tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post1465959123315247342..comments2024-03-28T17:53:43.541-04:00Comments on DarwinCatholic: Why Non-Profit Workers Lean LeftDarwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-35666567006438174512014-08-22T18:08:31.582-04:002014-08-22T18:08:31.582-04:00Interesting to see that the non-profit workers her...Interesting to see that the non-profit workers here are working in specifically Catholic (and conservative) agencies. I've always worked in small non-profit museums -- which can be hard to find employment at for a younger (thirties) conservative Catholic white guy. I've ended up in a lot of military history sites and historic navy ships for that reason (those curatorial staffs tend to the right, and my work is in working with artifacts management and archives processing).<br /><br />Alas, between the type of sites and being held to an artificially-low level of my field due to my politics and sex, I can't be considered a "provider" enough to get any woman to say yes to dating me, but at least I can get my my charitable contributions up to 25% in most years (40% in the year of the market tumble) due to how often I need to grimace and take "internships" as a grown over-certified man who as a result may or may not get paid depending on how the site's doing -- but frankly, if you'll pardon my language, I don't give a flying sh!t about my comfort if it means that our history gets preserved and properly told by someone who cares and has the actual skills and knowledge of how to handle it...Briannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-5620056179778166982010-02-19T13:16:48.314-05:002010-02-19T13:16:48.314-05:00Heads do not necessarily roll in the for-profit wo...Heads do not necessarily roll in the for-profit world, but people are held accountable for what they do. Businesses will fail if they are not well run or do not provide a product that the public wants. That's how it should be.<br /><br />My husband and I are aiming for 10% charitable contributions overall. We are not there yet, but gave 4% of our after-alimony income to the church last year. The other 2% went to other charities. I shudder to think that our modest contributions might be among the highest.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-14627810115406633372010-02-10T00:10:21.952-05:002010-02-10T00:10:21.952-05:00Sounds like he's got a good start, at least. ...Sounds like he's got a good start, at least. :-)Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-16730384768685191702010-02-09T23:34:57.620-05:002010-02-09T23:34:57.620-05:00Thanks for the suggestions!
He actually seems to d...Thanks for the suggestions!<br />He actually seems to do pretty well in the customers department, but of course, that's only one aspect of running a business. <br /><br />Suddenly, I'm envisioning a MouseDriver stand somewhere along a thoroughfare leading to a certain golf club about the first week in April. Sound like a plan?:-)CMinorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07305306030099439903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-55177827308776357242010-02-09T13:10:36.661-05:002010-02-09T13:10:36.661-05:00The good thing about Inc is that it often provides...The good thing about Inc is that it often provides in depth articles about how business decisions get made. <a href="http://www.inc.com/magazine/20060501/buck-stopped-here_Printer_Friendly.html" rel="nofollow">One I remember and refer people to after a number of years was this one on how Buck Knives ended up deciding to move to a new headquarters, and moved many of its staff in the process.</a> It's an example of how moving a business to where labor is cheaper can be essential to survival, yet done with the maximum of responsibility towards workers.<br /><br />Also, it's incredibly cheap to subscribe to (probably because business owners are a group advertisers really want to get at.) <br /><br />That said, the biggest difficulty for the young business owner is that often your struggling just to get business. You can have all sorts of great knowledge about how to run an established business, but without enough money coming in the door in the first place (what I always struggled with) it can be hard to know what to do.<br /><br />Another realistic book about starting a business, now I think about it, was <i>The MouseDriver Chronicles</i> about a couple of guys trying to start a business selling computer mice shaped like golf club heads.Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-360649319739983602010-02-08T23:06:28.436-05:002010-02-08T23:06:28.436-05:00Thanks! I'm looking at the online version now....Thanks! I'm looking at the online version now. We'll see if we can start him off on some good article links without being too obvious!CMinorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07305306030099439903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-63127359350711125362010-02-08T11:15:37.120-05:002010-02-08T11:15:37.120-05:00CMinor,
Hmmmm. The lot of the 20-something busin...CMinor,<br /><br />Hmmmm. The lot of the 20-something business owner is not an easy one. (I basically washed out on that one.)<br /><br />To be honest, I think what might be most useful in that situation is the kind of very concrete stuff he'd find in something like Inc. Magazine.Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-79235358267070292322010-02-08T11:15:33.105-05:002010-02-08T11:15:33.105-05:00Interesting thesis and perhaps true for many of t...Interesting thesis and perhaps true for many of those who go into leadership positions in non-profits.<br /><br />For the rest of the workforce, I think xsive_guy's last paragraph is closer to the truth.<br /><br />Nearly all the jobs I've held as an adult have been in non-profits, but I chose that type of work specifically because I wanted to work in a (n orthodox) Catholic environment. The work I wanted to do figured into my decisions more than the money I might make doing it. <br /><br />I held a job at a tiny, very orthodox, (staff took an oath to the Magisterium) Catholic institution for 4 years and burnt out badly doing it. (Don't get me wrong, most of the people there were beyond nice- saintly, in fact.) I found I just couldn't keep up doing the work of 2 people and scrounging to make ends meet. <br /><br />Now I hold a job at a much larger and not terribly orthodox Catholic non-profit. The money isn't much better, but I'm not asked to bear an unreasonable work load, and I try to inject faithfulness to the Church's teachings where I can.<br /><br />Because I'd much rather do work that matters to me, I'm looking at getting back into the field I left for my current job. But I'm doing so with a very jaundiced eye, when it comes to pay/work load/treatment of workers, etc. <br /><br />But, as a result of my current job, I think I've swung even further to the right!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-53023087461929061942010-02-07T23:36:29.998-05:002010-02-07T23:36:29.998-05:00Said small businessman is still in his twenties an...Said small businessman is still in his twenties and would therefore, as the saying goes, have no heart were he not a liberal. He's having to grapple with reality even as we speak and we hope that wisdom will come with age and he will be both a good employer and a successful businessman. Suggestions of some good reading on how economics works for a reader who is more artist than bean counter would be appreciated!CMinorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07305306030099439903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-19026015065141074072010-02-07T14:23:28.640-05:002010-02-07T14:23:28.640-05:00Your post brought to mind a former colleague of mi...Your post brought to mind a former colleague of mine who said that she would work for the government or non-profits, but never for a for-profit business. She was very left of center. In contrast, one of the most left-leaning people I know currently owns a small business. <br /><br />One always has to be careful with rules of thumb . . .DMinorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10961244508260731087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-86345077652991848722010-02-07T01:45:38.953-05:002010-02-07T01:45:38.953-05:00I work at a Catholic agency and as was said about ...I work at a Catholic agency and as was said about the Fortune 50 company, a lot of the bosses are a-holes but with the added layer of high-sounding ideals of workplace "shred governance" (HAH!).<br /><br />Perhaps the worst is that policies regarding both employees and clients are enforced selectively, some people give umpteen second chances compassion others none at all. <br /><br />One co-worker, on discovering that I'm a Republican responded, "Why? You're white but you're not rich." I answered because I'm pro-life and she just shook her head.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03909403492050641160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-47108769151832813992010-02-06T20:30:53.097-05:002010-02-06T20:30:53.097-05:00I used to work for a Fortune 50 company, and emplo...I used to work for a Fortune 50 company, and employees there were routinely treated awfully, though this wasn't universal across the company. It all depended on who your boss was - some bosses were a--holes, and when they abused their workers the higher-ups rarely intervened. My own boss fired roughly one person every six months, apparently because doing so made him feel powerful.<br /><br />At any rate, my own impression was that most of the employees, and especially most of the management, were pretty far right of center. They just wanted to make money, and wanted the least government interference possible. (Although when federal funds were available for technical research, they sucked on that teat without shame.) Granted, this company was heavy industry, I'm sure the political environment would be different at, say, Google.<br /><br />Joel<br /><br />P.S. FWIW, I'm now a civilian employee of the US Navy, and the management in my department, both the civilians and the uniformed personnel, are mostly centrist or even a bit to the left. Surprising.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-20007428563997597042010-02-06T19:33:39.143-05:002010-02-06T19:33:39.143-05:00Darwin observed "if you have an average house...Darwin observed "if you have an average household income, and give 4-5% of it to your parish, you will be in the top 5-10% of donors. To a lot of people, supporting non-profits means buying from the occasional bake-sale and dropping a couple singles in the collection basket at Church on Sunday."<br /><br />Hoo boy did you hit this one on the head. We try to tithe, and one-third to half of that tithe goes to our parish. Our donations provide 5% of the support of the ENTIRE parish -- just our little single-income family. It's a small parish, but still ...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-90687344566142367192010-02-06T15:14:15.299-05:002010-02-06T15:14:15.299-05:00"I am sure that part of this is the sort of w..."I am sure that part of this is the sort of work one does, and part the luck of the draw, but I can attest that the Giant Corporation that employs my husband has treated us very well. I've certainly known people with different employers who've gotten raw deals or suffered from poisonous corporate culture"<br /><br />Having spent my entire career in the corporate world, both "Giant Corporations" and companies that wanted to become "Giant Corporations" - all for profit", that when the for profit company atmosphere is poisonous I go find another company. I'm a "hired hand" working for a pay check. The pay check is necessary but there isn't a pay check big enough for me to put up with a bad work environment.<br /><br />And perhaps thats the difference. The work I do is rewarding and profitable but it's not of sufficient personal moral value for me to put up with nonsense. If I were in a non-profit I might view the work I was doing as sufficiently righteous with it's own merit that I would put up with nonsense to be able to keep doing it.xsive_guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01698228826434094652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-56353890790025908782010-02-06T12:34:57.959-05:002010-02-06T12:34:57.959-05:00"But whatever the reason, there seemed to be ..."But whatever the reason, there seemed to be a conviction that employment in the for-profit sector was nasty, brutish and short in the extreme. "<br /><br />I am sure that part of this is the sort of work one does, and part the luck of the draw, but I can attest that the Giant Corporation that employs my husband has treated us very well. I've certainly known people with different employers who've gotten raw deals or suffered from poisonous corporate culture -- mostly at companies that weren't as successful. <br /><br />I just can't drum up any bad will towards an abstract idea of Big Business. It isn't a zero-sum game. Some companies treat their people well and some don't, and I just don't see that profit-seeking is correlated with treating people badly.bearinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07953735060133330755noreply@blogger.com