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Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

jasonstanford.substack.com

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Re: Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

#391

Post by beerandt »

vinceguidry wrote: post #302
beerandt wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that "the customer is always right" attitude has actuality just become a policy of non-confrontation... >I want the meat of sandwich A, the bread off sandwich B, the condiments from an item on the Sunday Brunch menu If they think bread +meat +condiment is a highly demanding, needy sandwich order, then perhaps waiting tables isn't for them. It at least suggests why they might find their tip-based compens…

Gotta love HN entitlement. It's not just the waitress. It's also the kitchen staff, which has to fulfill the orders. Low-cost special menus like brunch menus make their money on volume. At least half the food service equation relies on the kitchen to whip the orders out in time. Special requests slow the entire kitchen down. Not a problem if, say, there's not a huge rush. But a huge problem if the staff is slammed. M…

All factors baked into the managers decision to accept special orders.

This is just the server disagreeing with both the boss and customer, and then wondering why they might be having a problem with a satisfaction based compensation system.

Re: Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

#392

Post by brimble »

hogrider wrote: post #274
smarx007 wrote: post #195

I see that many are fixed on tips, but I found it quite shocking to read about long queues of people on the Christmas day and people quitting on the Christmas Eve. In many European cities, the streets are completely empty and almost all shops (maybe a local supermarket would open from 10:00 till 14:00 on a Christmas day after being closed for the Eve) are closed both on the Christmas Eve and the Christmas day.

Just give it time until europe reaches late stage capitalism. Yes, they didn't have as many neoliberal waves eroding the social fabric in name of capitalism.

As recently as 25 years ago in the US, 24-hour businesses were rare, hours in general were much shorter (way fewer places open 'till 10pm or what have you) and damn near everything was shut down on holidays or even just Sundays. This always-open, open-all-holidays, business-runs-7-days-a-week thing is relatively new, even here. The change happened really fast, though, when it started.

Re: Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

#393

Post by rnk »

mindslight wrote: post #390
rnk wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain. You left off your reference, but are you saying boa refuses to pay legit checks or what exactly?

It was a reference to clarification, which was the following paragraph. https://www.valuepenguin.com/banking/where-to-cash-check-wit... Apparently it's not just BoA, but also Chase, Suntrust, TD, and Wells Fargo now want to demand a nonsensical "check cashing fee" to cash a check drawn on one of their accounts. But the entire purpose of a check is that it is an order to your bank to pay someone an exact amount of mon…

Wow, that's horrible. Yes, a huge tax on people without bank accounts.

Re: Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

#394

Post by hadlock »

> was recently “promoted” to an assistant manager position) works another job as a hairdresser. She once told me she recently worked 12 days straight between the two gigs.

Texas has another interesting labor rule, movie theaters are considered entertainment, so they are not required to pay over time. The result of this is that companies will happily schedule you for unlimited hours, as there's no penalty for going over 40 hours each week. I ended up working 60-90 hours a week in a movie theater, 7 days a week for.... three to four weeks at a time for almost two years. 12 days straight was entirely normal in my twenties. Two days off in a row was a rarity, and meant that money that month was going to be tighter than normal.

Re: Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

#395

Post by vorpalhex »

stainforth wrote: post #354
vorpalhex wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those ballooning wages are securities, not liquidity. You can't pay rent or buy food with options. Securities are speculative, no minimum wage worker wants a gamble on if they get paid 5 years in the future. Please keep the theatrics to a minimum. The goal is to have meaningful discussion, not attack your peers.

Divert the securities to the front line labor then instead of the upper few.

Do the front line labor want securities instead of cash?

You'd end up having to do something like a co-op model. However, if you want employees to earn their payout even if they leave before that five year payout then they couldn't sell back co-op ownership.

That means the co-op ownership continually gets diluted, or you run out of cap table to be able to hire more.

This scheme also means the first, eg fry cook, would make more money from the securities payout than the 3rd or 4th fry cook, even if the later fry cook is better/more dedicated/etc.

Also this means co-op voting for securities actions. The co-op can liquidate too early or too late which can hurt individual payout.

Re: Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

#396

Post by exhilaration »

mindslight wrote: post #198
mynameishere wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many low-wage employees the alternative to this is check cashing fees which is even worse. The issue of why so many people are unbanked is a separate discussion.

Access to banking is indeed a problem, but pragmatically there is always cash or a non-fraudulent [0] check drawn on a local bank. And for tips specifically, they can just be bundled with the rest of the pay rather than creating a second problem. [0] for example checks drawn on Bank of America accounts are generally fraudulent, as BoA refuses to pay the specified amount when presented for payment at a branch. They're…

Why single out Bank of America? Nearly every single (big) bank will refuse to cash a check for non-customers. The days of taking a signed check to a local branch for cashing have been over for decades. I'd love to find out why this changed, I suspect it's because they can go after their own customers if a check turns out to be fraudulent but not some guy walking off the street.

Re: Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

#397

Post by uoaei »

ethbr0 wrote: post #378
uoaei wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The obsession with "intention" as opposed to "outcome" in legal judgments continues to mystify and mortify me. But I still don't see an easy way to fit the scenario of "I mouthed off to a server and they punched me in the mouth" into a legal framework that supports repeatable judgments in a way that supports civility writ large.

The same way we do auto accidents? Collect what physical evidence is possible, interview witnesses, and attempt to assign fault. And I'm not advocating for a return to duels at dawn with pistols! But simple or criminal battery (e.g. I punch someone, with my fists, and then de-escalate) that could not have been expected to result in permanent injury? I can think of worse things for culture.

Auto incidents happen in relatively constrained scenarios, and the resulting damage can strongly imply the actions that led up to the incident. Not so with humans beefing over mundane matters.

My first thought is to re-tool the concept of self-defense, but this would require the acknowledgement that verbal abuse constitutes violence, which I am not sure many are willing to accept, and could get out of hand when it comes to what exactly "disproportionate retaliation" means in context.

Re: Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

#398

Post by lazide »

dlp211 wrote: post #380
lazide wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hope not, but how realistic of a concern it is depends on your neighbors, the local CPS folks, and how well you’d come across to them at the time. It adds a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. That near as I can tell no one lets a kid out alone is indicating how big a problem it really is. The most I’ve seen here is when they’re paired up and 12+, and here is one of the safest places in the county in a very…

I, and nearly everyone in my neighborhood let our kids out. I see kids walking up and down my street, by themselves and with their friends every day. Let your kids go out, they and you will be fine.

Where is this?

Here in the bay area, I only know 1-2 areas that are like that, and even then you'll only see teenagers. Might end up moving if one is local! I'm in the lower peninsula area.

Re: Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

#399

Post by HWR_14 »

vincentmarle wrote: post #144
gbrindisi wrote: post #8

I am always baffled when I read about the tip culture in the states. I find it so belittling for workers. It seems to incentivize a mentality of "the customer is always right", with workers putting an extra effort to always smile and be nice in the hope for a fair tip.

Yet somehow the service in the US is 10x better than in Europe.

This has not been my experience.

Re: Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now

#400

Post by HWR_14 »

leetcrew wrote: post #155
ryanmarsh wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically some expensive restaurants in the states add “gratuity” (like a service charge) to the bill and do not rely on tipping. This ensures their hard to recruit staff (sommeliers, skilled wait staff, etc…) can be paid enough to keep working there.

I've only ever seen this policy applied to large parties, and it's below the standard tip percentage anyway.

I've never seen it below the standard tip percentage. I've frequently seen it above the standard tip percentage.
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