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Restaurant workers quit at record rate

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Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#441

Post by chickenpotpie »

WalterBright wrote: post #395
chickenpotpie wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree customer entitlement is growing but I disagree with your example. We created a society where we tell people they should chase their dreams and anything is possible in America. Then, when they chase their dreams and fail we tell them how stupid they are that they did that and they should have done something more practical. I don’t think teenagers should be blamed for doing exactly what they were told to do and…

Not checking starting salaries for one's major is stupid. I'm being blunt, but there's no other word for it. > teenagers Masters degree students are not teenagers.

That doesn't change the fact that we push people to go to college. We tell people anything is possible in America. We say this is the land of opportunity and you can do whatever we want and to follow your dreams. Then, we charge people a hundred thousand dollars to follow their dream and tell them that dreams are stupid and they should have been practical and googled salaries and career expectations.

America is still designed for when a college degree was payable with a minimum wage job. We either need to fix our schools or acknowledge the American dream is dead and we tricked a generation into giving us money for something they could never have.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#442

Post by ska »

bluGill wrote: post #323
namdnay wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it depends how often you expect to eat out. If it’s once a month, I think most can afford more expensive restaurants

Once you learn to cook you won't eat at anything less than the most expensive. It is really hard to enjoy a meal when you are thinking "I could have done this better myself at less cost". Chains and fast food just don't provide the quality I demand for the most part, and even the independents are hit and miss.

> Once you learn to cook you won't eat at anything less than the most expensive.

This isn't really true. Restaurants exist to fill a bunch of different needs; experience, novelty, convenience etc. And expense isn't a particularly good predictor of quality.

I do agree that once you can cook well you're much less likely to be happy at an overpriced generic version of something... which is right where fast casual and big chain casual is aimed. But sometimes you go for the company and not the food, etc.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#443

Post by bigbob2 »

FredPret wrote: post #387
lrdswrk00 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in a restaurant through high school and have been coding professionally for 20 years. After a certain point, programming becomes less hard. It becomes a set of very familiar syntax snippets to copy/paste around. Rushing around a kitchen in the heat, and often toxic, juvenile environment all week never changes… versus programming in your house? Give me a break. You’re not coming close to putting the same real…

It took you… - 20 years of work - x years of study - being born with the right nature/nurture mix for computer work …to get to this point. That’s a very significant initial hump in difficulty that restaurant work doesn’t have.

They never said it took 20 years for programming to become less hard

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#444

Post by chickenpotpie »

WalterBright wrote: post #401
diob wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a wild take to be honest. Humanity over the generations remains much the same beast, it's just that as you get old you forget the lessons your generation had to learn by experience (rose tinted glasses so to speak). You also fail to see that the context of the humans being raised today is different from yours, and their experiences / opportunities different as well. Heck, even those in your generation…

Common or not, I regularly see stories about this in the newspaper. The students change, the stories are the same "but nobody told me I couldn't get a decent job in this major, look at all the debt I have now."

In the past you didn't end up with a $100,000 of debt. That's what's changed. If you failed you could try again. Now you get your one chance with an education and that's it.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#445

Post by b3morales »

pixl97 wrote: post #393
tshaddox wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really a shortage? If the preferences of potential restaurant customers simply changes such that they're no longer willing to pay enough for a restaurant meal for the restaurant to stay financially solvent, that's not a shortage. It's only a shortage if something is preventing the market price from changing (in this case, the price of a restaurant meal increasing) or preventing restaurants and customers who are…

does it matter if it's a technical shortage or just and observed one? The only thing preventing restaurants from changing their prices is the 'penguin on an iceberg' issue. You may be correct in raising your prices, but if other restaurants are willing to lose money longer before they raise their prices your business may suffer/fail because of it before the rest of the market changes their prices/wages.

That seems to assume that the products are completely interchangeable. Even between restaurant chains I don't think that's true. And independent restaurants are very individual, even unique. Some people like one type of food or dining experience, some another, and they may forego dining out altogether rather than substitute.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#446

Post by mdavis6890 »

tshaddox wrote: post #385
mdavis6890 wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What we are observing is the Demand Curve shifting left (people less interested in eating out) and the Supply Curve shifting down (the people willing to work in restaurants for any given wage is going down). Remember that supply and demand curves cover all wages/prices and quantities, they are not specific to a certain price/wage or quantity. This is observed as a shortage - more customers willing to buy a restaurant…

Is it really a shortage? If the preferences of potential restaurant customers simply changes such that they're no longer willing to pay enough for a restaurant meal for the restaurant to stay financially solvent, that's not a shortage. It's only a shortage if something is preventing the market price from changing (in this case, the price of a restaurant meal increasing) or preventing restaurants and customers who are…

It is a shortage until prices rise, quantity demanded goes down, quantity supplied goes up and a new equilibrium is attained. This might take a few minutes, or even milliseconds, or it might take many months, or it might never happen.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#448

Post by conductr »

ac29 wrote: post #326
conductr wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The employers aren’t raising their wages either They are. It takes time but they are. I work in a business that is having a hard time hiring entry level healthcare workers because Walmart and Amazon warehoueses is now paying $15-20/hr when it was only $12 pre-covid. Walmart and Amazon would only raise wages if they truly had a labor supply issue, which they do, we all do.

I'm curious where in the US are healthcare workers getting less than $15/hr and what kind of work it is. Even the sort of jobs that require no certification, no degree, and no experience seem to pay quite a bit more than that.

We pay CNA's $12/hr in some markets. Their job is like daycare but geriatrics instead of toddlers. It's a lot of hands on service on both ends of the gastrointestinal tract. There are RN's around in fewer numbers that earn more and do the actual clinical parts.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#449

Post by vletal »

Last week we went to a great local restaurant. At least it used to be in the pre-covid times. Now most of the stuff had a "temporary worker" or an "apprentice" sticker on their chest. You could see their hands shaking while serving heavy glasses of beer, improper way of serving food. They forgot about us at one point. We kindly asked to get served. The new hires were not even able to take our orders without being apologetic. After that a young waitress passed me a boiling hot soup over a head of our 3yo son!

Just a year ago, this was one of the most professionally stuffed family friendly restaurants in Prague. Now they have to train a new crew and build their reputation from scratch again.

Was working as a waitress here in the Czech Rep. / EU really that bad that the ones who managed to find a different job during the pandemic do not want to go back?

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#450

Post by reader_mode »

chickenpotpie wrote: post #441
WalterBright wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not checking starting salaries for one's major is stupid. I'm being blunt, but there's no other word for it. > teenagers Masters degree students are not teenagers.

That doesn't change the fact that we push people to go to college. We tell people anything is possible in America. We say this is the land of opportunity and you can do whatever we want and to follow your dreams. Then, we charge people a hundred thousand dollars to follow their dream and tell them that dreams are stupid and they should have been practical and googled salaries and career expectations. America is still…

The problem with your argument is the assumption that societies are designed.
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