[biomcgary]

My first job was at a unionized workplace. I ended up doing more work to cover the guy that was loafing around under the protection of the union. Who protects you from the protectors? Rational or not, since that time, I am suspicious of the personal work ethic of those arguing for unions.

[theteapot]

It's true, you never have to wonder about the work ethic of the unskilled and de-unionized worker. They have so little job security these days you can practically get the whip out on the poor, desperate little plebs.

[trogdor]

I get your point, but it sounds like you forgot where you were commenting. Most of the people here work in tech and are very-high earners. Your overwhelmingly-non-unionized audience are hardly “poor, desperate little plebs.”

[chownie]

I'd rather work with lazy people than bullies, YMMV.

[lliamander]

I think the reality is that lazy people and bullies tend to end up in the same organizations (and are with some regularity the same people). The places that I've seen the least of both was in a privately owned company.

[JackFr]

It’s not either/or.

You think the parent was covering for the loafer because he was so friendly and kind?

[pretendgeneer]

Seems like you were doing more to protect that guy than the union was.

[HWR_14]

Why didn't you just not cover for him?

[puddingforears]

For real. This problem exists independent of unions.

[Spivak]

If the one guy didn't get fired you probably wouldn't have either.

[biomcgary]

I didn't know better and after experiencing the consequences of my father loafing through life, I was determined to work hard. I was 18 and working my way through college (couldn't get loans or family aid). I grew up in right-to-work states, but went to college in a union state, so I wasn't really familiar with the dynamics.

[autoexec]

Why would you cover for someone who wasn't doing their job? Unions don't make it impossible to fire a bad employee, they just require normal things like documentation and giving the employee a chance to improve.

If I started doing someone else's work making it impossible for the bad employee's boss to know there was a problem that's not really a issue with unions.

[lnxg33k1]

Lol