The Economy

So if I stick my hair up under my hat, can I go in and ask them why?

 

Ahem.

 

Hey, it sounds like they have jobs enough for both of you everywhere!

 

I will go in, shake my hair everywhere and ask what the problem is.

But who will join me as the freaky person?

 

Until two months ago, I had a well-groomed caveman level of hair.

 

It turns out that people don’t want to return to shitty working conditions.

 

Again I say, with raw materials skyrocketing in price and the disintegration of the supply chain and work in progress I'm not optimistic about continued growth.

 

My client's having a terrible time keeping a niche position filled...he's blaming the benefits. When told he needs to pay this niche position a higher wage, he scoffs at it. "It costs me too much and sets a bad precedent." And yet, what he fails to grasp is that his constant problems keeping these positions filled are causing him to (a) pay me a lot more [disincentivizing me to urge him to sort it out too much] and (b) losing longtime customers who are used to a level of service they are no longer getting.

I imagine it's the same in many industries.

 

Okay, I understand this a bit, but as someone who's been on unemployment three times, thanks to the journalism industry, I don't understand how people are making the benefits stretch and cover their nut, even with the additional cash they're getting. We're now (roughly) in month 14 of this bullshit. My suspicion is that a lot of people working restaurant jobs found other stuff that was equally unpleasant to work, but that actually pays a wage equivalent to the work. In the article quoted, it sounded like one person had switched to home healthcare, which on the surface seems more unpleasant, but I doubt there's a ton of difference in the "satisfaction" of having to empty a bed pan vs. cleaning the back of a kitchen.

My other thought - There were probably too many restaurants that could eek things out by paying employees the smallest amount possible, but they can't compete if they pay competitive wages. This works if every restaurant is doing that, and the same thing with the retail space, but all it takes is a couple big boys like Wal-mart going to $15/hour and suddenly, you're fucked.