Job issue

I would tell them you need Saturdays off, and not to schedule you for them if at all possible.

And if it isn't possible, it needs to be scheduled at the same time as the rest of your days of work -- that it can't come with same-day, or day-before notice.

You've been there long enough to be getting such consideration, or at least a good explanation if you don't receive it.

 

The job market is so in favor of workers right now. For the first time in my lifetime, workers in the service industry dictate their hours and employers don’t dare push back or risk having an unfilled position. Our local McDonalds doesn’t open on time some days because there's no one to open.

We have people quitting jobs at my plant that don’t require a college education, pay $50,000 with gold-plated insurance and profit sharing because they may have to hustle.

Workers in the post Covid era do not want to spend their time doing something they don’t want.

It’s equally laudable and crazy. In a few years they’re going to wonder what the hell they were thinking.

 

Same thing was going on c. 2000, right before the bubble burst. Folks were rotating through dot-com jobs like it was no one's business.

 

My coworkers told me to just tell them I can't do it. I haven't been called on the carpet yet, so maybe they're right.

It's overtime. Monday through Friday I work 40 hours. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, but usually around 40. I've always thought overtime was voluntary.

I think the schedules are made in advance. The daily texts are just a courtesy reminder. I was never scheduled for Saturdays until the beginning of June. Then I got the text every Saturday. Sometimes I had to do a freelance assignment and I couldn't do it. Until last week, if I was able to go I went. I just bailed because I was sick of it last week. I have plans tomorrow and they don't involve work. But maybe if I keep getting that text I'd be wise to assume it is a regular part of my schedule.

 

We have a sponsored segment that looks at the open jobs in the viewing area/business owners crying they can’t find workers and, in the same newscast, stories about people who can’t find work.

Nobody wants to do shitty work anymore. I get that.

Given the increase in safety nets, unemployment insurance and the stimulus payments, there is a perception of “why work if I really don’t have to?”

The only benefit to working a shitty job, that I can see, is that it’s harder to spend your money when you’re at work. Much easier to spend it when you’re not.

 

I think people telling fast food restaurants to shove it is good for this country in the long term. Workers AND THE RESTAURANTS would be better served to pay better, give benefits and keep workers for years rather than weeks. Wal-Mart realized this 10 years ago and its profitability has not been a problem.

 

Sure there is a bigger safety net, but the percentage of people who want to lay around all day is pretty low, I think. I feel worse about myself when I'm not being productive, not better.

There are a couple people I know from my teens who are sitting at home on disability for diabetic neuropathy or God knows what. These are able-bodied people, they just will not work. One had a kid when she was 18 and I don't think she's ever worked, the other is married and she relies on the husband to support her and her kid.

 

The difference is that it's happening in restaurants, retail, and other places where generally the people working there needed the job to survive and just sucked it up if their job was abusive and low paying. Now those people are as likely to quit and just walk as anyone, perhaps moreso. It's not the tech people with skills who know that there are half a dozen places in the area that they could catch on with.

 

Diabetic neuropathy hurts. The common wisdom about numbness is partially true. I have it and am never not in pain. Having written that, work keeps me grounded and engaged. There's not a one-size-fits-all to this. That's just my take.

 

Sorry, Oscar, it was a flippant comment. I was not trying to belittle diabetic neuropathy (I’m probably on the path there). These are people who’ve never held a job and have no interest in doing so and filed repeatedly for disability before they were approved for it. The majority of people have no use for sitting around and doing nothing 24-7. There always will be people who game the system, and we have to accept it.

 

Between the amount of my money that has gone to finance wars I don’t support, security for the former President, and my ex-wife’s shenanigans, I truly don’t care whether people game the system. In 30 years, I’ll be dead and none of it will matter to me.

 

I still get the texts for Saturdays and Sundays each weekend. I still say no. So far no consequences. I guess if I know I'm going to be asked to work on those days, I should know it and not make plans for them, but I'm already not making plans Monday through Friday during work hours because I know I have to work then.

The commute is killing me now. I moved back in February about 30 miles from work because it was the best rent I could find. It wasn't bad for a while, but since school started last month it's taken at least 1 hour and 20 minutes and sometimes as much as an hour and 45 to get there. It hardly seems worth it, though I am making more than I did at my last full-time sports editing job.

My girlfriend lives closer to work. We've talked about me moving in after my lease expires. we've been dating for just a little more than 2 months so it seems a little premature, but it kind of makes sense.