the people refusing to do shitty work for $9 are ruining society https://t.co/keOskHx9zw
— kilgore trout, toilet sword ninja (@KT_So_It_Goes) April 27, 2021
Such tales of performative woe will never stop being funny for me.
Prior to the pandemic, our safety net was so weak that it turned into a hammock for employers https://t.co/zIrjm3ULrV
— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock) April 18, 2021
"Employers are suffering."
Amazon tripled its profits. Walmart has so much money it raised its shareholder dividend (again) and did a share buyback to boost the stock price.
Corporate America is swimming in moneyâthey just don't want to use any of it for wages. https://t.co/nWqXfC6stw pic.twitter.com/7uQmfKAtlU
— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) April 30, 2021
As US unemployment falls employers complain that "workers" won't "work" because they get too much unempl $ from US govt.
Dang.
The #COVID19 crisis has tied millions of parents to child care & home schooling "jobs".
Stop whining, Companies: push childcare.https://t.co/k9HiS1JAbr— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) April 21, 2021
my guess is the pay sucks https://t.co/JZNtFtRtzN
— World Famous Art Thief (@CalmSporting) April 22, 2021
Great article in today's @WSJ: "Faces of the Unemployment Insurance Crisis" pic.twitter.com/ZVqc6mWqYL
— Matt Darling ??? (@besttrousers) April 25, 2021
I have no interest in your sob story if this is your angle. none. youâre an unethical pig and you -get this- deserve to go out of business
— kilgore trout, toilet sword ninja (@KT_So_It_Goes) April 27, 2021
Maybe it’s just a cult!
As economy spikes, Republicans are still waiting for the âBiden depressionâ that Trump predicted https://t.co/14OjrSycFJ
— David J. Lynch (@davidjlynch) April 23, 2021
Baud
Are the big guys hurting for labor? I thought they were the ones scooping up the low wage employees?
debbie
These assholes owe their workers everything. Workers are who keep the business running and flourishing, for chrissakes.
mrmoshpotato
Selfish slapdicks.
misterpuff
They should go down to the Hammock District.
Baud
Sounds like businesses should push for immigration reform.
Baud
They said raising the minimum wage would cost jobs because it would lead to automation. Why won’t a labor shortage do the same thing? Where are the robots?
Ken
Sounds familiar, somehow.
different-church-lady
I do wonder if we’re going to stop giving restaurant waitstaff wages that are so third-world level that the diners are pretty much obligated to directly provide them with all of their income.
different-church-lady
@Baud:
They’re in the corporate board rooms, blindly executing programs written by business schools.
debbie
At long last, lousy employers are at the wrong end of Supply and Demand. Suck it up, guys.
artem1s
maybe if all those trust fund babies werenât swimming in untaxed capital gains, theyâd put down their Cosmopolitans, get out of their f**cking hammocks, and go out and get themselves a job!
The working poor getting child care bennies and a living wage IS.NOT.THE.PROBLEM. Â Itâs inherited wealth and rich living off the stolen labor of the masses.
germy
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Too busy stealing all the cover band jobs.
Seriously.
germy
In other news, Prancer has found a forever home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOHlgPNBe4s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFi3unGsyBs
Another Scott
@Baud:
While one should be cautious about putting too much stock in one statistic, the stagnation in productivity growth (increase in output per human hour worked) does show that automation isn’t the boogie-man that’s killing the middle class. ([whisper] It’s the rich collecting excessive rents. [/whisper])
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
Watching sportsball contest between USC and Ole Miss. Is it not odd that in 2021 a sportsball team is named “Rebels?”
trollhattan
@germy:
Frees him up to canvas for Yang for Mayor.
germy
@trollhattan:
He’ll have a place in the Yang administration, to be sure.
Ruckus
@Baud:
As a former small business owner/wage payer, I see that most of the people that have a difficult time finding employees fall into 3 categories, high skill needs, low pay assholes, both.
If you have high skill needs and do not pay reasonably or better yet on the high side you have no one to blame but yourself.
If you can not afford to pay people to work for you the problem isn’t the people, it’s the business you are in and how you run it.
If you can’t understand high skills and/or decent pay you need to work for someone else for a while, to see why you are such a shit.
Like everything else you most often get what you pay for, and trying to sell your product/service with out paying for the work means you don’t give a fuck about the output, only your bank account, and you should fail for fucking employees.
Think about the guy that gave everyone a raise and paid them and himself $70K/year and now has a very successful business.
Baud
We could pay people to work. Pass a law saying they can go back to work without losing their existing unemployment benefits.
Cameron
BruceFromOhio
The little craft brewery that i would hit once a week on the way home has survived. I ducked in there recently for a pickup order, and the place was buzzing. The bar maid REMEMBERED ME FROM A YEAR AGO. The same staff was serving. The customers were happy. I tipped them outrageously, and bought 3 “rounds for the kitchen”, please look for this item on the menu of your favorite stops.Why is this place rocking? They were forthright with their customers – “we’re closed because the State of Ohio said … and we will re-open as soon as we can! Order some takeout and beer to go while we wait!” – they treat their people well, the owner and his wife are peaches, and the clientele cared about the place. And the beer-food menus are heavenly.
There are two other establishments just like this that we have done takeout from all through the pandemic, and all have survived for the same reason.
This is not rocket science.â
@Ruckus: â Yes, yes, yes. This x 16 jillion.â
hells littlest angel
Buying T-bone motor oil with their welfare checks.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
What about the other team being named after condoms?
germy
Cameron
OT, have to put up a few times a year. Oldie but goodie
https://youtu.be/jTW0y6kazWM
HumboldtBlue
@trollhattan:
Just think, less than 20 years ago you could attend an Ole Miss game with all the racist tropes, images and history on full display. Remember, it was only in this century they forced the crowd to stop shouting “the South will rise again” because it was an insult to the parents of their black players who shared the stands.
JaneE
Even before the pandemic I saw a lot of help wanted signs around town. Many of those signs had been up for months on end.
And yet
There are other businesses who never have signs up. On the contrary, I have seen people walk in off the street and ask for a job application. They are told that they don’t need any more help at the time, and the people still want to put their applications in.
And again
There are a couple of places that really seem to have a revolving door. Some of the positions are temporary seasonal stuff, but the ones I notice are the full time, quasi-responsible jobs. Sometimes the supervisor(?) position changes more often than the temporary summer help. You never heard why people left, either, and it was “see you on Thursday” but when Thursday came around they were gone never to be seen again.
And finally
There is a family that owns a lot of local businesses. They are reputed to be “difficult” to work for and have a reputation of slow paying their vendors and having a fairly disgruntled work force, but they keep buying up all the businesses that couldn’t make it or had owners who wanted to retire and keeping the places open. Not sure what to make of that. Altruistic assholes?
Not really a conclusion
It is or is not hard to find good or not so good help.  Good working conditions matter, as does money. There isn’t one story that covers all the reasons people can’t find help or can’t find jobs. During the pandemic I saw a few people I knew in new jobs that opened up because of the changes that were made. Would they go back to their old jobs, if they are still there? Will their new job go away when things get back to normal? Those are in addition to all the other employment issues that have always been there. Anytime someone says there is “a” reason for their problems, they are probably just fooling themselves or trying to fool someone else.
RSA
Funny thing: employers have the same access to the social safety net as everyone else. Maybe a rising net could raise all boats? But no, that would be “socialism”.
Baud
I blame the 13th amendment.
Mike in NC
@trollhattan: About 20 years ago we went to see Navy play UVA in Charlottesville. The “mascot” was a guy on a horse, which I assumed to be JEB Stuart or some other Confederate character. It was explained to me that he was known as “The Cavalier”.
Yutsano
Remember the whole “Californians are moving to Texas!” trope?
Eh not so much…â
â
â
â
â
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: There’s USC and there’s U$C, the later uses condoms for a mascot.
Ken
Thanks, I never thought to ask “why are they named after the losers”? Now I know — and knowing is half the battle.
Baud
Oh, Hillary on Joy talking about Rudy.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ah. My mistake.
HumboldtBlue
@Mike in NC: â That makes sense, the school’s mascot is the Cavalier which hearkens back to Virginia’s founding as a state.David Hackett Fischer wrote a book about theEnglish settlers in America and it’s great.Albion’s Seedâ
Mart
Used to tour a godawful recycling plant that paid $7 whatever an hour. Unemployment was very low and the manager spent most the day bitching at me how benefits were too good as people would rather get unemployment than work there. I kept my mouth shut, mostly to keep from breathing in the nasty ass dust. But I thought no shit, I’d rather do most any shit paying job than this one.
craigie
@Yutsano:Â According to that map, the LA area lost ~4% of its population. Ask me if I am concerned.
MazeDancer
Right now, in Memphis, TN, there are zero home health aides available. No agencies have any. Tried for a week to hire some.
One agency owner said she had booked and confirmed interviews to hire new staff and had 11 no shows. The only person who showed refused to get vaxxed, which rules you out for elder care.
She pays $12.50 an hour which she says is high for Memphis. Which is, of course, criminally low.
In FL, McDonalds is offering $15 an hour, free meals, and 50 bucks just to interview.
Hoping all of this will boost wages. Somehow.
Or Mr. Biden’s Elder Care Infrastructure happens.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
I hope they post the interview online.
realbtl
Here in Montana the help wanted signs say 16/hr and there are a bunch. My 17 yo grandson with little experience got hired by TruGreen for that.
mrmoshpotato
Fair question.
Kent
Can you just hire someone direct and cut out the middle man (or middle woman) and pay them $20/hr or whatever the agency charges you?
Dan B
@mrmoshpotato: Waiting for all the robot dog bands. How long must I wait?
Great laugh at the jaw dropping craziness*. Thanks!
*As in in whoa and wow at the same time. And this may be how you play an F flat chord. Thanks Boston Dynamics?
mrmoshpotato
@Dan B:
WTF? C flat is where it’s at!
Dan B
@Ruckus: 30 years as a (very) small business owner. I had many years of great employess, and some ringers. Many years they earned the same as me and a few good ones I made out verrry well. It’s great to have employees that make you look good. Business schools don’t teach this. Or at least rent seekers believe there are superior people and poor fools.
Kent
I have a MAGA cousin who bailed on a corporate career to become a franchise owner. He was a project manager type who would bounce from firm to firm in the greater Seattle metro so I assume he was just your basic asshole who was hard to work with.
I was talking with him recently because our kids are friends and we hook them up from time to time and he was making some of these same wails. It was all…”Dude, I can’t afford to pay more because my franchise fees are X and my rent is Y and my suppliers cost Z, etc. etc.  And I’m just thinking. “But hey, you have FREEDOM to be your on boss! That ‘s priceless!”
I think a lot of these small business owners buy into the fantasy of being their own boss and making a lot of money.  But they don’t actually take a hard look at the math. Especially in things like fast food which really can’t be scaled up. There are only so many sandwiches or pizzas you can make per day.
Baud
Patricia Kayden
WaterGirl
@Baud: Yes!
smith
Great news! Just played this song in celebration
Lapassionara
@Baud: Yes!
Soprano2
I think there are a lot of factors making the job market like this right now. Everyone is trying to hire people at the same time, which is an unusual circumstance. The almost complete shutdown of immigration is biting badly, too – this is something a lot of employers donât want to admit. A significant number of women had to drop out of the job market either because of remote school or the unavailability of childcare. Especially in the restaurant/bar industry, people got other jobs while things were closed down or at 25% capacity, and theyâre still doing those jobs. There are still a significant amount of people who canât pass a drug test if the employer requires one. Everyone I talk to about it, though, says itâs the unemployment and if only the government would quit giving people money theyâd want to work. I reject this as the only explanation, because itâs lazy. I think there are also a number of people who arenât vaccinated yet and are afraid to go back to jobs where they have to face the public. I know of one restaurant that had to start closing at 3:00 p.m. again on Monday thru Thursday because they couldnât find enough staff. I know of another thatâs contemplating closing their dining rooms because of the staff shortage, and just doing drive-thru business. Iâm hoping as more and more people get vaccinated the situation will get better.
Amir Khalid
Hello everone. It’s the first of May on my side of the International Date Line: Labour Day everywhere on the planet except the USA.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Out Labor Day is in September because we don’t use the metric calendar.
MagdaInBlack
@Soprano2: ” …if only the government would stop giving them money…” they’d be desperate enough to take my starvation wages.
That’s the reality there.
Another Scott
@Kent: Yup.
I worked for a while in the business office of a company that owned about 50 pizza stores. They would occasionally get threatening legal documents from corporate saying things like: “You MUST do THIS and THIS and THIS to prove to us that you’re you’re not keeping excess cash in your stores, and do so by certified mail by 5 PM TOMORROW or WE WILL TERMINATE YOUR FRANCHISE AGREEMENTS.”
I don’t think the dog and pony shows that talk about Being Your Own Boss!! mention that. Could be wrong.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
OT :Â This warmed the cockles of my cold heart
Ex Chief Minister Fadnavis (BJP) being booed and called tarbooj (canteloupe) to his face. So sad too bad. Just the other day he was found routing medicines a la Jared Kushner meant for Maharashtra to Gujarat (Modi’s home state)
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Is tarbooj worse than mango?
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Oh yes, mango is much beloved. Tarbooj is humble, fat and ugly in comparison with the noble mango. Tarbooj is his moniker on Marathi Twitter
They were mocking him to his face when he showed up at a hospital for a photo-op and like all cowardly RWNJs he ran away.
Sure Lurkalot
I posted this link to a Jared Yates Sexton twitter thread a couple of days ago but itâs relevant here. Â The decimation of wages and increased burden on the working class has been a feature of the GOP since Reagan. Itâs worth a read, IMHO.
https://twitter.com/JYSexton/status/1387785661034471426
RSA
@MazeDancer:
I’m sorry to hear that. When I was in NC, I went through a few home healthcare services. The rates were $20-25 per hour, with the aides earning $12-15. It wasn’t easy to find the right person (reliable, conscientious) and in the end I did as @Kent  suggests, and found an independent person.
I think that home healthcare aides are shamefully underpaid. On the other side, a lot of people who need an aide can’t afford one–Medicare, for example, covers some kinds of intermittent care, but not so-called custodial care. (My experience is with Alzheimer’s spouse communities, which is kind of specialized, but on the most needful end of the scale, I think.)
I think Biden’s initiative could make a huge difference.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Another Scott
But, but, but! It was on the TV! and the Internet!! and FaceBook!!11 It must be true!!1ONE
(via Popehat)
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
God called and told me in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t love me that much.
Barbara
@Kent: One of the owners of a small children’s shoe store I patronized (now retired and no longer in business) told me that the biggest mistake she saw among many other small business owners was that they didn’t realize how few people they could really support from the business. Which is to say that she did almost everything herself in order to pay herself a reasonable income.
MazeDancer
@Kent: Alas, not from thousands of miles away.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Don’t you think she’d look good in orange?
Ken
@Another Scott: Is Newsmax one of the ones that Dominion has sued? I don’t see how an admission that Dominion is right would help their defense, whether or not the suit has been filed.
Villago Delenda Est
@mrmoshpotato: Actual headline in the Portland Oregonian: “Beavers unimpressed by Trojans.”
The Moar You Know
@Ken: Â yes, but this is part of a settlement of a separate lawsuit with a specific Dominion executive that Newsmax slandered by name. Â Â The Dominion lawsuit is still out there waiting.
Villago Delenda Est
@Another Scott: Not going to save them from becoming a subsidiary of Dominion Voting Systems.
Roger Moore
@different-church-lady:Â â
Some places have already done so. The whole West Coast does not have a lower minimum wage for tipped employees, which means waitstaff can actually make a decent living. Instead of driving restaurants out of business, it means they can actually have long-term employees who treat their work as a career. It’s a great point to make when people suggest businesses can’t afford to pay employees more.
Another Scott
@Villago Delenda Est: Yup.
Deadline:
(Emphasis added.)
Dominion and her people will be getting apologies and money from all of them, most likely.
Cheers,
Scott.
Roger Moore
@Kent:Â â
What he’s really saying is that he isn’t the boss. The real boss is the company he’s franchising from. They tell him what he needs to buy and how much he’s going to pay for it. He’s just a glorified middle manager who bought into a sucker’s dream.
Gin & Tonic
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Can one overdose on schadenfreude? Asking for a friend.
David ? âThe Establishmentâ? Koch
It’s SDNY.
Tick tock, mutherfucker
David ? âThe Establishmentâ? Koch
How just, Ivanka is now going to know what it is like to live in a cage.
Ken
Bit of underbussing there, I think?
Villago Delenda Est
The WSJ editorial board needs to be early on in the tumbrel rides.
Villago Delenda Est
@David ? âThe Establishmentâ? Koch:Â â
LOCK HER UP!
David ? âThe Establishmentâ? Koch
This is interesting, there’s new opening for a spokesmodel at Goya
Barbara
@Another Scott: In other words, the Newsmax settlement is now financing the litigation against the other defendants.
dmsilev
@Villago Delenda Est:
Best to use language that they’d understand: “They need to be in the senior tranche of tumbrel riders.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Bloomberg had an article talking about how a lot of Boomers have decided the pandemic is a sign to retire. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of this “I can’t hire more staff because people are too lazy to work for shitty wages in shitty working conditions” is because of all the collage grads who’ve been blocked from starting their careers by overly picky employers now can.
Just One More Canuck
@Amir Khalid: and Canada ??
Another Scott
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Watch the federal government.
GovExec:
In January 2020, 15% of the federal workforce was eligible to retire.
People will stick around if they think the reward/annoyance ratio is high enough. COVID probably won’t figure into it too much.
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That makes sense, the expect retirements happened last year, they were transparent because the shut down hid them, and now things are opening up so it looks like a lot, because teh maths are hard.
Were I work we had three people in the department who were 65 and marking time to 67 and said screw it last year.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
That’s genius. The headline writer was probably delighted to get away with that one.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Villago Delenda Est: My god the headline possibilities, what do the local reporters have a death match over who gets the write the headline every time these teams play?
J R in WV
Benno
@schrodingers_cat: interesting. Here in Karachi (non-native resident) Â tarbooz is the much beloved watermelon while karbooz is cantaloupe. Took me some time to keep them straight, which is unfortunate because I hate cantaloupe.
Craig
@trollhattan: my High School finally changed its name from Lee-Davis HS, and Stonewall Jackson Middle School has finally changed just this year. Not sure what they’re doing about the sorts teams, but I’m sure that Confederates, and Rebels are going to be ok finally
Kent
I’m hoping this is going to be the case. My oldest daughter just graduated into the teeth of the pandemic in May 2020 with a degree in marketing and public relations with a specialty interest in travel and leisure (hotels, airlines, cruise lines, resorts, etc.). Talk about your sucky timing.
She has made the best of it by landing a job in the business office of a ski resort here in OR for the ski season where she could snowboard every day, and is now planning to work the summer at a surf shop on the beach where she can surf every day while she waits to land her first “big girl” job next fall. But she is threatening to snowboard another winter first.
Kent
 @Another Scott: A lot of older Feds saw their TSP account balances shoot sky high this past year (Federal version of a 401(k)) so I’m betting that will case some to finally decide to jump ship.
Jeffro
@Mike in NC:
@HumboldtBlue:
The “Cavalier” or “Cav” is the mascot, but everyone roots for the ‘Hoos!
(short for ‘Wahoo’, and no, not the fish!)
Jeffro
@Baud: It was a prank call. Â She does love you that much and just give it a week or two.
boatboy_srq
RE: the Rubio tweet.
When I left FL for NoVA, my friends down South all said, “Don’t move to Virginia; they tax.”
It’s true: I pay 6% in state income tax, and a couple hundred in tangible property tax for my car.
Moving up here, I took: a demotion; loss of staff; loss of signing authority; loss of title; loss of overtime (or excess hours, depending).
I doubled my salary doing it. And my benefits got a lot better.
My auto insurance dropped by half and my coverage tripled. My utility bill dropped. My grocery bill dropped. I rented my apartment, but had I rented my condo in FL it would have cost as much.
I will pay 6% state income tax and a few hundreds in personal property tax for all of that.
Rubio is a flaming arsehole if he thinks FL employers are offering anything labor is interested in accepting as compensation.
Jeffro
@David ? âThe Establishmentâ? Koch: I don’t really care, do U?
boatboy_srq
@RSA: Maybe they shouldn’t have spent their CARES Act PPP funds on expansions or stock buybacks or whatever it is that wasn’t employee paychecks.
L85NJGT
Even if there is no instant wave of Boomer retirements, the cohorts behind them are smaller.
Big companies can and do invest in shaving labor hours off the line, and employee benefits like tuition assistance and 401Ks. Your local TIFF skimmer, cashing in on the latest bar & restaurant fad, doesnât have the margins.
I get the vibe that these O-O types are really complaining about a lack of white applicants. Particularly for front of house roles.
Pay rate isnât everything. Lifestyle issues, gender norms, and vast swaths of the country making themselves unattractive to immigrants are significant factors.
Ruckus
@Dan B:
Often people with money think that the money is what makes them better. They are known as republicans. For the most part. Rugged, fearless, heartless, ignorant fucks who think that money is what is best and the more money you have the better you are. Their lives are really meaningless, misguided, train wrecks. Look at all the wonderful assholes that think they are politicians, with an R. It has been this way for all my lifetime, 70+ yrs. It was this way before that. Conservatives think of no one but themselves. They think they are superior because they think only of themselves, and because they got shortchanged on melanin, when what they really got shortchanged on was humanity. Selfish, ignorant, ugly, useless creatures.