not me going and adjusting all the shelves not quite seated correctly bc I’m paranoid the things will fall out even though that has never happened once on my shift (which last ended many many years ago)
Me neither. To the point that I have to avoid toy sections in stores, let alone cosmetics. There’s not enough time in the day for that when I’m no longer doing it professionally.
I have twice been assumed to be working in a bookshop because I was alphabetising things. I’ve got out of the habit of setting them all flush with the shelves, something I was taught to do during my time as a trainee library assistant.
You! Stop doing that! I hate you specifically as someone who does work at a bookstore. If you really wanna help, apply to work or straighten the non-book related things -_-
BringTheBeetIn
As a fellow bookseller, why? I can barely get my coworkers to help me shelf read lol. If a trained customer wants to jump in, go for it
AnonGrouch
‘Trained’ and ‘knows your layout’ are two very different, necessary things. Idk I run the shop myself when it’s my hours so I’m used to doing everything. Having a big enough store where you have coworkers that don’t really help would probably change my mind on things.
I was offered a job once in the models dept. of the local craft store when one young lady was fronting the shelves and restocking mislaid items. I pointed to where a particular model was supposed to go, and she almost begged me to go apply. If I didn’t already have a day job, and didn’t want to deal with the overly religious aspect of the owners, I mightve been tempted.
The best bit is when the manager or higher staff see you doing it and give you a discretionary voucher for money off as thanks. It’s like you get that release and are paid for it. Compulsion hooking, if you will.
That’s a nice way of viewing things, and I’m glad Ethan is showing some interest in something here. He isn’t going to suddenly be happy, and smiling again, but baby steps help.
I was actually just thinking that. Like he’s still not looking great but if you jump back to how he was at the start of his depression he’s made some noticeable steps.
I had the same urge once with the DVD aisle. Next thing I know, a woman is asking me where she can find the playstation games and what her thirteen year old son might like, and as she left said she’d complement my boss. I was too surprised to explain I wasn’t an employee.
I imagine someone trying that with Ethan is going to come away knowing a lot more about Transformers and at least one Dinobot that has somehow appeared.
I know it’s not a big storyline but I’m happy to see the Amber-Ethan friendship slowly being repaired and Ethan getting some colour back (on the inside.)
Sometimes, your brain just snaps into work mode when you’re doing random off-the-clock shit (for example, I can’t NOT push in the chairs when I’m at people’s houses, and I can’t hear certain words without snapping into work mode).
It’s a little funny when he’s never worked in a toy store in THIS ‘verse, though XD
I have more than once ended a phone call with my mom or dad dad (calling me for computer or phone help) with ‘is there anything else I can help you with today?’ because 15 years in a tech-support call center has made certain rhythms automatic.
Cleaning up the environment is a good thing, of course. But in a capitalist society, doing work that you’re not getting paid to do just hurts other workers.
so if I cook my own food to save money am I hurting other workers?
@-@ I’m just tired of this unstable and unsustainable bullshit, the sooner we all move towards democratic socialism the better
Kyulen
I don’t see how cooking your own food to save money hurts other workers. You’re not doing the work of restaurant or food service workers for free by doing that.
I would love to live long enough to see a world after capitalism, preferably socialism moving towards an ideal communist utopia.
the first steps are much easier to take than you think!
many a socialism including market socialism and democratic socialism posit a huge role for worker cooperatives, a model proven more than viable, heck I think I’m already part of one myself ^^
brute
how does it hurt workers to give them less work to do? there’s an impossible amount of work all the time at these jobs, so if someone wants to tidy up just let them. this just sounds like the “voting is bad actually” and “don’t recycle it doesn’t make a difference” attitude of the Online Left where they tell everyone not to do anything, ever, and somehow that will lead to socialism.
AnonGrouch
Ok but never touch my fucking bookstore. I like working and organizing and having too much to do. Not only does having less to do stress me out, taking away my right to be annoyed at you for putting Jurassic Park in the fiction instead of the Sci Fi section you got it from because that is what says on the back of the book is one of my life’s many joys damn it. I know I’m not ‘the norm’ but I’m physically incapable of taking a break when I’m at work. I have to practically be forced.
Mark
But, if nobody was allowed to cook his own food at home, we’d all have to eat out all the time, and there’d be more work for hospitality workers. Everything you do for yourself is taking bread out of the mouth of someone who could be paid to do it for you.
Pergola
So if I had a paid staff of servants, that would be a good thing?
thejeff
Yes. Assuming you pay well and treat them well of course. Creating jobs is good.
Wizard
The idea that socialism could ever lead to communism was probably Marx’s second biggest mistake, right behind the idea that communism could ever be more than a pipe dream.
Marxist Historical Analysis proves itself useful even to this day, however when it comes to suggested programme to make socialism actually happen, Marx was much more of a scientist than an engineer in that regard, in that scientists figure out what CAN be done, and engineers figure out how to actually make it happen.
His suggested socialist programme revealed a bit of naivity about economics, but let’s be real here the same goes for literally EVERY economist before 1900 XD
heck even Martin Luther King Jr., himself a democratic socialist, acknowledged that Marx wasn’t always right
King, Martin Luther. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. 1958. PP 92-95 (pp.4-5 pdf). “in so far as [Marx] pointed to a weakness of traditional capitalism, contributed to the growth of a definite self-consciousness in the masses, and challenged the social conscience of the Christian churches, I responded with a definite “yes”.
Regret
Are you trying to imply that post 1900 economists are not naive? Modern economists are either incompetent or evil, judging from the results of their and their followers’ behaviour.
I’ve seen economists claim that wage increases could trigger an expanding inflation spiral, but simple math shows that’s only true if wages are more than 100% of the cost of a product, in which case all economic activity is a net negative so we should do as little as possible. Now, are these economists bad at math or do they truly believe that their entire field be replaced by just saying “do less” but for some reason they’re being coy about it? Or is there another reason, would they perhaps personally benefit from convincing people of this? Those are the three possible explanations.
And that’s just one example, there are many. Do yourself a favour and the next time an economist or one of their followers makes a claim, check their math.
I was referring more to trends among economists back before 1900 such as the Labor Theory of Value, the discrediting of which forms the basis for much of the modern economic critique of Marxism, despite being nowhere NEAR unique to Marxism, as it was indulged in by even the father of capitalism himself, Adam Smith.
My point being that Marx’s contributions as a historian and pioneering work in the then-embryonic field of sociology shouldn’t be overlooked or understated despite the widespread relative ignorance of economics back then
and yes, very true many economists today are bumbling bourgeois idiots trying to pose as thought leaders (-_-)
HueSatLight
What you said is too much like someone knocking a bunch of stuff onto the floor saying it’s job security for the cleaning staff.
Wizard
That’s assuming that if you don’t do something then someone else will be paid to. In many cases it only means it won’t get done at all.
Regret
False. Society sets up a situation where doing good hurts people, but that doesn’t make the act bad, it just makes society bad. If a bully grabs your hand and starts punching you with your own hand, do you blame your hand?
I concur, the ultimate problem lays in the fact that our oh-so “free” society is allowed to be a capitalist one where people by default have to earn their right to live via wages from corpos who are essentially modern day feudal lords.
hell, even conservative economists like Schumpeter ADMITTED that the social order resulting from post-industrial capitalism is “the nearest approach to medieval lordship possible to people of the modern world”. (he said he thought that was a good thing BTW ?)
I can understand cleaning up the aisles in the toys area of a store if you work there and are getting paid to do it, even though it’ll likely get messed up soon after. But nobody should clean up aisles in a store they don’t even work at. Greedy companies will see people willing to work for free and decide that means they can pay their existing workers less, or give them a heavier work-load for the same low pay.
the company doesn’t see that. the store manager might, and they probably won’t care. they also have very little control over our pay and workload, if any.
I’m actually not taking work away from anyone if I sort the Power Rangers by color, actually. Let’s not be ridiculous here.
Clif
If you want to have the Power Rangers sorted and you don’t hire someone to do it, then logically you are taking away the job of the person you otherwise would have hired to sort them. Being accurate doesn’t make the argument any less ridiculous, but it is accurate.
I don’t dine out much anymore, but since it would be bad form for me to take my dirty dishes to a restaurant’s kitchen I scratch the itch by getting everything in a tidy pile with cutlery on the topmost plate before I leave.
116 thoughts on “New forms”
Ana Chronistic
not me going and adjusting all the shelves not quite seated correctly bc I’m paranoid the things will fall out even though that has never happened once on my shift (which last ended many many years ago)
Risky
Me neither. To the point that I have to avoid toy sections in stores, let alone cosmetics. There’s not enough time in the day for that when I’m no longer doing it professionally.
Daibhid C
I have twice been assumed to be working in a bookshop because I was alphabetising things. I’ve got out of the habit of setting them all flush with the shelves, something I was taught to do during my time as a trainee library assistant.
AnonGrouch
You! Stop doing that! I hate you specifically as someone who does work at a bookstore. If you really wanna help, apply to work or straighten the non-book related things -_-
BringTheBeetIn
As a fellow bookseller, why? I can barely get my coworkers to help me shelf read lol. If a trained customer wants to jump in, go for it
AnonGrouch
‘Trained’ and ‘knows your layout’ are two very different, necessary things. Idk I run the shop myself when it’s my hours so I’m used to doing everything. Having a big enough store where you have coworkers that don’t really help would probably change my mind on things.
D D
I was offered a job once in the models dept. of the local craft store when one young lady was fronting the shelves and restocking mislaid items. I pointed to where a particular model was supposed to go, and she almost begged me to go apply. If I didn’t already have a day job, and didn’t want to deal with the overly religious aspect of the owners, I mightve been tempted.
Grayfinity
My OCD-like reaction when eveything is everywhere and I don’t work there:
Furie
The best bit is when the manager or higher staff see you doing it and give you a discretionary voucher for money off as thanks. It’s like you get that release and are paid for it. Compulsion hooking, if you will.
brute
they WHAT
all i ever get are funny looks 🙁
Decidedly Orthogonal
I need to know where you shop!
IntangibleMatter
I need a friend like Amber.
Either that or to be her.
Either way, those Voyagers need to be lined up.
Taffy
I do that same shit. It just feels gratifying.
NGPZ
right?!
autisma solidarity ^-^
Kyrik Michalowski
That’s a nice way of viewing things, and I’m glad Ethan is showing some interest in something here. He isn’t going to suddenly be happy, and smiling again, but baby steps help.
Anyone else feel like he is doing better?
NGPZ
nothin like a stim to make you feel more like yourself, if that makes sense
so yes?
Kyrik Michalowski
Stim?
NGPZ
like autistic stimming ^^
Kyrik Michalowski
Ah, that makes sense; thank you for the info.
Jerach
I was actually just thinking that. Like he’s still not looking great but if you jump back to how he was at the start of his depression he’s made some noticeable steps.
Queen Anthai
He’s out in public and everything!
Michael Steamweed
A rare sighting of an Ethan Going Outside [TM]!
…
(it’s me. i’m the rare sighting of ethan going outside.)
Dara
Yeah, I certainly think so. He’s almost smiling in the last panel.
Not quite. But almost.
Michael Steamweed
Yes, he is. Perhaps Asher was helpful to him (which reflects well more on Ethan than on Asher).
morhek
I had the same urge once with the DVD aisle. Next thing I know, a woman is asking me where she can find the playstation games and what her thirteen year old son might like, and as she left said she’d complement my boss. I was too surprised to explain I wasn’t an employee.
I imagine someone trying that with Ethan is going to come away knowing a lot more about Transformers and at least one Dinobot that has somehow appeared.
Michael Steamweed
And there was a confused manager later that afternoon.
cbwroses
This strip is giving me a nice, simple, and sweet feeling.
DailyBrad
This is like if I drop by the store I work at on my day off, and stuff’s not set up correctly. I have to remember I am not on the goddamn clock.
I do love Amber’s smile in the last panel, and the two being on the same page.
jeffepp
It’s not like the 70s and 80s, when every isle was jammed in every inch, all year round.
Charles Phipps
Ethan needs to get a job in this Target. He also needs to meet Duncan and get irrationally offended.
It can be like the Prequel Era of Shortpacked.
Except good like Clone Wars and not the actual prequels. With Kit Fisto and Ahsoka.
Nono
Or him and Duncan finally become friends (or boyfriends…?), which they could never do in the other universe.
Taffy
Or Duncan walks up to Ethan but Ethan just says “Get away from me, Duncan.”
Charles Phipps
“I’ve got an idea: Monkey Master: BUCKETS OF BLOOD!”
Shakes
I know it’s not a big storyline but I’m happy to see the Amber-Ethan friendship slowly being repaired and Ethan getting some colour back (on the inside.)
Grimey
No but really, a toy aisle of Voyager-class transformers not where they should be will drive someone to drinking.
endplanets
He then cleaned it so well he was offered a job at the store
Michael Steamweed
For the 4th time.
(he keeps turning it down, not because of crappy pay, which he’s used to, but because they don’t give employee discounts)
ian livs
Sometimes, your brain just snaps into work mode when you’re doing random off-the-clock shit (for example, I can’t NOT push in the chairs when I’m at people’s houses, and I can’t hear certain words without snapping into work mode).
It’s a little funny when he’s never worked in a toy store in THIS ‘verse, though XD
anonymsly
I have more than once ended a phone call with my mom or dad dad (calling me for computer or phone help) with ‘is there anything else I can help you with today?’ because 15 years in a tech-support call center has made certain rhythms automatic.
ian livs
I’ve absolutely done similar things (probably because I rarely talk on the phone *outside* of work). Luckily, parents tend to find it hilarious
Dara
Eyyyyy! Thanks, Willis! Followed. ^_^
Mastodonians, PixelFederationists, Friendicans! Willis did the thing so now you can follow his BlueSky directly from your accounts!
Paste this into search and hit enter:
@damnyouwillis.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy
The profile will come up with a Follow button next to it, and if you click it, it’ll work. Yay!
(If you want to reply to anything, though, you need to give the bridge permission from our side. Paste this into your search:
@bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy
…and hit Follow on the profile that shows up.)
Pocky
don’t bother, someone will come around after and mess the aisle up all over again.
its a lost cause.
NGPZ
not sure if this is sarcasm or a meme or somethin but
like, whenever I hike I make an effort to pick up trash on the trail for more or less the same reason Ethan wants to tidy up the aisle
i ain’t paid for it, i know it may get trashed again in the future anyway,
nor do i expect a reward for it by gods or humans in the future, or even need it
if only because seeing the result of the action, a place you love being prettier, is the reward itself if that makes sense?
Kyulen
Cleaning up the environment is a good thing, of course. But in a capitalist society, doing work that you’re not getting paid to do just hurts other workers.
NGPZ
so if I cook my own food to save money am I hurting other workers?
@-@ I’m just tired of this unstable and unsustainable bullshit, the sooner we all move towards democratic socialism the better
Kyulen
I don’t see how cooking your own food to save money hurts other workers. You’re not doing the work of restaurant or food service workers for free by doing that.
I would love to live long enough to see a world after capitalism, preferably socialism moving towards an ideal communist utopia.
NGPZ
the first steps are much easier to take than you think!
many a socialism including market socialism and democratic socialism posit a huge role for worker cooperatives, a model proven more than viable, heck I think I’m already part of one myself ^^
brute
how does it hurt workers to give them less work to do? there’s an impossible amount of work all the time at these jobs, so if someone wants to tidy up just let them. this just sounds like the “voting is bad actually” and “don’t recycle it doesn’t make a difference” attitude of the Online Left where they tell everyone not to do anything, ever, and somehow that will lead to socialism.
AnonGrouch
Ok but never touch my fucking bookstore. I like working and organizing and having too much to do. Not only does having less to do stress me out, taking away my right to be annoyed at you for putting Jurassic Park in the fiction instead of the Sci Fi section you got it from because that is what says on the back of the book is one of my life’s many joys damn it. I know I’m not ‘the norm’ but I’m physically incapable of taking a break when I’m at work. I have to practically be forced.
Mark
But, if nobody was allowed to cook his own food at home, we’d all have to eat out all the time, and there’d be more work for hospitality workers. Everything you do for yourself is taking bread out of the mouth of someone who could be paid to do it for you.
Pergola
So if I had a paid staff of servants, that would be a good thing?
thejeff
Yes. Assuming you pay well and treat them well of course. Creating jobs is good.
Wizard
The idea that socialism could ever lead to communism was probably Marx’s second biggest mistake, right behind the idea that communism could ever be more than a pipe dream.
NGPZ
Marxist Historical Analysis proves itself useful even to this day, however when it comes to suggested programme to make socialism actually happen, Marx was much more of a scientist than an engineer in that regard, in that scientists figure out what CAN be done, and engineers figure out how to actually make it happen.
His suggested socialist programme revealed a bit of naivity about economics, but let’s be real here the same goes for literally EVERY economist before 1900 XD
heck even Martin Luther King Jr., himself a democratic socialist, acknowledged that Marx wasn’t always right
NGPZ
King, Martin Luther. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. 1958. PP 92-95 (pp.4-5 pdf). “in so far as [Marx] pointed to a weakness of traditional capitalism, contributed to the growth of a definite self-consciousness in the masses, and challenged the social conscience of the Christian churches, I responded with a definite “yes”.
Regret
Are you trying to imply that post 1900 economists are not naive? Modern economists are either incompetent or evil, judging from the results of their and their followers’ behaviour.
I’ve seen economists claim that wage increases could trigger an expanding inflation spiral, but simple math shows that’s only true if wages are more than 100% of the cost of a product, in which case all economic activity is a net negative so we should do as little as possible. Now, are these economists bad at math or do they truly believe that their entire field be replaced by just saying “do less” but for some reason they’re being coy about it? Or is there another reason, would they perhaps personally benefit from convincing people of this? Those are the three possible explanations.
And that’s just one example, there are many. Do yourself a favour and the next time an economist or one of their followers makes a claim, check their math.
NGPZ
I was referring more to trends among economists back before 1900 such as the Labor Theory of Value, the discrediting of which forms the basis for much of the modern economic critique of Marxism, despite being nowhere NEAR unique to Marxism, as it was indulged in by even the father of capitalism himself, Adam Smith.
My point being that Marx’s contributions as a historian and pioneering work in the then-embryonic field of sociology shouldn’t be overlooked or understated despite the widespread relative ignorance of economics back then
and yes, very true many economists today are bumbling bourgeois idiots trying to pose as thought leaders (-_-)
HueSatLight
What you said is too much like someone knocking a bunch of stuff onto the floor saying it’s job security for the cleaning staff.
Wizard
That’s assuming that if you don’t do something then someone else will be paid to. In many cases it only means it won’t get done at all.
Regret
False. Society sets up a situation where doing good hurts people, but that doesn’t make the act bad, it just makes society bad. If a bully grabs your hand and starts punching you with your own hand, do you blame your hand?
NGPZ
I concur, the ultimate problem lays in the fact that our oh-so “free” society is allowed to be a capitalist one where people by default have to earn their right to live via wages from corpos who are essentially modern day feudal lords.
hell, even conservative economists like Schumpeter ADMITTED that the social order resulting from post-industrial capitalism is “the nearest approach to medieval lordship possible to people of the modern world”. (he said he thought that was a good thing BTW ?)
Mark
Hey, it’s our outdoors too, and if we like it tidy we’ve got a right to do our bit to keep it so.
Pocky
I mean, cleaning aisles. We just do it before the shift is over so no one can mess it up again.
As a retail worker trying to do constant full aisle sorting on the clock is like trying to push a boulder up a hill.
Jamie
I dunno why people bother breathing in. You just breathe out again anyways.
Kyulen
I can understand cleaning up the aisles in the toys area of a store if you work there and are getting paid to do it, even though it’ll likely get messed up soon after. But nobody should clean up aisles in a store they don’t even work at. Greedy companies will see people willing to work for free and decide that means they can pay their existing workers less, or give them a heavier work-load for the same low pay.
brute
the company doesn’t see that. the store manager might, and they probably won’t care. they also have very little control over our pay and workload, if any.
Taffy
I’m actually not taking work away from anyone if I sort the Power Rangers by color, actually. Let’s not be ridiculous here.
Clif
If you want to have the Power Rangers sorted and you don’t hire someone to do it, then logically you are taking away the job of the person you otherwise would have hired to sort them. Being accurate doesn’t make the argument any less ridiculous, but it is accurate.
BBCC
XD Oh Ethan. Some habits die hard across universes.
Schpoonman
I don’t dine out much anymore, but since it would be bad form for me to take my dirty dishes to a restaurant’s kitchen I scratch the itch by getting everything in a tidy pile with cutlery on the topmost plate before I leave.
Taffy
That’s just the courteous thing to do. Any time I see someone not stacking the dishes, I get itchy.
june gloom