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Post by Jolly on Aug 9, 2020 17:36:48 GMT
We have a new Family Dollar store in the community. People are aggravated, because the store has very abbreviated hours.
Finally heard from the manager...They can't open for regular hours, because nobody will work. Unemployment pays better.
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Post by paisley on Aug 9, 2020 19:20:22 GMT
What a shock!
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Aug 9, 2020 20:34:32 GMT
Taking a cut in pay to get off your couch and work just doesn't appeal to lots of people. Just about anyone, except the democrat leadership, could have told you that. On the other hand, maybe that's what the dems wanted to keep the unemployment numbers up so they could blame Trump.
Talking to an excavator today about doing some work for me, and we got talking about these government handouts. He told me about a young guy in the concrete flatwork business that lives near him. He applied and got money from the Payroll Protection program. Promptly went out and bought a $75,000 pickup and accompanying travel trailer. Oh, his employees are still working, lots to home construction going on in this area.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 9, 2020 23:08:55 GMT
FD is notorious for paying very low wages, like $8 an hour here (when fast-food places are offering $10 and Home Depot $14 to start). So it could be that people *do* want to work, but most are able to cut themselves a better deal elsewhere!
The FDs here are chronically understaffed, too ... often the stores look like a tornado went through, flinging merchandise all over the place, making it hard to get down the aisles. They've improved as far as having a dedicated ringer at the register, rather than the old system where you had to go up and down aisles looking for the only employee (who was stocking shelves) when you wanted to check out. (Probably too much merchandise was walking out the door with nobody at the front of the store keeping an eye on things.)
Here's the thing, though: if the situation had been allowed to play out without the federal unemployment subsidy, the market would have been flooded with job-seekers, and wages would have cratered. The lower end of the working class (that would be me, lol), which was finally starting to see an uptick after literally decades of abject poverty, would have been submerged again.
Keeping the labor market tight helps people like me. (I have always believed that Trump is secretly a friend of the working man.)
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Post by joebill on Sept 13, 2020 2:57:07 GMT
willowgirl,, if you have not figured out that you are a private contractor and not an employee, you are a LONG ways past due. I refuse to believe you are that far behind the times....Joe
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Post by mzgarden on Sept 13, 2020 11:08:54 GMT
As this has played out, I think it's been very easy for me to paint everyone with a wide brush. I've thought about alternates -
If I could make only $8-$10 an hour, but I could get more than that through unemployment - would I seriously take a job? I admit probably not. Does that mean I would sit on my couch, not that either. Here's how I would probably consider 'working' -
Take my unemployment, pay down/off debt. Start growing my own food in containers, straw bales, or if possible, in the ground. Improve my ability to cut expenses because now I have time to learn new forever skills. Buy some inexpensive items from auctions/garage sales and resell for a small profit. Get better at that and make more profit. Keep my kids out of daycare and teach them some new things I might not have had time to do if I took a low paying job. Learn a craft that enables me to sell the items - embroidery costs very little to start up but can beautify items in a way people will pay for them. Teach others something I know, for $$.
I have had to admit to myself that not everyone opting to stay on unemployment rather than work is actually sitting on their couch playing video games. This might be an unequaled opportunity for some to have some money coming in, freeing them up to learn new ways to sustain themselves.
I was a little ashamed of myself for discovering I was looking down my nose at others, when I did not truly know why they opted not to work.
I'm not naive enough to think everyone is making good use of this window of opportunity, but sadly I found I was biased enough to think everyone was not.
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Post by willowgirl on Sept 13, 2020 11:49:42 GMT
This is huge, IMO. It's hard to learn new skills when you're forever scrambling just to keep your head above water! There is not only the time element, but exhaustion -- when you do get a little break, you want to collapse in a heap, not take on an interesting new challenge. We've owned a backhoe here for six months and I really want to learn to operate it, and I *do* have a couple hours off here and there that I *could*, if I applied myself, but I just haven't had the mental bandwidth.  |
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Post by willowgirl on Sept 13, 2020 11:51:31 GMT
I am on 2 of my 3 jobs.  |
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Post by UseLess on Sept 13, 2020 13:33:35 GMT
It's shameful, really, that so many entry-level jobs pay so little. But I get it: businesses must show enough profit, after everything and everyone is paid, to make it worth staying in business. But eventually unemployment runs out, and then those folks need to do something. I think too many go looking for other sources of "assistance". Those who get $ should have to do work of some kind, or take some schooling. If someone truly cannot do any kind of work, they can go on disability. But that has its own weirdness: from what I've heard, most people are denied the first time they apply. The application is complex and detailed. Just hope that if you ever need to use that, you have sequential records of every appointment, diagnosis or medication...
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Post by woody on Sept 13, 2020 13:56:57 GMT
My sister lost her job when the store had to close down due to the virus. She has put application after application in for a new job. She WAS making more money with the extra $600.00, not now.
Getting a job has changed greatly since I had to find one. First let me tell you she worked at one business for 22 years, in sales and customer service. After 22 years she was getting a hefty check. The same positions now, offer much, much less. She has the experience, the drive, dedicated lady. First she mails in her resume, then gets a call for a phone interview. Then the companies make her wait a few days before she comes in for an interview. After that they tell her they have more people to interview. Out of lets say 10 places she applied (there was many more) she's had to wait weeks for, yes, a seoond interview with the top boss.
She is now waiting on two positions that pay well, but a lot of it comes down to how much she sells. The one who recently called back after 2 months, told her she was hired, but the salary was $5000.00 less than they first stated and the commission was 1% not the 3% they had told her it would be. I don't get it. Do these places have so many applicants that it takes so long to make a decision and yet when they do, it's not what they first told her it would be.
She has worked mostly two jobs for a very long time. She is NOT good at budgeting her money and that is where a big problem is with her. I guess the businesses have too many people interviewing and they can wait and get someone to work for less.
She's getting very concerned, so am I...she does not sound good.She has never been a loafer. You know sales people, she is outgoing and really sets herself aside from others, she's got the perfect personality for sales. But there she is for months trying to get a job and she can't settle for a job that pays $15.00 an hour and then have to put at least $40.00 per week into health insurance. It really is not easy finding a job now a days that pays for who they are hiring.
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Post by Jolly on Sept 13, 2020 14:03:56 GMT
Typical story.
Companies don't hire older people at higher wages, when they can hire younger (and healthier) people at lower wages.
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Post by Jolly on Sept 13, 2020 14:06:35 GMT
And sometimes, you need to shift gears and pursue different career fields. I did that for fun, but anyone that has drive and is willing can learn something new and re-invent themselves...It's just a little harder when you are older.
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Post by woody on Sept 13, 2020 15:06:14 GMT
My sister is not that old, 50's. You are right, people don't want to pay a higher salary for experience. I can't believe how low the salary is at some of these top notch stores. The one job she's waiting on is at a tile store, the one who lowered the salary.
After she left her job of 22 years, at a carpet store, she worked at a tile company for about a year, in sales and customer service, that was the job she lost when the pandemic hit. At that job she was selling and taking 50 lb. tiles off shelves and bringing them to the payment counter. 50 lb. tiles are a bit heavy, but she did it. Maybe the younger people have no problems with that, but they want a woman at these jobs,selling, all the men are in the warehouse.
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Post by Jolly on Sept 13, 2020 15:40:58 GMT
The construction biz is fixing to go into warp drive in the SW Louisiana area.
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Sept 13, 2020 17:21:03 GMT
woody, The flooring business is all about product knowledge, knowing which product best fits the customer's described needs, and which ones to steer them away from and why. A salesperson who can educate their customer to the point of them feeling confident in their purchase is worth their weight in gold to a store. I'd suggest in future interviews your sister stress her extensive knowledge of their products, from makeup of the materials to installation. Nothing makes a customer happier than showing off their new floor and telling their friends all the positive points of it, then many times recommending the salesperson who educated them.
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