The Cost of a Paycheck

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?