[aantix]

But the burden of their unfinished work most likely falls to you and colleagues.

That’s fine for a while, but what if it intrudes in personal life? What if the work doesn’t get done, say a power outage, sanitation issues, it can impact many people?

If that’s your colleague, what’s the recourse?

[Dudeman112]

The same thing that we did when we had the same work to do, but productivity was lower since methodologies and technology weren't quite there yet: hire more people.

If the company can't pay the staff enough to live and can't afford to staff the amount of people they need, the company isn't viable.

At which point you can let the company suffer for it, or let the staff suffer for it.

If the company has to rely on people living in subhuman conditions to survive, the company should die.

[adamlett]

As a Dane, I find this notion completely alien. You know what unions are also good for? Ensuring healthy work/life balance, and ensuring that work outside regular working hours gets compensated appropriately. If I have to work sundays or evenings, I must be paid double my normal hourly pay.

[aantix]

I understand the overtime pay.

But a more common scenario - what about a co-worker, that is 60% your capacity?

And the union and company agree that two people doing this job should be enough. No more hiring.

The person is not great at getting things done, but not horrible enough to be fired (especially by union standards).

They're stuck on your team.

While overtime pay is great, do you really want to be responsible every week for their work deficit?

What's the recourse in the Danish labor structure?

[adamlett]

And the union and company agree that two people doing this job should be enough. No more hiring

That’s not a thing in Denmark.

The person is not great at getting things done, but not horrible enough to be fired (especially by union standards).

That’s also not a thing. It’s surprisingly easy to fire workers in Denmark. It’s similar to at-will employment in the US. Only you’re not screwed if you do get fired, because we have generous unemployment benefits and universal healthcare.

[aantix]

>That’s not a thing in Denmark.

Is it a thing in Denmark where a company doesn't have enough revenue to hire an additional workers? And you're stuck doing the surplus because of a low output co-worker?

[adamlett]

I’m sure there are companies everywhere where management keeps an unproductive worker around for whatever reason. But in Denmark at least, they are not required to. All employment in Danmark is at will employment. As long as the reason is not explicitly illegal, employees can be fired for any reason or no reason. As I wrote in a different reply, this is considered uncontroversial because 1. there is usually a severance period of three months, and 2. most workers have unemployment insurance which is both generous and affordable, and 3. we have free, universal healthcare, which means losing one’s job is not catastrophic.

[aantix]

We definitely seem to be miles apart on the way we think about our jobs.

To me, protection isn't love.

Workers that don't measure up aren't a good fit. Fire them. So that they can be set free, become stronger, at something they are good at.

A worker at McDonald's that does 60% the output of the rest of the team doesn't deserve $22/hr.

[adamlett]

Workers that don't measure up aren't a good fit. Fire them. So that they can be set free, become stronger, at something they are good at.

Oh, but I agree! Fun fact: It’s surprisingly easy to fire workers in Denmark. This is relatively uncontroversial because 1. there is a severance period, which is usually at least three months, and 2. generous unemployment benefits. We call it Flexicurity[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexicurity

[aantix]

Fascinating. Thank-you for sharing.