Now Boomers are to blame for lack of Fast Food workers

This morning a local lady had posted something so ridiculous I couldn't even believe what I was reading.

She mentioned going to a fast food place and that it took forever to get a single coffee. She said there was only one very young girl
at the register and she was doing it all. The lady then goes on to say that older people owe it to society to take some of these jobs, even if only
for part time, to teach the young people.

I scooped out my eyeball that fell on the floor from what I was reading and was ready to respond, but it had been deleted already!!
I guess people can dish it, but they can't take it.

So back to that initial sentiment. No old people are not responsible for the lack of fast food workers or your coffee. They have done their time and deserve retirement. Are people not allowed to retire anymore. Geeze, most people get a measly ten or 20 years if they are lucky!
If you ask me honestly, I think we have gotten away with paying people less than what we should have really been paying them for a long time.
YES YES YES, I know, prices will go up. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Maybe people need to eat more home cooked food and not so much fast food. Maybe fast food should be a once in a while treat!

The post also got me thinking about how people are starting to get angry (and crazy) at lack of workers. Buckle up because it's not going to get better any time soon.

a reply to: JAGStorm

McDonald's in town pays 13 dollars an hour starting wage. Burger King pays 14 starting wage. How much do you suggest we pay them? Oh I forgot to say that our state minimum wage is..... 7.25.

Well, historically a lot of retired or elderly people USED to take those jobs. It was a great way to supplement retirement income for those who hadn't saved enough or for those who just want to keep being productive.

Boomers are retiring now, so while they WERE taking those jobs they are now not in huge numbers.

Shes partially correct about the staffing issue being related to boomers, but she's ignorant as to WHY. i.e., they already DID those jobs and are now done.

originally posted by: Chalcedony
a reply to: JAGStorm

McDonald's in town pays 13 dollars an hour starting wage. Burger King pays 14 starting wage. How much do you suggest we pay them? Oh I forgot to say that our state minimum wage is..... 7.25.

There isn't one set number, it depends on the location, but they need to pay enough to actually have workers. Maybe the CEO needs to take a cut out of his millions or billions. Don't get me wrong, I do believe business owners deserve reward for their risk, and investment, but it can't be at the cost of slave labor. I do think 7.25 is slave labor.

Some restaurants don't have staffing issues, so my guess it's a combination of pay, benefits and how they are treated.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Pfft.

Because the young people don't want to work when .gov hands out free money.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I would support raising the minimum wage only if America gets all the manufacturing jobs back from third world countries that have no safety regulations for workers and pay pennies for a week of work, then force the workers to live in tiny rooms adjacent to the factory and charge them for food when they are not actually getting food and board when the accommodations are literally horrific. Little children living and working in these conditions.

If we had good manufacturing jobs that paid, we could pay more and spend more and it will all benefit the US economy instead of importing all this stuff from other countries and benefiting other countries. And it is mostly all disposable crap you just have to keep buying over and over again so it is all just one big loss for America. I try very hard to always buy American because it makes me sad to think about little kids working for 20 hours a day in a dirty stinky factory basically starving to make something for me.

I actually support no minimum wage. Let the market determine wages.

If we payed people based on their contribution rather than their position, this wouldn't happen.

Garbage men should be being paid at least $75 dollars an hour. Why, because if THEY don't do their job, we notice.

People who serve your food, and make that coffee, $25 dollars an hour. Otherwise make your own coffee and get you own meals.

People who sit in an office and get millions don't help me in any way. I'd pay them $7.25 an hour.

I get tired of people saying these jobs shouldn't get paid well, but cry when they can't get their breakfast sandwich or coffee in the morning.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Can I ask is this something you read on farcebook as you say "posted" if so (no disrespect to you) but who really gives a snip, all farcebook provides is a place for peoples brainless thoughts to appear in print, I avoid it like the plague and certainly see no merit in anything wrote on there.

As to the minimum wage it is so far behind what it should be, I started working in 1991 as a qualified carpenter on £24,000 now 30 years later the same job (i work elsewhere now) is still paying only £25,000, house prices were around £50,000 now they are over £200,00

All wages have stagnated for the many but for the few they have continued to rise and rise and rise

a reply to: JAGStorm

No old people are not responsible for the lack of fast food workers or your coffee. They have done their time and deserve retirement.

AMEN! Testify!

But I will disagree with you that low pay is the problem. Lack of a work ethic is the real problem, and that goes right back to the very woman who was complaining: the working age. People have coddled this generation to the point they don't know anything else.

And they certainly don't know how to work. Most treat their job like a money tree. If they need money, the job is supposed to give it to them. If they need insurance, the job is supposed to give it to them. If they feel bad, the job is supposed to understand and make them feel better. In other words, the job is not there for them to earn a living; it is there like a credit card that can be used whenever they need it, and as a bonus it's a place to "hang out."

And when that credit card expects them to actually do something? Oh, well, many will just quit and go somewhere else. or maybe nowhere else if they can get somebody to pay their way. The very idea of having to work for something is just some insane notion by a bunch of old folks who don't "get it."

I have a friend who is almost 60. He's worked at the same plant for over 30 years. He's now starting to show his age... bad knees, leg ulcers, can't raise his arms over his head anymore... and he still outworks the younger crowd two to one, doing the same physical jobs they do. His boss has told him that he gets called in to certain jobs just so he can show up the kids they hire today and try to shame them into actually working!

That's my generation. I retired a couple years ago with heart problems; he's looking to retire as well, as soon as he can. Neither of us trained or raised this generation... we trained and raised their parents. Their parents would work, but somewhere along the line they overcoddled their kids, and we now have the result.

And it's not going to get any better any time soon. If people don't know how to work, and the working generation won't teach them and prefer to complain about them, who is?

Not me. I did my time, as you say. I'm done. As far as I'm concerned, the rat race is over and the rats won.

Now, will I mentor kids? Certainly! I've mentored quite a few people in my time and I enjoy it. But the kids have to ask... they have to actually want to know what I know. I'm not going to chase them down. There are two people on this planet that i could force to listen to me, and both of them are now grown and doing pretty darn well, if I do say so myself.

What we are seeing is the beginning of the collapse that accompanies every civilization that gets complacent and decides they deserve something for the sacrifice they made of being born. Our economy will continue to spiral down until the majority of the population lives in abject squalor... not the present concept of "poverty"; that's not really poverty when you have three squares a day every day, a mobile phone with silly games on it, color TV, indoor plumbing, and a car to drive around in. To most of the world, and throughout most of history, that is wealthy, not poor. I'm talking about living hand-to-mouth trying every day to just get enough to fill your belly, and no time left for self-improvement to try and get to a better life.

Once that happens, that generation will grow up resilient and capable, and the nation can be rebuilt. Until then? Nope. Buckle in and enjoy the ride.

TheRedneck

a reply to: JAGStorm

If young people don't want to work crap jobs with crap wages and benefits, why would anyone expect old folks to jump in there and do it?

And service sucks these days even if they have a full complement of employees. I stopped at Burger King today. They had over a dozen people working back there and it still took them 24 minutes to get my Whopper to me.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Average rent here starts at around $1500 for a bachelor suite, a one bedroom runs $1800-$2000, two bedrooms start around $2500. Those jobs tend to pay around $15/h and give less than 80 hours, usually 64, 32 hours a week, if you're lucky. That's $1900 ish/month before taxes, probaly closer to $1600-$1700 after taxes. It's literally not possible to rent even a literal one room suite at that wage and have enough money for food and bills. I can 100% understand why nobody's filling those jobs, they can't even provide the most basic of shelters.

I'm sorry, anyone old enough to actually be from the boomer generation has probably earned being retired by this point. A 70 year old person sweeping the floor at McDonalds does not help service quality. Most people that are retired or disabled who get these part time jobs are given busy work because they simply can not move fast enough in the high paced work environment of fast food.

I have seen time and again, elderly people sweeping floors, cleaning tables, door greeting, folding towels, any job that can be done without vigorous physical activity. And before anyone responds with "their grandpappy or meemaw" I'm sure there are outliers. Those people are not the norm in my experience.

I am seeing a turn around where I live (Close to Ft Benning Ga) There has been a steady uptick in the number of employees we can retain. The quality of these employees can be debated, but at least now we aren't 7 people shy of being comfortably staffed anymore. We pay well for the area, $14 an hour manual unskilled labor, part time.

As far as I have seen all businesses are open on their normal hours and dine in is open at most restaurants. Again though, quality of service leaves something to be desired in a lot of these cases regardless of where you go.

In my humble uneducated guess I would wager that this is due to a lot off these employees being young and having little to no working experience in any field let alone the one they are currently working in and because of the lack of employees those who would normally be replaced because they aren't good at their jobs or just don't care are seen as irreplaceable because they keep the rest of their staff from being overworked and quitting.

Many kids today have been pampered and ruined. Proud, haughty, and uneducated on basics. I was at a grocery store this week, and had to wait on the young checker as she looked at her cell phone for about 30 seconds in between customers. After I paid with a large bill, she was able to count out the correct bills to return to me, but referred me to customer service for the pocket change. I couldnt believe it! I pointed to a quarter in her change drawer and told to give it to me. Then I left. What a diptard. I suppose Im to blame, and need to ask for a job there and teach her to leave her phone in her purse, and teach her hw to count change out, after teaching her what each coin is, and how much value each has.
Fire all the dumbass liberal teachers here in California, then we will revisit this current situation in a few years.

a reply to: JAGStorm

If the assertion is that older people are needed to teach the younger ones how to do it, then it sounds like the younger ones aren't worth the money they are being offered now because they don't know how to do it.

originally posted by: MiddleInsite
If we payed people based on their contribution rather than their position, this wouldn't happen.

Garbage men should be being paid at least $75 dollars an hour. Why, because if THEY don't do their job, we notice.

People who serve your food, and make that coffee, $25 dollars an hour. Otherwise make your own coffee and get you own meals.

People who sit in an office and get millions don't help me in any way. I'd pay them $7.25 an hour.

I get tired of people saying these jobs shouldn't get paid well, but cry when they can't get their breakfast sandwich or coffee in the morning.

My guess, teens or twenties.

Sounds very reminiscent of the commie Khmer Rouge train of thought.

There is a reason people "in the office" make a decent wage. They keep your damned internet, transportation, supply chain, phone, television, and utilities working and it takes some knowledge and skill to do so vs. lifting a can or flipping a burger which those people could not even do with out the above mentioned critical services.

a reply to: JIMC5499


100% agree. i think you would see not only more competitive pay but also better work environments. i think one thing that is often overlooked when people talk about working in fast food in particular is the work environment. look at how many videos are on youtube or articles regarding workers being assaulted because their fries were cold or had too little salt on them.

is $13/hr enough for someone to be threatened or assaulted or even just be treated rudely because the perception that type of work carries? i have not looked up the statistics but i know McDonalds and other franchises are closing lots of locations, maybe the demand is also down. i know these workers have to work their asses off often times in understaffed situations to keep things lean. maybe people just don’t want to deal with the BS that is involved.

a reply to: dug88

Those jobs would be ideal for teens learning the ropes of holding down a job part-time for some extra pocket money and to learn the discipline and responsibility of having a job.

In that realm, such a job doesn't have to support a person because they're being supported by their parents at home.

a reply to: dug88

There are two ways to look at that. You can say that pay is too low, or you can say that housing is too high. I would go with the latter.

And why is housing too high? A couple reasons: first, the people who own the housing are greedy. Those rental rates are intended for people who can afford them, and that's not a huge segment of the population. Most people who can afford rent like that will wind up buying a house. Secondly, when did housing go from being a warm, dry place to live in to an oversized, overpriced mini-mansion? The houses that are going for those high prices are typically many times nicer than what people used to have.

The house I live in was built when I was about a year old. It's under 1000 square feet, with six rooms laid out in a pretty standard pattern. The wiring is old, but in good shape; the biggest problem is that most of the outlets are not grounded; I'm slowly replacing them with three-prong as the need arises. It's one bathroom. It's way out in the country, with no stores around. But it's nice, we take good care of it, and it will last a lot longer than I'll be alive, probably longer than my kids will be alive. I'm happy with it just like it is.

But every house I see going up is a couple thousand square feet, with plenty of corners and angles to make it aesthetically pleasing, fully landscaped, and overpriced for what the average person can afford. So why are contractors not building smaller, cheaper housing? Because they are greedy too! And the older, smaller housing that is left can command higher prices because the number of such houses is steadily decreasing.

We have to get back to a sustainable lifestyle. One cannot live in luxury while working at a job that requires zero training. We need more housing that is small, affordable, and just a warm, dry place to live.

TheRedneck

a reply to: UpThenDown

Can I ask is this something you read on farcebook as you say "posted" if so (no disrespect to you) but who really gives a snip, all farcebook provides is a place for peoples brainless thoughts to appear in print, I avoid it like the plague and certainly see no merit in anything wrote on there.

No it wasn't on FB, it was on Nextdoor which is for locals and issues in their communties.