https://bsky.app/profile/brenthor.bsky.social/post/3krzc7fs77k2i
Best job i ever had was maintenance guy at a nursing home. Loved it. Rewarding. Fulfilling. Paid only $10.75/hr so i left it and ‘developed my career’ and now im ‘successful’ but at least once a week i have dreams where im back in the home hanging pictures, flirtin with the ol gals, being useful.
So when people ask ‘who fixes toilets under communism?’ my answer is a resounding ‘me. I will fix the toilets.’
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Happiest I’ve ever been at work has been fixing and cleaning things that needed it.
The thing that always stopped it was the inhumane work conditions and lack of respect. If you’re happy to treat me as an equal, and make me a cup of tea when I take a break to stretch my back and knees I’ll do the dirty shitty work for you.
If you want me to work to the point of damaging my body and then raise your voice at me if you see me taking a damn breather then we’re gonna have a problem.
I’m damn near 40 in a great career and I still miss my old McDonald’s days that paid peanuts. It was a weird mix of monotony, spontaneity and genuine friendships.
Big mood.
Befriending my coworkers is more fun and genuine when dicking around in the kitchen when the manager is out on a smoke compared to sending sfw memes in slack.
Like, I’m great friends with one of my coworkers. I knew him for years before work, but talking with him on slack feels so much more sterile compared to when I see him in the office, which is much more sterile than when I’d grab dinner with him a few years back.
It’s kinda saddening knowing that the environment of a hybrid job will make it so much harder to have genuine friendships with coworkers.
Now, if I stay at my job for a few years and get promoted to leadership, it will be worse knowing that my hierarchy will taint whatever hope I have at forming genuine friendships.
Fuck work
And so you’re asking me, who does the dishes after the revolution?
Well, I do my own dishes now, I’ll do our own dishes then
You know it’s always the ones who don’t who ask that fucking question
Yes, there are people who enjoy doing a simple job well. Capitalism is what makes it miserable by making you poor for doing it (despite society needing it)
The job I have, I would do even if I was rich. Well, that’s only partly true.
I work in aviation in the military, and my job previously consisted of being a flight mechanic doing Search and Rescue, maintaining aircraft, and fixing electronics/avionics on aircraft, and it was awesome, and I’d have done it for free if I could maintain my lifestyle without that paycheck.
The only reason I stopped that stuff and started supervising was because I got too old and broken to continue doing the job I loved, but if you had told me doing this job now (supervising people doing the fun work, occasionally helping them with my arthritis-ridden hands, etc) would be the cost of doing the job I did, I would have accepted it hands down (though in fairness I am looking longingly forward to retirement). And when I do retire, I’ll have to find something else to do for work, because I’ll probably just die of boredom if I don’t.
All that to say, there are plenty of people who don’t work just out of necessity. And like the person in the post, just feeling productive and appreciated does wonders to make it worth more than just the paycheck.
I used to work in programming, I hated being so mentally exhausted at the end of the day that I couldn’t do anything more taxing than watching TV or playing a mindless videogame
Give me a simple physical job that I leave at work any day
God this is me. I’ve got deadline coming up so I’ve been tearing my guts out every day trying to finish up a project. I don’t even play videogames, or watch shows anymore; just scratch out some notes in diary, then read in bed.
I wish I was like a letter carrier and got to clock out with a clear conscience. No waking up in the middle of the night thinking about nonsense programming problems for a bullshit domain that doesn’t need to exist.
Mopping floors and peeling potatoes was less tiring than carrying a quota staring at these screens.
a clean floor and peeled potatoes ready to be cooked versus more TPS reports, higher KPIs, more semicolons …
Seems like a no brainer. This stupid fucking late stage capitalism money problem Thing…
not just money, but controlling our time – no time left to do anything for ourselves or too burnt out to do anything during those precious spare minutes …
Do you know the song Working Class The Hero?
time to roll out the Green Day cover to save Darfur again …
You’re good people, I like you. That’s the version I play guitar to after work on Fridays. Impossible to listen to Lennon afterward, has to be first lol (Also glad to know someone else also picks the Darfur interjection version over the audio track)
Whoever is going to be using it. It’s not fucking complicated. Under (actual) communism the populace is educated to take care of themselves, unlike in capitalism, which purposefully perpetuates the class divide through lack of education to preserve hierarchy.
“Under communism you fix your own damn toilet” is a bit of a hard sale I’d say
This is already the case if you’re poor under capitalism. I have to fix literally everything if it’s broken.
Not much of a difference there then
It’s also terribly inefficient. We could do what we already know works better which is train some people who then help others. That way people can become a specialist at a skill they’re suited for.
I dunno I mean a toilet’s pretty uncomplicated and I don’t see that changing too much. Just get the bean counters to run the numbers on making an idiot proof toilet that’s made so like at least 1 in 3 people can repair it without formal training or instructions, against the expense of having a bunch of guys, maybe real plumbers, running around fixing all the toilets.
I disagree. First of all, a trained craftsment for sanitary and heating installations has to think about stuff like where to put pipes, which angles to observe, which diameters are necessary… All of this does not matter for fixing an existing installation.
And second, when people learn the basic principles of it, they also learn how to better maintain things so they need less fixing in the first place. Also if there is no profit incentive, there is no incentive to provide overengineered but easily breaking systems but rather straightforward and reliable ones. For instance the hardest part of fixing my washing machine by myself was finding what the god damn error code meant.
I mean, it’s not that difficult. It really is not. And, under communism, they typically tried to have local support groups for people. And, as for toilets, if you just ask someone down the street. I work in healthcare, but I’ve helped several neighbors with toilet issues. The house plumbing kind. You just help out your neighbors. Mutual aid, yo.
Mind you, large scale communism never works because, well, humans …
Yeah I’m not saying communities shouldn’t be self sufficient where possible, but division of labor and specialized professions have proven to be far superior. People can’t be good at everything, a learned plumber with years of experience is 100% more qualified than a random person with a YouTube tutorial like me.
Not to mention that in certain areas being a layman can be outright dangerous, imagine if your upstairs alcoholic neighbor would try to fix his plumbing or electrical wiring. Chances are it will be your problem as well within a week, if the house doesn’t immediately flood with sewage or burn down from faulty wiring.
Lastly, I am sure that many people don’t want to amateurishly fuck around with their plumbing, they would rather pay someone qualified to do it.
Oh, anything beyond fixture maintenance and replacement is plain difficult at best and extremely hazardous at worst. But we were talking about toilets, I thought.
I’m a big fan of division of labor, as no one person can be even adequate at all things DIY.
We are talking about toilets, yes. I only extended to electricity for the example, my bad
But we do seem to agree anyway ✊
As someone with 4 degrees, a high IQ, and the availability of YouTube, I would still never touch anything more complicated than changing out an outlet, and even some of those are a bit risky, depending on the situation.
I yield the floor to the sparkies.
In every realm, those who think they know things out of their field of expertise, just because they have a field of expertise, are typically both wrong and unsafe.
You don’t need a degree to handle a toilet pump, and of course a sane person won’t ask an alcoholic for serious help.
The point was that even a wholly unqualified person who is likely to do more harm than good in the attempt would be expected to do so, not that you would ask them for help.
Why not ask a person who has spent years learning about plumbing, materials, health requirements, for help instead? They usually come with practical experience in the installation and maintenance and also know the most cost efficient way to do all this. In exchange you could provide them monetary compensation for their superior knowledge, skill and experience on the subject.
Last three times my toilet needed fixing I was the one that did it.
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Well it sold me. I’d much rather be able to fix it than not.
That works for stuff like “how do I connect two pipes”, but not so much for more complex matters like planning out a bathroom, or wiring a house. Or worse, things that actually require practice, like plastering a wall or bricklaying.
So skilled workers? You’re afraid people will stop learning trades?
No, I’m saying that’s smarter than doing everything yourself
Those are all things where you can learn to do them under the supervision of an expert. And given the productivity we achieved with automation we could have a 20 hour “efficient” work week and use the other 20 hours for our “inefficient” shenanigans.
These things can be learned, so they can be taught. Don’t use the lack of education we’ve experienced as an excuse for further lack of education. That’s super weak.
Of course you can learn them, you can learn anything.
But are you really going to learn every single skill you might one day need? Does this apply to everything, will you, for example, develop your own engine oil from the fractional distiller you hand-welded, with the metals you alloyed at home out of the ore you smelted yourself, just so you can lubricate the electric razor you assembled by hand?
No? Is that perhaps a bit inefficient? Of course it is, because no single human being can learn every skill we have available in society, and that’s been true since we invented agriculture.
There is no shame in not knowing how to plaster a wall, because that’s hard. Just like there is no shame in not being able to hand-weld and operate a fractional distiller. Now, not being able to unclog your toilet, or paint a wall, is up for discussion.
I actually do have to learn to plaster a wall, to fix my house. People should be taught everything they need to know to live on their own, sustainably. I can’t believe you’re trying to argue against that. Capitalism makes everyone weaker, top to bottom. Wake up.
You won’t learn complex skills if you don’t have a chance to exercise them often. In 10 years, you probably won’t be in condition to plaster another wall, if the only time you have done it is now. So you need to continuously relearn stuff, if you can.
I don’t see the problem if people specialize in certain trades and can contribute to the community with them.
I never said people can’t specialize. You’re totally ignoring the point, which is that basic life skills aren’t taught because capitalism assumes the owner will pay somebody else, rather than being actually useful people themselves. Try listening sometime, it may do you some good.
You are simply moving the goalpost. Basically all the comments chain talks about advanced skills. I can see there is a general consensus (and I agree with this as well) about the fact that learning basic skills in multiple areas is both beneficial and achievable.
The whole point of this comment referred to complex skills, and plastering a wall was given as an example of such complex skills. To which you answered “I am going to plaster a wall”. Try admitting that you might have made an overstatement or simply have been too geberic sometimes, nobody is keeping score.
My job involves handling dangerous materials. Given how much some of my coworkers stress me the fuck out by being walking safety hazards, I often and happily volunteer to shift the more dangerous tasks to myself.
I’d be snagging post-revolution hazmat volunteer shifts like a fiend just trying to keep less careful people from getting them…
remind coworkers: “Safety regulations are written in blood.”
Obviously the blood of morons who didn’t know what they’re doing. I know what I’m doing, so I’ll be fine.
(Until they get an unforgettable live demonstration on optimism bias and cumulative probability)
I have a similar experience but I was driving a cargo van around delivering boxes of office paper. Didn’t even have a cellphone in those days, just a big list of deliveries and a map. I delivered to all kinds of cool places and learned a ton about the city.
I imagine that job is totally fucked up now. Twice as many deliveries on half the time, eye tracking cameras, and the driver is responsible for paying for gas and maintenance. But man, for that one summer in 2001 it was glorious.
I like handling bureaucracy so I can handle that. Currently trying to get a public office job. I’m bringing it up because I’m aware most people don’t.
Many “undesirable” jobs are undesirable because they’re below living wage and/or may be long-term unsustainable physically (or mentally) with the 40(+)h/week standard.
I just got a job driving hang gliders up a mountain on a bumpy dirt road all day. Only make 80 bucks a day but I’m happy.
Yeah, I think that’s something worth expanding on - lots of people actually like work. Nobody likes working 40+ hours a week and still not being able to pay the bills.
I really enjoyed the actual work I did at Subway. The only things I didn’t like about it were the rude-ass customers, the fact that I was getting paid shit.50 an hour and the manager was a creep and a prick who was constantly late with checks. Two of those things go away if everyone’s paid enough to live no matter what they do.
Maybe if people have less stress factors in their lives, they’ll be less of a prick too. At the very least, if you have less, you’d be able to bear it more easily.
I miss being on the fire crew, running a chainsaw or a drip torch
So when people ask ‘who fixes toilets under communism?’ my answer is a resounding ‘me. I will fix the toilets.’
It’s true, it took ages for the plumber to come so you were the one who had to fix it.
