How to fix the economy and lack of employees

a reply to: JAGStorm

If people don’t want to work they won’t. Not all people are lazy bums that are cashing well fare. Many are spouses that have decided to stay home, some are young couples that saved money and retired early, some are playing the stock market and making money there. I said this because I have friends that have done all the things I mentioned above.

Corporation for the longest have nothing wanted to raise wages so I do not really understand how you blame this on people. The most visionary companies though saw this coming a while ago and that’s when Walmart, Amazon, Aldi,CVS, Chipotle, Costco, Wayfair, Under Armour, Best Buy, Target, Ben-Jerry, Google and Disney decided to raisin wages to $15hr. Some banks are paying $17hr with signing bonus like Bank of America and Chase.

The reality is that if you are a company and aren’t offering $15 hr with some sort of benefit package whether be signing bonus, guaranteed pay raises, tuition assistance, healthcare you will be finding a hard time getting employees.

All this crying that corporations are doing now is the back door they will use to ask Biden or any other politician to let them bring millions of immigrants on job visas to keep wages low.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I think you need to break this discussion down into two separate pieces. a.) Employee retention b.) People not wanting to work I think these are two distinctly separate issues, with different considerations and solutions.

I think for the most part they are more related than people realize.

Sure sure, let’s take out early retirees and people like that, just put in the pool of people that could/should be working.

Why do so many people want to work at Costco vs Sams club?

Like you said, a starving person would probably work at either, but if they had their pick they would choose Costco.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
I live on planet reality where I am seeing business closing due to no workers. It is obvious what companies are doing right now isn’t working.

Then they need to reexamine their business model.

Now take your wife, and imagine a whole workforce like that.

What you have is like I said, musical chairs!

This is not a bad thing, it means people are maximizing their earning potential. It's the same reason you should shop your car/home owners insurance every couple of years.

a reply to: JAGStorm

It is musical chairs. People don't toil away at one company for 30 years and get a gold watch anymore. Companies have no loyalty to employees and employees have no loyalty to company. You have to be a mercenary in how you manage your career.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

LOL. What planet do you live on where your employer just goes, "Here, have some cash!"? When I feel I'm due a raise I negotiate for one using metrics and achieved goals. If I feel I'm not getting what I warrant I'm looking for a new role.

...

What you have is like I said, musical chairs!

Perfect tee-up to my earlier point.

Musical chairs is an 'Employee retention' issue, not a 'people unwilling to work' issue.

McDonald's isn't having an employee retention issue, they can't find anyone willing to work at McDonald's. Two separate issues.

originally posted by: Edumakated
a reply to: JAGStorm

It is musical chairs. People don't toil away at one company for 30 years and get a gold watch anymore. Companies have no loyalty to employees and employees have no loyalty to company. You have to be a mercenary in how you manage your career.

As much as I hate to say it, your words are very true!

And this is kind of a sad thing, beyond the fact that it is disruptive and counter-productive.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
McDonald's isn't having an employee retention issue, they can't find anyone willing to work at McDonald's. Two separate issues.

Frankly, who TF wants to work at McDonalds? If there is a similar paying job that doesn't involve slinging fast food to this chains clientele then why wouldn't you take it?

There are millions of employees who work for employers who have over 100 employees. Couple this with the vaccine mandate and factoring in 20-30% of those employees would rather quit then be forced to be vaccinated that could be a partial player in these numbers!

a reply to: JAGStorm

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

This is not a bad thing, it means people are maximizing their earning potential. It's the same reason you should shop your car/home owners insurance every couple of years.

Let’s take your wife’s job as an example. Here is where it gets stupid. Your wife has 10 years tenure she is taking with her. Now her old company can’t find a replacement, so they have to recruit. Nobody is out there, so they have to offer much more, and now are offering more than your wife got at the new job. It happens a lot more than you think. Covid has exasperated it. So now her old company loses out twice. They are paying a person more that doesn’t have half the experience. How does that work out for everyone? It doesn’t.

We get half the service at double the cost.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Nobody is out there, so they have to offer much more, and now are offering more than your wife got at the new job.

Are they? That's an assumption that neither one of us can verify. That's a calculated risk they take, maybe they got someone new for only slightly more, maybe they didn't, but either way that's on them.

Again, it sounds like you think people should just sit in the same roles and wait around for the good old fashioned 40 year retirement party. There is no corporate loyalty, you need to change jobs otherwise you are leaving money on the table and only stupid people leave money on the table.

Make no mistake, this is a slow rolling labor strike. Labor will win in the end. The way I see it, businesses have 3 options; (1) remain understaffed, (2) pay attractive wages, or (3) hire cheap migrant work.

Employees have woke up and realized that it is they who make the businesses run smoothly and are deserving of fair wages...the corporations will suffer through this worse than the unemployed.

Until we have fair pay, eff the economy.

a reply to: Bunch

There are people like that but not many. Most do not want to work. It's evident due to the stats on young adults living at home with mommy and daddy in their late 20's and beyond. Also evident in their demands on society. We have politicians winning that are literally running on communism and fanning them to riot and protest. The politicians even pay their bail to get them back out there. Try to arrest them and now it's time to defund the police...meh.

All because a bunch of spiteful and hateful youth do not want to work low skill jobs that they should be working.

Looks like we now have 100's of thousands of new immigrants to work in the fields and meat processing plants now. Maybe the price of bacon will come down.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I don't necessarily disagree, but it was just an example.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
I don't necessarily disagree, but it was just an example.

I hear you, but that's kind of a common refrain from some, "Why can't people just suck it up like I did!".

Well, maybe they don't want a s*** job like you had and there are plenty of non-s*** jobs out there to choose from.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Hey, J. Here in Motown, stores have emptiy shelves, but stock all over to be put away..no one to work.

We had ice cream, milk n frozen something's...melted and refrozen...obviously left out on docks.

Macs-like n Wendy's places...all of them...are closing dining inside. No one to work, or clean.

Wife's an employment peer counselor...jobs are
everywhere...incentives, benefits...and yet...

Peace 2 u n yours, J!✌️

originally posted by: ColoradoTemplar
Looks like we now have 100's of thousands of new immigrants to work in the fields and meat processing plants now. Maybe the price of bacon will come down.

I do not like illegal aliens flowing in but what can be done? Too many citizens with no skills refusing to work low skill jobs. Only thing the government and companies can do is go get the workers from somewhere. Those that refuse to work will have to be dealt with indirectly. Maybe a fake war with a draft. Maybe the shots are designed to kill them off...who knows but they will have to be dealt with. Can't just sit home and keep voting for unlimited benefits. That is all about to end very soon.

Maybe it's just me, but it looks like JAG and AM are arguing over agreeing with each other. You guys both seem to be saying the same thing using different words. That, or JAG is just arguing with herself. LOL!

a.) Yes, lack of employee retention is a huge disruption factor, is expensive and counterproductive.

b.) Yes, the spoils (resources) go to the highest bidder, as they should.

As long as it's a level playing field, then all is fair in love and war. My biggest issue is, I don't think it's a level playing field right now.

The thing that could get really interesting that I have not thought about yet is public transportation and the ability of people to get to jobs. Lets say fuel prices increase and the bus driver shortage continues or gets worse. Are municipalities going to be able to continue to provide reliable transportation to some of these jobs?

From my experience working with employees that had to take public transportation it was a big deal that the job was on the bus line. If bus lines shrink or discontinue how is this going to affect people getting to their jobs or in fact taking new jobs? Will big gov further subsidize these forms of transportation like they do in Minneapolis with the light rail etc. Lots of these jobs that are deemed more entry level that have higher percentages of younger workers or workers that struggle to make ends meet rely on the buses heavily.

If anyone has looked at the price of used cars lately (at least in my area) it is really hard to believe that used cars with high mileage are going for such a high price which further compounds the issues if buses are not reliable or available. The used car route for most are not even an option anymore.

There are lots of factors leading to the issues we have and I think we are seeing the perfect storm coming. It is going to get very bad in the next few months regardless if massive changes are made. There just isn't enough time to correct a lot of these things

a reply to: Charliebrowndog

We have a used car problem because Obama destroyed millions of used cars with the clunker program. He disrupted the normal supply chain. The ones that were left got transported to south america. Those cars were also easy to work on. Not the newer ones. Lots of electronics, special tools needed. Expensive to repair. There are videos of shadetree mechanics showing people how to make the special tools themselves. There are literally thousands of tools made for individual cars and no other cars. So now you have poor people who can't afford cars but also can't afford to repair them...meh.