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The Kastron Constitution
33) Part-time and temporary jobs

17 May 2024

 
Part-time jobs are encouraged

Everybody can have part-time jobs

Since all of the businesses work for the city government, businesses are put into competition only to inspire one another, not dominate or hurt one another. Furthermore, businesses do not "own" their employees. Every person is a city employee, and the businesses are just temporary organizations of those city employees.

In this type of economy, it is acceptable for people to have more than one part-time job.The remainder of this section will explain some of the advantages to this policy.

To reduce monotony and physical injuries

The human mind and body evolved for the type of chores that our prehistoric ancestors had to do, so many of the chores in a modern society are unnatural
for us. This can result in certain jobs causing physical problems, such as carpal tunnel syndrome or shoulder problems, and some jobs are mentally difficult or monotonous, such as watching radar screens and working on certain types of assembly lines.

None of the existing cultures care about the quality of life, no society promotes the concept that jobs should be designed to be appropriate for the human mind and body. Modern businesses have adjusted their jobs to be somewhat appropriate only because there have been decades of riots, strikes, and complaints about dangerous working conditions.

This Constitution promotes the theory that jobs should be one of our primary pleasures in life. Therefore, instead of expecting people to work full-time on jobs that are physically or mentally irritating, those jobs should be set as part time.

To deal with our unique characteristics

None of the existing cultures are willing to believe that every person is a unique jumble of genetic characteristics, and that men and women have slightly different physical and mental characteristics, so no society promotes the theory that every job should be adjusted to fit the particular characteristics of the employee. Instead, every employee is expected to do what the other employees do.

This is as idiotic as expecting everybody to perform exactly the same in athletic events. This unrealistic attitude creates frustration and stress among the employees who cannot do what the others are doing.

For example, if a man in a construction crew has so much less stamina than the others that he can keep up with them for only four hours, and then he becomes so tired that he becomes less productive, he will be a burden on the team, an irritation to the other employees, and frustrated with himself. It is more sensible to have that employee work for only four hours, and then switch to a less physically demanding job, such as in an office.

Nobody benefits by treating people as if they are equal in abilities. Rather, we benefit when every person is at his maximum productivity. We also benefit when everybody enjoys their job and has a pleasant attitude.

Another example, mentioned here, is that the employees who have problems with their bladder or kidneys should have their work environment adjusted so that they don't have to pee in bottles.

This constitution requires the managers of all organizations to adjust a job to fit the particular mental and physical characteristics of the employee. We torment one another when we expect everybody to be identical in their abilities.

The people who have trouble working a particular job on a full-time basis should do that job on a part-time basis so that they don't become unproductive and frustrated.

Adjusting a job to fit a person's genetic characteristics is bizarre for a free enterprise system, but it is a policy that is typical for families. For example, we do not expect grandparents, pregnant women, or young children to do the same amount of yardwork as a healthy teenage boy. Instead, we adjust the household chores and yardwork according to a person's abilities.

The competition for profit in a free enterprise system favors the business executives who are more interested in profit than the quality of our lives. This constitution changes the situation by requiring the businesses to put human life ahead of profit. Jobs must be adjusted to fit each employees's physical and mental characteristics, and the unpleasant jobs should be part time, such as a few hours a day, or a few days a week. The goal is to reduce physical injuries and monotony, increase productivity, and allow more people to enjoy their job.

To deal with “burnout”

The people who do certain types of intellectual work, such as engineers, computer programmers, technicians, writers, and scientists, can become frustrated with a problem, or run out of ideas on what to do next. If they continue to push themselves, they can waste their time and create even more frustration.

Some managers are aware of this concept, and they advise an employee to take a short break from his work, but that isn't always beneficial. From my personal experiences with intellectual chores, when I become confused about what to do, I find it is sometimes more productive to switch to some other task, and return to the unfinished task later that day or on another day.

The Employment Ministry is required to investigate the issue of how to design a work environment to be most beneficial to us, and the most productive. They need to analyze such issues as the number of hours and days we work, when a break is useful, how long a break should be, whether a recreational activity is a more appropriate break than resting, and whether it is best for a person to switch to a different job for a while.


We want candy, but do we benefit from it?
However, as with all government agencies, the Employment Ministry must ignore what the employees and management want and try to figure out what is best for them.

For example, Rosseto Serving Solutions promotes break rooms that have their food dispensing machines, but do employees truly benefit by taking a break from their work to eat candy, potato chips, and soda?

Or will the employees have a better life, and be more productive at their job, if they don't have any food during their breaks, and instead do something else, such as relax or socialize? Or should they have something more nutritious, such as some fruit?

Since Kastron consists of neighborhoods of tall buildings surrounded by nature, when the weather is nice, the employees might be even more productive if they take a break from their work and go out into nature to either relax or get some exercise by walking, riding bicycles, swimming, or playing a game with the other employees.

If the weather is not so nice, they could go to a breakroom, but instead of providing them with candy or food, it would provide them with comfortable furniture and a nice view of nature and the city. That would provide them with a pleasant place to relax and give their mind a rest. They could also discuss the problems they are having, which can help them get ideas on what to do.

Some of the break rooms could be for men only and others for women only. Since all of the men would have to meet high standards, some of the break rooms would be able to mix the men and women without the women worrying about lewd remarks or being bumped into.

To reduce the people who don't have enough work to do.

There are some jobs that are necessary, but which do not provide enough work for a full-time job. An example are firemen.

Rather than hire a group of firemen to do nothing all day while they wait for a fire, it would be better to classify the job of firemen as "intermittent". The people who want to be firemen will have some other full-time job, or several part-time jobs, and they become firemen only for training exercises and when there is a fire. They resume their primary job when they are finished dealing with the training or extinguishing the fire.

In a free enterprise system, employees are so afraid of losing their job that many of them are reluctant to tell their boss that they don't have much work to do. Furthermore, many people don't want to work, so they are happy when that situation arises.

As the Sharing document points out, we must be intolerant of parasitic people. Therefore, people who don't have enough work to do are required to inform their boss about it, and if their boss doesn't have enough work for them, then their job must be switched to part-time, and they have to get another part-time job.

An employee who remains silent about having nothing to do is considered to be a deceptive, selfish parasite, and he must be evicted. We cannot expect this type of economic system to function properly when some of the people are parasitic.

Employees can work with their competitors

In a free enterprise system, most businesses do not want employees to have part-time jobs at their competitors because they are competing for their survival..

However, with this Constitution, all of the businesses work for the city, and they are in competition to be the most useful to the city. They compete with each other only because we need competition.

Therefore, there are some jobs that a person can do for his competitor. For example, a technician who has a part-time job maintaining machinery at one company could have a part-time job maintaining machines at a competing business. As long as the technician does not sabotage one of the businesses, he will not disrupt the competition between the businesses. He would be in a similar role as an independent business that provides maintenance services.

This concept is similar to how some athletes share the same coach, even though they are competing with one another.
Part-time government officials are encouraged

The benefits of part-time officials

This constitution encourages government officials to work on a part-time basis. In addition to part-time officials working a few hours a day or a few days a week, they could also work only for particular projects that appeal to them. In that case they might work for a few weeks on a project, and then not work for the government again until another project appeals to them, which could be many years or decades later.

Some of the advantages to encouraging part-time jobs in the Quality Division were discussed here, and some additional benefits to having part-time government officials are listed below:



To reduce corruption and bias

By having lots of officials on a part-time basis, it becomes more difficult for a small group of officials to inadvertently or deliberately dominate the government.





To increase the number of working officials

Many American manufacturing businesses have had trouble competing with Japan, Taiwan, and other countries, For example, the American steel businesses suffered tremendously during the 1980s, and although many Americans blame the problem on Japan "dumping" low cost steel, the more sensible explanation is that the U.S. Steel businesses had not modernized their equipment. Likewise, the US automobile companies were resisting industrial robots and other advanced machines, thereby losing a lot of sales to Japan.

Why did so many American businesses refuse to update their factories? Nobody has an answer to that question, but it could be partly because a lot of the US businesses have shadow managers.

I have personally seen and heard about managers who have no idea what their employees are doing because they've never done the jobs that their employees do. For example, in the early 1990s there were some machinists who wanted to use the software I created (MillWrite), but the managers would not let them have computers because they did not understand how a machinist would benefit from a computer. Those shadow managers had no idea of what the machinists were doing, or what type of equipment or software would allow a machinist do his job faster or more accurately.

Therefore, one of the employees at Raytheon, and another employee at General Motors, told me that they brought their home computer into the machine shop to use MillWrite, and without asking the management for permission. It is unlikely that I know the only two employees in the world who brought their home computer into their business, so there might have been thousands of others doing it.

Throughout the 1990s I also regularly heard complaints from machinists that when they were given a computer, they were given the old computer of a secretary because the management believed that the secretaries needed better computers than the machinists. As a result, I had to ensure that my software would work at such low screen resolutions as 800x600 pixels when almost every other employee had a monitor with at least 1024 x 768 pixels.

By encouraging part-time government officials, we can provide ourselves with government officials who are knowledgeable about the work that people do in the factories, research labs, hospitals, and other businesses. The government will have more working managers and fewer shadow managers.





To allow more people to contribute to the government

A person might want to become a part-time government employee to deal with a specific task that he is interested in. For example, when the leisure minister decides to experiment with a new recreational activity, or design an new elevated bicycle path, a person who has an interest or experience in that particular activity could request the opportunity to become a part-time and temporary government official so that he can get involved with the project.

This option allows more people to get directly involved with the experiments to improve the city, and their job terminates when the project is completed, thereby avoiding the problem of government employees who have nothing to do.

In order for this policy to work, the ministers are required to give people the opportunity to test their abilities as a government official. The people who are successful with their task would have a success listed in the database entry, and that would make it easier for them to be given another part-time job in the government, and it would help them if they wanted a full-time job.

One significant advantage a free enterprise system has over government controlled economies is that the free enterprise system gives everybody the opportunity to test their ideas for new products and services. Therefore, in order to match or exceed the abilities of the free enterprise system, the ministers are required to give people opportunities to test their ideas. This also prevents the problem of people complaining that they do not have opportunities, or are discriminated against.

However, the ministers are expected to follow sensible rules when they give people opportunities. For example, a person who is young and has not yet accomplished anything would be restricted to opportunities that do not need much labor or resources so that a failure is not much of a burden on society. The more successes a person has, the more advanced and complex his opportunities can be.





Older people can contribute to the government

By encouraging part-time jobs in the government, it is practical for people who are as old as 80 to get involved with the government. Many of those people have a lot of valuable experience, but they do not have the stamina for full-time work. By allowing them to work part-time, they will be able to contribute to the city without fatigue interfering with their work.

We must watch for conflicts with part-time jobs

A potential problem with allowing people to have part-time jobs is that some of the jobs can create conflicts. A simple example is a person who has a part-time job at a government agency that can authorize research programs of health issues, and who also has a part-time job doing research of health issues, thereby allowing him to approve his own suggestions.