- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Consider the 'crappy jobs' corps for young people

Posted by: MDG on January 29, 19100 at 12:22:14:

In Reply to: Why I hate the idea of Job Rotation posted by Lark on January 28, 19100 at 17:30:49:


: Right it's insinuated time and again that if your not for Job rotation it's because you must be lazy or shy of disagreeable work or whatever.

: Here's my take for the no camp.

: I've spent 5yrs so far in education and training so I can become a Social Worker of Business man, I dont mind doing 'lesser' tasks but I dont want to have to spend another 5yrs training for them, then after a year find I've got a further 5yrs training again.

: I dont want the hassle of being transfered about every time I find a job I like with people I like etc.

: Plus I've got a hatred of the sight of blood, I'm ill tempered under stress, I'm not the greatest at not questioning commands, this makes me an unsuitable physician/medical student, police officer or soldier already, now I could go on.

I've also questioned job rotation, but not because, as has been alleged, that as a college/grad school graduate, I somehow above shovelling shit. I'd be willing to do my share of scut work, I just question how well the system, a la Stoller's description, would work.

I have another idea: the crappy miserable jobs, like picking grapes or cleaning toilets, should be the work of young people, done either for school credit or college money (public grants) while they're in high school or after high school, before college. It would be universal service, akin to the military. Why young people? First off, the crappy jobs tend to be physical in nature, and young people can handle that sort of work better; secondly, seniority has its privileges, and older folk can listen to the young folk complain about cleaning crappy latrines and say, "Don't worry, we survived it, and you will too." Young people party harder than older people, so when they get off their crappy shift, they can shake it off more easily. Also, young people don't yet have families, added responsibilities, and the world weariness of older people, in other words, less stress, so doing the scut work won't take as much a mental toll on them. Furthermore, doing scut work will integrate them into the adult world of work, not the school -- and school age people -- they've known all their lives. Also, doing scut work will hopefully help them appreciate the greater opportunities they'll be given down the road, i.e. college/vocational school/grad school.

Once the undesirable work is done, and older people (arbitrary figure, 22 years old) go on to further schooling and professions, I don't think that further job rotation will be necessary, with one exception: serving in government.


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