Post: #26

(03-02-2013 02:40 AM)scotian Wrote:  

(03-01-2013 02:19 PM)kosko Wrote:  

(03-01-2013 01:01 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  Not seeing the vid on the board, but it shows up in the rss feed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkVSWxuhIfg

Americans work more hours per year than the rest of the developed world, and arguably they have much less to show for it, as individual workers.

But the American workforce is also the most inefficient.

Aren't American more productive than Canadians? I seem to recall reading this before and its a major issue for Canadian businesses.

Yes, it was noted above. Canada is less productive because we spend more on labour, work less, wages are higher, and we pay more to source energy then the Americans do.

Post: #27

(03-01-2013 09:59 PM)Blaster Wrote:  I'm not sure I trust any gross generalization to paint an accurate picture of the productivity of US workers. There are so many factors to consider.

It's true that the sort of laborer work ethic seen by the bricklayer in the original video is probably scarcer. But I have seen it. It happens in young, highly-motivated men. Especially young blue-collar fathers, where their tasks are physical and clearly defined. They work even harder when an alpha male leader is present to motivate them (even if he's not officially a leader in the org chart).

I do think that these sort of men are becoming scarcer due in equal parts to the rise in single motherhood, breakdown of communities, emphasis on college and service professions and scarcity of jobs for laborers. But one must also consider technology and nature of work. Most any job in the US that is as simple and repetitive as bricklaying is going to be done with technology. And when jobs are not simple and repetitive, it's much more difficult to practice them well enough to put on the kind of performance you see in the video above.

And professional jobs... they are a whole different issue. I have thoughts on that too but this post is already too long.

Work ethic and productivity are two different things. These Indian builders are able to endure misery and drudgery. You could call that a work ethic. They are also grossly unproductive. Notice the lack of sophisticated tools. Again, if people are interested in the issue, check out The Power of Productivity. There is a whole chapter on how many Indian industries have 1-5% of the productivity of the US equivalent. Building is one of their least productive industries.

Post: #28

humbling video. thanks

Post: #29

(03-02-2013 04:08 AM)Lemmo Wrote:  

(03-01-2013 09:59 PM)Blaster Wrote:  I'm not sure I trust any gross generalization to paint an accurate picture of the productivity of US workers. There are so many factors to consider.

It's true that the sort of laborer work ethic seen by the bricklayer in the original video is probably scarcer. But I have seen it. It happens in young, highly-motivated men. Especially young blue-collar fathers, where their tasks are physical and clearly defined. They work even harder when an alpha male leader is present to motivate them (even if he's not officially a leader in the org chart).

I do think that these sort of men are becoming scarcer due in equal parts to the rise in single motherhood, breakdown of communities, emphasis on college and service professions and scarcity of jobs for laborers. But one must also consider technology and nature of work. Most any job in the US that is as simple and repetitive as bricklaying is going to be done with technology. And when jobs are not simple and repetitive, it's much more difficult to practice them well enough to put on the kind of performance you see in the video above.

And professional jobs... they are a whole different issue. I have thoughts on that too but this post is already too long.

Work ethic and productivity are two different things. These Indian builders are able to endure misery and drudgery. You could call that a work ethic. They are also grossly unproductive. Notice the lack of sophisticated tools. Again, if people are interested in the issue, check out The Power of Productivity. There is a whole chapter on how many Indian industries have 1-5% of the productivity of the US equivalent. Building is one of their least productive industries.

I've worked closely with Indians. They are highly unproductive and poorly trained. They work hard because they have to. A company in the ME will hire 4-5 Indians to maintain generators, as where ONE American, Brit, German, Japanese, or Aussie can do the same work, and do it correctly.

Post: #30

Just bragging a little bit here (not too much) but I did work pretty hard at one point in my life. While I was in college my parents lived in the DC area. When I went home for the summers I worked at a moving company and in that area in the summer there are thousands of people moving every day. I worked 10+ hour days and as often as not worked Saturday as well.

Granted it was only temporary but still, I feel like I can relate to the blue collar, hard manual labor life.

Post: #31

Lemmo Wrote:Work ethic and productivity are two different things. These Indian builders are able to endure misery and drudgery. You could call that a work ethic. They are also grossly unproductive. Notice the lack of sophisticated tools.

Yes, work ethic and productivity are different things. What I am calling work ethic is not, however, ability to endure misery and drudgery. It's the effort, speed, and efficiency the bricklayer is demonstrating given the circumstances and tools available. This guys productivity was probably higher than anyone else on the site. Odds are, that's the only reason he was filmed at all. That also implies, of course, that his performance has little to do with race or culture.