The sign in the McDonald's showed what is wrong with society today. The sign read, "We are short-staffed. Please be patient with the staff that did show up. No one wants to work anymore."
Not only do people not want to go to work, they resent having to wait for their food because the McDonald's is understaffed.
Pigs have better manners.
The Sun story said, "Workers in the hospitality industry have been concerned about their own health and safety in the work place."
That was a nice try to sugar-coat the pill, but the truth is millions of Americans who should be working are being paid to sit at home and do nothing but play video games.
In 15 months we have gone from the greatest economy in American history to this Zoom world where no one seems to wear pants anymore.
In Chicago, 6,585 schoolteachers voted against re-opening schools.
Negotiations with the teachers union and not science determined whether schools would re-open.
NBC reported, "The union said 13,681 members voted to approve the agreement and 6,585 voted against it. In a statement, the union described the agreement as the 'absolute limit to which CPS [Chicago Public Schools] was willing to go at the bargaining table to guarantee a minimum number of guardrails for any semblance of safety in schools.' "
At least one-third of Chicago teachers do not wish to work. Covid-19 is a good excuse.
Once upon a time, students played hooky. Now teachers do.
In another story, NBC reported, "The number of job vacancies soared to nearly 15 million by mid-March, but discouraged, hesitant and fearful job seekers means many positions are still unfilled, according to new data from online job site ZipRecruiter.
"Online job postings plunged from 10 million before the start of the pandemic last year to just below 6 million last May, as lockdowns and shutdown orders forced businesses to close their doors and reduce or lay off workers.
"Now, as vaccinations increase and companies are again able to make projections, they’re staffing up to capture booming demand, with the number of open positions across all online listings soaring 5 million above the pandemic’s start."
Discouraged workers?
They just want to play video games all morning, and then go to McDonald's and complain about slow service because the joint is understaffed.
20 years ago I was bringing in H1B computer programmers from India, because I couldn't find Americans.
ReplyDeleteOne of my managers put it best:
"Sitting in a cubicle for 5 hours making believe that you're a computer is too much like work."
Short of being in a rock band or "doing something meaningful", Americans don't want to work.
Not only uninformed, badly educated and immature, most of the population is lazy.
Americans won't work for free. Importing third worlders (or offshoring) so you don't have to pay Americans what they're worth is immoral.
DeleteArbitrage.
Pay the market rate and you'll get people. Aviation had to learn this the hard way. But we can't import pilots from India yet.
Local airfrieght outfit had Koreans paying them to ride copilot.Covid stopped that.
DeleteI'm too old to take advantage of the new paradigm in aviation.
Would still like to instruct,though.
When things pick up again go be a Sim Instructor. It's an important job.
Delete25 years ago I was a Foreign Service Officer, unfortunately tasked with issuing visas to Indian H1-B applicants (and others) who were taking jobs because American companies knew how to game the system with INS. Eventually more and more American companies jumped on the bandwagon because they knew they could bring in foreign workers for fewer dollars. Then they made their IT workers train their replacements as a condition of getting their severance payments. Trump was on the right track with immigration and now it's all gone to hell and beyond.
DeleteBy the way, as a newbie FSO I always wondered why we didn't train Americans to be nurses, tech workers, etc. Lord knows that there were plenty of inner city people who needed a good education and could have used good jobs. But bringing in foreign workers was easier than tackling the mess that is our K-12 system (especially in the inner cities) and the behemoth monster teachers unions.
DeleteWe needed developers with a very specialized skill set and there were not (and still are not) a huge inventory of people with these skills.
DeleteThe data center was 65 miles from NYC and we had a VERY competitive package - salary, generous benefits plus bonus (averaged 15-20% of salary) and COULD NOT find Americans. India - especially the Telegu state in southern India - had/has a very aggressive educational program to train these people.
We did NOT do what Disney and some other places did and use our people to train replacements.
BTW, most of these Indians were contractors and didn't stay beyond our need.
Fair enough, sir.
DeleteBut until the market is no longer influenced by arbitrage you'll continue to have trouble finding Americans to do it.
A specialized skill should pay well and have no trouble attracting people to it.
hello sarah m, retired consular officer here and totally agree. the h1b has been scammed since day one. nobody in washington cared one whit until trump came along, but i was gone by then.
DeleteDon't overlook the fact that Indians will get the Education , the Skills and then are prepared to go to a foreign land to take a job . Sending money back to support their families . Americans are not prepared to move themselves 10 Miles for a job !
DeleteMaybe 21 year old kids don't want to wear a diaper on their face for 8 hours???
ReplyDeleteNor do 65 year old workers. My job, thankfully, I'm by myself for 8 hours making sure the boilers keep operating. No mask required. If I were working retail with a mask requirement, I'd have quit.
DeleteExactly! I don't know how people can do it?
DeleteHere in the Kanawha Valley I see "Help Wanted" signs all over the place.
ReplyDeleteWhere is "Kanawha Valley?
DeleteWest by God Virginia
DeleteWhy work when generous unemployment benefits pay $600 per week?
ReplyDeleteHas anyone here been in a fast food outlet or convenience store in the last month that did not have a help wanted sign? (I admit I haven’t been to a Chik-fil-a lately)
ReplyDeleteTalking to an accountant I know, she did her nephew's tax return. He made $14,000 in 2019 working part time. In 2020 he earned $7,000 in wages and got $21,000 in unemployment for a total of $28K. Doubled his income by not working.
ReplyDeleteYou get 6 weeks and then you're off the system.
ReplyDeleteDo you even know what planet you're on?
DeleteSMH.
You want to kill people sitting at home, you take away the reason to sit art home.
DeletePure economics, but you do sound like the Jeffery I know.
Speak English you nitwit.
DeleteBTW I have a double Master's, MBA/Economics, and I didn't go to some flunky Keynesian school.
Delete6 weeks and then out would stop a lot of it, but the Demos would scream, of course.
ReplyDeleteFact is, 600/wk is chump change. You want to be able to do more than pay the bills and eat, you're out of luck.
The ones staying home are the ones who never wanted to work.
You want to force them back, don't offer unemployment.
PS Wasn't it Zippy who cut the amount of time you could stay on it?
Seems like.
It's more than $600 - there is state benefits as well. It varies by state, but making $50K to stay home beats $35-$40K to work.
DeleteEven dumb Senate GOP members realized that and began pushing back on Federal relief proposals before the election.
Unemployment insurance is a joint state-federal program that provides cash benefits to eligible workers. Each state administers a separate unemployment insurance program, but all states follow the same guidelines established by federal law.
DeleteEach state sets its own unemployment insurance benefits eligibility guidelines.
IOW the Feds may fund a lot of it, but it's still a state program.
So you're lying again, Jeffery.
Jeffrey × 18.
DeleteSeek help, goofball.
Complex problem, and pretty much everything said (and to be said) in here is correct even if there is argument about it.
ReplyDeleteo There really are businesses who want a flood of immigrant labor - both because they can be paid less AND because many of those folks are more pliant. (Note also that the tech industry often pulls an end-around on these things, by funding "research" (sic) at universities that really amounts to outsourcing R&D to grad students because $$.)
o The expensive education system is a disgrace and has been for some time (remember "A Nation at Risk" some 30 years ago?). Turn out 1/3 functional illiterates for an extended period of time and you are in trouble. But it's not a factory, and the students and families have to bear some responsibility. For too many "students" (sic), "school" is just a place to hang around trying to look cool and pick up girls - and "trash culture" (of "I'm ignorant and proud of it!") is part of that... If too many "students" want to hang around being "cool" and/or off smoking weed in the park after hours, while applying yourself for a worthwhile future life is frowned upon... well, trouble ensues. Would you hire some useless egomaniac (who has lots and lots of "self-esteem)? Easier to put engineering someplace that actually has dedicated, competent adults.
o Too much "marketing." Why develop great products and services when it's faster, easier, and cheaper to convince people that you have those (when you don't)? (Just as, why work hard to develop virtues when it's faster, easier, and cheaper to just convince people that you do possess them when you don't?) When marketing outranks engineering (at least on the social-status scale), trouble isn't far behind.
o Too much entitlement mentality. Ask anyone who has a small operation that has a small administrative office and a large core-of-the-business dirt-and-grime operation in the back - 2-3x the demand for administrative jobs vs. slots available, can't fill the back-operation jobs even though those pay 2x. There are plenty of people who say that they want to "work," but only want to "work" on their terms - cushy job in nice surroundings, lush pay and benefits, no responsibility or accountability for anything. Think of all those arrogant jerks who got useless degrees which for some reason they thought was the fast track into the new ruling elite - and when it wasn't, they fussed and demanded that "society" give them the jobs they want at the pay rate they want. (Hence "Occupy.") Or as in Australia, surplus dance-degree types demanding that they be given employment in their chosen field (at public expense) because reasons. Or the plague of people buzzing around the landscape wanting to be "diversity consultants."
o One thing PDJT did show was the divide between those who genuinely want to work vs. those who want to "work" (new Snowgander word invention - work vs. "work"...) There are plenty of folks in underserved areas who gleefully got back to work - think of the fracking areas in PA for example. But there are plenty of folks who only want to "work" not work.
(BTW, at the risk of annoying all the old-time midwesterners :-) , the "rust belt" collapse of the 1970s/1980s was caused by marketing-focused managements and pampered union labor colluding to try to sell absolute cr*p to the rest of the country at inflated prices. Work turned into "work." They all got a deserved reckoning, and we REALLY need that reckoning to hit education, health care, and government - stat.)
A friend who has a business and who has never had an employee draw unemployment received a recent financial shock, His state unemployment premiums went up by 400%. State unemployment payments boosted by a federal bonus makes it better to stay home and also work in the underground market.
ReplyDeleteIn 2009, I inquired about oil field water truck driving employment, with a company that had a 500 barrel per day oil well and small oil field near a small town in Colorado.
DeleteThey said they didn't have any employees. They had three partners, and they only contracted with service providers. They never hired anybody, because of all the potential and actual costs like workers compensation, unemployment, litigation, etc..
For at least the last 15 years, all the McDonald’s near where I live have been staffed by fairly recent immigrants. I knew from speaking with them. They were grateful to be “New Americans.”
ReplyDeleteI did not ask whether they were legal or illegal immigrants; where I live, that would result in punishment by SJWs.
I don’t recall those McDonald’s ever having a staff shortage or hanging up a help wanted sign.
I have not been going to the local McDonald’s over the last year and a half because I’m eating at home. However, I highly doubt they have a shortage of employees.
And if these McDonald’s do have a labor shortage, they will very shortly have their pick of the most highly qualified “New and Better Americans” who have entered the country through our newly Open Borders thanks to the Biden* Regime.
Elections have consequences, especially Stolen Elections.
Republicans should Learn to Ballot Harvest like Democrats; and then rot in a penitentiary as a result of America’s two-tiered “Justice” system.
Ballot harvesting won't fix the problem.
DeleteExposing manufactured votes will.
But you know that, Jeffery.
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DeleteEarth to dipstick. Earth calling dipstick. Come in, please.
DeleteThere is no Jeffrey here. Repeat. There is no Jeffrey here. (Much less the 18 you have accused of being Jeffrey.)
ITEM 15: I fully agree Don. Andrew Cuomo is a punk. I have no doubt the allegations against him are based in reality.
ReplyDeleteBut those publicly attacking Cuomo are not doing so with altruistic motivations.
First, many of Cuomo’s accusers and Democrat political opponents are further Left than Cuomo, and want to make New York State more of a Socialist authoritarian hellscape than it already is. I’m certain this is the case from my own observation and reading of current events.
Second, I have read several commentators claim that Obama and his minions now control the Democrat Party establishment, and through Demented Biden* and HeelUp control the White House; and Obama wants to kneecap the political careers of Cuomo and Governor Newsom because they pose the strongest threats to HeelsUp rising (after Biden* inevitably, any day now, passes from the scene).
I’m less certain of this second point only because the behind the scenes “Wizard of Oz”-like puppet-string pulling is a little murky; but it sure does seem to be an accurate description of reality.
several of my contractors have work piling up while their equipment sits unmoving.
ReplyDeleteCan't find workers. If they do show up, they're drunk and many that do get hired, work a day or two and then just don't show up...don't even call. I guess it is horrible
My daughters and their husbands are all hard working. All are around 34-30. They are shocked at the laziness of their peers.
ReplyDeleteDo the teachers use common core math now ?
ReplyDeleteWith the numbers above, more people voted for working - 7,096
Does it have to be unanimous for them to go back to work ?
McDonald’s is short staffed because all the tall people quit. ;-)
ReplyDeleteHahaha
DeleteAnd then there are those of us office/professional employees who lost FT jobs because of COVID, or so we were told. The real reason(s) were a combination of internal corporate politics and bad financials and COVID became the best excuse possible to get rid of whole divisions. It might have happened in any case, but I've heard way too many stories like this in the months after COVID was declared a pandemic.
ReplyDeleteSo if you live in a state with continued lockdowns as I do, what you hear when you apply for FT jobs is that companies have hiring freezes. Why? Because of the total economic uncertainty brought about by lockdown restrictions and making it impossible for anyone to run their companies and thus hire anyone. I would have been employed again by now had it just been my company.
It irritates me. Not everyone is a lazy-ass load sitting in front of a TV stuffing his or her face.
Field Nation and other do-it-yourself systems are where it's at. The company I work for routinely pays out well, and your commentary helps explain the extreme thirstiness I've seen in techs over the last year (for new work).
DeleteThanks for the tip. I will check it out.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as anyone says something remotely negative about video games, my non-boomer mind turns immediately off to whatever it was they were wanting to talk about.
ReplyDeleteGood job.
Our nearest McDonald's has a 200 buck "signing bonus." They also had a sign up about education benefits including tuition assistance.
ReplyDeleteThey still can't remember to put the fries in the bag or leave the cheese off the quarter pounder.