On political opinions, ignorance and cowards

July 19, 2010 Chilling_Silence Personal Rantings

Warning: This is a completely personal post, my own thoughts and feelings, and largely digresses from the semi-professional tone of most of my others. There are also no pictures, sorry.

Now, I’m an activist, and I’ll freely admit it.

Not in the traditional poster-protester style, but I will gladly debate anything I feel I know enough about to be “fluent” in the subject-matter (Read: Technology, not something like gardening for example). If I don’t know, I’ll freely admit it, or simply keep my mouth shut.

What really bugs me is when people make half-assed statements that they have clearly put no thought into at all, and are simply venting because they feel more secure doing so behind their keyboard and monitor!
I call these people cowards, and idiots.

I’m also reminded of the statement “It is better to let them think you a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it so”, yet some people are just all too keen to prove to the world they are a fool. I’m not sure why, but each to their own.

I’ve subscribed to John Keys Facebook page. Not because I specifically like the guy, but its an interesting way of keeping up with changes going on. I also keep tabs on other things like Labours blog, Maxim Institute, Family First, and other such things.
One thing that I’m constantly disturbed by is the amount of plain ignorance displayed by the masses.

Now, I’ve personally looked into mass-education. It’s difficult, to say the least. I’ve spoken with people high up in multi-billion dollar businesses about methods of mass-education, and one conclusion is that some people will always be ignorant no matter what. However, what bugs me the most is when they take that and try and convince others their ignorance is truth.

So as I was saying, I’ve subscribed to John Keys Facebook page, and he makes regular posts, and it’s pretty cool. I don’t care if it’s actually him or some secretary who’s doing it, but I appreciate that updates on popular political topics are being posted in a manner that allows for public discussion, even if they never actually read the responses.

But sadly, the stupid things some people say leaves me absolutely gobsmacked!

One person was complaining about raising the minimum wage to NZD$15 per-hour. They said “We’re not being paid enough as a minimum” and that “people are leaving for other countries such as Australia that pay more, and where unemployment is lower” and that he should be focusing on creating new jobs that pay more. A few comments further down and the same person then blames John Key as *personally* responsible for companies outsourcing to overseas, and that he’s destroying the economy.

But wait, it gets better. A few comments later and the same person is back, and in a response to a response, is moaning about mining in NZ, and how he’s going to be killing off the natural beauty of our country. They just “put it out there” because it’s how they’re feeling at that point in time, without actually thinking things through to a conclusion. Or, perhaps they’ve been only partly informed by somebody else.

If we stop for a moment and think about it, we’ll see this person is terribly, terribly confused, and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever:

• Raising the minimum wage won’t make more jobs. Companies outsource because work is cheaper overseas
• If companies have 10 staff at $12 an hour, that’s $120 an hour their staff cost. If they have 10 staff at $15 an hour, that’s $150 an hour their staff are costing them. You could have an additional two staff on minimum wage, allowing companies to expand more and “create more jobs” than if the minimum wage was raised.
• Australia relies a lot on mining, but you don’t want us to mine NZ

Show me the logic in that? Sure you could pick it apart and dissect little bits of truth from those statements, but you can see how people are mis-informed and largely confused about what’s going on. How can you raise the minimum wage, and create jobs all in the same breath? The two don’t usually go hand-in-hand. If you’re forced to pay your staff more for doing the same role, then you’re not going to have the funds available to hire other people to expand your workforce. Therefor, outsourcing to overseas countries, where you can get away with paying less, is a solid business option, which then again “creates” less jobs in New Zealand.

However we have a problem with the likes of such open and public discussions: These (ignorant or not) people are free to lash out and regularly get abusive as they hide behind their keyboard.
It’s as if it’s their human right to abuse other people and rip them to pieces with their speech, simply because they’ve learned to use a Keyboard. I personally know of several people who are more than happy to abuse the heck out of somebody over the internet that wouldn’t ever do that in-person or over the phone. I’m left wondering why they suddenly feel that type of behavior is acceptable because it’s a written medium. Does common sense and courtesy disappear when you write things down? Surely because you’re able to review what you’re saying before you “comment” it, you would have the chance to think more about what you’re saying, and to form a logical statement that’s well thought out, and backed up with reasoning, or why you feel that way.

Clearly people don’t think that way, if the comments to John Keys Facebook posts are anything to go by.

Let’s look at a hot topic for today: The 90 day grace period for new employees!
The idea is simple, if you suck at your new job or personality clashes with existing staff, or anything like that, you can be sacked without having to follow the usual path of warnings and more warnings and written warnings and mediation. Let’s just say that without the law, sacking somebody is a right pain and terribly expensive too.
I know companies who would rather pay overtime and overwork their staff than try taking on new members to a team, because they’ve been burned in the past. It happens. You hire somebody who sounds great, looks the part on paper, interviews well, but once that contract is signed they’re like a wolf in sheep’s clothing!

I know somebody at my old work. They basically tried and tried to fire this guy who was an underperformer. Not by much, but he’d always get away with a lot of little things. He’d slack off during the day and go take a lot of extra smoke-breaks when they were strictly forbidden. Always 2-3 minutes back late from lunch, even though we had tight timelines to adhere to (Working in a call center). Reviews his customers gave him were always very poor. He’d always try and handball off the work to somebody else, and his general demeanor was terrible. Yet he managed to survive for a solid 12 months. How?
He looked fine on paper at first, and interviewed well, and his CV references said he was great! But within a week of him starting to work, his true colors came out. He should have been sacked much sooner, but they’d go through the “formal” process of a verbal warning, another verbal warning, some mediation, a written warning, more mediation, another written warning, but he’d never actually be given the sack!

He literally pulled the team down too, he was bad for morale, customers hated him, he’d cause more work than he’d solve and it was just a rough time for everybody around him. Had the 90-day law been in place, he could have been given the shove aside much faster, making everybody happier, including him, because at the end of the day he didn’t particularly want to do call-center work.

But lets look at it from the flip side: I’m currently seeking additional employment.

If I get a job, it’s preferably going to be in a position that I’m interested in. Manual labor doesn’t interest me, I’m no good at it, I’m physically relatively weak, skinny, not unfit, but it’s not my cup of tea. What I am good at technology, I’m real good at it. Customer relations too, not trying to blow my own trumpet, but I’m pretty darn good at that kinda thing as well. So those are the jobs I’ll go for. If I get a job, say working in IT, then I’ll make sure that I perform to the standards set out by the company. If I don’t, I expect I’ll be fired. If the company has unreal expectations of what they expect a staff member to do, and they won’t bend on those expectations, then I’m better off *not* working for that company, but waiting and finding a more suitable job.

If I were to get a job, but constantly underperform, then this 90-day “trial” protects the interests of companies from rogue staff. Sure they could go rogue on you after the 90-day period, that’s always a possibility, but you’re going to know very soon if a staff member is genuinely interested in keeping their job at your company by the end of 90 days.

If the company were to fire you over something petty like being late once, or not scoring a perfect 10 in a customers response, then you are better off without that company, and the 90-day trial then is largely irrelevant.

Then, we have certain members in parliament who seem to think they can simply open their mouth and say *anything* without thinking it through. Lets lay it out so it’s easy to understand:

You are in a position of power in parliament. You are expected to lead a life of higher moral standards than most people would adhere to. You need to think before you open your mouth and say stupid things. You need to understand that while you are allowed to make mistakes, there are only so many you can make before you should simply be benched, for life.

Sure you can have a bad day every now and then, and call somebody a cheeky bastard, say that we’re raping and pillaging “your land”, whatever. Apologize for it (Properly, and in full), and sure, you’ll get another chance. Spend up large on erotic movies while on holiday with money that you shouldn’t be using, and maybe if you pay it back we’ll give you another shot. Take your husband away with you while you go on holiday, sure I can understand that, but pay for it yourself. But when you do that kind of thing over and over, and you’ve been temporarily benched before, but then come back and do it all over again, or if you won’t (for example) pay back the Govt / your employer / your country for spending money that you ought not have, and you ought to be given the boot. For good!

Lets look at a statement from a recent Maori party member, taken from here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/employment/news/article.cfm?c_id=11&objectid=10659655

Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell said allowing all businesses to take advantage of the 90 day probation period could add “even more salt to the wounds of Maori youth who are already finding it hard to get jobs”.

Why make this a race issue? Don’t open your mouth and say silly things like that mate. It’s not just Maori and Pacific Island people who are having troubles finding jobs, it’s everybody! Unemployment is near 10% mate, that means that 1 in every 10 people can’t get a job! If you’re a Maori young person, going for the same job I’m going for, and how is a 90-day trial of a job going to affect your likelihood of getting or not getting it, any more than it affects mine? Does it matter if 15% of white people are unemployed yet only 10% of black people? What if the figures are the other way around? How does this law even affect them?

If staff perform to the standards of the employer, they will no doubt stay in the job. It’s a lot of hassle for a company to take on staff, train them, show them the ropes, show them how things “work” in their company, and it’s not the sort of thing that 99% of business are going to piss away their time with and say “Oh it doesn’t matter if we have to retrain somebody new next week, we’ve got spare money coming out our ears to waste on training staff to only keep them on for a few weeks before we sack them”. No! Think mate before you open your mouth! Don’t be such a racist! Stop playing the minority card and take responsibility for your own actions. If you slack off, you’re gonna get the sack, regardless of if you’re white or black, or some sort of beige in between. Personally I have a minor liver condition which makes me slightly yellow, but now I’m just being cheeky.

Lets also look at what the leader of the opposition party Phil Goff who has shot off his mouth on the subject matter, also taken from that previous article:

“Allowing all New Zealanders to be sacked during their first three months of employment without any reason being given is not a plan for growth and jobs,”

Ummm.. excuse me Mr Goff, where’s the logic in your reasoning?

If I’m an employer, I’m going to be worried that taking somebody new on is a risk, that they won’t gel with the existing “team”, that they won’t perform well, that they’ll talk bad about the company to customers, and any number of other things. This prevents many companies from taking on more staff. The fear of a rogue worker. As an employer, if you know that you don’t have to suffer through what could be months of pain and agony as you “go through the process” of sacking that rogue worker, are you not then more likely to take on new staff, finding freedom in the knowledge that if they don’t work out you can sack them? Yet also knowing that if they do work out, it’s been that much easier to take them on?

Lets reiterate: It’s like going out on a date with somebody, and being forced into a marriage with them immediately. Would you really want to go out on a date? I wouldn’t! I’d be incredibly cautious about even thinking about going out on a date.

But imagine now that the world is a better place and you don’t have to get into bed with the first person you date. Doesn’t that sound ideal? Doesn’t that sound like the way the world should be? Not to mention, shouldn’t it be that way for people of all skin colors?

Summary:
Politicians open their mouth without thinking, and need to be held accountable for it more-so than they are currently
The masses are largely uneducated. They can also lack logic and the ability to reason through to conclusion
These same masses frequently make statements of passion, in the heat of the moment. These can get very personal and sometimes lack respect for the person on the receiving end
Maoris are more racist than white people (I’m just taking the piss here)

As always, I’d love to discuss any of the issues raised in this blog post if you can spare the time. Not so much the individual political issues, but the logic behind peoples understanding them, if you get what I mean.

Edit: There’s also been a follow-up posted at the NZ Herald website on the 90-day employment trial. It sounds more and more to me like the Labour party do nothing but bitch and moan, offering little in the way of constructive input: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10659953

employment, facebook, mass-education, Opinions, Politics,