To be worried that we are going to end up with a Japanese work life balance because there are so few young people (and even fewer competent people of any age) in the workplace

[CurdinHenry]

I'm doing the job of about ten people compared to ten years ago (a flood of early retirement packages sucked most of the experience out). I don't see this changing. The Japanese economy is strangled by the limited number of people available to add value to the workplace and part of the consequence of that is unforgiving hours and feeling grateful just to have a wage.

I don't think it's unavoidable but I think it will happen anyway

I mean I can understand this but you won't get to opt out of the consequences! Wonder why nothing works? Cos you sidled off into the sunset

I have a fully functional 18 year old college leaver looking for a job and there is nothing entry level out there. The only thing there seemsl lots of is nursery jobs.

so companies can’t hire young people because companies are too shit to train their staff basically.

These younger people who have recently left college and university are untrainable. Despite being teachable.

Yeah the system is fucked. Fewer jobs because of Brexit/other shocks, self perpetuating cycle of gloom, a lot of 40 something senior managers have been promoted above their abilities and are now fucking with things.

1. I changed my opinion about Japan after seeing what they do to some under class day workers and mistreat them, the poor old men sleep on the streets
2. We simply have finished the jobs in the UK. All is gone. One year ago I walked in , in my last job. Without a job now. I can do anything, only not moving and handling aged heavy bodies

Yep. And if things had gone differently you could at least have left for Europe.

People don't realise it's coming for most of us.

We don't have that anymore. The experienced employees are all wfh and more productive than ever because they don't have the distraction of mentoring the youngsters. Low skill tasks have been packaged up to be wfhable and AI is now picking those off too.

Not true. It's perfectly possible to mentor people when you're WFH. I supervise / mentor and the women I've supervised / mentored have come on wonderfully. I'm way less productive than I could be as I prioritise the mentoring element of my role as it's so important.

The world is not short of people.
If we have shortages in this country we should advertise.

We’re taking on 200 graduates across the UK in a few weeks time, I have the opposite problem and feel like there’s barely anyone in the office over the age of 30 these days!

Agree with all of this. I have noticed an uptick in juniors with badly managed emotions but that's because they've got problems office attendance won't fix.

Why would anyone with highly sought after skills pick the UK???? I bloody wouldn't

Yes it's pretty shit but there are worse countries to live in.

big companies fine but most of the companies ion the country arent huge companies. theyre SMEs who can't afford to pay any more than they can pay.

Minimum wage has been raised hugely but a beer or a loaf of bread, is not able to be price increased equally high therefore people selling goods literally can't afford to pay the same amount of staff as they used to. plus electrics etc are so expensive.

plus hiring people is super hard since the government made it an employer's (which often becomes the manager's) responsibility to absorb employees' mental health issues.

Employers cling onto (and often overwork) one great member of staff because they either literally cant afford to employ anyone else or they can barely afford to employ someone else and when they do that person doesn't turn up half the time.

Most employers aren't evil rich fat cats, theyre ordinary people trying to make a basic wage.

Judging by all the stories about graduates not getting jobs as either AI has taken over entry level positions or there’s hiring freezes or whatever - it’s not lack of workers it’s lack of money to employ them. Even doctors are struggling to find jobs as there isn’t the funds to hire them/finish their training after being qualified. We need them, but the NHS can’t afford them.

What do you can emotional deficit btw

Sorry, emotional deficits....people with low self esteem?

A variety. For example, people who expect colleagues to pander to their feelings to a burdensome degree. "It made me feel really upset when you seemed impatient with me".

Ten people is probably incorrect, two people sure maybe even three useless wagons

The entire problem is the push to get us to work work work and put off having children coupled with abortion for convenience hollowing out families

We have two but if I was to have a second chance it'd be definitely three maybe even five

The crazy anti family feminists somehow got to speak for us all and really they speak for only a tiny minority

No, I do mean ten. Not well, like. But it used to be the case that a lot of people would bring prepared stuff to me to do my bit and now I have to prepare it.

It cannot be because there is not enough young people, or qualified people. Because the news are plagued with calls to help youngsters into work, apprenticeships and how hard is for recent graduates to get a job in their sector. At least you work on a really niche sector.
But companies are not recruiting. They are trying to mash roles together, get people to do a bit more of the process each day, not replacing people leaving. And so on.
We are shooting ourselves in the foot with this.

I get what you say.
For example, procurement. It is not really part of my job. I used to get the quotes, because it is specialist parts. Then there was someone to place the order, one to approve it and one to sort the invoicing, payments and deliveries and credits, and so on.
Now, I place the orders in the system, my manager approves it, the automated system sends the order to the supplier and pays when I receipt it.
But.... if there is any issue, it is all down to me. Contact supplier, sort invoices differences, sort credits for the invoices, cancel orders, deal with lost orders, deal with deliveries... And.... if something has not been paid and our account is blocked! All that on top of my actual work.

It does not sound like much. And it is not really, when all goes smoothly. But when there is the slight issue, it takes a good chunk of my day, while I am meant to be doing something else. And that becomes stressful at times. Particularly if our account is on stop. Because, as I am not the actual finances contact, I only find out when an order does not make it to us. That can take endless phone calls and emails. Plus delays on my actual job.

I think many roles are this way now. The accounts site person is gone. The one who used to sort orders and supplies and invoices for all on site, and deal with the finance team regarding stopped accounts and invoices. That person is gone. And their 7 hours a day are spread between all of us on site.

Why would employees be made to feel grateful just to have the wage if there is an under supply of work aged people? There should be an abundance of jobs all trying to secure employees in that case?

In Japan, they also have 'coffin apartments''... basic bed space that is someone's home. Also, the elderly committing crimes to get their needs met in prison

Coffin apartments are more of a Chinese thing. In Japan they have micro apartments aimed at young professionals- they aren't cheap.

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