"If places aren’t adapting, they’re not magically entitled to labor."
June 2, 2021 9:54 AM Subscribe
The Mississippi Free Press talks to restaurant workers and employers who HAVE adapted about the narrative demonizing workers who media say "don't want to work." Can we now begin a fierce and honest conversation about what John Lewis called "plantation capitalism"?
Full pull-quote, because it matters: "“If places aren’t adapting and they can’t get staff, well, they’re not magically entitled to labor. That’s not how it works.”"
Full pull-quote, because it matters: "“If places aren’t adapting and they can’t get staff, well, they’re not magically entitled to labor. That’s not how it works.”"
The weird thing about trying to cut unemployment benefits during this is that (depending on the state, I mean I doubt Mississippi has them) unemployment can include grants for worker retraining for industries that are in higher demand and pay better than, say, the restaurant industry. Before the pandemic, restaurant work would have 100% been work that would have been considered worthy to give someone training for a better job.
Isn't this tantamount to screaming that they don't actually want people taking advantage of such programs? Because this is the result of that: you gave people skills and education to get something better and they walked away from the terrible places they worked before.
Just so much of what Republican leadership does is just literally putting people down and keeping them down for the sake of keeping them poor and subservient. It's so transparent and gross. It's especially gross considering the whole "lots of people in the restaurant industry died of COVID" aspect of the story. Because it is a little like the black plague, which removed so much labor from the labor pool that suddenly labor had more bargaining power. Ugh. So gross. I'm glad at least for the silver lining of the changing and growing power of labor, although the cost seems obscene.
Anyway, thankfully a year and a half or so was long enough for a lot of people to get a significant chunk of an education under their belt (if they were so lucky), and hopefully they all will move on to better things and more sustainable industries.
And hopefully that shift in labor truly will demolish this industry and make it begin anew.
posted by deadaluspark at 10:34 AM on June 2, 2021 [26 favorites]
Isn't this tantamount to screaming that they don't actually want people taking advantage of such programs? Because this is the result of that: you gave people skills and education to get something better and they walked away from the terrible places they worked before.
Just so much of what Republican leadership does is just literally putting people down and keeping them down for the sake of keeping them poor and subservient. It's so transparent and gross. It's especially gross considering the whole "lots of people in the restaurant industry died of COVID" aspect of the story. Because it is a little like the black plague, which removed so much labor from the labor pool that suddenly labor had more bargaining power. Ugh. So gross. I'm glad at least for the silver lining of the changing and growing power of labor, although the cost seems obscene.
Anyway, thankfully a year and a half or so was long enough for a lot of people to get a significant chunk of an education under their belt (if they were so lucky), and hopefully they all will move on to better things and more sustainable industries.
And hopefully that shift in labor truly will demolish this industry and make it begin anew.
posted by deadaluspark at 10:34 AM on June 2, 2021 [26 favorites]
... addiction to success through violation of human rights. Why would it just evaporate now?
This addiction - like prejudice, stupidity, or black mold - rarely goes away without some dedicated focus and effort. And while I do not disagree with you on any particular point, throwing ones hands up and decrying, “it’s always been this way!” doesn’t push us one iota out of where we are.
posted by Silvery Fish at 10:35 AM on June 2, 2021 [8 favorites]
This addiction - like prejudice, stupidity, or black mold - rarely goes away without some dedicated focus and effort. And while I do not disagree with you on any particular point, throwing ones hands up and decrying, “it’s always been this way!” doesn’t push us one iota out of where we are.
posted by Silvery Fish at 10:35 AM on June 2, 2021 [8 favorites]
There are perhaps parallels with late-1800s American politics and the current scene. Back then, there was the start of racial coalition building and cooperation on shared economic concerns. Jim Crow laws helped codify segregation and break those nascent relationships and organization efforts. Today, we have a GOP that is functionally trying to do the same through gerrymandering and voter restriction laws, while also forcing people into sub-poverty wage subsistence, breaking efforts to unionize, and taking away healthcare and other services — all largely based on race. The pre-Civil War South was a realization of an ultimately no-wage labor policy that helped further the global economy, as it existed back then. Perhaps old habits die hard and we're just getting modern interpretations of those old ways.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:54 AM on June 2, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:54 AM on June 2, 2021 [8 favorites]
I don't think this "entitlement to labor" is baked into the fabric of the USA going all the way back to the plantation era, but I do think it's been a deliberate policy choice for the last 40 years.
Following the “stagflation” crisis of the late 1970s, America’s fiscal and monetary authorities decided that preempting price hikes was so much more important than promoting full employment that they had a duty to keep millions of Americans involuntarily unemployed at all times, lest labor secure too much leverage over capital.
From https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/03/what-is-in-covid-relief-bill-stimulus-checks-biden-progressives.html, about the stimulus bill:
The ARP will erect an impressive pop-up welfare state, but America deserves the real thing.
It talks about the fiscal consensus that's kept wages in the US artificially low, by making sure the employers have all the power in the relationship; the same thing TIME magazine talked about when they pointed out that if wages had kept pace with inflation for the last forty years, the median wage earner would be making an additional $10-13 dollars an hour right now:
https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/
When even TIME magazine is in favor of raising the wages, and they frame it as a national security issue to do so, you know the consensus is starting to shift.
posted by subdee at 10:55 AM on June 2, 2021 [33 favorites]
Following the “stagflation” crisis of the late 1970s, America’s fiscal and monetary authorities decided that preempting price hikes was so much more important than promoting full employment that they had a duty to keep millions of Americans involuntarily unemployed at all times, lest labor secure too much leverage over capital.
From https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/03/what-is-in-covid-relief-bill-stimulus-checks-biden-progressives.html, about the stimulus bill:
The ARP will erect an impressive pop-up welfare state, but America deserves the real thing.
It talks about the fiscal consensus that's kept wages in the US artificially low, by making sure the employers have all the power in the relationship; the same thing TIME magazine talked about when they pointed out that if wages had kept pace with inflation for the last forty years, the median wage earner would be making an additional $10-13 dollars an hour right now:
https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/
When even TIME magazine is in favor of raising the wages, and they frame it as a national security issue to do so, you know the consensus is starting to shift.
posted by subdee at 10:55 AM on June 2, 2021 [33 favorites]
Right wing thinking: keep $ out of the hands of people who would spend it on the local economy because the optics of racism are better politically.
There was/is a great awakening during the dire times of covid: I really could randomly die very soon through no misstep. What is this whole thing about, really? If you are alive, you have choices. Choice in anything is a bad thing on the right (except wearing a mask). The narrative is written before the facts come in. Laziness is causing economic problems. People want socialism. The facts bear out though, people are working elsewhere and just want a better life.
How the Democratic party can't hammer home the differences every damn day...is beyond me.
posted by zerobyproxy at 10:57 AM on June 2, 2021 [12 favorites]
There was/is a great awakening during the dire times of covid: I really could randomly die very soon through no misstep. What is this whole thing about, really? If you are alive, you have choices. Choice in anything is a bad thing on the right (except wearing a mask). The narrative is written before the facts come in. Laziness is causing economic problems. People want socialism. The facts bear out though, people are working elsewhere and just want a better life.
How the Democratic party can't hammer home the differences every damn day...is beyond me.
posted by zerobyproxy at 10:57 AM on June 2, 2021 [12 favorites]
Incidentally, since this article is about the restaurant industry:
The unemployment rate in Mississippi has since declined back to 6.2%, only a fraction of a percent higher than pre-pandemic levels. Mississippi’s employment-population ratio, too, is virtually indistinguishable from the months before the pandemic hit.
The data back up what many workers told the Mississippi Free Press, both on and off the record. Mississippians are already back to work, with or without an end to pandemic unemployment. Just not for certain employers.
Here's a related article:
Service Workers Aren’t Lazy — They Just Don’t Want to Risk Dying for Minimum Wage
From that article:
A recent study from the University of California–San Francisco looks at increased morbidity rates due to COVID, stratified by profession, from the height of the pandemic last year. They find that food and agricultural workers morbidity rates increased by the widest margins by far, much more so than medical professionals ... within the food industry, the morbidity rates of line cooks increased by 60 percent, making it the deadliest profession in America under coronavirus pandemic.
The article argues that the reason restaurants are having trouble filling these positions is not only that they are dangerous; not only that other professions pay more; but literally that many people who previously held these positions... have died. Of COVID.
posted by subdee at 11:05 AM on June 2, 2021 [72 favorites]
The unemployment rate in Mississippi has since declined back to 6.2%, only a fraction of a percent higher than pre-pandemic levels. Mississippi’s employment-population ratio, too, is virtually indistinguishable from the months before the pandemic hit.
The data back up what many workers told the Mississippi Free Press, both on and off the record. Mississippians are already back to work, with or without an end to pandemic unemployment. Just not for certain employers.
Here's a related article:
Service Workers Aren’t Lazy — They Just Don’t Want to Risk Dying for Minimum Wage
From that article:
A recent study from the University of California–San Francisco looks at increased morbidity rates due to COVID, stratified by profession, from the height of the pandemic last year. They find that food and agricultural workers morbidity rates increased by the widest margins by far, much more so than medical professionals ... within the food industry, the morbidity rates of line cooks increased by 60 percent, making it the deadliest profession in America under coronavirus pandemic.
The article argues that the reason restaurants are having trouble filling these positions is not only that they are dangerous; not only that other professions pay more; but literally that many people who previously held these positions... have died. Of COVID.
posted by subdee at 11:05 AM on June 2, 2021 [72 favorites]
Meanwhile, legislators are doing all kinds of things to try to get people back into these low-paid, dangerous, no-health-benefits jobs, including passing laws that no one under 21 can work in an "adult" environment (bars, clubs, casinos). Why? Because those jobs pay well, and they're trying to force more young people to work for less than minimum wage in the restaurants.
posted by subdee at 11:08 AM on June 2, 2021 [15 favorites]
posted by subdee at 11:08 AM on June 2, 2021 [15 favorites]
Somewhat related, I went to my local Target the other day any there were signs that they were hiring for $15 an hr...in a state where the minimum wage is $7.25. One of the more heartening signs I've seen lately.
posted by coffeecat at 11:32 AM on June 2, 2021 [27 favorites]
posted by coffeecat at 11:32 AM on June 2, 2021 [27 favorites]
I don't think this "entitlement to labor" is baked into the fabric of the USA
J.D.Rockefeller thought he was so entitled to the labor of coal miners that he murdered them for having the audacity to strike for a 40-hour week.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:49 AM on June 2, 2021 [63 favorites]
J.D.Rockefeller thought he was so entitled to the labor of coal miners that he murdered them for having the audacity to strike for a 40-hour week.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:49 AM on June 2, 2021 [63 favorites]
I don't think this "entitlement to labor" is baked into the fabric of the USA
Yeah this is quite a wild statement to make that does not hold up to scrutiny of any kind. Our entire country was founded on the idea that the white guys who were living here were entitled to the value produced by their slaves rather than the king of England being entitled to it. That's all. When they were building the constitution they were like uhhhhhh can we still function without slaves? And they were like no we cannot function without slaves. This conversation kept happening for a hundred years until the civil war until which time the south did everything in its power to keep reaping the value of black peoples labor without having to pay for it and this is still happening everywhere in the form of prison labor & the school to prison pipeline.
posted by bleep at 12:01 PM on June 2, 2021 [67 favorites]
Yeah this is quite a wild statement to make that does not hold up to scrutiny of any kind. Our entire country was founded on the idea that the white guys who were living here were entitled to the value produced by their slaves rather than the king of England being entitled to it. That's all. When they were building the constitution they were like uhhhhhh can we still function without slaves? And they were like no we cannot function without slaves. This conversation kept happening for a hundred years until the civil war until which time the south did everything in its power to keep reaping the value of black peoples labor without having to pay for it and this is still happening everywhere in the form of prison labor & the school to prison pipeline.
posted by bleep at 12:01 PM on June 2, 2021 [67 favorites]
Also, isn't this the inverse of "survivor bias"? I don't think anyone's really proven that there's people who could be working but just...aren't; the articles I've seen show unemployment is at about the same percent as pre-Covid. We're just hearing a lot from the angry people whose stories are fitting the political narratives of others.
What I mean by 'survivor bias' is that if a bunch of employers all need employees at the same time, then employees have their pick of where to work. The employers who are getting the employees don't have any reason to hang up mean signs or talk to the media about their problem.
Even my dad, who falls into the "slightly-right-of-center-Republican-before-the-crazies" side of the continuum, is angry about all the employers complaining that employees aren't begging for their jobs back -- "of course they went and did something else" he said, "why would they go back and work for those guys again?" This conversation was precipitated over how my daughter was laid off from her low-paying retail job, and when the store moved back into full-staff everyone had to re-interview for their jobs and they didn't hire her back. "If employers are doing stuff like that, and even screwier things, it's no wonder they can't get people to work for them".
(My daughter went and got a better paying job with a different retailer, and last weekend was her birthday, so she's doing fine)
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:21 PM on June 2, 2021 [44 favorites]
What I mean by 'survivor bias' is that if a bunch of employers all need employees at the same time, then employees have their pick of where to work. The employers who are getting the employees don't have any reason to hang up mean signs or talk to the media about their problem.
Even my dad, who falls into the "slightly-right-of-center-Republican-before-the-crazies" side of the continuum, is angry about all the employers complaining that employees aren't begging for their jobs back -- "of course they went and did something else" he said, "why would they go back and work for those guys again?" This conversation was precipitated over how my daughter was laid off from her low-paying retail job, and when the store moved back into full-staff everyone had to re-interview for their jobs and they didn't hire her back. "If employers are doing stuff like that, and even screwier things, it's no wonder they can't get people to work for them".
(My daughter went and got a better paying job with a different retailer, and last weekend was her birthday, so she's doing fine)
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:21 PM on June 2, 2021 [44 favorites]
but hey yoga pants = magical win exclusively for white women
So I went and read both links hoping to figure out what the heck yoga pants had to do with anything, and well, no mention of them in either link, so what the heck? Just starting off the thread with some gratuitous misogyny for fun?
posted by Daily Alice at 12:37 PM on June 2, 2021 [113 favorites]
So I went and read both links hoping to figure out what the heck yoga pants had to do with anything, and well, no mention of them in either link, so what the heck? Just starting off the thread with some gratuitous misogyny for fun?
posted by Daily Alice at 12:37 PM on June 2, 2021 [113 favorites]
I guess that sentence was worded in a clumsy way... the point I wanted to make wasn't that the USA wasn't founded on slavery because LOL yes of course it was, but more that instead of like... going all the way back to the plantation era to explain the restaurant wages in Mississippi, you can also go back to 1978 because that was the start of the specific fiscal era that we're specifically in right now.
I mean, sure the plantation might have something to do with it but there are other things that happened more recently that might also be relevant.
posted by subdee at 12:38 PM on June 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
I mean, sure the plantation might have something to do with it but there are other things that happened more recently that might also be relevant.
posted by subdee at 12:38 PM on June 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
My daughter messaged me this morning with great glee to tell me that a restaurant she used to work at has gone out of business. The owner was quoted in the newspaper as saying they "can't find workers because of the pandemic" but my daughter said the issue really is that "it isnt worth being treated like shit under the current circumstances, and everyone fucking told her 😂 " (Yes she is enjoying the schadenfreude.)
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 12:39 PM on June 2, 2021 [70 favorites]
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 12:39 PM on June 2, 2021 [70 favorites]
Something similar to the restaurant industry is happening with Uber/Lyft/etc. But since those apps dynamically change their pricing due to supply and demand, it's causing very visible surges in prices as there are no drivers.
But I don't think those drivers are coming back. They didn't sit on their hands for a year, waiting to get evicted; they've left the city/state/country and/or found better jobs, which is the exact opposite of being lazy. It's the employers who are failing to attract employees that are lazy.
posted by meowzilla at 12:53 PM on June 2, 2021 [26 favorites]
But I don't think those drivers are coming back. They didn't sit on their hands for a year, waiting to get evicted; they've left the city/state/country and/or found better jobs, which is the exact opposite of being lazy. It's the employers who are failing to attract employees that are lazy.
posted by meowzilla at 12:53 PM on June 2, 2021 [26 favorites]
But I mean in the absence of our entire establishment being based on the existence of free labor being done by people who have nothing of their own, you wouldn't see governors taking steps to keep their people in poverty and working for nothing.
posted by bleep at 1:07 PM on June 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by bleep at 1:07 PM on June 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
In countries with different pathologies, governments care about keeping people alive and keeping them happy. Perhaps. Maybe.
posted by bleep at 1:08 PM on June 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by bleep at 1:08 PM on June 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
Former employees be like "Let me not speak to the manager."
posted by srboisvert at 1:16 PM on June 2, 2021 [22 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 1:16 PM on June 2, 2021 [22 favorites]
That advertisement with the woman who talks about how she's disabled because of her chronic illness and wouldn't be able to work and provide for her family if not for Uber just fills me with white hot rage whenever I see it. Ditto the one with the guy who talks about how working for Uber helps with his PTSD by getting him out of the house or the one with the other guy who needs to send money back to his family overseas.
It's like Uber's deliberately trying to recruit the most vulnerable people they can as drivers, and I'd gladly pay more in taxes to make sure none of these people have to take such a shitty job.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:31 PM on June 2, 2021 [97 favorites]
It's like Uber's deliberately trying to recruit the most vulnerable people they can as drivers, and I'd gladly pay more in taxes to make sure none of these people have to take such a shitty job.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:31 PM on June 2, 2021 [97 favorites]
Well said.
posted by praemunire at 1:32 PM on June 2, 2021
posted by praemunire at 1:32 PM on June 2, 2021
The restaurant I manage at just upped our starting wage from $16 to $18 two months ago. and everyone that came back post pandemic got a fat raise. We live in an increasingly unaffordable town (who doesn’t) and every restaurant is hiring. Recent ads are offering $20+. The highest wages are from the restaurants that are part of a restaurant group headed by some big $$$$. It’s getting fucking COMPETITIVE. For my part, I’m showing up at the next manager meeting with all the other hiring ads from our competitors and ask we once again, raise wages.
posted by Grandysaur at 1:44 PM on June 2, 2021 [55 favorites]
posted by Grandysaur at 1:44 PM on June 2, 2021 [55 favorites]
How the Democratic party can't hammer home the differences every damn day...is beyond me.
Rich white news editors won’t run those stories. Voters care about the issue but tend to vote on other issues.
posted by interogative mood at 2:59 PM on June 2, 2021 [7 favorites]
Rich white news editors won’t run those stories. Voters care about the issue but tend to vote on other issues.
posted by interogative mood at 2:59 PM on June 2, 2021 [7 favorites]
Spoiler alert: They're going to arrest more people, have prisoners doing these low wage jobs, their minimum wage will be paid to the state government, and the authorities will see these jobs as a privilege for well behaved prisoners.
So yeah. Don't be surprised if at some point your Big Mac is handed to you by a literal slave, as sanctioned by the "duly convicted" part of the 13th amendment.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 3:05 PM on June 2, 2021 [16 favorites]
So yeah. Don't be surprised if at some point your Big Mac is handed to you by a literal slave, as sanctioned by the "duly convicted" part of the 13th amendment.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 3:05 PM on June 2, 2021 [16 favorites]
In post-pandemic America, the manager wants to speak with YOU.
posted by jquinby at 3:16 PM on June 2, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by jquinby at 3:16 PM on June 2, 2021 [11 favorites]
I kind of think the pull-quote is the very last line: “Capitalism for the workers and socialism for the ownership.”
posted by mbo at 3:44 PM on June 2, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by mbo at 3:44 PM on June 2, 2021 [13 favorites]
Your Childhood Pet Rock: So yeah. Don't be surprised if at some point your Big Mac is handed to you by a literal slave, as sanctioned by the "duly convicted" part of the 13th amendment.
I might go to McDonalds more often if I could be served by the Hamburglar.
posted by dr_dank at 4:27 PM on June 2, 2021 [7 favorites]
I might go to McDonalds more often if I could be served by the Hamburglar.
posted by dr_dank at 4:27 PM on June 2, 2021 [7 favorites]
the morbidity rates of line cooks increased by 60 percent, making it the deadliest profession in America under coronavirus pandemic.
Is this conflating morbidity and mortality?
posted by nickmark at 4:32 PM on June 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
Is this conflating morbidity and mortality?
posted by nickmark at 4:32 PM on June 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
It sounds like employers are so desperate that long-haired freaky people can now apply.
(Link for those who are not big into early seventies Canadian one hit wonders.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:39 PM on June 2, 2021 [15 favorites]
(Link for those who are not big into early seventies Canadian one hit wonders.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:39 PM on June 2, 2021 [15 favorites]
Why Amazon is backing away from drug testing employees for weed
Wow, Amazon is the #2 employer in the US; only behind Walmart, the Amazon of the 20th century.
posted by meowzilla at 4:45 PM on June 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
Wow, Amazon is the #2 employer in the US; only behind Walmart, the Amazon of the 20th century.
posted by meowzilla at 4:45 PM on June 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
It's really wonderful, where I am, reading the massive whinges of hospitality employers who can't get staff. You feel like saying, it's your industry, you idiots—retail, construction, every other sector isn't having trouble staffing, call centres aren't doing badly, people are lining up to work in health; it's hospitality that's suffering, because it's earned such a reputation over decades for bullying, unpaid overtime, and churning through vulnerable people. Maybe you can live off the unpaid overtime you stole from your employees in the boom years?
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:47 PM on June 2, 2021 [45 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:47 PM on June 2, 2021 [45 favorites]
The sign said you had to had to have a membership card to get inside... Huungh
posted by Windopaene at 5:08 PM on June 2, 2021 [10 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 5:08 PM on June 2, 2021 [10 favorites]
So we keep hearing that minimum wage workers aren't worth more money, because if they were, they'd have the skills to go get higher paying jobs. Um... so as you can see, you can't run your business without these workers. And now, they've figured that out. The pendulum has a LONG way to swing in the employer-employee relationship, but now that it's swinging towards the employees just a little bit, the employers are screaming bloody fucking murder. You love to see it.
posted by azpenguin at 5:38 PM on June 2, 2021 [44 favorites]
posted by azpenguin at 5:38 PM on June 2, 2021 [44 favorites]
You feel like saying, it's your industry, you idiots—retail, construction, every other sector isn't having trouble staffing, call centres aren't doing badly, people are lining up to work in health
not exactly - my factory has got a revolving door out front it seems - we can't seem to keep people - retail seems to be struggling too and i kept hearing about a shortage of health care employees before covid started
everyone seems to be hiring - a lot
the hospitality industry is much worse, of course
posted by pyramid termite at 5:54 PM on June 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
not exactly - my factory has got a revolving door out front it seems - we can't seem to keep people - retail seems to be struggling too and i kept hearing about a shortage of health care employees before covid started
everyone seems to be hiring - a lot
the hospitality industry is much worse, of course
posted by pyramid termite at 5:54 PM on June 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
The equation should be pretty simple. You add up rent, food, utilities and transport, all the things you need to sustain a human life with dignity, so they are able to work. Make that the minimum wage. It seems to me that the current minimum is totally arbitrary.
If you work 40 hours and still can't afford groceries, so you need government assistance, isn't that just government subsidizing the cost of labor? Wouldn't it make more sense to make up the difference with a tax break?
Data shows that these minimum wage jobs are being taken by ethnic minorities. As I've said before on the blue, isn't it funny how the country that struggles to reconcile with its history of slavery also doesn't know how to pay people what they're worth.
posted by adept256 at 6:20 PM on June 2, 2021 [32 favorites]
If you work 40 hours and still can't afford groceries, so you need government assistance, isn't that just government subsidizing the cost of labor? Wouldn't it make more sense to make up the difference with a tax break?
Data shows that these minimum wage jobs are being taken by ethnic minorities. As I've said before on the blue, isn't it funny how the country that struggles to reconcile with its history of slavery also doesn't know how to pay people what they're worth.
posted by adept256 at 6:20 PM on June 2, 2021 [32 favorites]
I have seen several of the "restaurants can't find employees" articles, but I don't think I've seen one where the reporter asks (and gets an answer to), "so... who was doing these jobs a year and a half ago? Have you called them to ask if they wanted their old jobs back?"
I'd like to see some of the owners fumble through an explanation of why the people they fired aren't interested in their old jobs. And what incentives they're (not) offering to get them to return.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 6:21 PM on June 2, 2021 [17 favorites]
I'd like to see some of the owners fumble through an explanation of why the people they fired aren't interested in their old jobs. And what incentives they're (not) offering to get them to return.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 6:21 PM on June 2, 2021 [17 favorites]
People get fired from their jobs all the time because they aren't up to snuff. And yet we don't apply that to business owners. If you can't keep your restaurant going without paying poverty wages and committing regular wage theft (aka unpaid overtime), maybe you're just a shitty business owner who should be working for someone competent. Other people seen able to run businesses without regularly breaking the law. Maybe these people just aren't very good businessmen (it seems that almost all the company's I've seen are from men).
posted by Hactar at 6:34 PM on June 2, 2021 [29 favorites]
posted by Hactar at 6:34 PM on June 2, 2021 [29 favorites]
Maybe those workers found a better deal. It's called a free market, you'd think that's something they'd understand.
posted by adept256 at 6:38 PM on June 2, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by adept256 at 6:38 PM on June 2, 2021 [6 favorites]
Rich white news editors won’t run those stories. Voters care about the issue but tend to vote on other issues.
Locally, in an area where hospitality/tourism is a very big slice of the employment pie, I've seen both. Articles, typically in the business section of the paper featuring the poor put out restaurant and hotel owners that just can't get anyone to work despite significant boosts in starting pay. Other articles talking about people who used the pandemic as an opportunity to upskill. Still others that talk about both sides of the coin. Mostly with headlines taking the employer's side, annoyingly.
I have a tiny amount of sympathy for the (small time, fuck the corporate overlords, they rarely operate on razor thin margins) owners of businesses that are having their feet pulled out from under them yet again. It does suck for them, many are going to lose their shirts, and they aren't all rich white people who can shut it all down, move on, and get a bank to loan them money for their next idea.
My level of sympathy for them pales in comparison to my sympathy toward the workers who have been enduring the low pay, irregular hours, wage theft, and lack of benefits for decades, though.
Capitalism is a sword you might live by, but you just as well may die by. Every business owner knows the risks going in. I can't quite say "fuck 'em," but I can't muster sympathy beyond being sad that we don't have a safety net for everyone. Too bad they won't be eligible for the expanded unemployment benefits when they do close up shop since their whining and idiotic assumptions are directly responsible for governors ending them early.
posted by wierdo at 6:57 PM on June 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
Locally, in an area where hospitality/tourism is a very big slice of the employment pie, I've seen both. Articles, typically in the business section of the paper featuring the poor put out restaurant and hotel owners that just can't get anyone to work despite significant boosts in starting pay. Other articles talking about people who used the pandemic as an opportunity to upskill. Still others that talk about both sides of the coin. Mostly with headlines taking the employer's side, annoyingly.
I have a tiny amount of sympathy for the (small time, fuck the corporate overlords, they rarely operate on razor thin margins) owners of businesses that are having their feet pulled out from under them yet again. It does suck for them, many are going to lose their shirts, and they aren't all rich white people who can shut it all down, move on, and get a bank to loan them money for their next idea.
My level of sympathy for them pales in comparison to my sympathy toward the workers who have been enduring the low pay, irregular hours, wage theft, and lack of benefits for decades, though.
Capitalism is a sword you might live by, but you just as well may die by. Every business owner knows the risks going in. I can't quite say "fuck 'em," but I can't muster sympathy beyond being sad that we don't have a safety net for everyone. Too bad they won't be eligible for the expanded unemployment benefits when they do close up shop since their whining and idiotic assumptions are directly responsible for governors ending them early.
posted by wierdo at 6:57 PM on June 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
Capitalism is a sword you might live by, but you just as well may die by.
This part. The supply of labor has gone down and demand has increased, and so should the cost of labor.
That's capitalism, baybee. Or it would be if capitalism worked as advertised and the house didn't always win.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 7:33 PM on June 2, 2021 [17 favorites]
This part. The supply of labor has gone down and demand has increased, and so should the cost of labor.
That's capitalism, baybee. Or it would be if capitalism worked as advertised and the house didn't always win.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 7:33 PM on June 2, 2021 [17 favorites]
Your Childhood Pet Rock > So yeah. Don't be surprised if at some point your Big Mac is handed to you by a literal slave, as sanctioned by the "duly convicted" part of the 13th amendment.
My trash is picked up by literal slaves. Near the beginning of the pandemic, the trash collectors here in New Orleans unionized and went on strike over the lack of any kind of protection equipment being provided by the company the city contracts out to, back when we had absolutely no idea how C19 was transmitted and were afraid to touch anything anyone else had touched in the last week or so.
They have been replaced by prison workers, who are paid some absurdly low amount, and given even less in the way of tools and equipment - the previous workers had to buy their own gloves and whatnot too, because the trash company is run by human garbage, but at least they were being paid enough to think of actually doing that.
posted by egypturnash at 7:49 PM on June 2, 2021 [25 favorites]
My trash is picked up by literal slaves. Near the beginning of the pandemic, the trash collectors here in New Orleans unionized and went on strike over the lack of any kind of protection equipment being provided by the company the city contracts out to, back when we had absolutely no idea how C19 was transmitted and were afraid to touch anything anyone else had touched in the last week or so.
They have been replaced by prison workers, who are paid some absurdly low amount, and given even less in the way of tools and equipment - the previous workers had to buy their own gloves and whatnot too, because the trash company is run by human garbage, but at least they were being paid enough to think of actually doing that.
posted by egypturnash at 7:49 PM on June 2, 2021 [25 favorites]
We've been very lucky where I work, and we've been adapting.
We were able to bring back enough employees at each stage of reopening (outdoor seating last summer, indoor seating and bowling last Nov., and now outside, inside, and lanes with full capacity just this week) to keep up with it. All the restrictions in Mass were lifted this past Saturday. That day we had 12 inside tables and no bar seats. My boss went in over sun/monday when we are closed (for now) and replaced all 16 bar seats and now we have...15 tables, but more that can seat 4 or more, and another 12 seats along the rail, and all 10 lanes instead of five. I've kept the additional 76 outside seats closed this week as we re-learn how to do inside service at volume, and because thin staffed. Meanwhile the curbside operation remains robust. The staff I've got are great, they know what I want, they don't bring a bunch of drama (so far...), and I'm careful not to overseat them.
On the adaptation side we've rolled out order-and-pay with your smart device down on the lanes, which means one person can handle all ten. With so much more real estate, we are experimenting with no rezzys, first come first served. Makes my job easier but I'm worried about crowd control when July and August come and there are 150000-200000 people on this island.
We certainly have plenty of former employees who have moved on to new careers of industries. I don't blame them, restaurant work, while I love it, can suck, the late hours alone can make it hard to even have a relationship with someone who has weekends off and works 9-5.
Our chef and his wife are having a baby tonight. He plans to be back at work tomorrow. Not sure how she feels about that.
Anyway, for one independent fairly large bistro and bowling venue in a resort area, we are not whining about nobody wanting to work, we are just trying to change and adapt fast enough. We were told restrictions would be lifted in August. Tonight I split a check on two credit cards and really had to struggle to remember how to do it in the POS system. I'm going to have to write a real schedule for my team for next week- until now the schedule has been everyone is working 5 nights a week. We're getting a few more key players back next week. Every server is getting bartender training going forward, so we have a deep versatile bench. We raised prices a bit to capture those summer dollars, but have a discount program secret code for year rounders who order online takeout.
I'll have been there 2 years come mid-June. Despite everything that has happened, maybe even because of what happened and how we surfed it each scary step of the way, we were then and remain the number one top rated restaurant on the island, according to a popular review site. So we must be doing something right.
posted by vrakatar at 8:36 PM on June 2, 2021 [18 favorites]
We were able to bring back enough employees at each stage of reopening (outdoor seating last summer, indoor seating and bowling last Nov., and now outside, inside, and lanes with full capacity just this week) to keep up with it. All the restrictions in Mass were lifted this past Saturday. That day we had 12 inside tables and no bar seats. My boss went in over sun/monday when we are closed (for now) and replaced all 16 bar seats and now we have...15 tables, but more that can seat 4 or more, and another 12 seats along the rail, and all 10 lanes instead of five. I've kept the additional 76 outside seats closed this week as we re-learn how to do inside service at volume, and because thin staffed. Meanwhile the curbside operation remains robust. The staff I've got are great, they know what I want, they don't bring a bunch of drama (so far...), and I'm careful not to overseat them.
On the adaptation side we've rolled out order-and-pay with your smart device down on the lanes, which means one person can handle all ten. With so much more real estate, we are experimenting with no rezzys, first come first served. Makes my job easier but I'm worried about crowd control when July and August come and there are 150000-200000 people on this island.
We certainly have plenty of former employees who have moved on to new careers of industries. I don't blame them, restaurant work, while I love it, can suck, the late hours alone can make it hard to even have a relationship with someone who has weekends off and works 9-5.
Our chef and his wife are having a baby tonight. He plans to be back at work tomorrow. Not sure how she feels about that.
Anyway, for one independent fairly large bistro and bowling venue in a resort area, we are not whining about nobody wanting to work, we are just trying to change and adapt fast enough. We were told restrictions would be lifted in August. Tonight I split a check on two credit cards and really had to struggle to remember how to do it in the POS system. I'm going to have to write a real schedule for my team for next week- until now the schedule has been everyone is working 5 nights a week. We're getting a few more key players back next week. Every server is getting bartender training going forward, so we have a deep versatile bench. We raised prices a bit to capture those summer dollars, but have a discount program secret code for year rounders who order online takeout.
I'll have been there 2 years come mid-June. Despite everything that has happened, maybe even because of what happened and how we surfed it each scary step of the way, we were then and remain the number one top rated restaurant on the island, according to a popular review site. So we must be doing something right.
posted by vrakatar at 8:36 PM on June 2, 2021 [18 favorites]
or industries natch.
posted by vrakatar at 8:49 PM on June 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by vrakatar at 8:49 PM on June 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
It seems to me that the current minimum is totally arbitrary.
The Federal minimum is totally arbitrary. Worse, perhaps, is that it's always been totally arbitrary.
I recently found this interesting history of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and it shows how little has really changed in politics. (It also introduced me to Frances Perkins, without whom we probably wouldn't have gotten minimum-wage or child-labor laws when we did in the US.)
Anyway, FDR and Hugo Black, who authored the Act of 1938, both wanted a minimum wage of around 40 cents/hour. But during negotiations, that got whittled down to just 25 cents. And that's the starting position from which every subsequent increase in the Federal minimum worked from. It's always been arbitrary and paltry.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:00 PM on June 2, 2021 [9 favorites]
The Federal minimum is totally arbitrary. Worse, perhaps, is that it's always been totally arbitrary.
I recently found this interesting history of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and it shows how little has really changed in politics. (It also introduced me to Frances Perkins, without whom we probably wouldn't have gotten minimum-wage or child-labor laws when we did in the US.)
Anyway, FDR and Hugo Black, who authored the Act of 1938, both wanted a minimum wage of around 40 cents/hour. But during negotiations, that got whittled down to just 25 cents. And that's the starting position from which every subsequent increase in the Federal minimum worked from. It's always been arbitrary and paltry.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:00 PM on June 2, 2021 [9 favorites]
She just had the babeh. And I read the article, I'd just been skimming it at work.
“Supply and demand is tough. All of a sudden we’re back to 100 percent—it takes time before everything gets to where it needs to be, but hey, if you’re involved, if you’re hands on, if you lose a worker or two, it just means you have to do it,” Ali said, Ali pointing at himself. He cocks an eyebrow as if the answer was obvious.
This. Every owner, gm, managing partner, whatever should be like this all the time in the restaurant industry.
posted by vrakatar at 9:20 PM on June 2, 2021 [6 favorites]
“Supply and demand is tough. All of a sudden we’re back to 100 percent—it takes time before everything gets to where it needs to be, but hey, if you’re involved, if you’re hands on, if you lose a worker or two, it just means you have to do it,” Ali said, Ali pointing at himself. He cocks an eyebrow as if the answer was obvious.
This. Every owner, gm, managing partner, whatever should be like this all the time in the restaurant industry.
posted by vrakatar at 9:20 PM on June 2, 2021 [6 favorites]
This. Every owner, gm, managing partner, whatever should be like this all the time in the restaurant industry
My first job was working at a Burger King 30 years ago. The store manager was an asshole. However, he could - and would - do anything that was needed in the store. Not only that, he was as good a trainer as you could ever get and he trained people how to do things well. We never hired managers, everyone was promoted from within. So yeah, he was an asshole, but he had everyone’s respect. A few years after I went to work at a different franchisee who ran things completely different, all the managers were hired, turnover was ridiculous, few people were trained and the managers couldn’t do most of the jobs in the store. Since then I’ve always appreciated the higher-ups who actually knew what the hell the job was that they were hiring people for.
posted by azpenguin at 10:07 PM on June 2, 2021 [16 favorites]
My first job was working at a Burger King 30 years ago. The store manager was an asshole. However, he could - and would - do anything that was needed in the store. Not only that, he was as good a trainer as you could ever get and he trained people how to do things well. We never hired managers, everyone was promoted from within. So yeah, he was an asshole, but he had everyone’s respect. A few years after I went to work at a different franchisee who ran things completely different, all the managers were hired, turnover was ridiculous, few people were trained and the managers couldn’t do most of the jobs in the store. Since then I’ve always appreciated the higher-ups who actually knew what the hell the job was that they were hiring people for.
posted by azpenguin at 10:07 PM on June 2, 2021 [16 favorites]
"They don't want to work"
Yeah, no shit. Nobody wants to work. That's why you have to pay them to do it.
No pay, no work.
You want someone to show up at 9AM and spend most of their waking hours devoted to your bullshit, you need to pay them fair compensation for their time and effort.
posted by Quajek at 11:16 PM on June 2, 2021 [53 favorites]
Yeah, no shit. Nobody wants to work. That's why you have to pay them to do it.
No pay, no work.
You want someone to show up at 9AM and spend most of their waking hours devoted to your bullshit, you need to pay them fair compensation for their time and effort.
posted by Quajek at 11:16 PM on June 2, 2021 [53 favorites]
So in Australia, the debate is also about the minimum wage
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-03/minimum-wage-austalks-cost-of-living-australia/100184216
$19.84 is the minimum wage, exchange rate is 1 USD = $1.30 AUD, so about $15.40 and we usually don't tip
The push to increase the minimum wage is being supported by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which has always had a mandate to consider full employment ever since it was established, but has only in the past year bothered to look at its charter and read what was put there over 60 years ago.
Because of course all of the economists remembered the horror of post-war deflation and 1970s inflation - but have only just figured out that an underpaid precariat class does not make for a robust economy.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 11:23 PM on June 2, 2021 [11 favorites]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-03/minimum-wage-austalks-cost-of-living-australia/100184216
$19.84 is the minimum wage, exchange rate is 1 USD = $1.30 AUD, so about $15.40 and we usually don't tip
The push to increase the minimum wage is being supported by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which has always had a mandate to consider full employment ever since it was established, but has only in the past year bothered to look at its charter and read what was put there over 60 years ago.
Because of course all of the economists remembered the horror of post-war deflation and 1970s inflation - but have only just figured out that an underpaid precariat class does not make for a robust economy.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 11:23 PM on June 2, 2021 [11 favorites]
“(workers are) taking advantage of stimulus money, tax credits, extended unemployment and they would rather accept those benefits instead of coming back to work.”
“The work ethic of people is just not there … people are getting money that they don’t have to work for.”
I’d love to see if these owners’ job listings are as brilliant as their interview statements. “Do you love being insulted? Are you eager to undertake hard or unpleasant tasks with absolutely zero respect? Do you hate getting paid decently? Good news! We’re looking to hire lazy, ungrateful little shits like you!”
posted by romanb at 7:09 AM on June 3, 2021 [12 favorites]
“The work ethic of people is just not there … people are getting money that they don’t have to work for.”
I’d love to see if these owners’ job listings are as brilliant as their interview statements. “Do you love being insulted? Are you eager to undertake hard or unpleasant tasks with absolutely zero respect? Do you hate getting paid decently? Good news! We’re looking to hire lazy, ungrateful little shits like you!”
posted by romanb at 7:09 AM on June 3, 2021 [12 favorites]
(I also tried to google whether there was some connection between the West Indian history of enslaved workers and colonization and revolution and...yoga pants??...and definitely came up blank. Drive-by misogyny isn't a great look.)
I hate that how it's played out here, at least in my microeconomy, is that the restaurants and bars who took care of their workers during the pandemic have all gone out of business. They couldn't get the relief loans, couldn't get them on time, went broke paying their employees to stay home/keep them on insurance, and now these wonderful places I was proud to support are all gone.
The ones that kept endangering staff, patrons, kitchen workers, they're all still out there and now they're hurting to fill jobs, but they're still out there.
If the shitheads follow shortly on, shuttering due to their own cruelty and idiocy, it will be comfort, but cold comfort. But my greater fear is that eventually the workers will be ground down back into taking these jobs, and there really won't be any good ones left, only the absolute most abusive and poorly-paid.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:30 AM on June 3, 2021 [9 favorites]
I hate that how it's played out here, at least in my microeconomy, is that the restaurants and bars who took care of their workers during the pandemic have all gone out of business. They couldn't get the relief loans, couldn't get them on time, went broke paying their employees to stay home/keep them on insurance, and now these wonderful places I was proud to support are all gone.
The ones that kept endangering staff, patrons, kitchen workers, they're all still out there and now they're hurting to fill jobs, but they're still out there.
If the shitheads follow shortly on, shuttering due to their own cruelty and idiocy, it will be comfort, but cold comfort. But my greater fear is that eventually the workers will be ground down back into taking these jobs, and there really won't be any good ones left, only the absolute most abusive and poorly-paid.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:30 AM on June 3, 2021 [9 favorites]
This. Every owner, gm, managing partner, whatever should be like this all the time in the restaurant industry.
In every industry. I did not choose to become a manager of people, but now that I am one, when one of my direct reports quits I expect to shoulder that burden, not the other people on my team. Other managers here feel the same way. However, none of us is supported in this at all--we get no guidance or support from above, nothing is ever backfilled, and when one of the managers quits, our bigwigs don't take that burden on. They shuffle it down to the rest of us and give us a lot of empty talk about "just do your best."
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:54 AM on June 3, 2021 [4 favorites]
In every industry. I did not choose to become a manager of people, but now that I am one, when one of my direct reports quits I expect to shoulder that burden, not the other people on my team. Other managers here feel the same way. However, none of us is supported in this at all--we get no guidance or support from above, nothing is ever backfilled, and when one of the managers quits, our bigwigs don't take that burden on. They shuffle it down to the rest of us and give us a lot of empty talk about "just do your best."
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:54 AM on June 3, 2021 [4 favorites]
NPR re-ran this Marketplace story this morning: For restaurants, tough pandemic decisions are starting to pay off
Convenience trumps human contact and fair employment again for us all.
posted by y2karl at 8:16 AM on June 3, 2021 [4 favorites]
At 21st Amendment Brewery in the San Francisco Bay Area, customers can sit down at a table, scan a QR code with their phones, and order beers and food immediately.I remember the introduction of barcode scanning self-serve stands in QFC and was horrified at the thought they were an end run around paying union wages to checkers and baggers. And yet there is where I mostly buy my groceries now because, well, life is short. Now I see the same thing going on at the local coffee shop. I am troubled once more.
“They don’t have to wait to be approached by a server,” said co-founder Nico Freccia. “They don’t have to wait for somebody to come over and give them specials.”
Now, Freccia said, he’s planning on running his big, outdoor events the same way.
“You need less staff,” he explained. “People feel safer, because they’re not passing around money and touching things that other people are touching. They don’t have to wait in line instead of being able to drink beer.”
Convenience trumps human contact and fair employment again for us all.
posted by y2karl at 8:16 AM on June 3, 2021 [4 favorites]
Prior to the pandemic, I'll bet the true employmention rate was negative because of the number hours worked - including labor saving devices vs number of people, it's greater than people, in all reality. Emotional labor is labor and should be on books as happening (and it should be compensated for! and well!) and any sort of labor would be and holidays and yes that means artists should NOT work more than 40 hrs a week and have holidays off. Running a household is still way too much work and there's still way too much to do outside of that and a lot of that, like running a charity, sure as hell is work.
posted by fragmede at 9:00 AM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by fragmede at 9:00 AM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
A Chicago Tribune article that does a pretty good job of interviewing folks who have left the industry:
Back-aching work. Low pay. No health care: Here’s why Chicago restaurant workers aren’t coming back.
posted by zamboni at 10:03 AM on June 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
Back-aching work. Low pay. No health care: Here’s why Chicago restaurant workers aren’t coming back.
posted by zamboni at 10:03 AM on June 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
My husband is a general manager at a chain restaurant. This is a real problem. Unfortunately, the attitude in the industry remains, as it has always been, that everyone is disposable. But especially when it comes to cooks, that's SO not true. Finding good cooks is a constant struggle for every restaurant. The best cook at my husband's restaurant is currently trying to get better pay, etc, and my husband would like to give it to him, but the owner says no, he can just replace him. (Because the owner doesn't have to actually do that.)
But while certainly the wages and treatment (specifically in terms of hours, IMO) in the industry needs reworking, one of the big problems right now is that a lot of restaurants are still HURTING financially. A lot closed in the last year and those that hung on had a VERY slim year during Covid. They can't afford to give everyone raises right now. (Maybe some of them can, the huge national chains, but most of those are actually small business franchises owned by individuals. For example my husband's restaurant is owned by an immigrant man who worked his way up from cook to owner.)
Some places still have limits on occupancy in restaurants, so their capacity is halved or more! It's hard to run a restaurant when you can't take in as much profit because half your tables have to be empty. (I honestly don't know how much of the country is still limited, I just know some is.)
So anyway, it's a real bad time to be trying to run a restaurant right now. And it's been a bad time to be working in one for the last year, and the entire industry is suffering. But people are still treating the waitstaff like shit and throwing fits if things are slow, even when restaurants are functioning at severely reduced staff. So, yanno, yeah America needs to consider how much it values having a restaurant industry and what they are prepared to do to save it.
posted by threeturtles at 1:37 AM on June 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
But while certainly the wages and treatment (specifically in terms of hours, IMO) in the industry needs reworking, one of the big problems right now is that a lot of restaurants are still HURTING financially. A lot closed in the last year and those that hung on had a VERY slim year during Covid. They can't afford to give everyone raises right now. (Maybe some of them can, the huge national chains, but most of those are actually small business franchises owned by individuals. For example my husband's restaurant is owned by an immigrant man who worked his way up from cook to owner.)
Some places still have limits on occupancy in restaurants, so their capacity is halved or more! It's hard to run a restaurant when you can't take in as much profit because half your tables have to be empty. (I honestly don't know how much of the country is still limited, I just know some is.)
So anyway, it's a real bad time to be trying to run a restaurant right now. And it's been a bad time to be working in one for the last year, and the entire industry is suffering. But people are still treating the waitstaff like shit and throwing fits if things are slow, even when restaurants are functioning at severely reduced staff. So, yanno, yeah America needs to consider how much it values having a restaurant industry and what they are prepared to do to save it.
posted by threeturtles at 1:37 AM on June 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
Tonight we had a cocktail tasting at work, followed by dinner on my boss at an Italian place one town over. The tasting was fine(some of the drinks need tweaking, one of them is terrible, B-) and dinner was fun though I just nibbled an app, had a pear martini and a grappa, and left. I gave some brief rah-rah remarks, sat next to chef and we chatted a good deal (baby and mom fine, party in a few weeks) and while service was painfully slow (15 top) people were having a legit good time.
About 15 minutes after my remarks one of the servers called us to attention, tapping her glass with a knife, and toasted to me, in many wonderful and gracious ways, how they know I care, how I help them on the floor, another chimed in I always have their backs. I began to cry of course. A little later we toasted to chef and the baby. They are all probably out at the bars in Oak Bluffs even now. If I were 15 years younger I might be out there with them.
Summer and what comes next won't be easy but I know this team has my back.
posted by vrakatar at 7:55 PM on June 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
About 15 minutes after my remarks one of the servers called us to attention, tapping her glass with a knife, and toasted to me, in many wonderful and gracious ways, how they know I care, how I help them on the floor, another chimed in I always have their backs. I began to cry of course. A little later we toasted to chef and the baby. They are all probably out at the bars in Oak Bluffs even now. If I were 15 years younger I might be out there with them.
Summer and what comes next won't be easy but I know this team has my back.
posted by vrakatar at 7:55 PM on June 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
Vrakatar, I thought you might be on the Vineyard. Summer season is such a beast there, I hope it's a good one for you. I did one summer in the dishroom at the Black Dog in VH, when it was the only one on the island. Hard work.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 8:18 PM on June 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Pantengliopoli at 8:18 PM on June 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
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Push come to shove, a rich person got away with it, so now that I'm a business owner, why can't I? It's "not fair" (just like all the historical violence I, as a North American predominantly white person, have been conditioned to expect to "not see", etc...) That's why you're here in North America, isn't it? To not-see yourselves....... but hey yoga pants = magical win exclusively for white women. Anyhow.
posted by human ecologist at 10:25 AM on June 2, 2021 [21 favorites]