Remember when we got jobs out of high school or college and we stayed with those jobs until we retired? Remember the pensions? Remember how the boss used to send us home with turkeys for Thanksgiving and hams for Christmas? Remember the terrific health insurance? Of course you don't! That was our grandparents!
As someone who has somehow always found himself in positions of management, I've often wondered what's happened to work ethics. I've even had conversations recently with other managers about why employees just don't seem to care anymore. Conscientiousness and pride in ones work has gone by the wayside. That's me, the manager talking.
Now, there's me the rebel. Me, the man tired of being held down by the man and the system. Me, the guy who believes in Human Rights! Yes, me the liberal.
You want to know why employees don't care? Look at the leadership of the companies today. They live in expensive mansions, driving expensive cars, and fly on expensive private planes while they cut their employee's hours to less than thirty hours per week so they won't have to provide them with health insurance. These are also employees making just at or below minimum wage.
You wonder why your employees don't care? Because they know you don't care about them!
I understand how small businesses with only a few employees worry. The costs would be prohibitive for them. I think the employees still have a right to affordable health insurance, but there must be a better way in those situations.
The assholes I don't think have a leg to stand on are the large corporations like Papa Johns, Applebee's and now Denny's. Each of their CEOs have announced they will cut hours so they don't have to comply with the Affordable Care Act. Wow! Way to slap your employees in the face. One owner of forty Dennys restaurants in Florida, John Metz, even went on to say he would allow the customer to deduct the surcharge he'd have to charge them from the employee's tip. That's a great idea, asshole!
Mr. Metz, I hope you choke on one of your greasy ass Grand Slams and have to seek some healthcare of your own.
I get furious at how the rich in this country get and stay rich on the backs of the poor. The people who can least afford to take the cut, get the shaft every time.
I hope this spawns an uprise from workers everywhere. Not just in the restaurant industry, but in all areas of business. The employees who have taken the brunt of the recession, while the CEOs continue with their billion dollar bonuses. The employees who are tired of taking it in the ass from their employers because they're held captive by a weak job market.
Mark my words, one day it will be an employees market again. The best and the brightest will be able to write their own ticket and they will remember the acts and attitudes of the companies who screwed them.
A paycheck is nice, but my dignity is not for sale. Is yours?
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Wednesday, November 7th
We're in the final stretch of the 2012 Presidential Election. Just a few more days of attack ads, polls, and talking heads interpreting it all. Some of us will watch late into the night on Tuesday to see who the next President will be. Some will prolong the joy, or agony, and wait to wake up on Wednesday to find out. Either way, roughly 50 percent of Americans are going to be disappointed and angry over the outcome.
Whether we're looking at four more years for President Barak Obama, or we're learning to say President Romney, the work is only beginning. We are a nation no longer United. We are a nation divided. We are now the Divided States of America. There may not be uniforms of blue and gray. The uniforms are now red states and blue states. Red counties and blue counties. This bumper sticker over that bumper sticker. The killing might not be as blatant, but we are in as much of a civil war as the won fought over a hundred forty years ago. The armies are gathering, and while they may not carry guns, they rile up their troops with words. Angry words. Rhetoric. Lies.
The government that should be bringing sides together is exactly why the sides are so violently divided. The United States Congress is a broken machine of extremists and the lack of compromise. Nothing gets done because no one is willing to work things out. We have a whole party who dedicated the past four years to making sure the President doesn't get anything done and doesn't get a second term. Why? Because he's a Democrat? Or because he's black? Oh yes, I said it. There are a whole lot of racists still out there who won't even admit it to themselves. They'll say things like, "he just doesn't fit in." Kind of the way Country Clubs used to keep the Jews out.
In my lifetime I've never seen a President of the United States more disrespected by the people who are to work with him and much of the nation he serves. In fact, I'm not even sure why he wants a second term. He'd make more money in the private sector. He'd probably get more good done too. He wants a second term because he believes he can make a difference. In spite of all those who conspire against him, he wants to see the job through. That is the kind of dedication I want to see in a Leader.
You may disagree and say "he didn't keep his promises. He promised the unemployment numbers would be better." You do realize that when someone is campaigning for a job, they can't even know what the full job entails until they are elected. And then if they are elected, they can't always share everything they know with the American public. The numbers are getting better, even if it doesn't seem as fast as some would like to see them grow. Slow progress is better than no progress.
If you're still reading, which I doubt some of you are, as you've probably pegged me as some bleeding heart liberal. Well, you might be surprised to know I'm actually more conservative when it comes to government. I believe more democratically when it comes to social issues and human rights, but I lean more conservatively when it comes to the size of government and a fiscal plan. So I guess I'm a moderate. Remember those? If I were elected to Congress I'd work with both sides for the greater good. Which is why I wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of ever being elected.
So, no matter who wins this election, they have their work cut out for them. What we really need is to change Congress. It's time to stop seeing red and blue and see the individuals who can work together for a better America.
This message has been brought to you by the Committee for Rick Flynn for Congress 2014. I'm Rick Flynn and I approve this message.
Whether we're looking at four more years for President Barak Obama, or we're learning to say President Romney, the work is only beginning. We are a nation no longer United. We are a nation divided. We are now the Divided States of America. There may not be uniforms of blue and gray. The uniforms are now red states and blue states. Red counties and blue counties. This bumper sticker over that bumper sticker. The killing might not be as blatant, but we are in as much of a civil war as the won fought over a hundred forty years ago. The armies are gathering, and while they may not carry guns, they rile up their troops with words. Angry words. Rhetoric. Lies.
The government that should be bringing sides together is exactly why the sides are so violently divided. The United States Congress is a broken machine of extremists and the lack of compromise. Nothing gets done because no one is willing to work things out. We have a whole party who dedicated the past four years to making sure the President doesn't get anything done and doesn't get a second term. Why? Because he's a Democrat? Or because he's black? Oh yes, I said it. There are a whole lot of racists still out there who won't even admit it to themselves. They'll say things like, "he just doesn't fit in." Kind of the way Country Clubs used to keep the Jews out.
In my lifetime I've never seen a President of the United States more disrespected by the people who are to work with him and much of the nation he serves. In fact, I'm not even sure why he wants a second term. He'd make more money in the private sector. He'd probably get more good done too. He wants a second term because he believes he can make a difference. In spite of all those who conspire against him, he wants to see the job through. That is the kind of dedication I want to see in a Leader.
You may disagree and say "he didn't keep his promises. He promised the unemployment numbers would be better." You do realize that when someone is campaigning for a job, they can't even know what the full job entails until they are elected. And then if they are elected, they can't always share everything they know with the American public. The numbers are getting better, even if it doesn't seem as fast as some would like to see them grow. Slow progress is better than no progress.
If you're still reading, which I doubt some of you are, as you've probably pegged me as some bleeding heart liberal. Well, you might be surprised to know I'm actually more conservative when it comes to government. I believe more democratically when it comes to social issues and human rights, but I lean more conservatively when it comes to the size of government and a fiscal plan. So I guess I'm a moderate. Remember those? If I were elected to Congress I'd work with both sides for the greater good. Which is why I wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of ever being elected.
So, no matter who wins this election, they have their work cut out for them. What we really need is to change Congress. It's time to stop seeing red and blue and see the individuals who can work together for a better America.
This message has been brought to you by the Committee for Rick Flynn for Congress 2014. I'm Rick Flynn and I approve this message.
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