Truth in Employment Advertising
Face it, looking for work is a difficult task and it is an employers market. Employers have countless applications for the limited number of job positions compared to a decade ago where companies were paying bounties for workers. Employers con the employees with a job description doing one thing, but they end up doing something radically different instead. My sister wanted to do graphic design, but she ended up being a warehouse worker for a yearbook publishing company and a paper cutter for a food distributor. If we want motivated workers we have to be honest with what is expected. If you want a
motivated paper cutter or a warehouse worker then state that in the beginning,
if you want the job quickly filled perhaps pay a dollar or two more than expected.
Time is indeed a precious commodity and we should not waste the time of either
party. An advertisement for a position should describe the basic schedule for a typical week on the job for the company.
100% on every point!
Here, every minwage job (now boosted to $15+/hour), has 100 applicants, & decent jobs (at a bank, e.g.) hasve 200 applicants per opening.
What I don't understabd is the paying of minimum to people who, on that, can only afford to live in the suburbs or exurbs, then expect thenm to be johnny- on-the-spot when called in for extra shifts.
I get paying minimum wage to those with minimum experience, motivation, & education, but paying minimum gets minimum.
These jobs now go to the lowest bidders on wages (often immigrants, legal or not, who negotiate a recompense lower than is legal, just to get in the job, because they & 8 others in the same house, making that, can afford to OWN a house, & cars)
When the emplyer asks me, essentially, "What's the lowest you'll work for?" I'm already consideringthe interview done & they've lost.
If I'm desperate (as is the situation for most these days) I'll explain how I always give fuly what Ui'm paid for & a bit more in effort & off-clock time. Then I put it on them to name a dollar value that they'd be happy with, on those terms. If they only want the bottom of the barrel, thenm have at it, because I hate working alongside such, as I typically wind up doing 250% of my expected work. When I was younger, I never paid much attention, & just ensured the finished product (a day's work on the denoted tasks met or exceeded specs.) I still do this, but not on ny own any more, unless I'm being paid to cover the extra effort & skills I must bring to the fore. I'll manage your minwagers & get max from them, but I want a manager's title & salary to do it. I'm past the age where I'll blindly slave myself into the ground & bad health to fit unrealistic owner goals. I did it before & I was damn good at it, but now I'm wiser & less inclined to give it up for free. If I'm getting screwed, there better be a gold ring(fair pay/rank/bennies) involved!
Just make me General Manager of operations & GTFO of my way & let me take care of things. I'll increase profit margins in short order, but I need to have carte blanche.
I've done the horror story scenarios & I'm just so done with it!
Had a guy come into the fast food restaurantI worked at, demanding a free cup of coffee, as he wanted a cuppa before jumping off the local tall bridge to his death. I explained that, no, we don't have fgree coffee nordo we have 20c pasrtial coffees, as I literally cannot ring up either.
He swore & left; as he exited the door, I automaically said, "Have a good day!"
4-5 hours later he comes back in because he just was so mad he had to come tell me what an arsehole I was for saying that to a suicidal guy.
Now he somehow had a $5 bill to buy a cup of coffee properly, which I gave him. with change & receipt, & told him any time he has the 65c, I'll sell him another.
He came in daily after that, & we became buddies, going out for a couple beers now & again. Odd duck, but who isn't?
Most would say I handled his original intention to kill himself crudely, rudely, & badly, but, hey, I saved a life, didn't I? & I did my damned job doing it!
Nowhere in my job description, nor pay scale, was there an option to buy coffee for suicidal freeloaders.
If I'd been paid 3X more (current minwage compared to 1989's) I might've poured him a half mug of coffee for free & paid for a full one myself, out of my tips, after he was gone. (still focused on my boss' bottom line needs, without ignoring my standards of employment.); my bnoss wouldn't have cared a whit if I'd given the guy a free cuppa, but I felt it would set a bad example/trend.
I drank as much coffee as I wanted(lots) on a shift, no charge, so one more wouldn't even be noticed, but I could tell he was setting himself up for free cups forever.
Next day he'd tell the girl on, "But George said it was okay, when I told him of my financial situation); I was the most junior(seniority-wise) staff, but also the most respected by the young minwage staffers, & sooner or later this guy would tell a buddy of the lttle thing he's got going at the A&W down the hill, & then . . . just no thanks. . .
For all I know, he could have gone on & told a thwhack of people what a jerk I was & that because of me, he was going to off himself, then do it, & I'd be talked to by cops & reporters -- oh well, I did no wrong; I did $5/hour worth of work (well, maybe higher, but that's a moot point)
I actually liked that job (Styockholm Syndrome?), even though I worked opening to closing 6 days a week (12 hours/day X6) for $5/hour, & did construction labour for 12 hours for $10/hour on my one day off. (the construction job replaced my other, fulltime, job of 40 hours/week)
Luckily I was only 19 & my body could do it all & I never questioned it -- questioning it would've just pissed me off, I'm sure.
My boss loved me, though (of course!) whebn I had the brain injury & was in ghospiotal, half paraluyzed, everytime I called in to the restaurant to talk to the girls, he'd demand to know how soon I could come back)
Lucily he went bankrupt while I was in rehab, so I'll never know if I'd've been dumb enough to go back to quasi-legal slavery.
First thing I determined when I was told I'd be in a wheelchair for life was, "Cool; now I'll never have to do the kinds of jobs I hated any more."; I said that to the specialist & he was stunned, then roaring with laughter. . .
This is as close as it comes to a winning story with a minimum wage job!
Definition of a minimum wage job: the employer, essentially saying, "I want to pay you less, or even zero, but the only reason I'm not is because it's against the law."
--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-5
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)