Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

In communist Poland (probably whole Warsaw Pact), not only were they guaranteed, there was an obligation to work. You could go to jail if you avoided work.

This created a somehow funny effect, were many just did the absolute minimum on the job.



My grandma used to tell me about this situation. Specifically, how infuriating it was to work with people that would do the absolute minimum and be rewarded like people making an effort.


And there's also some kind of a real psychological incentive for some, like myself, to be basically unable to do "absolute minimum" when I come to do the job and engage myself, because that would drive me crazy.


That is the human condition and also prevalent in capitalist economies.


Yes that was true for Hungary too. From the 50s up until to 1989 it was a crime to be unemployed.


In Belarus, you have to pay an extra tax if you're unemployed. A coworker of mine was struggling with that, because she was having trouble proving she was working in the US, they were trying to tax her parents.

Corrupt hellhole, that country.


>many just did the absolute minimum on the job.

Just like here then.


>This created a somehow funny effect, were many just did the absolute minimum on the job.

Isn't this where the old joke about Communism came from? "You pretend to work, and we pretend to pay you"?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: