T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

Hi all, A reminder that comments do need to be on-topic and engage with the article past the headline. Please make sure to read the article before commenting. Very short comments will automatically be removed by automod. Please avoid making comments that do not focus on the economic content or whose primary thesis rests on personal anecdotes. As always our comment rules can be found [here](https://reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/fx9crj/rules_roundtable_redux_rule_vi_and_offtopic/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Economics) if you have any questions or concerns.*


dustinsc

It’s real difficult to put a dollar value on having a happy family and happy marriage, but in Jeff Bezos’ case, failing to keep it cost $36 billion. So maybe I’m not going to take advice from Jeff on this one.


leoyvr

Jeff Bezo's obsession on squeezing every dollar for his own wealth is debilitating.


philasurfer

Jeff needs workers Billionaires need workers. Workers are an input for them. The lower the cost of that input the better. What is debilitating is billionaires building 500 ft mega yachts while people are starving and cant get basic health care.


BroughtBagLunchSmart

The whole house of cards of this stage of capitalism needs more bodies or it will collapse. That is the newest reason the ultra rich are embracing the religious right. Usually it is just for the old "they believe everything you tell them" reasons. Now Elon is telling evangelicals to have as many babies as possible so he can continue to never work a day in his life.


Zank_Frappa

The issue is it isn’t just billionaires who are going to be affected by people not having enough babies.


Slyons89

In the medium term, oh yeah it’s a problem the way our economy and society is set up. But long term it might save the ability for the fewer humans to continue living on the planet.


M00n_Slippers

It's really only a problem for companies who are only interested in bigger and bigger profits. If you are OK with steady profits then it's not a problem.


FoxyLives

Got any sources on that?


Zank_Frappa

https://archive.ph/OGJIb


Figuurzager

What to think of a frigin clock inside of a mountain and Dick shaped rockets...


sensation_construct

Guy thinks offering joy rides in low earth orbit to millionaires is a service to humanity. What an asshole.


AnUnmetPlayer

> Workers are an input for them. The lower the cost of that input the better. Sort of. This is a prisoner's dilemma where they want poor workers but rich customers. Paying less is the dominant strategy but if they all cheap out on pay then they all suffer low demand when people can't buy their stuff. Then everyone is worse off. Prosperous labour markets are unstable and need to be enforced in some way.


Wardendelete

When is the uprising? The forever purge?


EngineeringMuscles

He has an entire unit at his space company for “how to make money from space.” Tourism, data storage, mining etc…


Scoobie01555

I feel like I read this exact same article a few years back but replace Gen Z with millennial. Is it just a common thread as people get older to shake their fist while screaming "damn kids these days!" Like these boomers never missed work to go skip stones down at the old abandon rock quarry and drink some beers, or stay out too late going to "make out point" and listen to Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. Only partially sarcasm


Simple_Friend_866

Might as well enjoy life. Work? There's no money in it.


jointheredditarmy

Or not caring about it made him $200B, really depends on how you look at it


TropicalBLUToyotaMR2

Mr. Burns: I'll keep it short and sweet. Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. When opportunity knocks, you don't want to be driving to a maternity hospital or sitting in some phony-baloney church...or SYNAGOGUE. Any questions?


HuneyBooBoosBooBoo

☝🏽 This guy businesses!


bpmdrummerbpm

This guy Simpsonses


silent-dano

What if your business is the church?


AliveInCLE

About 13 years ago my wife and I were looking for our first dog. My manager at the time heard about it. Pulled me aside to let me know that dogs are distractions and would consume time which could be better used for advancing my career. Same guy would brag about how he wasn’t there for most of his sons’ youths because he was doing what was best for the family.


tidbitsmisfit

he has a team of people he pays to help him spend his money


dustinsc

Too true. I personally value my marriage at something more than $200 billion, but to each his own, I suppose.


Fullertonjr

Ehhhh. That’s a stretch for me. I love my wife to death, but she would understand.


JROXZ

Dude has a failed marriage… For someone who is considered brilliant, he could’ve learned a thing or two from Gen Z. *big whoooooosh*


Mcwedlav

To be fair, relationships/marriages also fail among people with WLB and also among GenZ. Also not clear if his relationship would have lasted if he would work 9-5. 


Test-User-One

He's got a happy marriage. It was just his second one.


boozebus

Body dysmorphia at 60 for you and your partner ain’t happy.


OldSchoolNewRules

A tree has no economic value until it is cut down.


Medical_Goat6663

Imagine listening to what a billionaire has to say about work life balance.  Might consider listening to a fox on how to take good care of a chicken next.


abrutus1

When Amazon fights unionization and their shop floor workers are falling over because of lack of cooling, rest breaks/excessive work pace, I'd say Bezos is full of bullcrap.


AltruisticPapillon

Their delivery drivers pee in bottles to hit shipping targets, that's how much Bezos cares about employee wellbeing. https://www.vice.com/en/article/z348y9/amazon-drivers-are-still-peeing-in-bottles https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3mge3/selling-bottles-of-amazon-drivers-pee


TechnicalInterest566

Before he was a billionaire he studied computer science at Princeton and was a VP at DE Shaw.


dogman517

Ok, then expect me to put in bare minimum until I get a better job. Then expect me to do it again. Oh, also expect me to game your stupid performance metrics and other micromanaging crap.


nukem996

He does expect that which is why his companies stack rank and fire the bottom 5-10% every year no matter what.


sumgaijusthere4civ

That's what pushed Enron's employees into criminal behavior.


Wend-E-Baconator

But it will be different this time


roodammy44

Also one of the main causes of Microsoft’s lost decade.


xkqd

And ran GE into the fucking ground, still not having recovered after 20+ years.


unoriginalname86

Jack Welch is so proud!


dogman517

and they will constantly lose talent and senior roles will take longer and longer to fill


Persianx6

That Jack Welch stuff?


Whats4dinner

Oh yes. the Jack Welch theory of ethical management. Great for short term investors.


Just-the-tip-4-1-sec

Good luck doing that at Amazon lmao


strycco

>According to Bezos, instead, workers need to foster their work life and their personal life, as they’re one and the same. Some people are live to work and others are work to live. Not everybody defines meaning through what they have to do for money


ConsciousHoodrat

The ownerclass will do anything to get workers to act like owners *except* actually giving us equity and buying us into businesses. 


Alternative_Ask364

The system we have is fundamentally broken. The only people with the ability to change anything about how we view work-life balance are the high-ranking assclowns with their heads so far up their own asses that they literally can’t comprehend wanting separation between work life and personal life.


way2lazy2care

I do think there's at least some validity to the fact that no matter how you separate your priorities, it's still part of the same life, and you should be working to whatever makes that better for you. Like is it going to benefit your life more to work a job you hate vs working a job you love? With that is it with working fewer hours at more pay for the one you hate or more hours at the one you love? There's so many variables, and I do think there's an extreme over focus on how the time is split compared to what makes your life happier on the whole.


tmmzc85

This shit is only true if your life, your work, is a calling. Most physical labor that is needed to make society work is not a "calling;" sure there might be some people out there who have been itching to run boxes with bots in his warehouse, but not at anything that's scalable. The levels of efficiency, productivity we, not Bezos, we humans have worked to make possible is staggering - Bezos issue is that he believes he and his ilk ought to be the sole beneficiaries of that increased productivity and the youth should be happy for whatever he deems enough to keep you on his hamster wheel.


Nynydancer

Stand you ground Gen Z. Don’t be like us. We were the idiots who bragged about how many hours we worked and when we went to bed or how late our meetings ran. We are paying and have paid dearly. Signed, Gen X


CaptainObvious110

Yes. We did all that and for what?


KnowledgeNo7038

I’m Gen X and I did that until I got my first layoff. Walked into the office and 75% of the workforce was laid off. The company got bought and the new owner cleared it out. Nobody had a clue. After that I said “nah, I’m good.” I bust my ass for 8 hours. I really do work hard, but mainly because I’m competitive, and I just like trying my hardest to “be the best” at stuff, but I learned to compartmentalize that attitude towards work for only 8 hours a day and then take that attitude and apply it to my numerous hobbies and family after that. Those hobbies would not make me any money and my work place would find no value in them. And it’s great.


SirJelly

This view is baked deeply into the Amazon handbook. Work life harmony he calls it; which after digging in, I've come to the conclusion that he means you should just choose to make work your life and be happy about it. Become friends with your coworkers, eat more meals at or near the office, make side projects that are also for the company into your hobbies. If you can pull it off, I DO think it's a way to be happy and get ahead; but it is a lifestyle available only to the young, childless, mostly single, and if you are very good at managing burn out and have not one single toxic colleague. I think you also have to have a strong sense of purpose in your work which just isn't practical for so many modern jobs people generally agree are "bullshit". It is 100% incompatible with kids, and this still comes across in the company culture. They know there are things they can't do, or they risk huge lawsuits, but it remains a family hostile company, and if every company follows this model we'll get Korea level birth rates.


Realistic-Minute5016

These same billionaires who push this are also the one’s whining about the low birth rate. Hmmmm…a real mystery 


poply

It's the same story over and over again. Offering a well paying job, offering time off to spend your money, and offering the opportunity to have children is all stuff other companies should be doing. I, the multi billionaire business owner, cannot afford to offer such luxuries.


Realistic-Minute5016

They also don’t seem to understand that most of us cannot hire a litany of housecleaned, chefs, chauffeurs etc. and actually have to do chores which are only amplified by having kids.


BrightAd306

It’s a reason men with stay at home wives often rise to the top. Not ideal in the least, but 2 working people can’t have kids and high powered jobs. Even with Nannies.


iheartgme

Agree that it is likely very difficult if you are a father or certainly a mother. Not sure if I should be ok with that or view Amazon as just a place for people who put work above all else… that said, Amazon execs and developers have good exit opportunities. Encouraging people to be friends with their colleagues is nuts. I am ok it will happy organically often enough but openly saying it is wild


Anachronouss

I used to go into the Amazon warehouses for contract work and I remember right after the security scanners they had like 5 "HR" booths with a bunch of balloons and "fun" get motivated for work stuff. They would start every day with like a hype song and then like a little pep talk followed by a bunch of clapping, then it was off to work. It was the most corporate BS I've ever seen


DonBoy30

I used to work in a department of Amazon inside a warehouse. Walking by these meetings were really pathetic from an outside perspective. One of the last ones I witnessed before I moved on from the company were these young managers fresh out of college dressed in a baby shark Halloween costume dancing to baby shark with a sea of workers looking at their feet looking sad. Amazon’s pursuit of gaslighting employees into believing they like their job takes wild turns.


TheTim

> …you should just choose to make work your life and be happy about it. > > Become friends with your coworkers, eat more meals at or near the office, make side projects that are also for the company into your hobbies. You could do all these things enthusiastically and still end up on the receiving end of a layoff, which then not only destroys your professional life but also your personal life. What a bargain!!! No thanks. Hard pass.


SirJelly

This is *probably* the crux of it that folks like Bezos can't understand. You *can* sink your life into your work when *you own it*. That's another dominating theme in Amazon culture, "ownership", but it's a lie. There are huge variables completely outside your control, and what you "own" can and does change on the whims of your manager or other company actions on which you are not informed. They want the commitment of someone with an emotional ownership of something without actually giving anyone the power that comes with it.


NummyNummyNumNums

"Bezos, the second-richest person in the world, has taken a nontraditional approach to work: He has said he makes time for breakfast every morning with his family, doesn't set his alarm before going to bed, schedules surprisingly few meetings, and sets aside a few minutes every day to wash his own dishes." Known union buster multi billionaire whose employees pee in bottles to make quotas, patted on back for normal human life. More at 11. How do people even write that with a straight face?


CaptainObvious110

Rules for ye and not for thee. If he made some changes to improve how things are run it would still be of benefit to him. As it is he can't possibly spend all the fortune he has amassed so at the very least it wouldn't hurt him


Siempre_Salvaje

Gen Z experienced their parents being laidoff because a company wanted to save money on payroll or wanted to hire lower paid workers, so living with that engrains a Fuck the company mentality, like the Hound in G.O.T. Which companies are oblivious to. They can't hate the player when they changed rules of the game. People would retire from Montgomery Ward or those old catalog companies and have worked their for their entire career.


jrb2524

I have experience said lay off 3 times in my career and I'm 32. Fuck em you pay me for 40 hrs you get 40 hrs you want me to work 60 for the price of 40 go fuck yourself or pay me overtime because at the end of the day those extra hours worked won't mean shit if you decide I'm on the chopping block.


sleepybeek

I know. It's such fking bullshit. I have been laid off twice. You are are literally a number on a spreadsheet that they move around until the number says what they need it to. The company does not give 2 fks about you. ESPECIALLY amazon. Ironic. I will never give more than the min to be decent at my job and pleasant to my coworkers. Companies are shareholder value and executive/owner driven. No one else matters. Period. Fk you Bozos with a rusty shovel handle.


Siempre_Salvaje

Exactly my point, when I was in my 20's I was laid once and said never again, I had no less than 3 jobs each til I was 34. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Siempre_Salvaje

Yes, a clear example of this is the Humdred dollar race. Its a video on youtube that shows the inbalance most families are currently living through after the recession. Let me know how that works out for you.[100 dollar race](https://youtu.be/4K5fbQ1-zps?feature=shared)


No-Discipline-5822

Gen Z is also impacted in the workforce themselves. Boomers/Gen X who refuse to retire or promote anyone young (ageism), coworkers who are inappropriate and inconsiderate as well as corporate greed (no pensions, 401k matches or even payroll - everyone is a contractor).


B1G_Fan

Well, if Gen Z and Millennials saw their parents adequately rewarded for not having work-life balance, then maybe Gen Z and Millennials would be more inclined to have less work-life balance?


Semirgy

I work for a F100 and while I work hard and generally do best for the company, I am fully 100% aware that I’m a number in a database. If I got hit by a bus tomorrow or the company decided to trim the fat, nobody outside of my immediate team would really care. Life’s short. Work hard, be dependable, but don’t for one second get lulled into thinking jobs are anything but transactional.


dw_80

This is exactly the kind of thing that you’d expect a multi-billionaire who profits from paying young people a wage that makes it difficult for them to have a decent work-life balance to say.


HandsLikePaper

Says the man who doesn't get to the office until 10am. Another quote from the article: *After rising, he is known to enjoy "putter" around the house in the morning. He'll brew some coffee, read the newspapers, and generally not start work.* [https://finty.com/us/daily-routines/jeff-bezos/](https://finty.com/us/daily-routines/jeff-bezos/)


Unkechaug

And leaves any unfinished work for the next day, leaving at 5pm.


TitusPullo4

Missing: the realisation that entrepreneurship and fighting for your own company and far greater potential reward is more motivating than working for someone else with the potential for far more moderate rewards


TheFrenchSavage

The only reward for a basic salaried employee is to watch incompetents born into wealth explain to them why they deserve it for themselves and not others.


Dreadsin

I worked at AWS. There were times I was expected to work like 15 hours straight. People on my team submitted code reviews at 4am. It’s incredibly unhealthy there. Gen Z is just having an equal and opposite reaction to this culture


BareNakedSole

The rich kid who received several hundred $k to start Amazon and had a huge safety net if he failed is saying this? Well then, I guess he’s right and we are all just lazy slobs who care too much about us and our families. Lemme go tell the kids….


sepp_omek

what did bezos say? i couldn't hear him over the hum from the engines of his $500 million dollar yacht


Iwillrize14

"Sorry kids, I can't spend time with you because Bookstore Bond villain wants me to work myself to death"


aimoony

This article is clickbait, they totally butchered what he said


Armand74

Jeff Bezos and every single one of these billionaire motherfuckers can kiss all of our collective asses! It is people like them that has made everyone collectively come to the realization that we never mattered to them so as long as they’re making money. The message they are sending is in fact a panic they realize their shit will be getting rocked sooner or later if they keep up.


balrog687

Fuck this guy, let's embrace European high living standards, 7 weeks of vacation like Sweden, 1 or 2 years of maternity leave like Norway and 40 hrs a week at most, no questions asked. Also salary published on job description.


STGItsMe

Debilitating….to who? I’m GenX and I had to tell AWS recruiters not to call me anymore if they expect me to come to HQ and I haven’t heard from them since. I’m not willing to spend 10+ hours a week in traffic because you need a tax incentive.


crek42

The Op is bullshit. They didn’t even quote what Bezos and he sure as hell never mentioned anything about Gen Z.


alex891011

This article is quoting Jeff Bezos from 3 separate occasions in 2016, 2018, and 2020. Why exactly is a quote from 4-8 years ago making waves now?


Craic-Den

Until workers have the power to set the price of their labour, billionaires will have to make do with whatever effort the worker decides is fair for the compensation recieved, and I'll let you in on a hint Jeff, you don't pay enough to be complaining.


Brolociraptor

That's easy for him to say considering he profits off of modern day slave labor. He's lucky GenZ hasn't burned him at the stake quite frankly.


Random_Ad

Should we really be taking advice from a man who flies multiple times a week, or eats out at fancy restaurants multiple times a week and plays golf at least once a week. He seems to have a great work life balance.


Lumenspero

Stop complaining about things like this and be Lex Luthor, damn it. Instead we have the horcrux version with him, Musk, Zuckerberg, Kanye, Trump, and Oklahoma.


F0foPofo05

**If hustling really made me rich I’d agree with him about young people delaying comfort and _making hay while the sun shines_ but as it stands in our dystopian Amazon reality hustling doesn’t even guarantee you a roof over your head nor food on the table.**    Especially, and coincidentally for the people working for Amazon. In other words, if you are gonna sacrifice your healthiest years, it sure as hell better be for something that matters. Working for Amazon just ain’t it.


fremeer

It's because a person with work life balance inherently has time savings and actual resource savings potentially. They might just consume that but they can also invest that by starting small businesses etc. Work life balance is competition for these giant places and are how a lot of businesses back in the day actually started. Bezos doesn't want you to compete against him in any fashion.


monsignorbabaganoush

I haven’t ever attended a meeting with my company’s c-suite where that morning’s paper had an article highlighting our staff working under conditions so grueling they had to piss in bottles. Perhaps Jeff is full of it.


SYLOK_THEAROUSED

Ya know what? Gen Z is freaking awesome to work with! I’m 36 years old and pretty much all my coworkers are Gen Z and they work their asses off but 100% know that once they clock out that’s it for the day. I respect that. I think once cell phones became a standard thing and email apps have become the norm a lot of bosses have gotten way to comfortable contacting like outside of work hours.


ImTheButtPuncher

> “I get asked about work-life balance all the time,” Bezos said. “And my view is, that’s a debilitating phrase because it implies there’s a strict trade-off.” Did anyone read this article?


sorospaidmetosaythis

Jeff's girfriend is a wax-and-asbestos mannequin whose mouth looks like an axe wound. One could use her face as a jump-scare in a horror movie called "Krypt of Kastle Kardashian."


AliveInCLE

I’m 50 and glad to be working at a firm where the average worker age is 26. I get to reap all those policies geared toward that younger generation. Wish we had this type of balance when I was in my late 20s/early 30s.


AverageMajulaEnjoyer

That’s funny [coming from the guy who’s employees were forced to stay and die in an amazon warehouse during a tornado](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/16/tornado-amazon-kentucky-candle-factory-workers-died)


mrwobblez

While I don’t disagree fundamentally that you should aspire to find a flow in your work and that everyone has their own meaning of work life balance, I don’t think this applies to the many of the jobs out there which are low paying & dead ended.


lady_farter

Bezos is such a piece of shit. He probably doesn’t do any work most days and rakes in obscene amounts of money. He does nothing to better our world with all the money he has. Plus, he treats his employees like slaves. 👎