In my world all that exists is limiting risk

[Tintypographer]

To say I hate my life is an understatement but who is on sanctioned suicide that is thrilled with who they are and what purpose they have in life. I spend my days and nights proving things to limit risks and decrease costs. I studied math and a bit of physics to understand and change things. I obtained an actuarial certification hoping it would lead to helping people. The job does nothing but determine ways to decrease risks for companies to ensure that liability is lowest. I suppose that's valid but it's all that we do. We look at diversity or gender totals simply to ensure there will be no lawsuits. We study reductions in Force (layoffs) to spread the impact so that there is not an appearance of trying to layoff some specific salary band or payment. I study packaging data to determine just how thin to make the laminate seals to get by with the fewest product failures then determin what the likely costs will be in returned or whether people will bother return the product if they get it and it's already open so we can cut costs and hedge against returns.

I see it all happen because the executive leadership gets their roles in the following way "executive, we are going to give you this role with huge salary and benefits but to get it you have to prise us, the board and shareholders that you will improve profits and cust costs to equal 20 percent in your first four quarters by any means necessary"

Then it doesn't matter anymore. You can't get the job (which I would never want) without the promise and once you have it you don't want to lose it.

I've tried to leave this role even quitting and going to another company but they drag me back again and again. I try to question why we have these targets and hear "that's not my place to ask, I just have to do the math."


I feel as thought humanity doesn't matter at all. The human condition, the life, the emotions are ruled out of system that is serving to protect itself. We calculate how many people will complain about a policy to their managers and what it will take to barely have the level of complaints that results in the lowest turnover with people leaving for other jobs.

We calculate what it would cost to make a product better and fix defect vs the number of customers that will go to our competitors by not fixing them.

Our social media teams look at what level of response will drown out complaints on social media.

It doesn't start out as a conspiracy and there isn't an evil overlord but the machine simply works to ensure that it wins.

 

[Fadeawaaaay]

To say I hate my life is an understatement but who is on sanctioned suicide that is thrilled with who they are and what purpose they have in life. I spend my days and nights proving things to limit risks and decrease costs. I studied math and a bit of physics to understand and change things. I obtained an actuarial certification hoping it would lead to helping people. The job does nothing but determine ways to decrease risks for companies to ensure that liability is lowest. I suppose that's valid but it's all that we do. We look at diversity or gender totals simply to ensure there will be no lawsuits. We study reductions in Force (layoffs) to spread the impact so that there is not an appearance of trying to layoff some specific salary band or payment. I study packaging data to determine just how thin to make the laminate seals to get by with the fewest product failures then determin what the likely costs will be in returned or whether people will bother return the product if they get it and it's already open so we can cut costs and hedge against returns.

I see it all happen because the executive leadership gets their roles in the following way "executive, we are going to give you this role with huge salary and benefits but to get it you have to prise us, the board and shareholders that you will improve profits and cust costs to equal 20 percent in your first four quarters by any means necessary"

Then it doesn't matter anymore. You can't get the job (which I would never want) without the promise and once you have it you don't want to lose it.

I've tried to leave this role even quitting and going to another company but they drag me back again and again. I try to question why we have these targets and hear "that's not my place to ask, I just have to do the math."


I feel as thought humanity doesn't matter at all. The human condition, the life, the emotions are ruled out of system that is serving to protect itself. We calculate how many people will complain about a policy to their managers and what it will take to barely have the level of complaints that results in the lowest turnover with people leaving for other jobs.

We calculate what it would cost to make a product better and fix defect vs the number of customers that will go to our competitors by not fixing them.

Our social media teams look at what level of response will drown out complaints on social media.

It doesn't start out as a conspiracy and there isn't an evil overlord but the machine simply works to ensure that it wins.

Sounds like a useful service for the company but somewhat dystopian … You are fortunate to have a well renumerated job :)

 

[locked*n*loaded]

That's how all for-profit companies operate anymore.

 

[Tintypographer]

I hate it. It's all most of us do. A perfentsge of the company pushes sales, a smaller group are paid the lowest to package and manufactur and ship products and then the vast rest of us are there to make sure the company doesn have any risk and remains highly profitable. More of us do those jobs than anything else

 

[depressedexwriter]

I've heard there are countries that are less dollar-obsessed than the US. Places where it's more about casually getting by than minmaxing every moment for profit. Obviously they're constantly at risk because some foreign corporation can steal their resources or labor, but I've heard they exist.

Even here, I've worked at businesses that are not 'optimally' run. Maybe that's only possible at the lower echelons of society, and at such jobs you might not get the compensation you get right now.

But your logic seems to be "There is no evil overlord, this is just the way of things." Well, one thing about ideology is that it always seems like it's "just the natural order of things." Many things we find appalling now, were completely normal back in their era.

To crib Malcolm X: "Who taught you to love the dollar more than you love your fellow man? Who taught you that you must swallow your objections and perfect a machine that you recognize as wicked and destructive?" Why is it that you have internalized helplessness to such an extent that the primary rebellion you make against the system is hating yourself for participating in it? You think these ideas just come up naturally -- that we're all born as Boss Baby, concerned about liability and Q3 earnings? No, this ideology serves a purpose and I'd argue that there's a massive infrastructure to pump it into our minds. I'd go so far to argue that most mass culture exists to reify this thinking-structure.