The Off Topic Topic

[Admiral Yi]

You're misusing the term.  You're looking more for something like "commodified," or "non-differentiated."

[Ed Anger]

I'd like to fungible the girl at the Tim Horton's in Beavercreek Ohio.

[alfred russel]

OK, perhaps I should say "trivially fungible."  If you sell your stock of gold, you can replace it instantly if the price remains the same or falls (as with stocks, oil, blue widgets, etc.)

Finding a trained, proven robot apocalypse engineer like Iorm is difficult.  You get rid of him, and you won't be able to instantly purchase another.

Fwiw, that's probably the case with surgeons too.

I don't know anything about robot engineers, but I think heart surgeons are more or less fungible (assuming we are talking about an average doctor). If I'm a big city hospital administrator, and random joe blow surgeon walks out the door, finding a similar replacement is probably just a case of paying the market rate (including market perks).

Fungibility doesn't imply low value. Supply vs. demand (or other structural factors) may mean that people with certain skill sets are still highly paid, which in turn gives them plenty of room to negotiate better work arrangements (some of this "negotiation" may be hidden--for example, a hospital may offer a lower salary but more vacation time).

[alfred russel]

Ide, I think you are also discounting the value of experience at an employer.

For example, my resume on the market is probably virtually identical with literally thousands of others in the country. But none of those people will have any chance of performing at my level in the next few months. Not because I'm smart, but because in order to perform certain tasks at a company you really need to understand the company, and that takes time to learn.

Ideally, that gives my employer a good reason to pay and treat me decently--if I walk out the door there will have to train up someone new regarding our policies, business model, etc. At the same time, that gives me an incentive to stick around--when I apply for the next rung on the corporate ladder, if I do it internally I will bring more relevant experience to the table and have a better chance of making the jump (though at the downside that if you stay within a small company you may not get the diversity of experience to make the next jump).

[Josquius]

I think the qualifier "middle class" is inapt, but you're British, and you people use the term incorrectly all the time.

Britain uses it correctly.
America with its "everyone with a job" definition is the wrong one :p

[Ideologue]

You're misusing the term.  You're looking more for something like "commodified," or "non-differentiated."

"Undifferentiated" more or less means "fungible."

Anyway, I'll back off on it.  It's not very important.  "Skills that cannot be easily replaced on the open marketplace."

[Zanza]

The law says average of 48 hours a week. My usual week has about 40 hours of work. But during commissioning this jumps up to whatever is needed (basically only enough rest to keep going). This is perfectly lawful.

No, it's not. With 80 hours/week, you are breaking these rules "Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that every worker is entitled to a minimum daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours per 24-hour period." and "Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that, per each seven-day period, every worker is entitled to a minimum uninterrupted rest period of 24 hours plus the 11 hours' daily rest referred to in Article 3."

A week has 168 hours, substract the 24 hours for Sunday (or so) and that leaves you with 144 hours. If you work 80 hours, you cannot rest 11x6 hours anymore as the week just doesn't have enough hours.

[Iormlund]

After reading the whole thing, we're both right and wrong.

Art 17 states that managers or "people with autonomous decision powers" might be exempt from these few rules. Those of us with longest work hours are the lead mech engineer, who oversees pneumatic and mechanical commissioning, the project manager and me - in charge of electrical, control and robotics engineering. I'm not a lawyer (Hod forbid) but I wouldn't be surprised if we fell under art 17.

[Zanza]

Maybe, but that term is very flexible. I find it much more likely that the law is just ignored because there is no one to enforce it. That's very common here. A lot of people work more than 48 hours here and not just those with "autonomous decision powers".

[Iormlund]

Yeah, as I said that happens, just not in this case.

Also, I'm guessing the ambiguity is a feature, not a bug.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah. It's a directive, so it sets the legal effect the EU wants but it's for each member state to create their own regulations by a certain date. I imagine if it had direct effect, like a regulation, it'd be more comprehensive.

[Ed Anger]

japan: hey, enough with the tiny car shit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/business/international/japan-seeks-to-squelch-its-tiny-cars.html?_r=0

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Everyone knows freelancers are not human and thus have no rights.

A freelancer is just a middle class unemployed person

[CountDeMoney]

I'm a freelancer.  Tell me where he's wrong.

[derspiess]

A very, very bitter freelancer.