Rivian employee comments suggest morale issues

[R1S88]

Rivian has about 15,000 employees and a bunch of Facebook posts is supposed to suggest a disgruntled workforce? Any company of that size will have some employees complaining on the internet. This is a clickbait waste of time story without a more representative sample.

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[SANZC02]

Just a thought…. Maybe people should do their jobs and stop looking around to see what others are doing. They would probably have a much better experience at work. At least it worked well during my career.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I find it interesting how it's 'mostly' (sure, not all) the younger (Gen Z, Millennial - whatever they're called) generation who are quick to jump on social media to complain about work stress/mental health etc etc. just because things in life get a little tough and they're asked to do a bit of graft.

Jeez, talk about a generation of snowflakes who have been brought up in an easy world of quick likes', everything on demand and thinking that they can make easy money like all faddish folks they follow on social media.

Mental health/stress ... are you kidding me??? Just look at what our grandparents and parents did/built? I recall twenty-something's putting pieces of their buddies in bags after a roadside bomb blew up their patrol (again) and still they put their hand to serve. After leaving the Army I remember working 100hr+ weeks as a young analyst at an investment bank (along with loads of other young kids) because we believed in hard work and effort = reward.

Where is the resilience in today's younger generation? And many companies (esp. after Covid) are quick to pander to this because they are afraid of the social media/PR blow back.

Kids, its not hard - working down a coal mine is hard. This is life, sometimes it's just difficult.

I'm in my late 30's so solidly a millennial and I couldn't agree more. I never even heard of a "mental health day" and you wouldn't believe how many employees I've had call in sick for a mental health day. I spent years working 80+ hour weeks and I came up in construction. Spend a week running a jackhammer and tell me how great your mental health is.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Spend a week running a jackhammer and tell me how great your mental health is.

Also currently in my late 30's (almost 40...oh god...) in construction and would love to run a Jackhammer for a week, turn off my brain, and have at'er.

I find it painful the amount of people that complain about wanting more money, but also complain about having to do any kind of OT, but also spend 1/4 of their day hiding in a corner or outhouse on their phone

When I was working in Seattle, we were regularly doing 6 day work weeks, 2 or 3 of which were 3am-930pm. That quickly separated the workforce into those that would and those that wouldn't. Don't get me wrong, people have families and things that come up, but you didn't have a single guy in the office asking us for more money, it was there for the taking, all you had to do was put in the time.

Reading the FB posts was painful. I get it, some people can feel marginalized etc, but there are also people that go out of their way to put themselves into situations to be able to cry about something.

I can only imagine some of the L&I "I'm sore and can't work" claims people are making at a plant with 15k people. We had a couple guys that turned false claims into a full time job and would go from site to site making disability claims

 

[Cactus]

The real issue here is that manufacturing quality suffers with poor morale, justified or not.

 

[JerseyGreens]

Late 30s almost 40 here as well and yes the next-generation does seem to be less hungry than most of us 80s babies but then again I also see folks my age who constantly do the bare minimum and want senior leadership positions...they can't write more than a single sentence email response and complain about how busy they are...

The true hustlers work in silence and people complaining/touting their own work have insecurity issues. I won't generalize any further but the latter group of folks seem to be increasing and the hard working, gritty, street smart leaders seem to be in short order...

God forbid you send some people a follow-up or status email on something they are responsible for ... The world will come to an end...

 

[Atlrivian]

Come work in medicine if you want to feel overworked, stressed and underpaid.

No seriously, we need people.

As this thread is all over the place, I'm also going to take this opportunity to complain about kids these days. However, it will be in the context of working in medicine.

Things in the training of future physicians right now that I find bonkers:

- Many medical students get one mental health day a month. WHAT DO THEY NEED A BREAK FROM?!?! Shadowing doctors 30 hrs a week? And there is a push to provide the same for residents.

- Some schools have a policy that a medical student is not ALLOWED to work on the weekend. Wow that's going to be a surprise when they actually have to show up to care for patients when they graduate.

- There are no more grades. EVERYTHING is pass / fail. There is literally no objective way to distinguish the best and brightest from the so/so.

- The inmates are now running the asylum. Complaints from residents to a GME office or national governing bodies (no matter how shitty the resident is) can absolutely decimate a residency program, so training programs are now actively pandering to residents. Standards are being actively lowered because residents essentially demand it. Most residents just don't want to do the work that should be required. Am I calling for the days when people worked 100+ hrs a week and lived in the hospital? No. But there should be a middle ground. You can't be expected to learn ever greater quantities of information in ever diminishing clinical education time and still be a good clinician. As someone who has seen residents come and go, over the past 10 years there has been a STEEP drop in work ethic. Our program has specifically been told to lower expectations out of fear the residents will complain.

- Residents complain they don't get enough lecture time. What happened to self-directed learning like any adult should be able to manage? So instead they lose yet more clinical time to get crap lectures once or twice a month.

In short, while I'm only in my 30s, I wholeheartedly agree that there has been an accelerating slide toward lowered expectations and laziness (in the name of work life balance) among even the most traditionally cutthroat / hard-working white collar workers.

PS - Don't get my 35yo brother who works in private equity started on "kids these days." Completely different cultural expectations for what work should entail now vs even 10 years ago.

--- rant over ---

 

[BCinOC]

i've read these same stories about Tesla employees and for much longer. it's not just a Rivian issue.

 

[Dark-Fx]

- There are no more grades. EVERYTHING is pass / fail. There is literally no objective way to distinguish the best and brightest from the so/so.

What do you call the medical student who graduated at the bottom of their class?

Doctor.

 

[Atlrivian]

What do you call the medical student who graduated at the bottom of their class?

Doctor.

Now that there are no grades, wouldn't they all be bottom of the class?

 

[Dark-Fx]

Now that there are no grades, wouldn't they all be bottom of the class?

I've never asked a doctor for their transcript, have you?

 

[COdogman]

Now that there are no grades, wouldn't they all be bottom of the class?

I'd be happy with a doctor who's middle of the class but actually treats me like a human being.

In all seriousness, many of the issues you speak to are very concerning. They are the same issues seen across all industries, across all pay scales. I understand they are trying to keep a decent work/ life balance, but there will be times in everyone's life you need to put in extra time or work extra hard to either do something you want or something you need. There are some young people that seem to understand that, but I would say it's only like 10% at our business. Those are the ones who understand you can't get more money and a better title without more effort.

We joke that dealing with everyone else's "mental health days" is going to get us institutionalized.

 

[Dark-Fx]

We joke that dealing with everyone else's "mental health days" is going to get us institutionalized.

Sounds like you just need some mental health days.

 

[COdogman]

Sounds like you just need some mental health days.

I think I've earned a few! Unlike them we don't just get to go hide in our rooms when things get hard.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Just a thought…. Maybe people should do their jobs and stop looking around to see what others are doing. They would probably have a much better experience at work. At least it worked well during my career.

I completely agree. Over the years I’ve noticed some people, regardless of generation, spend more time talking* about work than actually doing work. I always figured the best use of my time and energy at work was doing the best quality work I could. I don’t care what my title is, where I’m sitting, or who manages me. I try to avoid workplace drama and focus on making myself of value to the organization employing me and to whoever writes my review.

*In person, on the phone, via email/text/IM, etc.

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