Monsters: Those "Nobody Wants to Work" Signs

[douglas9]

Chances are you’ve seen that sign in the window of some restaurant or coffee shop in your local downtown. Maybe it was written even more nicely:

But the gist is always the same. A local coffee shop or restaurant or fast-food joint can’t be open to serve you, the loyal customer, because people are just too lazy to work.

These businesses are the worst. They could say Now closed on Mondays or New hours: closing at 4 p.m.—that’s cute, almost European. Instead, they blame supposedly lazy workers for not working hours that were probably unsustainable even before the pandemic. They’re putting up a giant advertisement that they are simply crap bosses. It’s not that nobody wants to work. Nobody wants to work for you.

The pandemic has caused Americans of all professions to reevaluate their priorities and how they want to work. Some have learned new skills in quarantine that have led to higher-paying work; others—many who couldn’t have imagined it in February 2020—now find themselves serving as unpaid primary caregivers or homeschool teachers.

The service and hospitality industry is supposedly one of those struggling hardest to find workers—and the likeliest to flaunt one of those dastardly signs. It’s also an industry notorious for its bullying bosses, unstable hours, lack of benefits, and, above all, awful pay. Restaurants are allowed to pay tipped workers (i.e., servers) far below the minimum wage in most states. Over the summer, when I was unemployed, I applied to a handful of restaurants. All had put out desperate hiring pleas, and yet were only offering the tipped minimum: in Maryland, that’s $3.83 an hour. The state minimum wage is $11.75. The same restaurants wanted at least 30 hours of availability a week. No benefits, no health insurance, no 401(k).

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/12/monsters-those-nobody-wants-to-work-signs/

[Phoenix61]

1. And the real kicker is while they want 30 hours

of availability and you may even get scheduled for that if it’s slow you’ll get sent home.

[Wounded Bear]

13. And from week to week, which 30 hours you work can change...nt

[AllyCat]

2. Yup. 2 on one off my routes.

They have a couple dozen signs saying “money is not free” and “let’s get to work!” One is a new local business we wanted to support…until we saw those signs. Now, we will never go in.

[IronLionZion]

3. They were the first to fire workers when things got tough last year

so many of the workers found better jobs with more stability, benefits, fewer maskhole customers, etc. Shitty COVIDiot customers can ruin your whole day. A shitty boss is worth leaving

[Magoo48]

4. Workers want living wages, respectful working conditions, and real healthcare for their families.

Go back Union Strong, or

don’t go back.

[Captain Zero]

50. Healthy working conditions too...

When you have diners coming in who are anti-mask, anti vax, and then berate or castigate a server for masking...who wants to work in that kind of environment? These jobs aren't worth dying on a hill for...

[Magoo48]

64. Absolutely, you're so right Captain Zero.

[Mr. Ected]

5. And why should we, the public, continue to subsidize crap bosses' businesses with our tips?

The days of tipping waiters and waitresses and pretending it's for good service should rightfully be numbered. Pay the employees a living wage and THEN let us leave a modest tip for exceptional service.

I'm tired of looking at prices on a menu knowing that it is a mental trick designed to make you think you're paying less than the final tally. Your tip is essentially subsidizing a poorly-run business. Jack the prices to cover the pay increases; the difference to the paying consumer would be negligible.

[IronLionZion]

6. Many countries don't have this problem

when people tell me it's so expensive to go to restaurants in places like northern Europe. I tell them the tax and tip is included in the price. What you see is exactly what you pay, no more. And they get free health care and education.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

19. Don't forget no paid sick leave in America...Covid probably found that to it's liking.

Not having Socialism EU and Canada style is shooting oneself in both feet, one labour, the other capital.

[Mr. Ected]

21. European wait staffs love getting American tourists as guests

They're treated like normal employees, paid and insured accordingly. Tips are for top-notch service. Most Americans leave a 15-20% gratuity not realizing that, unlike in the States, these workers are not ostracized and demeaned because of their job choice

Our system is one of deception and greed. It needs to go.

[OldBaldy1701E]

24. HEAR HEAR! (n/t)

[paleotn]

10. I totally agree!

It goes in the same bucket as other marketing bullshit tactics. An insult to our intelligence. As contemptable as ending prices in 99 cents.

[True Blue American]

11. The last restaurant

I went to was with a Church group. Small, just getting started. They were late coming in for the reservation. Made with the owner.

Chicken tenders, $6.99. The wife insisted 2 sides came with it. So I ordered French fries and after urging cole slaw. We waited over an hour. My bill came. $6.99 for chicken, $3.50 for french fried,$2. For cole slaw. I had to take 3 bites to make sure I was not eating fish.

Doubt I will return.

[Magoo48]

66. Yes, most people like to work for well run, respectful, safe, good paying businesses.

Now, I believe people would also like to share in some of the massive profits generated by their labor for the wealthy, in a more equitable societal setting.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but, hopefully, unless the morbidly rich start sharing the fucking wealth, they will end up doing the work themselves.

Union Strong.

[paleotn]

7. This is a poor, stupid excuse. Most struggled to hire employees BEFORE the pandemic.

Labor markets were extremely tight and unemployment rates across most of the country were minuscule before the pandemic. Certainly in historical terms. Seasonally adjusted 3.5% nationally BEFORE the pandemic. Well below the 4.4 to 4.5% just prior to the great recession. This isn't surprising or unforeseen.


https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-unemployment-rate.htm#:~:text=undefined,Oct%202016%3A%204.9%25


The US population is aging, so the workforce isn't keeping up with economic growth. Hasn't been for some time and will continue to age faster in the future. Simple solution to this problem. Immigration! We need them just as much as they need us. In my mind, logical, sensible immigration reform has got to get done. Unless we want to end up in Japan's black hole of stagnation, it has to get done.

https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/program-retirement-policy/projects/data-warehouse/what-future-holds/us-population-aging

[pecosbob]

45. Yes the population is aging, but many people ARE quitting because of working conditions

I spent the last five years in retail and left due to the increasingly hostile and entitled attitudes I encountered at work every day. I was physically assaulted three times in that five years. After I was hurled by a drunk customer into a glass display case I never went back.

[Historic NY]

8. No one wants to work for crappy wages and no benefits

.....maybe these restaurants might want to set up a cafeteria line, people serve themselves. Wouldn't that be novel, they'd have to get off their asses to get the condiments.

[Horse with no Name]

9. Those signs keep me out of that business

I think the lack of understanding, people acquired new skills,stay at home caregivers, etc but the real story is the hundreds of thousands of people that died or became disabled due to Covid or those that had to leave the workforce to care for them.
The next dynamic shift we will see is the exodus from healthcare. Right now, there are hospital systems paying nurses $70-80k every 3 months.
That isn’t sustainable but it is allowing nurses to gather a nest egg and pay off bills so that they can leave the profession.

[True Blue American]

12. Millions of baby boomers took early retirement.

And now 33% of Teachers say they will leave the profession because of threats, fear and intimidation over critical race.

[TexasBushwhacker]

40. Yup. 10K Baby Boomers have been turning 65 PER DAY

for the last 10 years and will continue to for another 8 years. The ones most likely to take early retirement at 62 are the ones with the lowest average earnings. 1) because they need the money and 2) because the reduction in their benefit isn't all that much.

[Magoo48]

65. If we can't provide safe working conditions for teachers, teachers ought not teach until we can.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

14. Those attitudes are indeed sickening!

And it's amazing to me that the owners or managers apparently struggle to understand what they're conveying to everyone with those messages!

Or maybe there's more people with "social dominance orientation" than I realize, and they think it's perfectly normal! Ugh! Those people suck the life out of me!

https://dictionary.apa.org/social-dominance-orientation
----------
social dominance orientation (SDO)
a dispositional tendency to accept and even prefer circumstances that sustain social inequalities, combined with a general preference for hierarchical social structures.
----------

[PTWB]

15. Nobody wants to work...

for peanuts.

[usaf-vet]

16. Fifty Six years ago. I was stationed near Myrtle BEACH. They enforced the NO shirt,shoes No SERVES.

This was in a town packed with military, college students, vacationers, in general, party goers.

56 years ago !! No one threatened to sue, burn down, blow up, boycott, or start a riot.

All communities should implement ordinances that expand that to No shit, shoes, masks, NO SERVES.

We refuse to go into any business that doesn't enforce such a rule.

We buy groceries online for curb pick-up. We buy other needed products online for home delivery.

WE WANT TO SEE OUR LOCAL BUSINESS REOPEN AND SURVIVE!

Why should workers have to endanger themselves for minimum wage jobs?

But we aren't willing to take the chance of catching Covid or fighting with unmasked individuals to make that happen.

[OldBaldy1701E]

25. Exactly!

BTW, where were you stationed? Shaw?

[usaf-vet]

26. Yes. You?

[OldBaldy1701E]

27. I was a reservist and was in and out of Pope.

We did communicate with Shaw all the time on the radio and of course had plenty of guys and gals from there visit Pope. I can't even remember the name of the major we dealt with. Perkins, maybe? This was like 79-80 when I was there... a bit later than your posting. Of course, it is all part of Bragg now. Oh well.

[usaf-vet]

28. Bragg was a very busy base when I was at Shaw. Vietnam

One of my favorite stories related to Bragg. I got a four-day pass and decided to go home. So back then, if you were in uniform, you were safe to thumb rides. Civilians would stop and give you rides.

Anyway, I got a ride from Shaw to Bragg. Stuck my thumb out. This Buick or Oldsmobile (big tanks back then) convertible driven by an NCO said where you headed I said New England... hop in I'll get you to New York. I hopped in; he put the pedal to the metal, and we passed everything on the highway.

I finally said, man, you are in a rush. This was around 16:00 Friday when he picked me up. He said he had duty on Sunday, so no time to waste. He was going to see his girlfriend. I never made it home faster than on that trip. A little white knuckles at times. That must have been one girlfriend, was all I could think.

[OldBaldy1701E]

29. Did you ever have to tell people about that insane road outside of Bragg

Where the middle lane usage changed from one direction to another? Every single airman that came to Pope had to be told and told again about not getting killed because of that road. There were some gruesome accidents out there.

[usaf-vet]

31. Honestly I'll bet i didn't spend 5 mins at that gate before the rocket ship north picked me up.

[kellytore]

17. Some big chains are actually cutting their budget in hours allowed

on the stores P&L. In other words the employees they do have are doing double the work. This is the reason why they are having trouble with turnover. The employees are catching up to the corporate greed in these institutions.

[Pinback]

18. Serfin' U.S.A. (nt)

[appalachiablue]

35. Ditto. Brent Terhune, comedy man..

[pecosbob]

46. Who coined that term? It's fabulous...I love it.

Found only two references to it...a link to a publication called Lapham Quarterly that uses in reference to senatorial reform, and something that sounded very wing-nut that I didn't read.

[Pinback]

56. Ha! I thought I made it up,

but it makes sense that it’s already out there in the wild as a Beach Boys reference.

[pecosbob]

59. Bravo

I'm stealing it...

[Pinback]

63. Nice!

Propelling popular culture forward.

[Ohioboy]

20. Before all the "Nobody wants to work anymore" crap

A major food chain my son worked for used to go out of their way to keep most of its workforce from getting benefits such as insurance and pensions. They did this by keeping the majority of their employees at part-time. In order to get as much work without paying benefits they would work their employees right up to the limit, 39 hours a week, just 1 hour under full-time. It was truly a capitalistic win-win for the company.

I know for a fact my son would still be working there if they had ever made him full-time. He spent 5 years of good service to them, even receiving several commendations, and they never made him part of the company (part-timers are not really considered "in" the company).

I noticed this company had a sign complaining about not being able to find workers. Well, I know first hand why they don't have my son working there. They didn't really want him. They wanted his work, but not him. A person in their early 20s needs to find a career that has a future.

[pecosbob]

47. I recall UPS once making a large portion of their workforce part-timers to avoid paying benefits

[Girard442]

22. So, even if I'm a heartless bastard who doesn't give a rat's ass...

...still, there's a guy who's so willing to mistreat his workers that no one wants to work there is also a guy who is careful to make sure his customers always get good, healthy, safe food.

Yeah. Uh-huh.

[Jon King]

23. McDonalds is non functional in some locations.

We hit McDonalds a lot due to our schedule and they have become pretty much non functional in some locations. The locations that say they are open until midnight for example, you pull up to the drive through and they simply ignore it. A few workers inside doing the nightly cleaning but they effectively are closed by 10 pm. You literally can order on their app, the order is taken, yet they just do not fill it. Cars just sit in the drive through and then leave, one after another.

Other locations the drive through lines just do not move, we sat for 45 minutes the other night and only 1 car went through. 2 young assistant manager trainee looking guys in dress shirts running around like crazy were the only 2 workers in the entire restaurant.

People no longer will accept low paying jobs where customers treat them like garbage.

[usaf-vet]

32. McDonald here has a sign out front "Hiring NOW up $18.00 / hour. I think to stay legal....

.... one person got the $18.00 job. The rest aren't seeing anywhere near that.

Our state has lowered the legal working age to 14 for after-school workers. It won't last long if we ever get out of this pandemic.

[pecosbob]

48. I worked as a bus-boy, dish-washer and gas-jockey at age 13 in Texas

It was an 8-Days Inn. I had a lot of hats to wear for 2.35 an hour.

[usaf-vet]

58. At 14 it was working in a newspaper circulation department. Wrapping packs of paper to truckout to..

.... paperboys across the city. I believe it was $1.50 / hour.

[Zen Democrat]

30. Nobody wants to work ... for greedy assholes!

[Magoo48]

67. Exactly,

If I could afford it, I’d put up my own signs, wherever those offensive signs appear, reading:

People simply don’t want to work for greedy, sociopathic, assholes.

[cbabe]

33. 'It's a pyramid scheme of dirty jobs/who's

gonna cook your Mexican food when your Mexican worker is gone?’

‘Who’s gonna build your wall’ by Tom Russell with photographs but David Burckhalter. (YouTube)

[modrepub]

34. Same Folks Who Complain Schools Are Remote And They Can't Work

Have heard lots of Repubs equate going to school with child care services so their parents can work.

[Mr.Bill]

36. I never wanted to work in my life.

I only did it because someone paid me enough.

[Joinfortmill]

37. Yup. Been there, done that a lifetime ago.

Seems little has changed.

[soldierant]

38. ***

[quaint]

39. ↑

[pecosbob]

49. I'll be cribbing this...

[PatrickforB]

41. You know, yesterday, my wife and I went into a Kroger store.

Besides the usual mask-holes (and one guy was coughing!), I noticed a sign at the deli that urged people to apply, starting at $12.35/hour. Right now, until January, minimum in Colorado is $12.32, so they get a WHOLE THREE CENTS MORE PER HOUR THAN MINIMUM.

Shit.

And minimum will be moving to $12.56 in January, not like you can live on that, either.

The moral of tha story is not that people don't want to work. Nope.

It is that they don't want to work in jobs that have unpredictable scheduling, no benefits, and not enough hours.

Silly workers! They just want more and more and more and more, don't they? But we have plenty of billionaire parasites soaking up money that should be going to pay for stuff like healthcare and dental care.

[pecosbob]

51. Third largest retailer in America...

[True Blue American]

62. Kroger has a Union.

They do start people as part time. You are on probation for 3 months. A friends Grandson started at $14 an hour.

[NullTuples]

42. One of our local restaurants said it was staff shortage...they were flat out lying.

[link:https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/lifestyle/marys-pizza-shack-remains-closed-in-downtown-santa-rosa-due-to-staffing-sh/|

"Editor’s Note: This story earlier reported a lack of staff has temporarily shuttered Mary’s Pizza Shack in downtown Santa Rosa. On Wednesday, public records reviewed by The Press Democrat revealed Sonoma County health officials ordered the closure of the restaurant because of an “imminent health hazard” discovered at the restaurant by health inspectors. That information was not shared by restaurant officials in our initial reporting of the story. A company official Wednesday acknowledged the health department’s immediate closure order of Nov. 16, but also said a lack of staff has contributed to its inability to reopen. The Press Democrat will continue to monitor this story."

[AleksS]

43. The owners don't seem to make the connection

That it’s not that people don’t want to work, it’s that they (the owners) apparently don’t want to pay what it would take to get people to work there. Jobs aren’t a privilege the owners are offering to us, jobs are the labor the owners need to have to provide the good or service their business provides. It’s not the workers’ responsibility to ensure the jobs are filled, it’s the owners responsibility to pay enough to get those jobs filled. Workers don’t owe the owners their labor, but the owners do require the labor for the business to operate.

Hopefully people are (re)discovering this.

[NullTuples]

44. And the owners usually come off as the "Free Market" sort in other times...

[pecosbob]

52. Personally I quit after five years of retail when I was assaulted for the third time

I'm kind of still in disbelief in the face of all the drunk, angry, entitled a**holes I had to serve on a daily basis. People have gotten mean. The job sucked out a little piece of my soul every day.

[Crowman2009]

53. If that's the case, we're not obligated to keep them in business.

[Crowman2009]

54. It's called upward mobility.

They should have thought about that when they cheerleading the anti-Vax con man in chief.

[keithbvadu2]

55. The signs do not tell the rest of the story.

The signs do not tell the rest of the story.

Are the workers quitting in order to not work

or

are they quitting to work in better paying jobs?

Low wages/low benefits are not competitive.

[Crowman2009]

60. and is the owner deliberately paying low wages to pay for expensive toys/vacations?

[keithbvadu2]

57. When labor is worth more

https://democraticunderground.com/100216161583

A pandemic kills off a chunk of the population, especially the more vulnerable working class. The labor force depletes. The labor of the remaining people who are willing to work is suddenly worth higher wages. People in power pre-pandemic want to deny that labor is suddenly worth more than it was before.

[TheFarseer]

61. I'd like to know

Who sees a sign shitting on potential employees and thinks, “that’s where I want to work!”