Much of the discussion swirling around the ERJ house recently has been about the hollowing out of the work-force, especially at the first-line supervisor position.
Actions taken during Covid to ease the economic shocks included moratoriums on evictions, extensions on unemployment insurance payments and increase SNAP benefits. People kind of got out of the mental association between "working" and being able to enjoy the finer things in life, things like a roof over your head and three meals a day.
At this time there are still a lot of Help Wanted signs in windows. Coaxing people back to work has been an uphill fight. If the returning workers do not feel sufficiently "accommodated" they leave, knowing they can be working the next day at another business, if they wish.
Some employees are enjoying the new-found power, quitting when it most inconveniences "the boss". Stick-it to them!
Some of them have snit-fits because they are being required to return to the office. No more bunny slippers or Kahlúa in the morning Joe. No more window-within-a-window video watching.
I am 90% sure the kids in school have the same attitude issues.
I pity the landlords who have had to make mortgage payments with little or no rental income. They were still legally obliged to make repairs to keep the buildings safe and compliant to code. They still had to pay property taxes.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to predict that Louis Firefighter is bailing out of the landlord business as soon as he can find a buyer. And Sue Supervisor is looking for a graceful way to exit, stage-left from the thankless job of supervising snowflakes. She gets disciplined when she forgets an employee's pronoun du jour and yet she is supposed to be immune to the verbal abuse and threats made by quitting employees.
Progressives applaud. They are sticking-it to the MAN!
The availability of services and the hours at convenience stores will continue to crumble. Shelves will remain unstocked.
I suggest that if you know a good mechanic, plumber, electrician, carpenter, gardener, cook and a good nurse, that you treat them with great courtesy. That which stands out is remembered.
I have trouble visualizing how a grocery store can run without a supervisor doing scheduling and making assignments and adjustments throughout the day. Or a restaurant. Or a factory. Or a hospital.
As Hemingway's line about bankruptcy happening slowly then all of a sudden the same can be said about the collapse that is coming. Most don't see it yet but it's well under way.
ReplyDeleteYou are 100% right Joe. I'm so glad that we sold our business. Ayn Rand was so right when she wrote Atlas Shrugged. Don't feed the Beast, Go Galt. ---ken
ReplyDeleteI've run construction companies since 1989. In 2015 we closed shop and laid everyone off, as I was just burnt out by all the babysitting I had to do on a daily basis and the ROI was diminishing to the point my highest paid guy was making more per hour than I was. 70 hours a week was fine, but the 40 hour guys were making a killing.
ReplyDeleteThe generation born after 1980 have no clue about what work actually is; they're so self centered nothing means anything to them unless it benefits them immediately. Supervising other people is far beyond their capabilities. They cannot think beyond tomorrow.
This will not change unless forced upon us, and I think that time is here, now.
Many like me have thrown the trash out and work alone. We will not support the useless morons anymore.
Many years ago I was asked, at interview for a promotion to a supervisory position within a hospital (pre joining the military), “What do you see yourself doing differently, from the role you hold now?”. My answer “Nothing”, which of course left them stunned and scrabbling. Adding (after enjoying the desperate looks) that I’d do everything I already did, as I already did but … having the additional roles of ‘hopefully doing it better’, ‘supervising and supporting junior staff’, ‘scheduling and planning’, etc., left them breathing a sigh of relief I might have some small idea what I was applying for.
ReplyDeletePeople almost always view themselves, and their roles, as the only ‘real’ work being done … until they get to actually do the job of the supervisor they so disparage themselves.
The snowflake mentality in the workplace is just a reflection of it in wider society, traceable back I suspect to … education (long taken over by the marxists) . When you raise, and indoctrinate, entire generations to believe they are special, and give them awards and accolades simply for existing, this is what you get. Witness the absolute conviction of so many now that, straight from school, they ‘deserve’ to enter the workforce (not at the bottom like everybody else since time immemorial but) at the very least as supervisors (if not management) themselves. The sad thing is they’ve been allowed just that in so many cases, which is why we see so many companies, organisations and institutions (predictably) failing.
The “apprenticeship” model existed and was almost universal across every job and profession for millennia, because it worked. ‘We’ gleefully (like so much else) threw it away and replaced it with something that patently doesn’t work, because … claimed discrimination/patriarchy/sexism/racism … but in reality corruption and graft.
The few (besieged and disappearing by the day) roles (such as the military) where such a model remained longest were (predictably) the last to show the inevitable decline.
I, too, am very glad to be finally out of that ‘combat’, because “what can’t continue, won’t”, and the Gods of the Copybook Headings are about to reappear to remind us why all of this was a really bad idea (with “terror and slaughter” I fear).
Nailed it. The snowflake mentality is very strong.... I went to college, of course I'm the supervisor?!
DeleteHave faith, there are diamonds in the rough out there - had a similar coversation with my teenage daughter and her friends. I pointed to participation trophies as a vector, and illustrated with an athlete well known in their school for his temper tantrums. They understood. Its only 3 young girls, but hey, I do what I can.
Honestly? Just having conversations like this with kids is half of it. All my daughters friends love coming over and talking to me. Not one of them sits down and eats dinner as 'a family', they CRAVE that, without knowing what or why.
ERJ, unexpectedly I changed career fields and supervisory responsibilities 2020 just as The Plague was taking hold. I am not an independent contributor and never intend to go back to supervising people ever again. It is thankless work made worse now by all of the hidden societal landmines.
ReplyDeleteThis is all going to come horribly, horribly due in the next few years. And the people you write of above will be shocked when they find all their bridges have been burnt, mostly at their own hands.
There are some responsible hard working young people out there, at least in my rural area. I have one that works for me now.
ReplyDeleteThe snowflake issue is a two way street - because it now inhabitants the supervisory roles. Supervisors being promoted on merit is indeed a rare event these days. Any younger worker with drive and ambition is quickly disillusioned and squashed by leadership that is confused that is confused about whether to wear boxers or panties and pronounces axe instead of ask.
A recent case in point; the wife had been waiting for an important package delivery from the USPS. We live on a sort of rough dirt/gravel road in a subdivision. Instead of package delivery, we get a notice of failed delivery. (Our mail boxes for the entire neighborhood are out on the main road.)
ReplyDeleteSo I go in to complain about the lack of service and pick up the important package. The postal worker tells me that if a private road has pot holes or is "too muddy", they don't have to deliver on that road. AYFKM? The cost of services go up and the quality of service goes down. You mean to tell me that your delivery people all drive Jeeps and Subarus, both car brands that nationally advertise the toughness and suitability of their vehicles for off road driving and they can't drive on my road because there's a couple of pot holes? And he says...Yes, that's what I'm saying.
And yes I'm glad I'm retired. There were a couple of times I was accused of being a racist because I got on the employee about their lack of performance. I've always prided myself on treating anyone who worked for me equally. As a working superintendent, I would always take the hardest job and give the easier ones to my guys.
I quit my office job and now I am getting paid 90 Dollars hourly. How? I work over the internet! My old work was making me miserable, t5 so I was forced to try-something different. 2 years later...I can say my life is changed completely for the better!
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