Very true, you're right. I'm in IT myself so that's the field I'm able to see. Is the trucking industry still mostly owner operators? If the truckers took their trucks with them it'd be even more difficult to replace them...
Not at either of the places I drove for. One was a huge company (Schneider) and the other was tiny (maybe 120 trucks at best) and I wanna say 20%? Though perhaps I'm underestimating the number of people who were leasing to own.
I can also see how IT folks just going home would break a lot of stuff. Though it would take a lot longer, and would require a larger percentage of them to get the effect. IT workers are unfortunately quite used to putting in more hours when there aren't enough people to do the work, and the folks who disagreed with the notion who therefore chose to stay could make the collapse a lot softer.
In either case, unfortunately, it'd be like herding cats. Both groups are highly independent individuals, in my experience. I did, definitely, quite a few times in my time behind the wheel think that at the very least that if we (drivers) could somehow convince everyone in the field to just take a week off, it would bring about a whole new understanding of just how important we were to the country as a whole. And just maybe stop treating us like crap at shippers and receivers, and on the road.
> "If every IT guy in America (4 million) stopped working, the whole system would collapse within a couple weeks."
As an IT Guy who has also been a truck driver, I'd say to focus on the truck drivers. They're *way* more important than the IT guys.
Very true, you're right. I'm in IT myself so that's the field I'm able to see. Is the trucking industry still mostly owner operators? If the truckers took their trucks with them it'd be even more difficult to replace them...
Not at either of the places I drove for. One was a huge company (Schneider) and the other was tiny (maybe 120 trucks at best) and I wanna say 20%? Though perhaps I'm underestimating the number of people who were leasing to own.
I can also see how IT folks just going home would break a lot of stuff. Though it would take a lot longer, and would require a larger percentage of them to get the effect. IT workers are unfortunately quite used to putting in more hours when there aren't enough people to do the work, and the folks who disagreed with the notion who therefore chose to stay could make the collapse a lot softer.
In either case, unfortunately, it'd be like herding cats. Both groups are highly independent individuals, in my experience. I did, definitely, quite a few times in my time behind the wheel think that at the very least that if we (drivers) could somehow convince everyone in the field to just take a week off, it would bring about a whole new understanding of just how important we were to the country as a whole. And just maybe stop treating us like crap at shippers and receivers, and on the road.
But maybe that was a laughable dream. ;)
That’s really interesting, thank you. Everything starts as a dream.