OT: Hell, I worked with people like this for 30 years
This job in Sweden has just two requirements: Clock in and clock out. The rest is up to the employeeTitled "Eternal Employment," the project is both a social experiment and a serious political statement.
Imagine: For the rest of your life, you are assigned no tasks at work. You can watch movies, read books, work on creative projects or just sleep. In fact, the only thing that you have to do is clock in and out every day. Since the position is permanent, you’ll never need to worry about getting another job again.Starting in 2026, this will be one lucky (or extremely bored) worker’s everyday reality, thanks to a government-funded conceptual art project in Gothenburg, Sweden. The employee in question will report to Korsvägen, a train station under construction in the city, and will receive a salary of about $2,320 a month in U.S. dollars, plus annual wage increases, vacation time off and a pension for retirement. While the artists behind the project won’t be taking applications until 2025, when the station will be closer to opening, a draft of the help-wanted ad is already available online.
The job’s requirements couldn’t be more simple: An employee shows up to the train station each morning and punches the time clock. That, in turn, illuminates an extra bank of fluorescent lights over the platform, letting travelers know that the otherwise functionless employee is on the job. At the end of the day, the worker clocks out. In between, they can do whatever they want, aside from work at another paying job.
“The position holds no duties or responsibilities, other than that it should be carried out at Korsvägen,” the job description states. “Whatever the employee chooses to do constitutes the work.”
Titled “Eternal Employment,” the project is both a social experiment and a serious political statement. In early 2017, Public Art Agency Sweden and the Swedish Transport Administration announced an international competition for artists interested in contributing to the new station’s design. The winner would get 7 million Swedish krona, the equivalent of around $750,000. Swedish artists Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby entered and suggested eschewing the typical murals and sculptures that adorn most transit hubs.
Instead, they wrote, they would use the prize money to pay one worker’s salary and give them absolutely nothing to do all day.
“In the face of mass automation and artificial intelligence, the impending threat/promise is that we will all become productively superfluous,” their proposal said. “We will all be ‘employed at Korsvägen,’ as it were.”
Goldin and Senneby predicted that by creating a foundation to prevent the prize money from being taxed, then investing it in the market, they would be able to keep paying that employee’s salary for “eternity” — which they defined as 120 years.
Deeming the idea to be humorous, innovative and “an artistic expression of great quality,” the jury that had been convened to judge the competition decided to award them the prize. There was an “uproar” in Sweden in October when officials announced that Goldin and Senneby’s proposal had won, wrote Brian Kuan Wood, a board member for the Eternal Employment foundation.
In their own writing, Goldin and Senneby acknowledge that paying someone to show up at a train station twice a day and punch a time clock is unproductive and thoroughly worthless. That’s the idea. Many people believe that art is supposed to be useless, they point out.
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.
@"StickyBun" said: We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.
for 23 years I made an above average living putting the ash tray into F150s.... B)
Basically early retirement with a pension for one employee. Don't see where this is any experiment. Just B.S.
@"ThunderGod" said: Basically early retirement with a pension for one employee. Don't see where this is any experiment. Just B.S.ranks right up there with "guaranteed minimum income" even if the person doesnt have a job, honestly whats the difference between this and welfare except this person actually has to leave his /her house to get paid.
feel sorry for the person that takes that job. Won't take long to be bored stiff.
@"JimmyinSD" said:@"StickyBun" said: We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.
for 23 years I made an above average living putting the ash tray into F150s.... B)God bless, 'merica! ;)
Well they would be Scandinavian and we are a Viking forum. Maybe we should reach out. I'm at work now and still posting...when I should be doing something more productive. Tell him about us. I see another active poster.
@"JimmyinSD" said:Or just have a buddy who is going by the station clock you in.@"ThunderGod" said: Basically early retirement with a pension for one employee. Don't see where this is any experiment. Just B.S. ranks right up there with "guaranteed minimum income" even if the person doesnt have a job, honestly whats the difference between this and welfare except this person actually has to leave his /her house to get paid.
@"StickyBun" said: We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.
Union workers actually work. It would be far more accurate to call it a trust fund baby job
@"JimmyinSD" said:Who knows, maybe they can work from home using a time clock app to clock in and out.@"ThunderGod" said: Basically early retirement with a pension for one employee. Don't see where this is any experiment. Just B.S. ranks right up there with "guaranteed minimum income" even if the person doesnt have a job, honestly whats the difference between this and welfare except this person actually has to leave his /her house to get paid.
@"ThunderGod" said:well, getting fire from a job with no requirements would look bad on the resume.@"JimmyinSD" said:Or just have a buddy who is going by the station clock you in.@"ThunderGod" said: Basically early retirement with a pension for one employee. Don't see where this is any experiment. Just B.S. ranks right up there with "guaranteed minimum income" even if the person doesnt have a job, honestly whats the difference between this and welfare except this person actually has to leave his /her house to get paid.
@"Bullazin" said:@"StickyBun" said: We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.
Union workers actually work.
LOL. Good one! .......Oh you are serious?
@"StickyBun" said:@"Bullazin" said:@"StickyBun" said: We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.
Union workers actually work.
LOL. Good one! .......Oh you are serious?
You know any cops unions?
firefighters?
how about taconite miners?
coal minersYes i know im too damn serious
@"StickyBun" said: We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.trying to make a joke I’m sure, but way off base. Without unions you wouldnt have weekends, a 40 hour work week,a minimum wage and safe and sanitary workplace provisions. Bullizin is right. Of course abuses can exist, on both sides but who do you trust to protect you, the corporation or your fellow workers?
@"Caactorvike" said:@"StickyBun" said: We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.trying to make a joke I’m sure, but way off base. Without unions you wouldnt have weekends, a 40 hour work week,a minimum wage and safe and sanitary workplace provisions. Bullizin is right. Of course abuses can exist, on both sides but who do you trust to protect you, the corporation or your fellow workers?
thanks to those "fellow workers" (ahem..cough...mobsters... cough) and their looking out for the fellow worker a lot of those evil corporations went bankrupt or those jobs left the country. as far as the rest of that shit... those things would have come around without unions, there are plenty of places around the world that dont have organized labor and have shorter work weeks and better working conditions than in our organized shops here. they had their time and place but that was long ago.
@"Caactorvike" said:@"StickyBun" said: We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.trying to make a joke I’m sure, but way off base. Without unions you wouldnt have weekends, a 40 hour work week,a minimum wage and safe and sanitary workplace provisions. Bullizin is right. Of course abuses can exist, on both sides but who do you trust to protect you, the corporation or your fellow workers?
Lol, i gotta learn to laugh caactor. prolly never will, but you know im right there with ya bro
@"JimmyinSD" said:@"Caactorvike" said:@"StickyBun" said: We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.trying to make a joke I’m sure, but way off base. Without unions you wouldnt have weekends, a 40 hour work week,a minimum wage and safe and sanitary workplace provisions. Bullizin is right. Of course abuses can exist, on both sides but who do you trust to protect you, the corporation or your fellow workers?
thanks to those "fellow workers" (ahem..cough...mobsters... cough) and their looking out for the fellow worker a lot of those evil corporations went bankrupt or those jobs left the country. as far as the rest of that shit... those things would have come around without unions, there are plenty of places around the world that dont have organized labor and have shorter work weeks and better working conditions than in our organized shops here. they had their time and place but that was long ago.
terrible outlook here. sticky was joking but your sentiment is real. and dangerous. Unions became powerful for a reason, and they became weak for the same reason corps left. Greed
OT: Hell, I worked with people like this for 30 years
do tell... ;) B)
@"Bullazin" said:@"StickyBun" said:@"Bullazin" said:@"StickyBun" said: We have those here in the U.S., they are called union jobs.
Union workers actually work.
LOL. Good one! .......Oh you are serious?
You know any cops unions?
firefighters?
how about taconite miners?
coal miners?Dont tell me... you are one who struggled to the top, from near the top right?
Teachers, social workers, electricians, nurses and so on.
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