ShivaX
3818
Basically there are a lot of employers on social media bitching they can’t fill positions and it’s because everyone is lazy.
So dude sent applications to all of them. He got one interview out of 60 applications.
If you’re desperate for people to work for you, it seems like you’d be all over applicants.
Unless you’re not really desperate for workers and are just playing politics.
And these are low paying jobs, so his point about people not showing up is that odds are they found better offers than the garbage people are complaining they can’t fill, but his experiment was to show that the people complaining the most about not being able to fill them don’t seem all that interested in filling them.
Very interesting article, and a good experiment on Joey’s part. Given that these were entry-level positions they must be screening people on different criteria, than they claimed. Like a year’s experience, or some college preferred.
I know so much of the hiring process has been outsourced to HR Software,without any human involvement. I wonder if companies aren’t continuing to screen people using the same criteria they used when unemployment was high.
Companies started ghosting applications shortly after 2008 recession and not even sending the courtesy. “thank you for application, sorry we don’t have position, but we’ll call you if something comes up.”. So at this point I can’t blame workers for adopting the same shitty attitude.
ShivaX
3820
I hadn’t considered the software angle. That actually would make a lot of sense.
They set the standards back when they had the leverage, increased the requirements and then didn’t change them. So the software gets applications and rejects them for not meeting the stricter requirements, even if they place really needs them because no one told it otherwise.
Software here could also be some HR person for that matter. If the boss tells you “don’t hire anyone without X years of experience,” or the like and likely he’s a huge asshole, (remember the selected group we’re talking about) you just do what he told you to.
A comment he made in his article was that a lot of employers lie about the wages for these jobs. Advertising $15/hr but paying $13.50 for example. They tell people that the wages will catch up eventually.
My son just had this happen to him at Safeway. He’s a student, so it wasn’t a deal breaker for him, but I think it’s bullshit.
Is that how federal labor standards work tho?
Wonder if Wisconsinites are paying attention to how insane their fascists are. You’d think the Walker years were enough, but fuck me Americans are just painfully stupid in aggregate so.
CraigM
3824
Also worth reminding people that the Wisconsin state house is one of the most gerrymandered legislative bodies in the US.
Houngan
3825
I assume because of Milwaukee and Madison? Seems like in Wisconsin most any line you draw is going to be a bunch of white people.
CraigM
3826
Not really. It is partly the urban rural divide, which leads to a structural advantage, but is gerrymandered such to create an even lower share. of competitive districts (~15% of people living in a single digit partisan advantage area) and more than doubling even the most generous structural advantage measured. Its such that an 8.5% Democratic win is the smallest needed to even reach bare majority.
Seems like John’s going to be working Thanksgiving and Christmas. Someone better set expectations with him.
Man it’s been 20 years since I had a job/boss like that and my blood still boils because I feel that whole exchange in my bones.
KevinC
3830
Yup. Like all of these things, it could totally be faked. But I’ve had enough exchanges along those lines that I don’t have much trouble believing such an exchange happened.
I feel like for the first time in my life, workers actually have a little bit of leverage. I drove by a McDonald’s on my commute yesterday and saw a “We’re hiring!” sign advertising $12/hour and PTO accrual on day one. Getting PTO in a fast food job is totally unheard of, at least around here. I love to see it. Should be fucking mandated by law, but I’m glad to see food service workers being able to take a sick day or just a day off without missing rent.
Have you guys seen the antiwork subreddit? It’s one of the fastest growing subs on the site right now. Full of posts like this. https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/
This is what I don’t understand. If people are quitting these low-pay jobs, and white collar folks are all working from home, why the fuck is I-93 backed up everyday worse than it was before Covid?
Matt_W
3832
Because that narrative is belied by charts like these from BLS
Absolutely correct. Though I personally would have phrased it more succinctly as “don’t believe all the crap you read on the internet” myself.
This is the modern version of Reagan’s welfare-queen narrative, resurrected from it’s grave to provide justification for pro-business anti-labor policies in a time when labor is discovering it has more leverage than it has seen in decades.
Well, it doesn’t, the graphs tells you they had more power in 2019, there’s a lot of extra slack at the moment. Workers just know a bit better what they don’t want after being relieved from some day-to-day pressure (and maybe letting of some consumerism), but as moratories, subsidies, and small savings subside, we’ll see if they cooperate or we’re back to the same as new supply enters the pool.
Apologies, I wasn’t clear. I wasn’t saying that the graphs suggest that labor has better leverage. I was saying that labor has better leverage because it currently does and employers in many fields are scrambling to find people. The places that treat people the worst are obviously the hardest hit.
Anecdata for sure, but my wife is pretty well connected with the local hospitality industry and they are absolutely crunched for workers right now.
This is correct, appropriate, and massively overdue. The hospitality industry is absolutely horrible to workers and in dire need of correction.
Matt_W
3837
And my point wasn’t to suggest that labor has no leverage, but that people are generally working, which explains traffic.
