<p>If you have to ask, then you don’t need to know.</p>
<p>I thought it was about some surf shop chain.</p>
<p>Really, this is a part-time economy problem. All of these service jobs did not used to be part-time only . Try to get a full time retail job these days. It’s nearly impossible.</p>
<p>Great guess, acting! ;)</p>
<p>It is a problem! If you do get a full-time retail job, from what I’ve seen, it’s generally an overnight stocking position (manual labor intensive) or a managerial position that is underpaid for the amount of work you put i. My job recruits it’s past workers for manager positions. They probably are able to get 1% of their past workers to interview. The stresses that are placed on the managers for the money they get is not something I, or those recruited, will put their degree towards. </p>
<p>As the middle class continues to shrink because of practices like this I think we will find a renewed interest in unions. </p>
<p>I will admit to being worn down. I am so tired of liars, cheats, selfishness, meanness and what has apparently become the new norm in corporate businesses. </p>
<p>We taught our kids to be fair, to share, to be team players, to be confident but humble. We have put them at a major disadvantage in today’s business world that accepts greed , rewriting ones history and getting ahead at all costs. Was it always like this and I just didn’t notice? I don’t know. I am just worn down.</p>
<p>Don’t tell me these jobs are not meant to be jobs for people trying to make a living wage. These are the type of jobs that are being created by companies since so many jobs were lost in the recession.</p>
<p>I am worn down and I have a secure retirement and plenty of money in the bank. I can’t imagine how I would feel if I didn’t.</p>
<p>My first job in fast food many years ago was like this. We didn’t know our schedule until about a week ahead of time. It was hard to make plans ahead of time, but as teens, this was not so crucial. I can see this being very difficult for people with families. If you schedule a sitter or enroll in day care, you pay regardless.</p>
<p>“I will admit to being worn down. I am so tired of liars, cheats, selfishness, meanness and what has apparently become the new norm in corporate businesses.”</p>
<p>I think something is lost when people are basically being seen as nothing but a worker to fill a need and be dismissed if there isn’t the need at the moment. This also ties into another thread on applying for a job and never hearing back. It seems we have forgotten to be courteous to give reasonable notice if a worker does not need to come in, to inform an applicant that they didn’t get the job and to thank them for applying. This could make a difference to people’s morale on and off the job. </p>
<p>" If you schedule a sitter or enroll in day care, you pay regardless."</p>
<p>True. But, these jobs don’t pay enough make that a viable option, anyway.</p>
<p>Exactly. It is this or welfare…</p>
<p>At my first job, I was once told to punch out but stay around in case they needed me. I didn’t know enough to question this, but when I told my dad he hit the roof. I didn’t stay there very long. </p>
<p>So, I don’t really think the problem is that these jobs exist. They always did. Rather, the level just above them has disappeared. A non-skilled high school graduate is going to have a tough time finding any full-time employment these days and that did not used to be the case. Also, there was a time when you could work full-time for a temp agency and pay NYC rent. Those days are just gone.</p>
<p>Sax: I agree with you and I also wonder if this contempt people have for others’ time or feelings was always there and I didn’t notice. A non skilled high school graduate will have a tough time because the university graduate will be in that entry level job that used to go to high school graduates.</p>
<p>Bestfriendsgirl, my first job was like that. They would tell me to come in at 8am. So, okay, I would show up at 7:50-7:55 or so, start working, and make sure to punch in at 8 on the dot because I didn’t want to get in trouble for showing up 10 minutes early, but I didn’t want to chance being late and show up at 8 exactly, so, you know. But then I got yelled at anyway and he said if I was a good worker I would come in at 7 or 7:30 if he told me 8am. What? So I started coming in at 7:15 or 7:30 for my 8am shift, but when I went to punch in, he’d say, “no no, I told you 8am.” He expected me to come in a half hour to an hour early or he’d fire me, but not punch in until my pretend scheduled time, or he’d fire me. This is the same boss that didn’t tell me if I worked until the night before and didn’t tell me when I got off until he was ready to send me home. I quit before he could fire me. When I quit, he refused to give me my W2 and my last paycheck and my father had to go in and threaten to get his attorney involved. Turns out he was withholding taxes from my paychecks but not paying them. It still makes me so angry to think of this job! I went home and cried after every shift</p>
<p>This place is still in business, but he exclusively hires 16-18 year old girls-- nobody else. </p>
<p>My sister’s retail job might top this. I could go on and on for days with stories from that job, but I think the worst was when she fell in their parking lot while she was on the clock, sprained and we thought at the time possibly broke her ankle, was in tears and bleeding, it was 8pm on a Sunday, and they said, “if you don’t have a note from your doctor and you miss your shift tomorrow morning, you’re fired.” Then when she needed to sit on a stool instead of stand at the cash register for the week afterward (per her note from the ER), they threatened to fire her every day for that, too, and made her work the sales floor instead of the register so there was no way she could sit. This was a minimum wage retail job. When she quit, the owner begged her to stay and offered to fire the manager to keep her (which she ultimately did anyway) because she thought my sister was the best employee in the store, she wanted to make her the manager instead. But she thought she was going to get fired for one thing or another every single day.</p>
<p>Absolutely, this attitude was always there. The reality is that part-time service jobs are part-time service jobs and just to be fair to these awful bosses often the people working these jobs are not the most reliable workers on the planet, either. They don’t show up, call in sick, come in late. have a whirlwind of personal drama, and are often quite happy to leave early. It’s not at all unusual for them to quit with no notice. So, I don’t at all think this is about increasing corporate greed. It’s about a ridiculously lousy economy and while welfare may indeed sound temporarily better than one of these jobs it’s a long-term trap of miserableness with no real way out. At least with a job you can look for a better job and if the economy ever improves so will the chances of finding one. Here’s hoping.</p>
<p>Here is an interesting article discussing Walmarts hiring practices and how they are stating they are going back to more full time workers. Maybe this will continue.</p>
<p><a href=“http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/24/2669191/walmart-adds-fulltime-workers/”>http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/24/2669191/walmart-adds-fulltime-workers/</a></p>
<p>I disagree that part time workers are not reliable.
Jobs are very tight and HR has the luxury of hundreds if not thousands of applicants for decent positions.
Even college profs may be working several part time jobs because it is cheaper for their employer.
<a href=“Opinion | The College Faculty Crisis - The New York Times”>Opinion | The College Faculty Crisis - The New York Times;
Benefits are a big chunk of operating costs & if employers can get away with not paying them to pt time employees they won’t.
Conversely, my husbands employer would rather pay overtime to full time workers and require a minimum of two weekends a month, than hire more people that they then would need to pay benefits to.
( which will hit them in the butt when all those folks retire at the same time)</p>
<p>My daughter worked two retail jobs while she was saving money for her gap year.
She eventually quit one of them to increase availability for the other, as both were union positions, but one had a stronger union.
More hours, more pay & benefits. ( she dropped the high end department store in favor of a one- stop store that sold clothing along with plants, groceries, & furniture- not Walmart)
Few jobs are unionized these days, and originally, minimum wage was meant to provide a living wage- something it falls short of today.
When the kids were growing up, H worked swing shift, and the only jobs i could find were of the on call type, which I couldnt take because I needed to know in advance when to find child care and transportation for the kids since I didnt have backup. ( It didn’t help that the kids were 8 yrs apart and didn’t have school transportation)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/aug/07/alan-krueger/alan-krueger-top-economist-obama-says-most-new-job/”>http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/aug/07/alan-krueger/alan-krueger-top-economist-obama-says-most-new-job/</a></p>
<p>here is an interesting article on the creation of part time vs full time jobs created</p>
<p>Quote from the article</p>
<p>"…So Krueger is right – 87 percent of the increase in employment over this period came from full-time jobs.
Still, we will note that if you use a shorter time horizon, such as calendar year 2013, a large percentage of jobs created were part-time positions.</p>
<p>In other words, by choosing the time frame carefully, you can find support for either side of this argument…"</p>
<p>There are many many part time workers that are not reliable. Why? Drama. boyfiends, substance abuse, lack of focus, lack of interest, and not the sharpest knife in the drawer.</p>
<p>The ones that <em>are</em> reliable are incredibly valuable. The ones that are good – and right now, I am happy to say that I have a bunch of fabulous part timers and no one that I want to fire – the ones that are good will be leaving me for a better job. In the meantime, they are in college, heading to college, or filling in around some other very lucrative gigs</p>
<p>
Yes! Yes! Yes! </p>
<p>I’ve seen many teenagers (17-20 year olds) who have the crappiest work ethic. If you’re on shift and given a task, finish it when you’re supposed to. Be respectful to your managers and coworkers. Tell them ahead of time when you’re unable to come in. Find a replacement, if you’re unable to come in. Not everything is to be left to the manager. If you don’t understand how to help a customer or fill a request, ask! Don’t just ignore the problem or worse disappear. But then again, I’ve seen managers with the crappiest interpersonal skills. </p>
<p>Few teens work during high school here, too busy trying to get in those EC’s!
Teens that do work, are often subsidized by their parents, who help them get cars so they have transportation to keep both the Ecs & the job.
Part time workers are adults who have seen their company relocate, leaving them behind The baggers at the grocery store are often retired folks and the baristas have college degrees.
Boeing for instance is moving parts of the company that have been here for decades to areas with lower cost of living like Alabama.
Not every one wants to move from Seattle to Alabama especially when they are within ten yrs of retirement.
If they can’t afford to retire, they end up working at Home Depot because its pretty difficult to find work at 59 when a recent grad can be gotten for half the price.</p>
<p>For me the issue is not that the job is part time but that it is on call and you can also be cut during your shift if it is not busy. If you had a part time job with a set number of hours that you knew you would be paid for, you could find another part time job or manage your life accordingly. It is the not knowing what you will get in your pay check in any given pay period. Totally understand how this system is helpful for the employer though.</p>
<p>I really think it’s like this in any non-union hourly job anymore. It’s definitely like this for nurses in non-union hospitals. Staffing is evaluated in 4 hour blocks of time, and one is expected to stay on-call ready to leave as soon as the call comes in to come to work. That call may never come, and maybe your second job would love to have you work, but you will lose your first job if you don’t stay available to them. It wreaks havoc with child care and transportation. </p>