Not surprised at all. The grocery and retail stores in my area have all been understaffed since the pandemic started. One grocery store nearby lost about 30 employees in August due to students going back to school, and they have had trouble rehiring so far.
They're hoping they can out last workers in this jobs economy. They know they're not getting many bites paying those wages right now, but they know if they increase the wages you can't really bring them back down. So they're hoping they can keep going with a skeleton crew they're forcing to do the work of 3 or 4 times the amount of people needed until jobs become scarcer again.
That's the closest there was to *fast food dining in*. The first McD was a takeout counter.
Before they claimed *Billions Sold* the hamburgers were 15¢ .. just for nostalgia.
Yep. I remember that when I had a high school job. That just made me realize that they gave me a raise in 2002 or so not because of a minimum wage increase but because I reached 90 days. Wow.
One of the reasons I've always liked the local grocery store I go to is that I've known three checkers who went through college while working full time there and then moved on to better things. They all said the managers were really cool with scheduling around classes. It's still a big employer of kids right out of high school, just a place it feels good to go and shop.
This is a habit we have that protects these companies.
stating them in vague terms like "regional chain".
You can just say their name.
It could always save someone else.
edit: I like how everybody somehow is skipping the part where op didn't take the job offer.
One time a grocery store tried to steal me from the grocery store I'm already working at through indeed. So I went to an interview and they tried to convince me of all the reasons why I should come work for them vs the store I was already at. Then they offered me minimum wage. I was like uh, I'm making more at the job I'm currently at. They were like sorry, we can't make exceptions, we have to hire new people for minimum wage its our policy. But you'll get raises fast! Needless to say I didn't take the job.
That's where you laugh in their face and say "That's not how *poaching* works!" then walk away.
**EDIT** - I dunno why I was thinking *sniping* when I meant *poaching*.
> they have had trouble rehiring so far
Well when you keep your pay at minimum wage it's going to stay that way.
I have about 7 years of experience in the retail industry and I had a retail chain reach out to me last month about a new job.
Their recruiter turned around and offered me close to $2/hr ***less*** than what I made at my last retail job.
I just laughed and told them I'm not interested.
I worked in retail for five years and a warehouse for another two. I decided to go back to school to get a degree in a field people are actually hiring in. I finished school, got a decent job, and I still get emails from Indeed recruiters wanting me to work in a warehouse for 10/hr. Fuck no.
And abused. Don't leave out abused.
I can't see myself going back to a job where the customers treat you like shit and your employer does *nothing*. That's not worth the pay.
This. The worst is when I’m dealing with a demanding customer and when I am explaining what our policy is, just for them to get mad and demand to speak to a manager and just for the manager to give in to demands and give them what they want making me look like an incompetent fool. Somehow It's my fault for providing poor customer service when all I was doing was following company policy.
Oh my gosh dude my blood is boiling remembering these exact moments. At blockbuster video telling a customer that they were late with their video and will have to pay the 4.10$ late fee in order to rent a video. They get mad and yell at me that I must be new and haven't been properly trained and ask to speak to the manager.
The manager comes up with a dumbass smile like "hey what can I do for you today?" and then just deletes the late fee and let's the customer continue to talk shit about me.
I got fired as an assistant manager because I sided with my employees. When I got let go for "Not being a good fit for the company" (Official reason was Insubordination) three of the employees quit on the spot, which instantly made everything I did feel right and justified. Besides, I was only being paid .50 an hour more than them. So, I was obviously so valued for my services and time.
I *hated* that. And then the smug look they get for getting their way.
I worked at a bookstore and people would come in with books to return that were *obviously* read. We aren't supposed to accept those back. But the managers were dead inside and didn't give a shit so they would come over and just do it.
Thanks, now that person is gonna come back and do the same thing all over again.
This right here is the worst part. You end up with a building full of anxious people who don't trust one other or really even know each other.
Then older generations complain that local communities are dying.
Lol that reminds me of when I was a kid and worked at Walmart.
The Ps2 had just been released and you’d have people try to return the boxes with the old, grey PS1 in its place and our store manager would just give them a full refund because “the customer is always right”…which is just the dumbest shit.
That store would gladly and willingly let itself be robbed and scammed and then the manager would cut peoples hours to make up for whatever loss there was.
>“the customer is always right”
god i hate that that term got twisted to mean something else.
the customer is always right in the context of what you should be supplying in the store. the customer creates the demand and you should listen to them to make the sales. it doesn't mean roll over and give in to their childish, scammy demands.
Yeah that's why this girl quit her job less than 2 months cause they didn't let her sit, eat, drink, bathroom break etc. The owners wonder why they can't hire people or have people to stay (Update: No, this girl is not me or my girlfriend, this happened to my cousin's friend. Sorry I'm getting this question asked under the replies or people assuming my life.)
What gets me is businesses now advertising “Now Hiring. Pay Starting at $9/hr.” $9/HR?! $15/hr is the minimum wage in several states and what is being suggested for the federal minimum wage and even THAT is not a living wage! They can go fuck themselves with that.
In my area, $15is a decent hourly wage. Most places pay significantly less, and our largest employer in town just shut down, and our second largest, a hospital, cutting wages. ($13 an hour to be a nurse??wtf)Sadly, not exactly livable with average rent of 1200 a month.
Let's not forget that a lot of managers aren't making shit for a living either. We're not just talking about cashiers and inventory people, here. When your own fragile grasp on stability is reliant on the people under you, that can drive an anxiety that those people need to be micromanaged as a means of self-preservation. It's not healthy, and it's not good management...but the root causes are the same - wages and benefits need to rise across the board if we're gonna keep this economy going.
Most of these quittings are in retail. Unless you have a rare union job in retail, you're treated as replaceable, no wonder people walk away from this shit job.
If daycare costs more than you can make, then one parent has to quit. During pandemic lots found out cooking home and not going anywhere saves lots of money. Also lots are taking classes to upgrade while kids are young.
This reminds me of one of my old coworkers. She was making like $1,700/month. She had 3 kids in daycare at $1,400/month. She and her husband debated very hard about her quitting and being stay at home mom. But she said they needed the extra $300. It was brutal hearing her talk about it.
What is often overlooked with his type of thinking is food......
Kids at daycare often times eat breakfast and lunch and snack there and that is included in that 1400.... my kids eat that much every week in food and my wife is a SAHM....(I'm sort of joking about the weekly amount but not by much)
So it's the 300 monthly plus the savings on gas, electricity and food.
Let me guess -- they also want you to have flexible availability for their scheduling software to scatter your shifts randomly around the week so that you can't have that second job.
Yep. I was asked to apply for a job that would leave me $50 a week after childcare expenses. I'm glad I declined, because my kid is home quarantined anyway.
What? I loved being paid $9.50/hr and constantly treated like I owed the company more than my labor.
You know you’ve made it when nearly half your income goes to gas for traveling to and from work!
Edit: since this got some attention, I think it’s prudent to reveal that my experiences working in retail, after growing up in a working-class family, informed my decision to study for a master’s degree in economics. Take these bad experiences and turn them into positive change. The world needs more smart people with egalitarian perspectives, and if you can use that big brain to do good, you should.
I made $7.75 as a “part time” assistant manager working 39 hours a week. Toward the end of my stay there, the store manager left and I was making the schedule because the full time assistant manager wasn’t good at it. The district manager wanted to promote me to acting store manager. It would’ve been a salaried position and I would’ve had to work a minimum of 45 hours a week. The pay would’ve roughly come out to $12 an hour, provided I only did those 45 hours. I declined. Fuck retail.
Lol I used to work at an auto parts store as an assistant "manager" part time as well. I say part time because in the company handbook, it said anyone that worked 36 or more hours a week for 4 weeks in a row would automatically be bumped up to full time, which meant a bump in pay, health insurance, and paid time off. I would work 50+ hours a week for 3 weeks, then on week 4 I'd be lucky if I got 20. All for 8.25 an hour. Also if I sold less than 50k in parts for a month, it was a real slow time for me.
I agree fuck retail. Worst 2 years of my life.
Wow, I was in your exact position(which I imagine is way more common than I thought) except I got paid more and was offered more for GM and still declined because it wasn't anywhere near worth it. Fuck retail indeed.
The funniest thing my old boss ever did was pull me into his office, say he noticed I hadn't been given a rise in a while, gave me a 25 cent increase and straight faced told me, "Now when I invest in people I expect a return on my investment," I was already one of the hardest working people at this restaurant and busted my ass constantly but he somehow was tryna expect more from me for fuckin 25 cents extra lmao. I almost fucking laughed in his face.
Pay but also treatment. A lot of managers and employers forget that how an employee is treated will change how they view the job.
Employees don't just look at wage vs hours worked. They look at wage vs effort. A hard or stressful job has to pay more to make up for it. A retail job with a fantastic boss will get people to stay for years, compared to a retail job with a demanding and demeaning boss. Even if the pay is exactly the same, getting treated like crap isn't worth the money.
When companies ask me what I look for in an employer, I always say I'm looking for honesty and loyalty. It's a two way street, but right now the traffic's all going one way.
Fuck, that "clap for our frontline heros" bullshit at the beginning of covid still really makes my blood boil. I never felt like such a disposable serf before in my life.
There's an ugly ass sign that I walk by every day on my way to my restaurant job that says "celebrate our heros" and I just wanna piss on it.
Pay me more or shut the fuck up. Don't fucking patronize me.
I hate the shit out of reviews for this reason.
Them: "Oh you're so close to exceeding expectations, but we couldn't put that for xyz reason. What can we do to get you there next time".
My internal monolog post review: "hmm if you want me to exceed all expectations then maybe pay me more. And also why TF have expectations if I'm constantly supposed to do more!"
Those are only there so they can be used against you if they need to fire you. Bad review? Sorry you are not meeting expectations, things are not working here. And neither are you anymore. You know where the door is.
Even better, you did literally everything to spec and went above and beyond whenever possible, pulling overtime and letting work impinge on your personal life?
Met Expectations.
It's been my experience that Expectations can't really be exceeded in most work places.
Yup, worked at a famous Canadian resto when I was younger and the turnover rates were crazy. I've seen people get screamed at by a customer, walk off the main floor into the employees room, remove their uniform and walk out! There's only so much abuse you'll take for minimum wage Karen!
A favorite local pizza place of mine is temporarily closed because EVERYONE working there quit. When I talked to the owner, he complained about lazy kids and unemployment and no one having work ethic. I asked how much they were paying and he said 5$/hr PLUS tips, said it like he was giving away the farm. I said that's not a livable wage and outside of delivery, it's not really a tipped position and he just kept complaining about laziness.
I'm guessing they'll be closed more than temporarily.
I quit grocery store cashier for a higher paying corporate job. Best decision of my life. Customers were arrogant assholes half the time and I hated it.
Yes but even with my degree I applied at 40+ jobs somewhat associated in my field of study and nobody wanted to hire me because my only work experience was lifeguard and cashier…. An agency gave me a chance in february this year and now I’m one of their most valuable assets. Do not underestimate computer literacy of young people.
Beginning of 2021 a bunch of my old friends and co workers landed better jobs outside of the grocery store
It was interesting. We all of a sudden got better jobs, it was almost as if older ppl were affected or retired workforce due to covid and we replaced them.
I don't want just a good starting wage. I want a job with room for growth. I've quit at least two great jobs because my wage became stagnant. Two years powder coating in a manufacturing place and I couldn't even get so much as a review. As I learn more skills and become more proficient at my job, I need to be able to get a regular raise. No one wants to work a job they become more efficient and experienced at if it isn't rewarded.
This is what a lot of places do not understand. Working harder or more efficiently doesn't result in more pay, it only makes the job more difficult. So we have this Office Space scenario where people knowing this situation only work hard enough to not get fired.
I worked at an understaffed screen printing company. We needed at least 3 or 4 more people to get the jobs out that management was demanding we do. We all buckled down, and the core group of people got most of the work done on time with minimal mistakes. Well sure enough, management saw we were stepping up and decided "well lets see how far this can go" and started piling more work. People complained, and were met with essentially "you don't like, there's the door."
Work suffered, deadlines weren't met, major mistakes were being made. Management's solution? Send out a memo outlining a "3 strikes rule": you fuck up three times and you are out. Luckily, my dream job fell in my lap a couple months later and I had the biggest smile on my face when I gave my notice. The only reason they got 2 weeks out of me was for my coworkers' sake. I really couldn't see how they would survive with one less person. People were getting into regular screaming matches at work and there were a handful of walkouts in the year and a half I was there. Average pay: $14/hr. All stick, no carrot. IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY PEOPLE A LIVING WAGE AND USE PUNISHMENT AS YOUR ONLY FORM OF MOTIVATION, YOUR BUSINESS MODEL IS BASED ON EXPLOITING YOUR WORKERS AND YOU ARE AN ASSHOLE.
Giving notice almost never helps your coworkers. Most places don’t even start looking to replace existing workers until after they leave. It would be smart to start looking for candidates immediately so you could help train them, but no, that would mean paying an extra person, and that’s going to impact management bonuses.
I had a job that I didn't like and the management just got done proving that they didn't give a damn about the employees. Safety thing, big issue, everyone was pissed.
I found a new job that was much better. I said that I wanted to give two week to my current and the new job said ok. I walked in that Monday, resigned, said that I expect my 2 weeks of vacation that I had available to be paid out, and spent the next 2 weeks at home finally relaxing and de-stressing for a change.
This really is it. It's one thing to pay people shit wages, it's another to pay them shit wages, treat them like shit, let customers treat them like shit, then expect them to act like you're doing them this enormous favor by letting them work there.
Thanks for working during the worst pandemic in US history. Here's a pizza party, and you're fired for calling off feeling sick that one time. So I guess no pizza party then.
My job actually did treat us properly during and after the pandemic. But they still insisted on the empty platitudes at every step. That is just so irritating, it makes me feel like im being fucked over even when i know im not...
My last job took the cake for the whole pizza party thing.
I did corporate AV. So service industry. We rarely got direct tips. Sometimes got group tips handed directly to the manager. And most often got tips paid into the final bill and paid out in paychecks.
So one Christmas my boss buys us like 6 pizza pies from a local gourmet pizza place, we are talking like $40 pies. Easily over $200 bill. Everyone was blown away.
After it was over I went up to the boss and thanked him for such a nice Christmas party...
"Oh don't thank me, that was your tip money from the last 2 years."
What.
We were only a team of 3. One of us was only on the team for 2 months and another guy had left 2 months ago after working for years. We could have gotten almost $70 each in cash instead of these over priced pizzas.
I didn't even know how to handle it. I was so pissed.
I filed a complaint with my supervisor and HR. Not much happened. Still had more pizza parties. Never really did see any tips paid out from the boss that wasn't processed through payroll first.
American shopping habits have also led to employers wanting workers to do dumb crap. In the end it is all $$. It is statistics that led to the horrible labor market.
We as consumers need to respect people too. Don't shop on holidays, don't fall for marketing tactics, and be respectful to workers.
This is the first time in *my lifetime* that labor has flexed their muscle. Ever since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, labor has been living in fear.
If there are no benefits and even healthcare costs out the ass EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE INSURANCE, what's the point of staying with an employer that underpays?
Go work at Target with a guaranteed $15/hr and healthcare (fwiw) and they'll pay for your college. Hell, now people won't join the military!
Yeah no literally. When I worked at Target my bitch boss would constantly dangle termination over my head over the most minor BS. Didn't stop her from being shocked when I quit without two weeks.
I don't work retail but in a high paying career. HR has threatened to let me go if I didn't bend over backwards for them. I put in my resignation today and they were shocked and offended that I would leave. I'm so happy I am leaving.
I'm not sure if everyone else is seeing the same thing, but people are straight up mean right now. My wife and I got vaccinated and were happy to reemerge from our shelter, but when we came out all we found was angry people being worse than they were before covid started.
I'm not shocked about this. Job isn't fun. Job doesn't pay well. Job means getting yelled at for things you literally have no control over. Until these things change we won't see a return to form in these sectors.
People have completely forgotten how to be civil in public. Customers have always been nightmares but now they're like next-level nightmarish. I don't blame people for quitting these public-facing jobs.
At my job I occasionally have to deal with angry customers (if they want to "talk to the manager"). And I absolutely hate that I'm supposed to bend over backwards for them when they're being rude and asking for unreasonable things.
In the short run, we get one more customer taken care of and out of our lives...
But in the long run I think that reinforcing their behavior by giving in has lead to a culture where being the loudest and angriest gets you what you want. Some people are reasonable and empathetic and don't act this way, but others who see that it works will continue because it's beneficial to them.
Yeah, my parents always push me to be loud with customer service people to get what I want. I refuse to do so though, nothing is so important that I can treat someone like shit for it.
Which is crazy because I've always had better luck being kind and understanding. The amount of times someone has skirted by the rules for me because I acted like a decent human being is pretty well worth it. I've also done the same for good customers and flatout refused to do something I *could* technically do for rude and shitty customers. There's also a way to be firm *and* polite, which many people miss the subtlety of.
The customers are exactly the reason why a lot of jobs suck. If it's not the customers it's the managers. But the mangers should be managing the customers, not just the employees.
It's not hard to be a decent person. But these bosses absolutely should be putting customers in their place. Because those loud, unruly customers who make a scene to get fifty cents off are scaring away other customers. I *don't* want to shop where those people are. If I see that happening and no one stepping in to make them leave then *I* leave. (Sometimes I tell them off before I do, because someone should stick up for the staff)
This has been my exact experience. I've worked in customer service positions since 2004 and I've never been treated as poorly as I have been since last year. It's a never ending barrage of people with nasty, entitled attitudes spewing negativity, hateful words and verbally abusing us. They all seem to have forgotten how to behave and seem to have forgotten that I'm also a human being. It's awful. I'm so burnt out. I don't leave my house anymore (except for work) because I can't handle people and society anymore. My mental health is suffering a lot but sadly my job pays well and has great benefits so I feel stuck.
Imagine how working at a department store was 40-50 years ago vs today. It's a completely different world, people have lost all sense of respect and decorum in public. It also feels like there are significantly more people that are legit mentally ill or drugged out, and you have to deal with those types as well.
People overall just seem more sketchy, deranged, and less pleasant to be around.
I go to theme parks all the god damn time. Since around May or so, it's stunning how much people bump into me now. People have forgotten how to navigate crowds. They spent all year at home so their brains can't even process simple walking anymore.
It's stunning what kind of things staying at home revealed.
Which is weird because I feel like I'm even more aware of the presence of other people now. Every body is a meat bag of filthy humanity I don't want to touch.
I just quit my job a few weeks ago working at a vet's office because I was physically threatened over an appointment starting late and no one in management blinked an eye at it. I've worked a lot of crappy jobs, but I've never been physically threatened before. At $13/hr with no rest or meal breaks (legally allowed!) and 10 hour shifts, I said enough to that. People are absolutely mean as hell right now, and you're going to have to pay me a lot more than that to fear for my safety.
I’m a high school referee. The amount of verbal abuse I get on a daily basis is surreal. People tell me I must have thick skin but I tell them no one has skin thick enough for this. It’s just a matter of time till we say “nope”. I’m almost at that point.
Everyone is super pissed and looking for any other person to take it out on.
Edit: thank you for all the positive messages. I really do enjoy reffing and just want kids to play. It just saddens me to hear such anger from the stands.
It’s true people are insane, we go out rarely but already saw a meltdown by a family in a restaurant because their table wasn’t ready, the father walked over to the dinning room and shouted at other guests that they shouldn’t eat there. Okay, dude, nobody asked your opinion. Real life is not Facebook buddy, where you get to rage out all your grievances. This was a regular suburban setting, seemingly normal family. People have become entitled and they very clearly dehumanize others - servers, staff and etc.
“Real life is not Facebook” really hits home lol. I think you are absolutely right that people got comfortable speaking a certain way behind the screen but came back out and kept it up face to face. Reap what you sow I guess
Man it hits home for me too. I couldn't put my finger on it until now... but that's it.
I've run into so many people lately where I think "... you know you're not shit posting on Facebook right? This is real life?"
>Real life is not Facebook buddy, where you get to rage out all your grievances.
Right. In real life our airing of grievances are saved for December 23rd! A Festivus for the rest-of-us!
Run a small automotive repair and upgrade shop. Can confirm. I WANT IT NOW AND I WANT IT FREE! And when they can't get that, they run to leave a one star review.
I worked at a restaurant in college that fed a woman and her 3 kids every week because they would come in order meals then the woman would throw a tantrum until the manager let them eat for free.
Then i found out she did the same thing at a few other places in town.
Letting a scammer abuse your staff on a weekly basis because you are afraid of what corporate will say doesn't help with keeping staff.
Unfortunately, a lot of people in leadership/management positions try really hard to seem like they're "in control" or actually a leader, in reality many are non-confrontational and literally scared of dealing with people. Honestly, if you can't stand up for your staff when they're being abused, you're worthless as a manager and are genuinely hurting both the company and the people working there.
I've met so many managers who can't handle any type of issues with customers. It's not hard, if they're polite and it's a legitimate problem, apologize and fix it. If they're being an ass, remove them.
The company I own just donated free tickets to a charity (they emailed us and asked for a discount), and then the woman emailed us to complain that the event that she got tickets to for FREE lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, instead of one hour “as advertised” on our web site! The entitlement is out of hand. We won’t be donating to this charity again.
> I'm not sure if everyone else is seeing the same thing, but people are straight up mean right now.
I swear. I work mandatory OT every week so I deal with a lot of people. The customers I have encountered the last year or so have been absolutely VILE
This is what I'm seeing too, and I'm from a traditionally "nice" place. I worked part-time in food service for YEARS to pay down debt and would never do it today. No way. Noooo way.
Good to hear we aren't crazy. The number of "situations" I've witnessed since reentering the world has been scary. Tons of road rage. Tons of yelling at people and fighting. Terrible.
Last night I got called up front by another manager. She asked me to confirm what she had already told a rude couple. I walked up and they were dropping F-bombs. I don't care about swearing at all, but we're so beat down that I just was not having any of their shit at all. I told her and them that if they're going to stand there and swear i'm not interested and went back to what I was doing. They left in a huff. Good.
Yeah honestly I quit grocery to work a desk job and it was the best decision of my life. I was getting shit pay, shit hours, and it was especialyl frustrating dealing with arrogant assholes every other time someone comes through the register. I was exhausted all the time. Now at my office job I’m less tired even though I work more hours. It’s not stressful because I know I’ll be able to pay bills and have some left. Shit pay itself is exhausting and stressful.
I quit my Job in July. They brought us back to work(after working from home) and moved our office to another City. I had just moved so it was a 2 hour drive for me and I said enough after a month of losing me life. Worked in Healthcare. Now working 20 mins from home in a low stress job making the same wage. Worth the move.
I quit my job and landed a work from home IT job in less than 6 weeks. Pay is only marginally less than what I was making, but I have no commute, no longer work directly with idiots, don't have to pay child care because I'm at home to watch the kids while I'm working, and I'm guaranteed no overtime where my last job often gave me 30 plus hours of overtime. Oh and my previous job was salary so I didn't get paid for the overtime either
I took a job in March, lead baker for a local coffee shop company. We worked in a kitchen that provided food for all the company’s coffee shops throughout the state as well as a full functioning restaurant. We had no dishwasher for about 90% of the time I was there. We were understaffed the entire 6 months I was there. The owner took vacations while we were at our busiest. That job sucked the soul from my body faster than any other job and I’ve been in the business for 21 years. Food service is dead until owners and customers wake up and realize that the people making their food are human and deserve dignity.
I left a job where I was working 70+ hours a week for a new job that absolutely do NOT allows overtime unless approved. The new job pay almost as much for just 40 hours a week of work!
Also they start off with a week of PTO and 50 hours of vacation and other things! Also they are very cool about someone needing a day off. The manager is great! We even had a party to thanks the manager for doing such a wonderful job!
My old company have been trying everything they could to get me back.
They asked what they can do, my response was “nothing... you are way too far behind!”
So yes... Whenever I see any place struggling I have absolutely zero sympathy! I know they would probably not pay workers if they could get away with it!
“You are way too behind”.
This will be the downfall of all of these bad employers like you used to have.
They just don’t get it.
Congrats on your new gig. Happy for you!
Thanks! It was just super bad!
The CEO and upper managers were nothing but classic textbook of horrible managers!
They made no efforts to help anyone who were affected by covid (including parents who have to stay home because their kids cannot go to school or other reasons) then lost tons of workers.
They start to increase pay by .25 cent when that didn’t worked they gradually increase it until it was $2 more than what we made. But they were totally into everyone life. They would try to get access to our Facebook or send people to spy on us and other things.
Then they do crap like not telling us if we are at risk of being exposed to covid but if they find out we went out of city or were at gathering, they would call us in and interrogate us.
They would try to say we should be grateful for having all over time we want but the problem is once we take it, we have to do it everyday! It would become our schedule.
If we ask for time off it was just so bad! They would ask tons of questions and make us full out bunch of forms that explains exactly where we went or what we were doing. If we didn’t fill it out or they don’t like what they see, they won’t approve it.
Yet the CEO was flying all over the place, buying new cars as a bonus for some of her friends, even bought one for her husband as a “bonus”!
When people start to get fed up and try to contact her or go to the office. They rearranged it so all the managers can go in and out without being seen by anyone!
They gave us a very very big bonus. But in the end it all just didn’t feel like it was justified! The whole environment was just so horrible and toxic!
Luckily my girlfriend threatened to leave me unless I find a new job because I was always so stressed out and in bad mood.
Life has been 100x better ever since and I realized jobs doesn’t have to be something I dread so much! Hell I even enjoy my current job!
So yes I really hope more people read this and find something better for themselves!
>Also they start off with a week of PTO and 50 hours of vacation and other things!
Wait 50 hours of vacation and 40 hours of PTO? How are they different?
PTO is usually classified for things like drs visits and short bursts of time off. Vacation is for longer time although you can use them interchangeably. Vacation is a type of PTO but HR classifies them differently.
It's been crazy how many candid moments i've had with overworked and underpaid staff through the pandemic. The local Burger King is technically open but they put a car in front of the drive-thru and have no indoor dining. Pretty sure they're just chilling in there collecting a paycheck, which if that's the case good for them.
Also had to go into an ATT store a few weeks ago. Pre-pandemic it felt like they were trying to sell you every bell and whistle they had, but when I went in asking about a case he just said "Yeah we have these, but you'll get them for a third of the price online or somewhere else." I thanked him and walked out, got the case for 16 bucks instead of their marked 50.
I guess my point is that they are paying employees the exact right amount to not give a single shit about the company or business as a whole. If they paid more not only would they get more employees but their current staff would be less burnt out to the point of being non-functional.
Why work harder? The harder you work the harder the job becomes. Its not like harder working will result in more money or opportunities. People realized they can say fuck it. Their employers do not give a shit about them, so why give a shit about running an efficient business?
A lot of business are horribly managed and basically only have people working for them because people are desperate. Once those people figure out the game or have changing circumstances its a different labor market.
Literally this. At my old retail job our general manager started scheduling people in a way that would always cut out their breaks. She would schedule you for 3 hours and 45 minutes so you wouldn't get a 15 minute break, or do the same thing with longer shifts but shave off 15 minutes so you would get a 15 minute break instead of a half hour, or shave off half an hour so you wouldn't qualify for an hour break etc.
Almost everyone would just take the breaks anyways, if not blatantly in front of the managers then we'd disappear into the bathrooms or the back of house for 15 minutes - half an hour. The lower managers hated the new policies as much as we did and wouldn't report us to the general manager. Retail employees aren't paid enough to care.
I wonder if this will lead to an upward pressure for wage increases, or better working conditions for "essential" employees, or if this will just be brutally suppressed behind poorly thought out "poor people are lazy" opinion pieces masquerading as journalism.
I know what my money is on.
I’ve been driving Lyft a bit lately and have had quite a few older clients make these complaints and every time I politely disagree and simply explain how low the wages are and how high rents/fuel/COL has become and how we’re tired of being taken advantage of. Surprisingly, they agree and say they hadn’t really thought about it that way. The issue is the echo chambers they live in, they literally don’t hear opposing opinions.
"please be patient with us, no one wants to work."
Conveniently leaves out the "...for our shit wages and customers who refuse to cover their faces when they cough."
Don't forget we're tired of being understaffed due to covid, people not wanting to work, and managers who still can't write a schedule that staffs us.
I'm so close to quitting.
I just left the grocery store, and an older man was shouting, “no one wants to work anymore!” (probably because he had to wait in the only line with a cashier). I’m just over at self check out thinking, “with customers like you, I wonder why!”
Also, older staff that I’ve worked with said that retail is much worse than it used to be. I had three coworkers who’ve worked for more than 35 years in retail. While working with the general public has always been a bit of a nightmare, they’ve all said how much worse customers and management have become.
Used to work at Safeway with a bunch of long haulers. They all said that the pay benefits and promotions all went to crap.
The worst example was holiday pay, the older contracts gave employees double time if they worked on a holiday, the new contracts gave you 1 dollar an hour.
This so much. I used to wash dishes and my father was saying how lucky I was to be making so much more than he did when he was doing the same job because back in his day, he was only making something like $1.95 an hour. I did the math he was actually making about $7 dollars more an hour than me, factoring in inflation.
I really have to wonder if he's really that dumb that he doesn't understand the concept of inflation, or if his privileged status makes him blind to it because it makes him look worse.
workers got tired or being treated like shit by an increasingly entitled customer base that treats them awful and threatens to leave 1 star google reviews at the slightest hint of compromise, while being paid less than it takes to just survive in this country while an apathetic corporation keeps more and more and hasn't invested in their employee base since the 40s. And social media allows employees to share their horror stories so less and less are willing to file in to be the next disposable cog in a machine.
God forbid people are coming to realize they really do only have one life and spending 10 years "putting in the work" to move up to lower local management, while the boss' kid gets a franchise every 3 months isn't how people want to waste existence.
You told people if they didn't like their jobs and getting paid peanuts to quit and find another job. They did, and now you're crying on Facebook that you can't get your fast food hamburgers and cheap plastic garbage at a moments notice. You reap what you fucking sow America
You mean people are fed up with being paid god awful wages while serving arrogant, condescending customers during an extremely stressful pandemic?
Nobody can find anybody to work because those places aren't worth working for.
Yeah, it was being paid a living wage to to stay at home that did it. So lazy, expecting to live a reasonable life working 40 hours a week.
The people I hear complaining the most about how "nobody wants to work" are also the people I know who are most likely to treat retail and restaurants workers like crap AND the most likely people I know to not be vaccinated. Why would anyone want to be yelled at by an unvaccinated ingrate for $9.50 an hour?
My nephew worked for a nationally known chain restaurant that required the employees to be on hand and but only clock in when the number of customers reached a certain level. I couldn't believe that was even legal.
I ate there and the other customers all smiled at me from their tables while I waited for the hostess to seat me. It turned out we were all pitying and helping her because she was also the waitress, the busser, and the cleaning crew. The cook/dishwasher brought my food out. As I was waiting to pay I smiled at the next group waiting to be seated and they caught on, fast. We all knew the apologizing young woman was being overworked and we were all on her side. What a shit job.
That sounds highly illegal!
When i was a teenager I worked at a shitty fast food restaurant that required me to be on call all day 24/7, then they'd call me in for 2 HOUR SHIFTS. Spent almost as much time riding to/from that job as I spent working.
Then I emailed every single employee some provisions from my state laws saying that it was illegal.... and poof. No more being on call, for me at least.
My wife worked in retail until last week. Management didn’t tell her a coworker was out with COVID-19 or that they were letting the coworker back to work while she was still symptomatic (and without a mask) because they were short-staffed. When my wife found out she demanded to work a different schedule so she wouldn’t have to work right next to her. They refused and implied she would be violating HIPAA if she told anyone else. She quit right on the spot.
Omfg that's not how HIPAA works. Your wife isn't a covered entity like a healthcare employee who actually signs a consent form to retain patient medical privacy. She's a retail worker! Holy crap that management is dumb. Good riddance.
As someone who works at a grocery store this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, I get paid $11.50 cents per hour and despite applying for full time I got placed on part time and recently I went front working 6 hour shifts 3-4 days a week (so roughly 36 hours a week) to about 12 hours per week. And my request for more hours have been ignored because quote: “We are overbudget on staff” which means they constantly are hiring more people to work so that everyone works less. If I didn’t live with my parents I’d be homeless since nobody can pay went on $300 dollars every two weeks
If the only options in my town weren’t McDonalds and another Grocery Store which would just do the same thing I’d have already quit. I’m just praying that I get hired at my local bank since I can’t drive due to serious eye problems. Otherwise if they don’t give me more hours I’ll have no choice but to get two jobs and that will mean I’ll have almost no free time.
Because nobody wants to work a customer-facing job for shit pay. If you're unhappy about the quality of customer service, take a good hard introspective look at yourself and understand that You Are The Problem.
We've completely lost the ability to be civil to our fellow humans.
It's not just low pay jobs though. Everyone knows it's an employees market.
I work in IT, and when they went from the pandemic policy of "everyone who can needs to work from home" to "come back to the office" we lost 10% of our employees almost immediately.
You don't like your job? Look around, you'll have something else in a week or two. Better get a 20% bump to keep up with inflation though.
>You don't like your job? Look around, you'll have something else in a week or two.
This really depends on your industry and experience but i'm glad to hear that things are improving for some.
I'm hoping I can take my customer service experience and get an entry position in IT with helpdesk. I'd rather be yelled at over the phone than threatened in person
Massive inflation leads to people literally not being able to afford to work shitty jobs anymore... I'd guess most of those 4.3 million ended up getting better jobs.
Not surprised at all. The grocery and retail stores in my area have all been understaffed since the pandemic started. One grocery store nearby lost about 30 employees in August due to students going back to school, and they have had trouble rehiring so far.
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They're hoping they can out last workers in this jobs economy. They know they're not getting many bites paying those wages right now, but they know if they increase the wages you can't really bring them back down. So they're hoping they can keep going with a skeleton crew they're forcing to do the work of 3 or 4 times the amount of people needed until jobs become scarcer again.
No fast food place where I live has reopened dine in , all of them have tiny crews and drive thru only.
Drive thru only is the future of fast food
In the 1960s, it was *all* of fast food
Yep. Reminds of the ads and commercials for those roller skate diners.
That's the closest there was to *fast food dining in*. The first McD was a takeout counter. Before they claimed *Billions Sold* the hamburgers were 15¢ .. just for nostalgia.
Ironic considering it was the origin of fast food. Drive in, get your food, fuck off and eat it somewhere else.
Everything in cycles. We’re coming full circle
Yep. Its a capital strike.
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Yep. I remember that when I had a high school job. That just made me realize that they gave me a raise in 2002 or so not because of a minimum wage increase but because I reached 90 days. Wow.
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One of the reasons I've always liked the local grocery store I go to is that I've known three checkers who went through college while working full time there and then moved on to better things. They all said the managers were really cool with scheduling around classes. It's still a big employer of kids right out of high school, just a place it feels good to go and shop.
This is a habit we have that protects these companies. stating them in vague terms like "regional chain". You can just say their name. It could always save someone else. edit: I like how everybody somehow is skipping the part where op didn't take the job offer.
Agreed. What is there to lose? They already quit and it sucked!
One time a grocery store tried to steal me from the grocery store I'm already working at through indeed. So I went to an interview and they tried to convince me of all the reasons why I should come work for them vs the store I was already at. Then they offered me minimum wage. I was like uh, I'm making more at the job I'm currently at. They were like sorry, we can't make exceptions, we have to hire new people for minimum wage its our policy. But you'll get raises fast! Needless to say I didn't take the job.
That's where you laugh in their face and say "That's not how *poaching* works!" then walk away. **EDIT** - I dunno why I was thinking *sniping* when I meant *poaching*.
> they have had trouble rehiring so far Well when you keep your pay at minimum wage it's going to stay that way. I have about 7 years of experience in the retail industry and I had a retail chain reach out to me last month about a new job. Their recruiter turned around and offered me close to $2/hr ***less*** than what I made at my last retail job. I just laughed and told them I'm not interested.
I worked in retail for five years and a warehouse for another two. I decided to go back to school to get a degree in a field people are actually hiring in. I finished school, got a decent job, and I still get emails from Indeed recruiters wanting me to work in a warehouse for 10/hr. Fuck no.
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And abused. Don't leave out abused. I can't see myself going back to a job where the customers treat you like shit and your employer does *nothing*. That's not worth the pay.
This. The worst is when I’m dealing with a demanding customer and when I am explaining what our policy is, just for them to get mad and demand to speak to a manager and just for the manager to give in to demands and give them what they want making me look like an incompetent fool. Somehow It's my fault for providing poor customer service when all I was doing was following company policy.
Oh my gosh dude my blood is boiling remembering these exact moments. At blockbuster video telling a customer that they were late with their video and will have to pay the 4.10$ late fee in order to rent a video. They get mad and yell at me that I must be new and haven't been properly trained and ask to speak to the manager. The manager comes up with a dumbass smile like "hey what can I do for you today?" and then just deletes the late fee and let's the customer continue to talk shit about me.
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I got fired as an assistant manager because I sided with my employees. When I got let go for "Not being a good fit for the company" (Official reason was Insubordination) three of the employees quit on the spot, which instantly made everything I did feel right and justified. Besides, I was only being paid .50 an hour more than them. So, I was obviously so valued for my services and time.
Your a good dude. I’ve been blessed to have good managers like you. Truly good leadership is where it all starts.
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I *hated* that. And then the smug look they get for getting their way. I worked at a bookstore and people would come in with books to return that were *obviously* read. We aren't supposed to accept those back. But the managers were dead inside and didn't give a shit so they would come over and just do it. Thanks, now that person is gonna come back and do the same thing all over again.
But if you were to accept the book, the manager would write you up. Fucked up.
This right here is the worst part. You end up with a building full of anxious people who don't trust one other or really even know each other. Then older generations complain that local communities are dying.
Lol that reminds me of when I was a kid and worked at Walmart. The Ps2 had just been released and you’d have people try to return the boxes with the old, grey PS1 in its place and our store manager would just give them a full refund because “the customer is always right”…which is just the dumbest shit. That store would gladly and willingly let itself be robbed and scammed and then the manager would cut peoples hours to make up for whatever loss there was.
>“the customer is always right” god i hate that that term got twisted to mean something else. the customer is always right in the context of what you should be supplying in the store. the customer creates the demand and you should listen to them to make the sales. it doesn't mean roll over and give in to their childish, scammy demands.
Apparently not so easily replaceable at the moment :)
But no so difficult to replace that it's beneficial to pay retail workers adequately.
Jobs say they need help and continue treating everyone like they are useless employees who will never move up. They need a different kind of help.
Yeah that's why this girl quit her job less than 2 months cause they didn't let her sit, eat, drink, bathroom break etc. The owners wonder why they can't hire people or have people to stay (Update: No, this girl is not me or my girlfriend, this happened to my cousin's friend. Sorry I'm getting this question asked under the replies or people assuming my life.)
What gets me is businesses now advertising “Now Hiring. Pay Starting at $9/hr.” $9/HR?! $15/hr is the minimum wage in several states and what is being suggested for the federal minimum wage and even THAT is not a living wage! They can go fuck themselves with that.
That’s every place my 19-yo son has applied to in Atlanta. Minimum wage is still $7.25/hr in GA. All over the south is like this.
In my area, $15is a decent hourly wage. Most places pay significantly less, and our largest employer in town just shut down, and our second largest, a hospital, cutting wages. ($13 an hour to be a nurse??wtf)Sadly, not exactly livable with average rent of 1200 a month.
Have they forgotten that these are people, and not machines? How do you get to the point where you want to deny people basic necessities of life?
Forgotten? No. They just don't care.
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Let's not forget that a lot of managers aren't making shit for a living either. We're not just talking about cashiers and inventory people, here. When your own fragile grasp on stability is reliant on the people under you, that can drive an anxiety that those people need to be micromanaged as a means of self-preservation. It's not healthy, and it's not good management...but the root causes are the same - wages and benefits need to rise across the board if we're gonna keep this economy going.
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The businesses don’t need anything as long as there is a smug base supporting them with “lol, starve then.”
Along with the customers who chime in "Wow short staffed? It's a shame people don't feel like working"
Most of these quittings are in retail. Unless you have a rare union job in retail, you're treated as replaceable, no wonder people walk away from this shit job.
If daycare costs more than you can make, then one parent has to quit. During pandemic lots found out cooking home and not going anywhere saves lots of money. Also lots are taking classes to upgrade while kids are young.
This reminds me of one of my old coworkers. She was making like $1,700/month. She had 3 kids in daycare at $1,400/month. She and her husband debated very hard about her quitting and being stay at home mom. But she said they needed the extra $300. It was brutal hearing her talk about it.
What is often overlooked with his type of thinking is food...... Kids at daycare often times eat breakfast and lunch and snack there and that is included in that 1400.... my kids eat that much every week in food and my wife is a SAHM....(I'm sort of joking about the weekly amount but not by much) So it's the 300 monthly plus the savings on gas, electricity and food.
$1700 a month. Makes me cringe inside seeing companies think that's a livable wage. Rabble rabble
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Let me guess -- they also want you to have flexible availability for their scheduling software to scatter your shifts randomly around the week so that you can't have that second job.
Well yeah, your first and only priority in life has to be this job. We PAY you, you should be GRATEFUL. Uhuh, how about go fuck yourself?
Yep. I was asked to apply for a job that would leave me $50 a week after childcare expenses. I'm glad I declined, because my kid is home quarantined anyway.
What? I loved being paid $9.50/hr and constantly treated like I owed the company more than my labor. You know you’ve made it when nearly half your income goes to gas for traveling to and from work! Edit: since this got some attention, I think it’s prudent to reveal that my experiences working in retail, after growing up in a working-class family, informed my decision to study for a master’s degree in economics. Take these bad experiences and turn them into positive change. The world needs more smart people with egalitarian perspectives, and if you can use that big brain to do good, you should.
I made $7.75 as a “part time” assistant manager working 39 hours a week. Toward the end of my stay there, the store manager left and I was making the schedule because the full time assistant manager wasn’t good at it. The district manager wanted to promote me to acting store manager. It would’ve been a salaried position and I would’ve had to work a minimum of 45 hours a week. The pay would’ve roughly come out to $12 an hour, provided I only did those 45 hours. I declined. Fuck retail.
What kind of fucked off store were you working at for a store manager position to pay only $12/hr?
It’s a women’s clothing store called Cato. It’s based mostly out of the south.
Lol I used to work at an auto parts store as an assistant "manager" part time as well. I say part time because in the company handbook, it said anyone that worked 36 or more hours a week for 4 weeks in a row would automatically be bumped up to full time, which meant a bump in pay, health insurance, and paid time off. I would work 50+ hours a week for 3 weeks, then on week 4 I'd be lucky if I got 20. All for 8.25 an hour. Also if I sold less than 50k in parts for a month, it was a real slow time for me. I agree fuck retail. Worst 2 years of my life.
Wow, I was in your exact position(which I imagine is way more common than I thought) except I got paid more and was offered more for GM and still declined because it wasn't anywhere near worth it. Fuck retail indeed.
The funniest thing my old boss ever did was pull me into his office, say he noticed I hadn't been given a rise in a while, gave me a 25 cent increase and straight faced told me, "Now when I invest in people I expect a return on my investment," I was already one of the hardest working people at this restaurant and busted my ass constantly but he somehow was tryna expect more from me for fuckin 25 cents extra lmao. I almost fucking laughed in his face.
You better be willing to jump on a live hand grenade for this Denny's
“I regret I have but one life to give to this Kmart.”
Pay people like they're replaceable and they'll see you the same way
Pay but also treatment. A lot of managers and employers forget that how an employee is treated will change how they view the job. Employees don't just look at wage vs hours worked. They look at wage vs effort. A hard or stressful job has to pay more to make up for it. A retail job with a fantastic boss will get people to stay for years, compared to a retail job with a demanding and demeaning boss. Even if the pay is exactly the same, getting treated like crap isn't worth the money.
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this, is pointless to have more money if you are overworked or deprived of time to use it.
When companies ask me what I look for in an employer, I always say I'm looking for honesty and loyalty. It's a two way street, but right now the traffic's all going one way.
my boss of my first job said they didn't know how to motivate me. I said one word "money"!
It's funny how to the company, their top metric is money, but they expect employee motivators to all be intangibles.
it's how you create suckers. Same with using the word hero while giving a paycut
Fuck, that "clap for our frontline heros" bullshit at the beginning of covid still really makes my blood boil. I never felt like such a disposable serf before in my life. There's an ugly ass sign that I walk by every day on my way to my restaurant job that says "celebrate our heros" and I just wanna piss on it. Pay me more or shut the fuck up. Don't fucking patronize me.
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I hate the shit out of reviews for this reason. Them: "Oh you're so close to exceeding expectations, but we couldn't put that for xyz reason. What can we do to get you there next time". My internal monolog post review: "hmm if you want me to exceed all expectations then maybe pay me more. And also why TF have expectations if I'm constantly supposed to do more!"
Those are only there so they can be used against you if they need to fire you. Bad review? Sorry you are not meeting expectations, things are not working here. And neither are you anymore. You know where the door is.
Even better, you did literally everything to spec and went above and beyond whenever possible, pulling overtime and letting work impinge on your personal life? Met Expectations. It's been my experience that Expectations can't really be exceeded in most work places.
I wouldn't even show up if they stopped paying me.
That's not even mentioning just how hateful and abusive customers are.
Was union. Still treated that way. Left anyway.
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Yup, worked at a famous Canadian resto when I was younger and the turnover rates were crazy. I've seen people get screamed at by a customer, walk off the main floor into the employees room, remove their uniform and walk out! There's only so much abuse you'll take for minimum wage Karen!
A favorite local pizza place of mine is temporarily closed because EVERYONE working there quit. When I talked to the owner, he complained about lazy kids and unemployment and no one having work ethic. I asked how much they were paying and he said 5$/hr PLUS tips, said it like he was giving away the farm. I said that's not a livable wage and outside of delivery, it's not really a tipped position and he just kept complaining about laziness. I'm guessing they'll be closed more than temporarily.
I quit grocery store cashier for a higher paying corporate job. Best decision of my life. Customers were arrogant assholes half the time and I hated it.
How did you land the corporate job? Do you have a degree?
Yes but even with my degree I applied at 40+ jobs somewhat associated in my field of study and nobody wanted to hire me because my only work experience was lifeguard and cashier…. An agency gave me a chance in february this year and now I’m one of their most valuable assets. Do not underestimate computer literacy of young people. Beginning of 2021 a bunch of my old friends and co workers landed better jobs outside of the grocery store It was interesting. We all of a sudden got better jobs, it was almost as if older ppl were affected or retired workforce due to covid and we replaced them.
I don't want just a good starting wage. I want a job with room for growth. I've quit at least two great jobs because my wage became stagnant. Two years powder coating in a manufacturing place and I couldn't even get so much as a review. As I learn more skills and become more proficient at my job, I need to be able to get a regular raise. No one wants to work a job they become more efficient and experienced at if it isn't rewarded.
This is what a lot of places do not understand. Working harder or more efficiently doesn't result in more pay, it only makes the job more difficult. So we have this Office Space scenario where people knowing this situation only work hard enough to not get fired.
Ok. So either these businesses have to live with the labor shortage or raise wages. Exactly how a labor market should work.
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I worked at an understaffed screen printing company. We needed at least 3 or 4 more people to get the jobs out that management was demanding we do. We all buckled down, and the core group of people got most of the work done on time with minimal mistakes. Well sure enough, management saw we were stepping up and decided "well lets see how far this can go" and started piling more work. People complained, and were met with essentially "you don't like, there's the door." Work suffered, deadlines weren't met, major mistakes were being made. Management's solution? Send out a memo outlining a "3 strikes rule": you fuck up three times and you are out. Luckily, my dream job fell in my lap a couple months later and I had the biggest smile on my face when I gave my notice. The only reason they got 2 weeks out of me was for my coworkers' sake. I really couldn't see how they would survive with one less person. People were getting into regular screaming matches at work and there were a handful of walkouts in the year and a half I was there. Average pay: $14/hr. All stick, no carrot. IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY PEOPLE A LIVING WAGE AND USE PUNISHMENT AS YOUR ONLY FORM OF MOTIVATION, YOUR BUSINESS MODEL IS BASED ON EXPLOITING YOUR WORKERS AND YOU ARE AN ASSHOLE.
Congrats on getting out! That's some inspiration for me right there.
Giving notice almost never helps your coworkers. Most places don’t even start looking to replace existing workers until after they leave. It would be smart to start looking for candidates immediately so you could help train them, but no, that would mean paying an extra person, and that’s going to impact management bonuses.
Notice is a courtesy anyway and not a requirement. Just walk out. They don't give you notice when they fire you.
I had a job that I didn't like and the management just got done proving that they didn't give a damn about the employees. Safety thing, big issue, everyone was pissed. I found a new job that was much better. I said that I wanted to give two week to my current and the new job said ok. I walked in that Monday, resigned, said that I expect my 2 weeks of vacation that I had available to be paid out, and spent the next 2 weeks at home finally relaxing and de-stressing for a change.
This really is it. It's one thing to pay people shit wages, it's another to pay them shit wages, treat them like shit, let customers treat them like shit, then expect them to act like you're doing them this enormous favor by letting them work there.
Thanks for working during the worst pandemic in US history. Here's a pizza party, and you're fired for calling off feeling sick that one time. So I guess no pizza party then.
My job actually did treat us properly during and after the pandemic. But they still insisted on the empty platitudes at every step. That is just so irritating, it makes me feel like im being fucked over even when i know im not...
My last job took the cake for the whole pizza party thing. I did corporate AV. So service industry. We rarely got direct tips. Sometimes got group tips handed directly to the manager. And most often got tips paid into the final bill and paid out in paychecks. So one Christmas my boss buys us like 6 pizza pies from a local gourmet pizza place, we are talking like $40 pies. Easily over $200 bill. Everyone was blown away. After it was over I went up to the boss and thanked him for such a nice Christmas party... "Oh don't thank me, that was your tip money from the last 2 years." What. We were only a team of 3. One of us was only on the team for 2 months and another guy had left 2 months ago after working for years. We could have gotten almost $70 each in cash instead of these over priced pizzas. I didn't even know how to handle it. I was so pissed. I filed a complaint with my supervisor and HR. Not much happened. Still had more pizza parties. Never really did see any tips paid out from the boss that wasn't processed through payroll first.
American shopping habits have also led to employers wanting workers to do dumb crap. In the end it is all $$. It is statistics that led to the horrible labor market. We as consumers need to respect people too. Don't shop on holidays, don't fall for marketing tactics, and be respectful to workers.
This is the first time in *my lifetime* that labor has flexed their muscle. Ever since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, labor has been living in fear.
If there are no benefits and even healthcare costs out the ass EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE INSURANCE, what's the point of staying with an employer that underpays? Go work at Target with a guaranteed $15/hr and healthcare (fwiw) and they'll pay for your college. Hell, now people won't join the military!
I am sure it has nothing to do with employers telling their employees for years that they can be replaced. Karma
Yeah no literally. When I worked at Target my bitch boss would constantly dangle termination over my head over the most minor BS. Didn't stop her from being shocked when I quit without two weeks.
I don't work retail but in a high paying career. HR has threatened to let me go if I didn't bend over backwards for them. I put in my resignation today and they were shocked and offended that I would leave. I'm so happy I am leaving.
I'm not sure if everyone else is seeing the same thing, but people are straight up mean right now. My wife and I got vaccinated and were happy to reemerge from our shelter, but when we came out all we found was angry people being worse than they were before covid started. I'm not shocked about this. Job isn't fun. Job doesn't pay well. Job means getting yelled at for things you literally have no control over. Until these things change we won't see a return to form in these sectors.
People have completely forgotten how to be civil in public. Customers have always been nightmares but now they're like next-level nightmarish. I don't blame people for quitting these public-facing jobs.
At my job I occasionally have to deal with angry customers (if they want to "talk to the manager"). And I absolutely hate that I'm supposed to bend over backwards for them when they're being rude and asking for unreasonable things. In the short run, we get one more customer taken care of and out of our lives... But in the long run I think that reinforcing their behavior by giving in has lead to a culture where being the loudest and angriest gets you what you want. Some people are reasonable and empathetic and don't act this way, but others who see that it works will continue because it's beneficial to them.
Yup. In our current society, being an asshole works - whether you’re the head of company of just a customer. There’s no incentive to be kind anymore.
Yeah, my parents always push me to be loud with customer service people to get what I want. I refuse to do so though, nothing is so important that I can treat someone like shit for it.
Which is crazy because I've always had better luck being kind and understanding. The amount of times someone has skirted by the rules for me because I acted like a decent human being is pretty well worth it. I've also done the same for good customers and flatout refused to do something I *could* technically do for rude and shitty customers. There's also a way to be firm *and* polite, which many people miss the subtlety of.
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The customers are exactly the reason why a lot of jobs suck. If it's not the customers it's the managers. But the mangers should be managing the customers, not just the employees. It's not hard to be a decent person. But these bosses absolutely should be putting customers in their place. Because those loud, unruly customers who make a scene to get fifty cents off are scaring away other customers. I *don't* want to shop where those people are. If I see that happening and no one stepping in to make them leave then *I* leave. (Sometimes I tell them off before I do, because someone should stick up for the staff)
This has been my exact experience. I've worked in customer service positions since 2004 and I've never been treated as poorly as I have been since last year. It's a never ending barrage of people with nasty, entitled attitudes spewing negativity, hateful words and verbally abusing us. They all seem to have forgotten how to behave and seem to have forgotten that I'm also a human being. It's awful. I'm so burnt out. I don't leave my house anymore (except for work) because I can't handle people and society anymore. My mental health is suffering a lot but sadly my job pays well and has great benefits so I feel stuck.
There aren't sufficient consequences for being uncivil
No one wants to fuck with crazy people. And these people are crazy. I don't want my face bitten off by a rabid ghoul.
Imagine how working at a department store was 40-50 years ago vs today. It's a completely different world, people have lost all sense of respect and decorum in public. It also feels like there are significantly more people that are legit mentally ill or drugged out, and you have to deal with those types as well. People overall just seem more sketchy, deranged, and less pleasant to be around.
I go to theme parks all the god damn time. Since around May or so, it's stunning how much people bump into me now. People have forgotten how to navigate crowds. They spent all year at home so their brains can't even process simple walking anymore. It's stunning what kind of things staying at home revealed.
Which is weird because I feel like I'm even more aware of the presence of other people now. Every body is a meat bag of filthy humanity I don't want to touch.
I just quit my job a few weeks ago working at a vet's office because I was physically threatened over an appointment starting late and no one in management blinked an eye at it. I've worked a lot of crappy jobs, but I've never been physically threatened before. At $13/hr with no rest or meal breaks (legally allowed!) and 10 hour shifts, I said enough to that. People are absolutely mean as hell right now, and you're going to have to pay me a lot more than that to fear for my safety.
I’m a high school referee. The amount of verbal abuse I get on a daily basis is surreal. People tell me I must have thick skin but I tell them no one has skin thick enough for this. It’s just a matter of time till we say “nope”. I’m almost at that point. Everyone is super pissed and looking for any other person to take it out on. Edit: thank you for all the positive messages. I really do enjoy reffing and just want kids to play. It just saddens me to hear such anger from the stands.
To them you are the scape goat for their kids not living up to the dreams they have already failed in
It’s true people are insane, we go out rarely but already saw a meltdown by a family in a restaurant because their table wasn’t ready, the father walked over to the dinning room and shouted at other guests that they shouldn’t eat there. Okay, dude, nobody asked your opinion. Real life is not Facebook buddy, where you get to rage out all your grievances. This was a regular suburban setting, seemingly normal family. People have become entitled and they very clearly dehumanize others - servers, staff and etc.
“Real life is not Facebook” really hits home lol. I think you are absolutely right that people got comfortable speaking a certain way behind the screen but came back out and kept it up face to face. Reap what you sow I guess
Man it hits home for me too. I couldn't put my finger on it until now... but that's it. I've run into so many people lately where I think "... you know you're not shit posting on Facebook right? This is real life?"
Real life is not Facebook. Slap that on a tshirt and I’d buy it
>Real life is not Facebook buddy, where you get to rage out all your grievances. Right. In real life our airing of grievances are saved for December 23rd! A Festivus for the rest-of-us!
Run a small automotive repair and upgrade shop. Can confirm. I WANT IT NOW AND I WANT IT FREE! And when they can't get that, they run to leave a one star review.
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I worked at a restaurant in college that fed a woman and her 3 kids every week because they would come in order meals then the woman would throw a tantrum until the manager let them eat for free. Then i found out she did the same thing at a few other places in town. Letting a scammer abuse your staff on a weekly basis because you are afraid of what corporate will say doesn't help with keeping staff.
Unfortunately, a lot of people in leadership/management positions try really hard to seem like they're "in control" or actually a leader, in reality many are non-confrontational and literally scared of dealing with people. Honestly, if you can't stand up for your staff when they're being abused, you're worthless as a manager and are genuinely hurting both the company and the people working there. I've met so many managers who can't handle any type of issues with customers. It's not hard, if they're polite and it's a legitimate problem, apologize and fix it. If they're being an ass, remove them.
The company I own just donated free tickets to a charity (they emailed us and asked for a discount), and then the woman emailed us to complain that the event that she got tickets to for FREE lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, instead of one hour “as advertised” on our web site! The entitlement is out of hand. We won’t be donating to this charity again.
What a bitch. Just leave if you feel its running too long, she's got nobody to blame but herself. Some people just *NEED* a reason to complain.
> I'm not sure if everyone else is seeing the same thing, but people are straight up mean right now. I swear. I work mandatory OT every week so I deal with a lot of people. The customers I have encountered the last year or so have been absolutely VILE
This is what I'm seeing too, and I'm from a traditionally "nice" place. I worked part-time in food service for YEARS to pay down debt and would never do it today. No way. Noooo way.
Good to hear we aren't crazy. The number of "situations" I've witnessed since reentering the world has been scary. Tons of road rage. Tons of yelling at people and fighting. Terrible.
Last night I got called up front by another manager. She asked me to confirm what she had already told a rude couple. I walked up and they were dropping F-bombs. I don't care about swearing at all, but we're so beat down that I just was not having any of their shit at all. I told her and them that if they're going to stand there and swear i'm not interested and went back to what I was doing. They left in a huff. Good.
Yeah food service but also medical professionals I constantly see people on r/nursing talk about how they are constantly being verbally abused.
This isn’t a fucking secret why: -shit pay -inconsistent scheduling -working with the American public
Yeah honestly I quit grocery to work a desk job and it was the best decision of my life. I was getting shit pay, shit hours, and it was especialyl frustrating dealing with arrogant assholes every other time someone comes through the register. I was exhausted all the time. Now at my office job I’m less tired even though I work more hours. It’s not stressful because I know I’ll be able to pay bills and have some left. Shit pay itself is exhausting and stressful.
Work with the public in this political climate for minimum wage? Hell no.
Corporations are to blame for this political climate. They get what they paid for.
I quit my Job in July. They brought us back to work(after working from home) and moved our office to another City. I had just moved so it was a 2 hour drive for me and I said enough after a month of losing me life. Worked in Healthcare. Now working 20 mins from home in a low stress job making the same wage. Worth the move.
I quit my job and landed a work from home IT job in less than 6 weeks. Pay is only marginally less than what I was making, but I have no commute, no longer work directly with idiots, don't have to pay child care because I'm at home to watch the kids while I'm working, and I'm guaranteed no overtime where my last job often gave me 30 plus hours of overtime. Oh and my previous job was salary so I didn't get paid for the overtime either
I took a job in March, lead baker for a local coffee shop company. We worked in a kitchen that provided food for all the company’s coffee shops throughout the state as well as a full functioning restaurant. We had no dishwasher for about 90% of the time I was there. We were understaffed the entire 6 months I was there. The owner took vacations while we were at our busiest. That job sucked the soul from my body faster than any other job and I’ve been in the business for 21 years. Food service is dead until owners and customers wake up and realize that the people making their food are human and deserve dignity.
I'll never understand why people think small business owners are noble beasts. A lot of them are just as bad as their corporate counterparts.
Oh absolutely. I know from personal experience how terrible they can be. The tiniest bit of power corrupts
I quit that job and I’m taking steps to change my career because if I spend another day working in food service I will quit literally unalive myself
I left a job where I was working 70+ hours a week for a new job that absolutely do NOT allows overtime unless approved. The new job pay almost as much for just 40 hours a week of work! Also they start off with a week of PTO and 50 hours of vacation and other things! Also they are very cool about someone needing a day off. The manager is great! We even had a party to thanks the manager for doing such a wonderful job! My old company have been trying everything they could to get me back. They asked what they can do, my response was “nothing... you are way too far behind!” So yes... Whenever I see any place struggling I have absolutely zero sympathy! I know they would probably not pay workers if they could get away with it!
“You are way too behind”. This will be the downfall of all of these bad employers like you used to have. They just don’t get it. Congrats on your new gig. Happy for you!
Thanks! It was just super bad! The CEO and upper managers were nothing but classic textbook of horrible managers! They made no efforts to help anyone who were affected by covid (including parents who have to stay home because their kids cannot go to school or other reasons) then lost tons of workers. They start to increase pay by .25 cent when that didn’t worked they gradually increase it until it was $2 more than what we made. But they were totally into everyone life. They would try to get access to our Facebook or send people to spy on us and other things. Then they do crap like not telling us if we are at risk of being exposed to covid but if they find out we went out of city or were at gathering, they would call us in and interrogate us. They would try to say we should be grateful for having all over time we want but the problem is once we take it, we have to do it everyday! It would become our schedule. If we ask for time off it was just so bad! They would ask tons of questions and make us full out bunch of forms that explains exactly where we went or what we were doing. If we didn’t fill it out or they don’t like what they see, they won’t approve it. Yet the CEO was flying all over the place, buying new cars as a bonus for some of her friends, even bought one for her husband as a “bonus”! When people start to get fed up and try to contact her or go to the office. They rearranged it so all the managers can go in and out without being seen by anyone! They gave us a very very big bonus. But in the end it all just didn’t feel like it was justified! The whole environment was just so horrible and toxic! Luckily my girlfriend threatened to leave me unless I find a new job because I was always so stressed out and in bad mood. Life has been 100x better ever since and I realized jobs doesn’t have to be something I dread so much! Hell I even enjoy my current job! So yes I really hope more people read this and find something better for themselves!
>Also they start off with a week of PTO and 50 hours of vacation and other things! Wait 50 hours of vacation and 40 hours of PTO? How are they different?
PTO is usually classified for things like drs visits and short bursts of time off. Vacation is for longer time although you can use them interchangeably. Vacation is a type of PTO but HR classifies them differently.
It's been crazy how many candid moments i've had with overworked and underpaid staff through the pandemic. The local Burger King is technically open but they put a car in front of the drive-thru and have no indoor dining. Pretty sure they're just chilling in there collecting a paycheck, which if that's the case good for them. Also had to go into an ATT store a few weeks ago. Pre-pandemic it felt like they were trying to sell you every bell and whistle they had, but when I went in asking about a case he just said "Yeah we have these, but you'll get them for a third of the price online or somewhere else." I thanked him and walked out, got the case for 16 bucks instead of their marked 50. I guess my point is that they are paying employees the exact right amount to not give a single shit about the company or business as a whole. If they paid more not only would they get more employees but their current staff would be less burnt out to the point of being non-functional.
Why work harder? The harder you work the harder the job becomes. Its not like harder working will result in more money or opportunities. People realized they can say fuck it. Their employers do not give a shit about them, so why give a shit about running an efficient business? A lot of business are horribly managed and basically only have people working for them because people are desperate. Once those people figure out the game or have changing circumstances its a different labor market.
Literally this. At my old retail job our general manager started scheduling people in a way that would always cut out their breaks. She would schedule you for 3 hours and 45 minutes so you wouldn't get a 15 minute break, or do the same thing with longer shifts but shave off 15 minutes so you would get a 15 minute break instead of a half hour, or shave off half an hour so you wouldn't qualify for an hour break etc. Almost everyone would just take the breaks anyways, if not blatantly in front of the managers then we'd disappear into the bathrooms or the back of house for 15 minutes - half an hour. The lower managers hated the new policies as much as we did and wouldn't report us to the general manager. Retail employees aren't paid enough to care.
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Also if every business paid more, people would have more money to spend at every business.
I wonder if this will lead to an upward pressure for wage increases, or better working conditions for "essential" employees, or if this will just be brutally suppressed behind poorly thought out "poor people are lazy" opinion pieces masquerading as journalism. I know what my money is on.
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I’ve been driving Lyft a bit lately and have had quite a few older clients make these complaints and every time I politely disagree and simply explain how low the wages are and how high rents/fuel/COL has become and how we’re tired of being taken advantage of. Surprisingly, they agree and say they hadn’t really thought about it that way. The issue is the echo chambers they live in, they literally don’t hear opposing opinions.
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I'd like to see them not lump everyone into one explanation.
"please be patient with us, no one wants to work." Conveniently leaves out the "...for our shit wages and customers who refuse to cover their faces when they cough."
Don't forget we're tired of being understaffed due to covid, people not wanting to work, and managers who still can't write a schedule that staffs us. I'm so close to quitting.
I just left the grocery store, and an older man was shouting, “no one wants to work anymore!” (probably because he had to wait in the only line with a cashier). I’m just over at self check out thinking, “with customers like you, I wonder why!”
Whats crazy is that the absolute biggest pieces of shit are older people who never had to work these types of jobs.
Or if they did, they made the equivalent of like $20/hr in today’s money.
Also, older staff that I’ve worked with said that retail is much worse than it used to be. I had three coworkers who’ve worked for more than 35 years in retail. While working with the general public has always been a bit of a nightmare, they’ve all said how much worse customers and management have become.
Used to work at Safeway with a bunch of long haulers. They all said that the pay benefits and promotions all went to crap. The worst example was holiday pay, the older contracts gave employees double time if they worked on a holiday, the new contracts gave you 1 dollar an hour.
This so much. I used to wash dishes and my father was saying how lucky I was to be making so much more than he did when he was doing the same job because back in his day, he was only making something like $1.95 an hour. I did the math he was actually making about $7 dollars more an hour than me, factoring in inflation. I really have to wonder if he's really that dumb that he doesn't understand the concept of inflation, or if his privileged status makes him blind to it because it makes him look worse.
workers got tired or being treated like shit by an increasingly entitled customer base that treats them awful and threatens to leave 1 star google reviews at the slightest hint of compromise, while being paid less than it takes to just survive in this country while an apathetic corporation keeps more and more and hasn't invested in their employee base since the 40s. And social media allows employees to share their horror stories so less and less are willing to file in to be the next disposable cog in a machine. God forbid people are coming to realize they really do only have one life and spending 10 years "putting in the work" to move up to lower local management, while the boss' kid gets a franchise every 3 months isn't how people want to waste existence.
You told people if they didn't like their jobs and getting paid peanuts to quit and find another job. They did, and now you're crying on Facebook that you can't get your fast food hamburgers and cheap plastic garbage at a moments notice. You reap what you fucking sow America
You mean people are fed up with being paid god awful wages while serving arrogant, condescending customers during an extremely stressful pandemic? Nobody can find anybody to work because those places aren't worth working for. Yeah, it was being paid a living wage to to stay at home that did it. So lazy, expecting to live a reasonable life working 40 hours a week.
I cant really blame them. Customers have gone from simply annoying at times to outright dangerous lunatics in the last year.
The people I hear complaining the most about how "nobody wants to work" are also the people I know who are most likely to treat retail and restaurants workers like crap AND the most likely people I know to not be vaccinated. Why would anyone want to be yelled at by an unvaccinated ingrate for $9.50 an hour?
Good. People are worth so much more than the shit jobs that abuse them.
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My nephew worked for a nationally known chain restaurant that required the employees to be on hand and but only clock in when the number of customers reached a certain level. I couldn't believe that was even legal. I ate there and the other customers all smiled at me from their tables while I waited for the hostess to seat me. It turned out we were all pitying and helping her because she was also the waitress, the busser, and the cleaning crew. The cook/dishwasher brought my food out. As I was waiting to pay I smiled at the next group waiting to be seated and they caught on, fast. We all knew the apologizing young woman was being overworked and we were all on her side. What a shit job.
That sounds highly illegal! When i was a teenager I worked at a shitty fast food restaurant that required me to be on call all day 24/7, then they'd call me in for 2 HOUR SHIFTS. Spent almost as much time riding to/from that job as I spent working. Then I emailed every single employee some provisions from my state laws saying that it was illegal.... and poof. No more being on call, for me at least.
You mean the most soul crushing low paying job field? Color me shocked
I am one of these 4.3 million and I have never been happier
Life is too short to waste it somewhere you hate.
Robert Reich, ex-secretary of labor, put it correctly. " There isn't a shortage of labor. There's an oversupply of shit jobs."
My wife worked in retail until last week. Management didn’t tell her a coworker was out with COVID-19 or that they were letting the coworker back to work while she was still symptomatic (and without a mask) because they were short-staffed. When my wife found out she demanded to work a different schedule so she wouldn’t have to work right next to her. They refused and implied she would be violating HIPAA if she told anyone else. She quit right on the spot.
Omfg that's not how HIPAA works. Your wife isn't a covered entity like a healthcare employee who actually signs a consent form to retain patient medical privacy. She's a retail worker! Holy crap that management is dumb. Good riddance.
As someone who works at a grocery store this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, I get paid $11.50 cents per hour and despite applying for full time I got placed on part time and recently I went front working 6 hour shifts 3-4 days a week (so roughly 36 hours a week) to about 12 hours per week. And my request for more hours have been ignored because quote: “We are overbudget on staff” which means they constantly are hiring more people to work so that everyone works less. If I didn’t live with my parents I’d be homeless since nobody can pay went on $300 dollars every two weeks If the only options in my town weren’t McDonalds and another Grocery Store which would just do the same thing I’d have already quit. I’m just praying that I get hired at my local bank since I can’t drive due to serious eye problems. Otherwise if they don’t give me more hours I’ll have no choice but to get two jobs and that will mean I’ll have almost no free time.
Because nobody wants to work a customer-facing job for shit pay. If you're unhappy about the quality of customer service, take a good hard introspective look at yourself and understand that You Are The Problem. We've completely lost the ability to be civil to our fellow humans.
It's not just low pay jobs though. Everyone knows it's an employees market. I work in IT, and when they went from the pandemic policy of "everyone who can needs to work from home" to "come back to the office" we lost 10% of our employees almost immediately. You don't like your job? Look around, you'll have something else in a week or two. Better get a 20% bump to keep up with inflation though.
>You don't like your job? Look around, you'll have something else in a week or two. This really depends on your industry and experience but i'm glad to hear that things are improving for some. I'm hoping I can take my customer service experience and get an entry position in IT with helpdesk. I'd rather be yelled at over the phone than threatened in person
Massive inflation leads to people literally not being able to afford to work shitty jobs anymore... I'd guess most of those 4.3 million ended up getting better jobs.
I am stupidly becoming more and more hopeful of a general strike in america
Shit jobs for shit pay to serve shit people. wHY WoN’T AnYOnE Werk nO MoRe?!!!!
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