Shocked by online comments, reporter writes profile of hit-and-run victim
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Re: Shocked by online comments, reporter writes profile of hit-and-run victim
#2The article illustrates how local editorial control and not-for-profit ownership can allow a newspaper to act as the conscience of a community.
Tampabay.com is the online portal for the The St. Petersburg Times. The Times is one of the few remaining independent newspapers left in the US, It is owned by the Poynter Institute. http://www.poynter.org/
Re: Shocked by online comments, reporter writes profile of hit-and-run victim
#3How aggravating. "I'll go through 10 people before I find another like him" yet he will continue to pay the man 7.25 an hour. Everything you want out of an employee and nothing else and you can't pay the guy better than dirt cheap minimum wage and somehow lament at his death.
Re: Shocked by online comments, reporter writes profile of hit-and-run victim
#4How aggravating. "I'll go through 10 people before I find another like him" yet he will continue to pay the man 7.25 an hour. Everything you want out of an employee and nothing else and you can't pay the guy better than dirt cheap minimum wage and somehow lament at his death.
Yea I'm sure the manager who probably makes 10 an hour can just start giving people raises at will. How aggravating indeed.
Re: Shocked by online comments, reporter writes profile of hit-and-run victim
#5How aggravating. "I'll go through 10 people before I find another like him" yet he will continue to pay the man 7.25 an hour. Everything you want out of an employee and nothing else and you can't pay the guy better than dirt cheap minimum wage and somehow lament at his death.
You said it.
Quote:
Dayhoff, his boss at Crab Shack, read the story on the Times website and found himself outraged by unsympathetic comments posted by some readers.
"I just can't get over some of those people reacting the way they did," he said. "This guy was a human being. He might not have meant something to somebody else, but he was like family to us. He meant something to us."
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Meanwhile:
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Jeff Lackey, who lives across the street from Mr. Smith's address at Hollywood Park, recalled one of the rare conversations Mr. Smith initiated.
"I was coming back from the Dumpster and he invited me over," said Lackey, 53. "He said, 'Jeff, I've worked at Crab Shack for 10 years. I never got a raise or a Christmas bonus. I never even got a card.' "
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Yeah, I'm _sure_ he was appreciated in life. /s
TL/DR: Actions speak louder than words.
Re: Shocked by online comments, reporter writes profile of hit-and-run victim
#6The article illustrates how local editorial control and not-for-profit ownership can allow a newspaper to act as the conscience of a community. Tampabay.com is the online portal for the The St. Petersburg Times. The Times is one of the few remaining independent newspapers left in the US, It is owned by the Poynter Institute. http://www.poynter.org/
Also, hat tip to PolitiFact (http://politifact.com/), run by SPT, and one of the best political fact checking sites on the net.
Re: Shocked by online comments, reporter writes profile of hit-and-run victim
#7How aggravating. "I'll go through 10 people before I find another like him" yet he will continue to pay the man 7.25 an hour. Everything you want out of an employee and nothing else and you can't pay the guy better than dirt cheap minimum wage and somehow lament at his death.
Yea I'm sure the manager who probably makes 10 an hour can just start giving people raises at will. How aggravating indeed.
Out of curiosity, do you feel that 10 years of loyal service should not be rewarded with any kind of raise at all?
Even if he wasn't earning much more than 8 or 9 dollars an hour even then, but it probably would mean quite a bit for someone in that situation.
With inflation, he was actually being paid less 10 years later.
Re: Shocked by online comments, reporter writes profile of hit-and-run victim
#8How aggravating. "I'll go through 10 people before I find another like him" yet he will continue to pay the man 7.25 an hour. Everything you want out of an employee and nothing else and you can't pay the guy better than dirt cheap minimum wage and somehow lament at his death.
Yea I'm sure the manager who probably makes 10 an hour can just start giving people raises at will. How aggravating indeed.
That he complained that he "never even got a card" meant that he was not appreciated as a friend by his manager-- that's something completely beside the monetary wage. They should have been friends, after 10 years together.
And even if the manager was earning a low amount there's no reason that in just one year out of those 10 he could not have given him a Christmas bonus. Even a small amount, so that Mr. Smith would not have been able to say that he "never got a [...] Christmas bonus."
Re: Shocked by online comments, reporter writes profile of hit-and-run victim
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yea I'm sure the manager who probably makes 10 an hour can just start giving people raises at will. How aggravating indeed.
Out of curiosity, do you feel that 10 years of loyal service should not be rewarded with any kind of raise at all? Even if he wasn't earning much more than 8 or 9 dollars an hour even then, but it probably would mean quite a bit for someone in that situation. With inflation, he was actually being paid less 10 years later.
The real question you should be asking is if his pay is so low, why didn't he get another job? There's a reason he stayed.
Did he deserve it? Maybe, the article mentioned he started out as a waiter and (moved up?) to dishwasher. Maybe dishwasher paid more, who knows. But my whole point is a manager in a restaurant has less control over raises than you seem to suggest.
Re: Shocked by online comments, reporter writes profile of hit-and-run victim
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yea I'm sure the manager who probably makes 10 an hour can just start giving people raises at will. How aggravating indeed.
Out of curiosity, do you feel that 10 years of loyal service should not be rewarded with any kind of raise at all? Even if he wasn't earning much more than 8 or 9 dollars an hour even then, but it probably would mean quite a bit for someone in that situation. With inflation, he was actually being paid less 10 years later.
> With inflation, he was actually being paid less 10 years later.
I looked this up and Neil Alan Smith's wages grew by 41% from 2001 to 2010, outpacing inflation of 23%.
Inflation from Aug. 2001 to Aug. 2010 increased prices by 23% (http://inflationdata.com/inflation/inflation_Rate/historical...).
Neil Alan Smith's wages started in 2001 at the federal minimum wage of $5.15. The federal minimum wage was constant from 1997 to 2007, but Florida passed a minimum wage law increasing its state minimum wage to $6.15 in 2005. Other adjustments to the Florida minimum wage increased his wage to $7.25 by 2010. (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_Florida_minimum_wage_histo... and http://www.floridajobs.org/minimumwage/index.htm)