The Labor Shortage, Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting

As we go into Labor Day Weekend, I thought we should talk about the "Labor Shortage", "The Great Resignation"  and "Quiet Quitting".

First:

In the pandemic, America lost just over a MILLION PEOPLE. If you're of the mind-set that these were all older people or people who weren't in the work force, you really need to consider where you get your news from.  (May I recommend Reuters or the Associated Press.) In my research, around 20% of those who died were a full time part of the American workforce.  20%, 1/5 of the American workforce is DEAD! It's not that they don't want to work, it's that they're DEAD.

Second:

The pandemic gave the "hustle culture" folks down time to consider their lives.  They're missing key moments of life to go to each of their 3 jobs they had to try and sustain just to have the basics in life.  For the 1 percenters, it's weird that we don't want to work every waking moment of every day of our lives so that they can work maybe a month a year and make, literally 1,000 times more than their employees. I can hear Betsy DeVos now, "The poors are soooo lazy".  The workers got just enough time off, and just enough money from unemployment to see that there IS more to life than working yourself, quite literally, to death, so one person or family can live the American dream.  When your unemployment check is more than what you get for working around 100 hours a week, it's not an employee problem.  It's an employer problem.

Third:

Quiet Quitting needs a new name.  It's not quitting.  You know what it is?  Doing the job they were hired to do.  (And it's NOT just millennials.  It's everyone who isn't a business owner.  It's just easy to blame millennials.) I know, "They're so lazy and this work ethic is just wrong. What ever happened to going above and beyond?"  I'll tell you what happened, People died or quit and weren't replaced at work.  The "Could you do this just until we find someone else, for not one extra cent to help out the business" turned into an unspoken extra duty for, again, no extra pay.  That mind-set is total BS.  It's not being disloyal.  It's not being a bad worker.  It's standing your ground and demanding the pay you're worth.  How come that's a bad thing.  No really, why?  I can't wait to hear the justification.

Fourth:

Minimum wage NEEDS to be higher.  How can anyone justify having a business that hinges on their employees working for poverty wages and getting government assistance?  I'm looking at you, Walmart, and other businesses who pay so low that they show their employees how to apply for government assistance.  Sure their wages have gone up in the last 2 years.  But it took ALL the above things for this to even START happening.  $15 isn't enough to live a decent life.  It's a hell of a lot more than $8 an hour, and it's a good start, but it's still ridiculous. And PLEASE don't tell me how expensive things will be if people are paid well.  That isn't really true and I'm over it.  I can still afford a Big Mac and they're paying around $15 an hour at McDonalds.

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Fifth:

Customers treating employees like dirt.  The customer is usually wrong.  I'm just going to say it.  Why in the name of God would someone work for 8 bucks an hour to get yelled at on a daily basis? It's usually people in the lowest paid jobs who are treated the worst by customers.  Think about how people act toward someone working in a business and then you'll realize why there's a "labor shortage".  The days of being yelled at and demeaned are over.

So, as we go into this Labor Day weekend, consider watching documentaries on the history of American workers. Even if you just watch "The Men Who Built America" you'll see that this "revolution" is nothing new in our country.  Plenty of hard working Americans died getting us 40 hour weeks, weekends and PTO.  This is just a workforce that's been pushed too hard for too long, and we're done.  If you're outraged by all of this, it's time to take a good, long look at your values.