Post AxztesU58KVxF4QJG4 by thecrushedviolet@mstdn.games
(DIR) More posts by thecrushedviolet@mstdn.games
(DIR) Post #AxzqtLxS31sOqRN61o by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-09-08T12:46:43Z
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Thinking about how the human staff of any organization is an extension of their presence in the world. Consider 100 employees, reasonably happy with their job. That's 100 people who will notice things that might hurt the company, organically promote it's reach, come up with new ideas for future projects. When some of the staff like their jobs less because you treat them poorly that shrinks. When you contract the work out? it shrinks more. When you replace them with AI it becomes a pinpoint.
(DIR) Post #AxzrHQLpMjtZQ6FdAG by ajn142@infosec.exchange
2025-09-08T12:51:03Z
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@futurebird Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. as the beginning of the end of any mutualistic relationship between corporations and their employees.
(DIR) Post #AxzrIMJhqmf3CJhkuW by sinvega@mas.to
2025-09-08T12:51:12Z
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@futurebird the reduction of people to 1 worker unit (or 1 special worker unit, where "special" is a ticked box) is one of the most disastrous and insidious curses ever brought into the world. Even for businesses themselves
(DIR) Post #AxzrUg5y8ld00x9ZZI by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-09-08T12:53:27Z
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The way that some "business leaders" seem to think, especially their behavior around AI makes me wonder if they are totally disinterested in building a powerful and persistent organization. For all the talk of "team members" and "sandwich artists" there are a lot of companies that aren't organized as collective projects at all. What I think they find even more difficult? the notion that all employees can have good ideas and their input can be valuable.
(DIR) Post #AxzrkVqK1gbCqnNwW0 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-09-08T12:56:19Z
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You know who might know a lot about how to make sandwiches faster? The guy who makes dozens of them a day.But if you work at these companies you'd never tell them because they'd just cut your hours if they even bothered to listen and didn't somehow penalize you for being disruptive or complaining. If I ran a company I'd want everyone who worked their to brag about their job. This can happen.
(DIR) Post #AxzsFI2hNyCR1hqlhg by dawngreeter@dice.camp
2025-09-08T13:01:50Z
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@futurebird Capitalists do not want businesses that work well. They want businesses whose magic number tied to the fictional valuation keeps going up. Neither service/product provided nor their customers matter. Investors are the only thing that matters. And investors are basically a collective drug-fueled gambling organism stuck in a dark room with no sense of the outside world for at least a decade now.
(DIR) Post #AxzsHb9NJZVYrp4cSm by SKleefeld@mastodon.social
2025-09-08T13:02:16Z
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@futurebird When I was working on my MBA twenty years ago, it was *regularly* brought up that C-suite execs were explicitly rewarded based on their near-term/quarterly performance and they have effectively zero incentive for working to improve things on any sort of time scale longer than that. They build things up as much as possible in the short term, everyone cashes out, and then they all move on to the next company. Wash, rinse, repeat.
(DIR) Post #AxzsPJQb5bIsDeo7fc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-09-08T13:03:42Z
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@SKleefeld I think most more normal people like the idea of building something lasting and respected, so to the degree this happens it's because leadership isn't functioning as intended.
(DIR) Post #Axzt2U3BWsqSSRXDuK by SKleefeld@mastodon.social
2025-09-08T13:10:43Z
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@futurebird Well, it's not leadership at all. It's wealthy shareholders changing the rules to make themselves even wealthier. C-suite execs aren't leading at all, but just playing the game to their own advantage. Actual leadership is actively DIScouraged.
(DIR) Post #Axzt8O2SnFjrYC0ob2 by jwcph@helvede.net
2025-09-08T13:11:47Z
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@futurebird Also, it's way better business. Companies with satisfied employees make more money - this is well-documented. And yet many leaders & owners ignore it because it doesn't fit their world view.
(DIR) Post #AxztFe4TaEjNIkPmD2 by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-09-08T13:13:09Z
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@futurebird I think every tech company I ever interviewed with went to great effort to convince all prospective employees that wanted everyone's job to be so great they'd brag about of their own accord.... and all of those jobs were very bad jobs.there's a kernel of a good idea underneath it all, but capitalism attracts too many people who see it as just another way to manipulate people into yet another scam.
(DIR) Post #AxztJrjGkHRWoqVXWq by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-09-08T13:13:53Z
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@futurebird I think it's less that they're disinterested in building a "powerful and persistent organization", and more that they simply think as long as *they, themselves* exist, the organization will exist.Elon Musk is a perfect example of this: despite having never created anything or founded any company (all of his companies are acquired and renamed) he honestly believes that *he* is the most important employee at his ventures.Everyone *else* is expendable and replaceable.
(DIR) Post #AxztPyInDiSYwU2FNY by dlakelan@mastodon.sdf.org
2025-09-08T13:14:52Z
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@futurebirdThis happens when workers control the means of production... As the man said. Socialism isn't some government owns all the stuff, the way the USSR claimed. Thats just a form of fascism. Socialism is when companies are owned by the workers as a coop and doing something good for the company is doing something good for yourself as well. Until then things will continue to fall apart.
(DIR) Post #AxztesU58KVxF4QJG4 by thecrushedviolet@mstdn.games
2025-09-08T13:17:40Z
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@futurebird I wish I could find the video of a Ted-like talk I used a bunch in my Hotel and Restaurant Management course. It was a restaurant group owner talking about wanting employees to feel ownership of the business. He mentions putting on a cocktail contest every menu so various bartenders in the restaurant group got their drinks on the menu, and noticing a server taking pictures of the tables, asking about their photography, and having them do some shots for the website.It is baffling to me that most company owners and upper management wouldn't want their employees to feel invested in their jobs, with such simple ways to involve them.
(DIR) Post #AxzuzkD3C3nhc7yG2q by em_and_future_cats@mastodon.social
2025-09-08T13:32:39Z
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@futurebird I can attest to this. (I don’t know if the company can go far into Ai but everything of the above happened).
(DIR) Post #AxzwltYRqraaS3VH04 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-09-08T13:52:36Z
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Simply insisting employees call each other "family" or having team building exercises won't do it either. These superficial changes can produce vapors of the benefits, in the long run everyone gets annoyed and makes fun of them relentlessly because they are just cynical surface level changes. The real changes are:1. Employees have input and a stake in how the business is run.2. Better compensation and benefits3. Better working conditions. It's not rocket science.
(DIR) Post #AxzwpHKXuVFN3kc8UC by ricci@discuss.systems
2025-09-08T13:53:09Z
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@biogeo @futurebird A system that has cut off information flow from the bottom to the top is dead, it just doesn't know it yet
(DIR) Post #AxzzO3ZTG6JmQhJ3RI by pteryx@dice.camp
2025-09-08T14:21:51Z
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@futurebirdOn top of "business leaders" not being interested in building a company that lasts (they want to cash out, after all!), they often don't seem to fully understand or care what their product or service is in the first place.Heck, one rather abrupt cancellation of something that was really heavily pushed to the detriment of the company wasn't because the suits realized that detriment... but because someone explained to them it was a service to maintain, not a one-and-done product.
(DIR) Post #AxzzvD9ge7Kfi73Uh6 by lawyersgunsnmoney@mstdn.social
2025-09-08T14:27:51Z
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@futurebird I agree with your premise. However, the bean counters always win in my experience. Headcount reductions, FTE reductions are what matters and that is why companies are selling and buying AI. Longer term it’s stupid.
(DIR) Post #Ay01AcITYGqPz54mA4 by JosephMeyer@c.im
2025-09-08T14:34:37Z
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@futurebird Well put. I might get in trouble for putting this in writing here on the Fediverse, but it seems a rare combination for technical persons who create and manage high-tech companies that now contribute a large share of the U.S. economy to have high empathy and communication skills in addition to their technical expertise. I’ll back up my statement with an endorsement from my wife, a talented human resources professional. There are persons with such crossover skills, but they are the exception. If you find them, hire them and don’t ever let them go.
(DIR) Post #Ay01PwRWvoYooGcQAS by anarchiv@todon.nl
2025-09-08T14:44:37Z
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@futurebird corporate ontology ✨
(DIR) Post #Ay01lQLuvLWPeaEkLY by ianm@c.im
2025-09-08T14:38:47Z
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@futurebird “We’re a family.” Just like the Windsors, or the Corleones.
(DIR) Post #Ay05BYUVaT5AHpPJh2 by JamesWidman@mastodon.social
2025-09-08T15:26:51Z
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@futurebird in Josh Johnson's most recent set (uploaded September 6th), he comments on this:> "Ever since [the bank bailout of 2008], it feels like business is about not being left holding the bag. [It's about doing] everything you can to extract as much value as possible and then you dip before everything comes crashing down."i think this is correct, and every big investor should probably be viewed as if they are always thinking, "how can i flip this asset as fast as possible?"
(DIR) Post #Ay0KP1dw0iKNmEhJ1k by nantucketlit@mastodon.social
2025-09-08T18:17:21Z
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@futurebird Whenever a business describes itself as a "family", I remember that dark scene in Breaking Bad: "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? WE'RE A FAMILY!"
(DIR) Post #Ay0N3EbpQF0zTx0sim by felis_catus_domesticus@mas.to
2025-09-08T18:47:01Z
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@futurebird and what utopian world would this be?
(DIR) Post #Ay1124nSPp2MvUSH5c by BLTpizza@mastodon.social
2025-09-09T02:14:59Z
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@futurebird My proposal for a happier work place, more paid time off from work. I had to use vacation time just to get two days off after working 30+ consecutive days at a physically demanding job. Factory workers have very little say over how their work day goes and how work space are structured. Unless the place Self directed cooperative enterprise, a true democratic space I don't care about the team/family/corporate speak bullshit. Not one bit.
(DIR) Post #Ay4tVUB76XA92hs8zQ by masukomi@connectified.com
2025-09-10T23:09:31Z
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@futurebird but if employees have input we can’t guilt them into doing unpaid labor for “family”