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Time and a Half

Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 4 months ago to Economics
117 comments | Share | Best of... | Flag

In days of yore I was in the retail business.I still have many friends and aquaintences in retail. One of the happy things about the Christmas season was that instead of hiring additional workers for the longer hours that I must have stayed open in order to be competative, I extended the hours of my current help, paying them time and a half for working over the 40 hour week. Now, keep in mind that it would have been considerably cheaper for me to hire additional part-time help. Keep in mind that the additional moneyearned by my regular help, paid for their Christmas and was looked forward by them in order to purchase many things without the need to finance them that they have been waiting all year to get. But there has been a radical change in the outlook of employees since I was in business. According to my friends still laboring in the management side of retailing, the help would rather stick to their regular hours than put in the extra work in order to get the extra pay. What? If I proposed this when I was in business the help would likely have gone on strike. I inquired do yo still pay them more for the extra hours? Yes, they sure do. then what is the problem. It turns out that there simply is bot enough payment to entice them to work the extra hours. This, to me explains everything one needs to know about the current labor situation in America. I think that every worker in every industry except in the USA welecomes the opportunity to make the extra money during the holidays.Thi really saddens me.

All Comments

  • Posted by term2 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The trick would be to get the congressmen in power to pass a bill which takes away their power. We would have to buy them out somehow
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The 64,000 $ question! Term limits. Requirement that ther is no re-election. One term is all they get for a starter. No more 80 year old dinosaurs with entrenched swamp interests. Maybe we can start there
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    So....you are the Altas of your the workplace.too bad. It only makes sense if the reward is in line with the extra effort..If not ,you are a semi-slave..My son was that guy in his former job. After looking for a year and a half, he found a better job with more responsibility, but higher up on the executive hierarchy with greater pay and better rewards. Hope you get there as well.
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Exactly. Government is so inefficient that it would quickly be out of "business" without involuntary taxpayer help. Its a real swamp currently, and of course the swamp creatures will fight tooth and nail for their turf. It takes us, the citizens, to just put a stop to it.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That is exactly the problem. Careers in government should end, and the quickest way is to stop funding government completely. If government services are needed then the services should compete with private services and be funded only by revenues for the service itself and private voluntary investment. Sub-contracting so-called government services to private companies is not a satisfactory solution. It only promotes more spending without free market demand for the service.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I was just asked to give up my vacation and work weekends. I'm salary so they get this from me for free. Meanwhile, one of my colleagues has a crappy work ethic and is on vacation about 1/3 of the time "...because he has family in other countries".

    I'm always the "go-to" guy. Not much longer, though...
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I just tag along and throw stuff into the basket that I want as we travel though the Sammy Wonderland.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Here, Sam's Club (Big Box) already has customer self-service check out.not used much as yet but increasing all the time. Once the BW figured out how to do it, she never stands in the check out lines again, but checks herself out. Faster & more accurate.
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I am going to try the Sam's app next time I go there. Avoids the checkout line totally
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  • Posted by freedomforall 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I always use self checkout, too. Just mute the computer and check out is easy. I know some people who use human cashiers just to encourage the store to keep them employed.
    The Sams app sounds like a good one, too.
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    sams club has an app where you scan the item you want as you pick it off the shelf. Then you just go to the app and say you are done and pay, and leave the store. I havent tried it yet, but it seems like the way to go
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I think these big box places are afraid they will somehow get it wrong and lose customers. The solution to that would be to get it right.

    Home depot has self checkout, but I think they lose a lot of money with that. At least in Vegas, the low rent people cheat a lot at those. Their system weighs each thing you put in the bag to try and prevent that, but once the system records something wrong you have to call the attendant to reset the register. Unfortunately, the attendant is typically lazy and just resets it without figuring out what caused the problem (which is usually someone trying to get free stuff). Funny that the human is the weak link in the system....

    Walmart neighborhood market has mostly self checkout, so it must work better for foodstuffs- even fresh vegetables. Much faster for me since there is little waiting
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  • Posted by Dobrien 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes I could tell you of our failure in 2003 and all the different mandatory expenses that were required that had no benefit to us or our customers that were major contributors to the
    Durkhfal.
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    they also have the san francisco burrito- where chipotle copied their formula. Its made more the way you might want it in SF though- mom and pop shops not likely to go robotic anytime soon.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'm surprised that Home Depot hasn't joined forces with Apple or Google to get it done. It won't be 100% since it would be too restrictive for each store manager, but it could be 95% without too much difficulty. A lot of the data is already in the store's database.
    Its something that retail can do to slow the loss of sales to Amazon et al.
    Nordstom's board should have started the process several years ago. Computing hardware is cheap and Google may already have most of the software needed. The biggest risk is having to scrap a "solution" because a better one appears before implementation.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    We areliving in a constantly evolving age in which everything changes every few months. Don't like it? Tough. The trend is constantly toward fewer actual people and more automation.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It's already started. As of today there are totally robotic frozen yogurt places No humans on board.The owner shows up now and then to collect the money.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    if it ws up to me, we'd all slow down around 50% or so We could call ourselves the 'Waitabits" instead of Humans. Slowing down will be better for the heart and most other organsincluding the Wurlitzer.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I used to be that way. But now, in my dotage, I've mellowed out. I'm in no hurry to meet the guy with the scythe. Since I've become a ruin, I move slow. No choice in the matter..
    Actually I've come to enjoy it. Besides it pisses young guys off, which I enjoy doing, especially in a car.
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