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108 comments

  • I work in food service and the amount of people that mindlessly repeat "no one wants to work anymore" makes me literally tremble with rage.

    Though a lot of the times all I have to say is "no one ever wanted to work. That's why you fucking pay us to be here." and it'll shut them up

    • Used to live not far away from a Mom & Pops pizza joint. Best pizza ever had in my life. 10 years ago, they sold the place. New owner cheapened a lot of the recipes and expanded their menu to compete with a lot of other local businesses, which up till this point had been respecting each others specialities and promoting their own customers to try other places when they asked for something not on their menu.

      So they pissed a lot of people off, but the food was still pretty good, for a while at least. Definitely dips in quality, and apparently didn't do much to keep their prices competitive so most of their good cooks and servers would work about 6 months for them then get hired up somewhere else to make more money for less bullshit.

      During the pandemic, every other place boosted their wages by a couple of bucks just to keep people on staff since a LOT of people were doing curbside pick ups, so their overall business went up even if their dining areas were vacant. So every other business in town is thriving despite the difficulties of the lockdown and social distances. Except for the pizza place, who despite having a loyal customer base, didn't have enough staff to stay open through the week and by the end of 2020 was down to three days a week.

      And then these assholes put up their 'NO ONE WANTS TO WORK ANYMORE' sign next to their pick up window asking people to be patient with their staff because they don't have enough bodies. Curious, and knowing the owner wasn't there at the time, I asked the server what the deal was, and she (un)happily informed me what her wage was, and how she was slated to start working across the street next week for more money. And the kicker being she said she wish the pizza place would just pay more since they'd get more workers and people actually like the joint because it had a lot of history in town.

      But nope, these bastards wouldn't increase pay. They refused to budge from their $9 dollar mark, insisting it was good pay because it wasn't minimum wage for no prior experience. My sister worked there in the early 2000s for $9 an hour. Everywhere else in town started at 12. The gas station was hiring 16 year olds for 12 dollars an hour to empty trash and sweep floors. The grocery store was paying 13 dollars for people to bag groceries 20 hours a week. But this otherwise successful pizza place with several generations of customers couldn't keep their doors open because they wouldn't go above 10 dollars for people to cook food, wait tables and sometimes do deliveries. Someone who had helped them with their finances even quitel informed me they probably could have afforded to pay 8 staff $16 per hour and still make a profit thanks to the regular business they had and they were practically losing money as it stood because they couldn't keep their doors open consistently and people were getting fed up with going to eat out and finding a closed sign on the front door.

      But hey, nobody wants to work anymore. That clearly is the problem.

  • As someone job hunting right now, it's so true. I'll see the same posting up for weeks and weeks.

    I don't really care what work I do, as long as I can find some interest in it, so I've had a variety of jobs. There are definitely postings I look at that sound good, but the pay is lower than I had at easier jobs sometimes a decade or 2 ago. They immediately go off my list of things to apply to.

    Even if 2 jobs are equal, who would want the one for less money? Sorry to say boss, sometimes it's not the people that aren't viable, it's the business.

  • Late stage capitalism. Relentless pursuit of higher quarterly profits and earnings that fuel CEO bonuses and shareholder dividends. All at the expense of the people people who actually create the value. Also. That first line ain't paying for college loans.

    • Of course it is necessary to exploit workers while some of us are still alive. If a systemic collapse leads to massive destabilization, then elites will regret any missed opportunities for having extracted greater profits.

    • More like End Stage Capitalism, right now. CEOs and Shareholders have seen the approaching cliff and know that we all are about to fall right off of it. Rather than change course, they have decided that they should get to a point where falling off the cliff will deal them no damage. This means exploiting workers to the hilt to the point where they will be able to escape the consequences of their actions.

    • That huge CEO bonuses make my blood boil. They do not fucking deserve it.

    • I'm not sure if it second or third stage of enshittification.

      • What if we applied an enshittification quotient (EQ). Something like this:

        The EQ represents the degree or intensity of enshittification at a particular point in the process. Efficiency Erosion (EQ1): This stage's quotient reflects the initial decline in efficiency, measuring the deviation from an optimal state of wealth distribution and economic functionality. Inconvenience Amplification (EQ2): The second quotient gauges the increased inconveniences experienced by the workforce, highlighting the growing disparity between effort exerted and rewards received. Complexity Cascade (EQ3): The complexity quotient measures the intricate mechanisms contributing to wealth concentration, signaling the level of convolution in the economic system. Frustration Escalation (EQ4): This quotient represents the heightened frustration among workers, reflecting the emotional and psychological toll of perceived economic injustice. Longing for Simplicity (EQ5): The final quotient captures the collective yearning for a simpler and fairer economic system, indicating the depth of societal desire for a more equitable and user-friendly economic structure.

108 comments