N found a job opening in his field at a large company in St Louis. Then it turned out that they require COVID vaccination from all applicants. Obviously, he won’t apply because his job consists of sitting at home alone in front of a computer. This requirement isn’t about health. It’s about showing fealty.
The funny thing is that in order to do what he does, you need to have a very high IQ and be capable of extraordinarily high level of complex thinking. You simply can’t be an obedient lemming and do this job. The company in question will wait for a long time for anybody to apply. Our geographic area isn’t rich in this kind of specialist to begin with. N’s current job stood vacant for 7 years because they simply couldn’t find a specialist. And looking for people in other states isn’t easy either. In the places where quants tend to live, salary expectations are in a different galaxy because the cost of living is very different. Neither can the job be outsourced overseas because there is only half a dozen universities in the world which train these particular specialists, and they are all in the US.
These are very rare skills that require constant updating. N takes classes at MIT, Stanford, Princeton, etc all the time. There’s literally not been a single day in a decade when he didn’t sit with textbooks, lectures and instructional videos after work. The vaccine-loyal company is losing an opportunity to hire a unique specialist over something utterly unnecessary. This isn’t capitalism. This is a complete perversion of capitalist thinking where the guiding principle should be, as Kevin O’Leary aptly puts it “to make MMMONNNEY.”
Clarissa's Blog 
“he won’t apply”
He should apply (if it’s not too much work). How else will they realize what they’re missing?
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Is it really his job to educate them, though? Seems like a lot of hassle for a job you have no intention of accepting, if it’s offered you.
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“really his job to educate them, though? ”
No, but if it’s not much work it could be satisfying to say “No, I won’t accept a job that requires a COVID vaccination….
And… in the private sector, lots of supposed prerequisites can be and are jettisoned when the right candidate appears.
Ya never know…
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True. I don’t know how that works at the PhD-level of job applications. But at my rung of the employment ladder, you have to know someone who works there to get around the application requirements.
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You mentioned the V-word, so the NPC bots are out to downvote you. I think it’s cool that you’ve got at least five of them dedicated to reading your blog!
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I wish somebody explained to me what sense can it possibly make to demand COVID vaccine as a condition of employment from somebody who sits at home all day like a hermit. I promise not to debate or even object. I simply, honestly want to know how people explain this.
Let’s take dress code, for instance. Would it be reasonable from the company to demand that he wear a uniform or particular clothing as he works at home and send them daily photos of his attire? Would that be normal? Or that he weigh himself weekly and submit the results to keep his health in order?
Where’s the limit?
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I’m super-curious about this myself. The only ways it make sense cast the offending companies in a very, very unflattering light.
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On further thought… I think initially it had something to do with funding. There was federal emergency funding (i.e. we’ll give you $$ to pay for all the extra sick leave, plexiglass, hand sanitizer, etc.) tied to having a certain high percentage of the company workforce in compliance. That funding package is either very close to expiring, or has already expired (my brother reports that the out-sick-with-covid partial paycheck was less than expected, when he was most recently ill).
So probably the company requires that so they don’t endanger any federal slush money they’ve been receiving. But it may already be irrelevant, and just a relic that nobody has bothered to change on the job listing. Might be worth asking about.
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They might accept religious exemption?
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He’s not religious or even baptized. He’s not even aware of vaccine injury or anything like that. He’s just very logical and doesn’t do things he sees as illogical.
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It can be a strongly held belief that has the same strength as a traditional religious belief. Such as, my body is my temple and I don’t put crap into it.
Applying and having them see what they missed appeals to me. I was able to get an exemption but I was prepared to lose my job.
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He needs to form an LLC and have someone run it for him to deal with this.
Then he can raise his rates above employee salary levels and receive what’s merited in terms of compensation for a hard-to-obtain, hard-to-maintain type of skill.
You don’t have to be nice to the people who will try to haggle over the rate.
Go ahead and hang up on them a few times, it’s a lot of fun and sets the right tone for negotiations.
The market has already decided what the rate is going to be, and the other costs are there because the clients are too messed up to streamline their operations by jettisoning entire layers of corporate bullshit and cant.
So you charge them more for that and word your contracts so that the specific performance penalties are so substantial that none of their people are going to do anything risky.
His “hiring manager” should be someone who works for him and not some other company.
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