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This bakery will hire anyone

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Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#71

Post by cubano »

powertower wrote: post #68
cubano wrote: post #15

As someone with several drug related felonies on my record, I can do nothing but applaud the efforts of this CEO, although on a different level I wonder if any adult working a minimum wage job isn't living a very bleak existence anyway, and in fact isn't being exploited for having a brain disorder we currently call "addiction" The problem with people who let drugs seriously affect their life is that...they let drugs…

It's a bakery, requiring little to no skills, and nothing more than being able to repeat physical activity, and only 35% make it through the program (a 10 month on-the-job job). I don't think this is the "success" story it's being made to be.

Sure it is.

The most obvious metric of its "success" is the simple conditional 35% > 0%.

And while I agree, the motivation behind the CEO's thinking is based on bottom-line thinking, and not do-gooder motivation, its still nice to see SOME outside-the-box thinking on this issue.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#72

Post by pbhjpbhj »

grasstomouth wrote: post #33

I'm increasingly of the opinion that this open-hire practice could give businesses a competitive advantage. With the US having 5% of the world's population but incarcerating 25% of the world's prisoners, we've got a surplus of those deemed unemployable due to past convictions. A person with past convictions will generally be more loyal to the company that hired him vs. someone who isn't systemically punished by the j…

>A person with past convictions will generally be more loyal to the company that hired him //

The risk factor is that they won't, that they're not really reformed, that if they robbed in the past then ripping off your office will seem a good option (or letting a friend know how to do it without getting caught, etc.).

Any evidence to back up your claim? It would be lovely to think that this is true.

FWIW I'm for applying grace, but not necessarily being naive as to the idea that it will always be repaid with loyalty rather than strife.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#73

Post by jimkri »

powertower wrote: post #68
cubano wrote: post #15

As someone with several drug related felonies on my record, I can do nothing but applaud the efforts of this CEO, although on a different level I wonder if any adult working a minimum wage job isn't living a very bleak existence anyway, and in fact isn't being exploited for having a brain disorder we currently call "addiction" The problem with people who let drugs seriously affect their life is that...they let drugs…

It's a bakery, requiring little to no skills, and nothing more than being able to repeat physical activity, and only 35% make it through the program (a 10 month on-the-job job). I don't think this is the "success" story it's being made to be.

>only 35% make it through the program. That is better than not having the program at all and having the addicts stay where they are. I think it is a success, because helping one addict is successful and now that person is a beacon of light. Other addicts will see that they are doing something productive, they got clean, and that maybe, they can get clean and get a job too. I think there's more to it than just who made it through the program.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#74

Post by mod »

denim_chicken wrote: post #4

Why did the moderators change the title from "Felons, addicts, immigrants: This bakery will hire anyone"?

It seems to me a large amount of titles are edited, usually for the worse.

I understand some more click-bait titles getting changed (though I don't usually agree), but some edits, like this one, are seemingly without reason.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#75

Post by carapace »

cubano wrote: post #71
powertower wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bakery, requiring little to no skills, and nothing more than being able to repeat physical activity, and only 35% make it through the program (a 10 month on-the-job job). I don't think this is the "success" story it's being made to be.

Sure it is. The most obvious metric of its "success" is the simple conditional 35% > 0%. And while I agree, the motivation behind the CEO's thinking is based on bottom-line thinking, and not do-gooder motivation, its still nice to see SOME outside-the-box thinking on this issue.

"Brady also said that it was immaterial whether or not open hiring was a better way to do business. His goal is to make sure his business also helps the community and helps people out of poverty. With that goal, there’s an imperative to try new things. “There’s a lot of recognition that the things people have been doing aren’t working,” he said."

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#76

Post by Varcht »

jim_greco wrote: post #52
Varcht wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't get too excited about that unemployment number. Only ~63% of Americans are even trying to work and a lot of those that are, are under employed. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/628-labor-force-pa... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-06/americans-not-labor...

1) Underemployment is counted in the U-6 measure which has also trended down significantly this year. 2) The workforce participation rate number is meaningless unless you put it into context. How many people would be in the labor force that aren't currently? Is the drop because there was a lot of people retired early after losing their jobs or is it because a lot of young people gave up looking for work? The economic…

Yeah, it has gotten slightly better but been a 7 year grind.

For #2, you forgot the ones that just ran out of unemployment benefits.

It's the numbers, not the spin.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#77

Post by rayiner »

addicted44 wrote: post #30
rayiner wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do felons belong on a list?

It's a list of groups of people who are traditionally ignored by most companies, but are hired by this one. If Harvard grads were traditionally unemployable, but employed by this bakery, they would also be on the list along with felons, immigrants and addicts.

But I was responding to someone arguing we shouldn't put addicts and felons in the same list.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#78

Post by spopejoy »

cubano wrote: post #48
themartorana wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how I think about a lot of sentencing. Take sex offenders. After they are let out of prison, they have to register as a sex offender, can only live in certain areas, etc., which is equivalent to a life sentence. We can debate the kind of punishment sex offenders deserve (and don't judge too quickly - urinating in public, statutory rape of a minor 6 months younger than yourself, visiting a prostitute, and even…

> It's no wonder recidivism is so high in the US. To those who make very comfortable livings in the US legal system, that is not a bug, it's a designed feature. Oh, and oddly enough, they happen to be the same people whom make the sentencing laws.

I realize it's fun to paint lawyers with the same brush, but let's be clear here: prosecutors are the ones gunning after constant guilty convictions, and the Roberts Supreme Court has stripped even the most basic ways to challenge their abuses.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#79

Post by 21echoes »

powertower wrote: post #68
cubano wrote: post #15

As someone with several drug related felonies on my record, I can do nothing but applaud the efforts of this CEO, although on a different level I wonder if any adult working a minimum wage job isn't living a very bleak existence anyway, and in fact isn't being exploited for having a brain disorder we currently call "addiction" The problem with people who let drugs seriously affect their life is that...they let drugs…

It's a bakery, requiring little to no skills, and nothing more than being able to repeat physical activity, and only 35% make it through the program (a 10 month on-the-job job). I don't think this is the "success" story it's being made to be.

that's like saying that a company that only hires 10% of those it interviews is a failure. they have a waiting list of applicants, which allows them to set their quality bar high enough to reject the bottom 65% of applicants. the only difference is here the "interview" is a 10-month paid apprenticeship, while at most companies it's a 2 or 3-day unpaid blitz of tests.

Re: This bakery will hire anyone

#80

Post by spopejoy »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #23
jsnk wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the cost has some influence over employers making a decision to hire an ex-con. If a store can hire someone for minimum wage without any conviction records, why would they hire someone with conviction records when they can't pay any lower than the minimum wage?

You're assuming that a conviction record is the only variable. Chances are, you're not going to have 2 applicants who are otherwise identical save for a felony conviction (the fact that one of them has a felony conviction almost guarantees there's probably a lot of other differences between them as well).

felony conviction almost guarantees there's probably a lot of other differences

Do you have some statistics you'd like to share? Otherwise this seems like the exact bias that silently justifies relegating felons to sub-citizenship.

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