secretary gives you the boss’s phone number. You get home and call the boss’s number with the very important things you need to straighten out before you can work for the company. It’s been five days now, and he hasn’t called you back yet. You get the feeling that this company doesn’t care about its employees at all. It seems that you, the boss, the other supervisory personnel and your fellow employees will never meet. None of you will ever meet each other. You will probably never talk on the phone either. Work itself, in one of its most important social and cultural aspects, will have been completely destroyed. Can you imagine such a scenario? This is exactly what I am going through right now trying to work for some online company. I have questions about the job that need to be answered. I emailed the idiot (my potential boss) and he’s never gotten back to me. I don’t think he ever will. There’s no phone number. Internet businesses never have phone numbers. I guess there’s no customer service either. There’s basically no way to talk to a human. It looks like I won’t be working for these morons after all. Remember customer service? The Internet business model took that out. Remember how when you went to buy something, you dealt with a human being, either face to face or on the phone? The Internet business model took that out. With many Internet businesses, it’s basically impossible to speak to a human being for any reason whatsoever. Many of them don’t even have a phone number to try to talk to a human! Remember returns policy? You could usually return something for credit or cash if it did not work out. The Internet Business Model took that out. There’s no way to return anything, since in order to do so, you have to talk to a human, and the Model got rid of all the humans to talk to. So you’re just stuck with whatever, whether it works or not.
“More Things That the Internet Has Destroyed: Jobs and Work Itself”
More Things That the Internet Has Destroyed: My right arm.
Yeah, but my left hand is in fantastic shape! HAR HAR.
Hey, here’s a list of all the new trends (of old stuff disappearing) – ALL computer driven. Almost all very, very bad, at least for a thing called a “job”. Not to mention “privacy”, ownership of “objects” and other antiquated notions. Only exceptions might be the demise of VHS, fax, long distance calls.
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/111745/things-babies-born-in-2011-will-never-know?mod=family-kids_parents
I don’t believe that half of that stuff will disappear and some of the things that will disappear will be missed. The idea that you cell phone can put you in touch with your work so you are never totally seperated just sounds awful to me.
I also find the idea that books are gone to be preposterous. The only people who don’t read books anymore are the people who don’t read at all. Even people with electronic books still often read real books.
That last comment was mine, but then Blaque Nashonalyst stole it.
Bertrand Russell “In Praise of Idleness”
http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html
Protestant work ethic is a such a crock of shit. All this tech and automation is supposed to free us from mindless labor to pursue greater things.
mixed feelings about this. internet destroyed customer service? an internet only store Zappos took customer service to the next level, or so i hear.
and as i kind of laid out in my other reply to this post, i don’t see the moral or economic good in working 9-5 jobs 40 hours a week. i see how it might tame a society and bring down crime, and obviously it helps us distribute resources around. but 9-5 is really a farce.
there is a lot of waste in the workplace. there are lots of people employed who do not contribute. they sit on their asses. or they blow the boss. it always feels like there’s some minority percentage carrying the majority.
it sounds like you’re totally pissed and it’ not going great so i don’t want to criticize too much here. just putting in my two cents.