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Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

(annehelen.substack.com)
287 points moonka | 1 comments | 02 Apr 25 21:54 UTC | HN request time: 0.217s | source
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thi2 ◴[02 Apr 25 22:59 UTC] No.43562762[source]▶
> At Fred Meyer, our local Kroger-owned grocery store, a bagger in his 70s put all my frozen items in a normal bag, and my chips in the cold storage bag I’d brought from home.

A) Having to work a job (obviously not done out of passion) 70+ is really disheartening B) I don´t understand why this even is something that has to be done by a worker. I bought the groceries. I know where I want my stuff in my bags. Or I just toss them back in the cart and load it properly at the car.

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1. jampekka ◴[03 Apr 25 14:36 UTC] No.43570327[source]▶
When visiting US I feel very weird about baggers. Bagging stuff is something I can easily do myself while the cashier scans the products. Now instead of doing something useful, I just stand there idle and awkward watching the staff working.

In general having service workers spend a good part of their lives doing things that I can trivially with minimal effort and no loss of time do myself feels actively degrading these people. Perhaps some do get sense of being useful out of it, but I'd guess a lot of them would rather be doing something else if given choice.