Beep Beep - Your Order is Invalid - Please Try Again

 ~ Rant ~ 

Tonight I stopped by a McDonald's and ordered twelve, regular hamburgers to be put in one, large sack and then two, regular hamburgers and an order of medium fries in a small sack.

They couldn't do it.

The kid behind the cash register was flustered while attempting to fulfill my order because the preset order-taking system McDonald's has in place didn't have buttons for processing and relaying my order in the configuration I had ordered it in (different quantities in two different sacks).

This kid was just the order taker. Someone else would prepare my order and then someone else would bag my order.

I told the kid not to worry, just put everything in a big sack and then give me a small sack and I'll separate out the food later.

They couldn't do that either.

So I then suggested doing whatever worked with their system. That gave the kid the leeway to process my order the way she had been trained to do so. We had finally got to the part where I paid and waited for my order.

After a moment, another employee asked if it was OK if all of the hamburgers I had ordered were put into one sack and the fries put in a separate sack.

I nodded in agreement.

Then a moment later another employee asked if it was alright if half the hamburgers I had ordered were put in one sack and the other half put in another sack along with the order of fries.

Again, I nodded and said, "Ok".

Minutes later I was handed two sacks of burgers and a medium fries and I went on my way.

Now it may surprise you to know that I was not upset or angry with the employees of McDonald's.

I have worked in jobs like this and sympathize greatly with the employees.

These kinds of jobs are lousy. You have to deal with some of the nastiest, most ridiculous customers you will ever have the displeasure of meeting and the pay is not even remotely close to being enough to put up with all of that.

So, no, I do not get upset with employees in situations like this.

This was during the dinner hour and they were under pressure to get the orders out. They were doing their jobs, as they were trained to do under McDonald's system, with the tools McDonald's gave them to do their jobs with.

Those last two parts are where the problem is.

These kids are too young to remember the days when your server would write down your order on a piece of paper (a ticket), along with any special instructions like "14 burgers, 12 in large bag, 2 in small bag", and then hand the paper to the short-order cook.

Even if the kid who took my order wanted to write down the special instructions, there was no pen or paper in the counter area. Everything is computerized.

These kids grew up in a world of automated systems and have been trained to function only within the parameters of those systems. Any deviation, such as writing a custom order on paper, is beyond what these kids are familiar with. Such an idea just would not occur to them and apparently it didn't occur to anyone who devised and approved the system McDonald's trains these kids to use and obey. Otherwise the terminal on the cash register might have had a "see written custom order" button to push, notifying anyone along the process line that this is a "special order", and pen and paper for the cashier to hand-write special instructions about the customer's order to pass along to the other members of the "team".

Another aspect of this was that, after McDonald's spent millions of dollars to develop an almost entirely automated system, that system failed to produce my order in the way I wanted it.

Someday soon, these jobs will be replaced by robots.

Robots that are operating off of the same inflexible system and are unable to prepare any order that deviates from the program.

If you think customer service is bad now, it will be worse when a robot rejects your order when you want something slightly outside of the programmed presets - like different quantities of the same product in just two, different sized, sacks.



Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.

Four Excuses Why Minimum Wage Should Not be Raised

~ Rant ~

Whenever I read arguments against increasing the minimum wage to a livable wage, those arguments usually trot out four, general, excuses for slave wages as justification.

The following is a link to an article from SHTFplan.com that is an example.

I've brought over the four excuses for slave wages that I'm referring to, from that article, and then I've gone through them, one-by-one, with my comments written below each excuse for slave wages.

From SHTFplan.com, Mac Slavo: "What Prices Look Like Before and After A Mandatory Minimum Wage Increase"
https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/what-prices-look-like-before-and-after-a-mandatory-minimum-wage-increase_01042015

"1) Businesses will be forced to raise prices, which will essentially wipe out the benefit of any wage increase because while employees may make more money they’re now paying more for the same goods.
2) Businesses will have to cut back hours. If you force a business to pay 50% more per hour per employee and consider how much money that is, many will have no choice but to cut back hours, which effectively leaves the employee making the same amount of money.
3) Businesses will have to let people go. It’s simple. If their revenue stays the same but their labor costs go up a business has no choice but to consolidate its work force."
"One unforeseen problem is that many of the workers who will see a wage increase may be pushed into a higher income bracket causing them to lose access to public services like Electronic Benefits Transfer or other income assistance programs."

Ok, I'm going to take these on one at a time.

"1) Businesses will be forced to raise prices, which will essentially wipe out the benefit of any wage increase because while employees may make more money they’re now paying more for the same goods."

So what?

Prices have been rapidly rising while wages have stagnated for over 30 years now.

Prices will continue to rise and outpace wages, irregardless of an increase in minimum wage, because of inflation created by excessive money printing by the Federal Reserve, the out-of-control spending of the government, and the out-right greed of I've-got-mine-screw-you corporations and businesses.

"2) Businesses will have to cut back hours. If you force a business to pay 50% more per hour per employee and consider how much money that is, many will have no choice but to cut back hours, which effectively leaves the employee making the same amount of money."

Just what is it that the business are doing during those "cut back" hours that employees aren't there to produce the products and services of that business?

If a business cuts back it's minimum-wage employees hours, who's going to be there to do the work?

Are the businesses going to hire more minimum-wage workers, who work even less hours, to try to get the same amount of work done?

The wages are dollars per hour.

If the business need eight hours of work done, it's still eight hours at the same wage no matter if it's one employee working eight hours or eight employees working one hour each.

Yup. Eight people, working one hour each, to do the same eight-hour job that one person used to do.

Remember, the businesses are threatening to cut back hours but those businesses still need the work done so they are going to have to hire more part-time employees, working fewer hours, to get the same job done.

That means the businesses are still going to have to pay eight hours worth of wages, no matter how many hours they cut back from the employees.

And the more employees a business hires means the business has to cover more training and administrative costs.

Don't forget about Obamacare. That will limit how many employees a business will hire.

So, if a business cuts back employee hours but doesn't hire more employees to get the job done, then the business will have no choice but to cut back its hours of operation which effectively leaves the employer making less than if they had paid their employees a livable wage.

Ohhh. Right. Those businesses will just buy lots of robots to replace the employees.

Lots of expensive robots that will require the business to take out loans to be able buy those robots. Loans that will increase the overhead and therefor increase prices.

And since those robots replaced so many employees there will be fewer paychecks circulating through the community which will result in fewer customers to pay those higher prices to cover the loans taken out to buy those robots.

When businesses can't afford to pay off their loans they go out of business.

"3) Businesses will have to let people go. It’s simple. If their revenue stays the same but their labor costs go up a business has no choice but to consolidate its work force."

Again, so what?

Businesses today treat employees like disposable garbage and "let people go" at the drop of a hat.

Since the crash of 2008 businesses have let so many people go that those businesses are operating at or near skeleton staffing (they've already consolidated). That is why the labor participation rate is at record lows for so long. That is why chronic unemployment has lasted so long.

"But.. but.. the government says unemployment is 6%."

The way the government tallies unemployment figures is to not count the long-time unemployed people for political convenience.

Here's a hint. The Labor Participation Rate, as of January 5, 2015, pegs roughly 37 percent of able-bodied, working-age (16 to 64 years of age) people in the US as not having jobs. (Looking at the chart in the link, 100% minus 63 percent, equals 37 percent. A big difference from the 6% the government likes to trumpet.)

Thirty-seven percent unemployment.

37% unemployment!

There are roughly 300 million people in the US. Thirty-seven percent of 300 million is 111 million...  111 million unemployed, able-bodied workers.

Businesses have already been "letting people go" by the many tens of millions even at the current, sub-living standard, minimum wage.

Businesses will continue to "let people go" by the millions whether the minimum wage is increased or not.

"One unforeseen problem is that many of the workers who will see a wage increase may be pushed into a higher income bracket causing them to lose access to public services like Electronic Benefits Transfer or other income assistance programs."

What!?

You mean if minimum wage employees are paid more they may not need EBT cards and other forms of welfare?

Those employees might actually be able to support themselves!?

Imagine that. People getting off of welfare because they are able to support themselves with livable wages.

Oh. The. Horror.

We are told that there are too many people on welfare in America yet it seems that is exactly the way businesses and government want to keep things.



Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.

No Company Should Survive on Slave Labor

 ~ Rant ~  

If the only way a company can survive is by paying it's workers slave wages, then that company should not exist.

I've read lots of rational and reasonable sounding words to explain why companies absolutely must pay their workers slave wages.

What it boils down to is they are trying very hard to fool us into believing that paying unlivable wages is just good business.

Let's flip the situation around.

If the company costs too much and produces too little then that company, as if it were an employee, should be fired.

That company should not exist.

Why is it OK to pay slave wages, so employees are forced on to welfare, or in some cases, living on the street, just so the business can survive and continue to pay unlivable wages?

One argument to that is if the business goes under, then even more people will be unemployed.

Whoa, whoa, whoa... Go back and reread my sentence before that.

The employees are already on welfare or living on the streets. Being unemployed isn't much more of a change.

A truth of life: employees, at this level, are trapped with little to no prospect of ever escaping. The rare few who do, truly are rare and extremely lucky.

There was a time when being steady and reliable workers would ensure the employees would progress to better pay. Then with the extra money they could afford more education and progress even further. This upward mobility has been lost for most Americans.

Wages are too low.

The cost of living and the cost of education are too high.

I've written before how employers encourage welfare. There are systems in place to make sure people stay trapped in dead-end, slave-wage jobs because that is the only way most companies can survive.



Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.

Desperation is About to Throw a Very Hard Punch

Rant

When reading about minimum-wage, livable wage, and employment in general, I frequently come across a line of thinking similar to what commenter "DaHerm" posted on DaggerPress.com:

"An number of folks (Noble, Keith, h) need to take Econ 101 again. Wages are not decided based on the relative cost of living. An employer decides how much he can afford to pay a worker based on the skills needed, the cost structure of the business, the value returned to the business by that employee and how competitive the job market is for different levels of skill sets. They are minimum wage jobs because they represent the minimum skills need to work, not necessarily to provide all of life’s creature comforts. It is then up to the individual to make appropriate use of their wages. Since poverty is relative in a given population, you can never remove it by artificially inflating the wages paid. Someone will always have more, others less."

Here, here!

Work hard and do whatever it takes to succeed.

Here, here!

Now... for a dose of non-academic reality:

"In desperate times, desperate people do desperate things."

We live in a time when many Americans are struggling to survive. Things have been bad for many years and are only getting worse. More and more Americans are becoming desperate.

The way things are going in America, people will work hard... to figure out who to rob for what they need to survive. In doing so, they will do whatever it takes to succeed,... even if it means killing you and your loved ones.

Oh, right... you're a suburban Rambo-wananbe, with all sorts of automatic weapons, just itching to gun-down anyone who comes near your side of the cul-de-sac.

You're not the only one with guns.

One bullet from a desperate, expert marksman with a hunting rifle and all your Rambo ammo (and everything else of yours of value) will be theirs for the taking.

The police?

Too few, too far away,... too late.

All the fancy, economic theories and models, and masters of business administration degrees won't hold-up very well against angry mobs.

As Mike Tyson said, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."

Many Americans are becoming more and more desperate; so far, quietly. But the way things have been going, and will continue for the foreseeable future, their silence will break and they will start throwing some very hard punches.



Reference

DaggerPress.com, DaHerm, 2041_09_05:
http://www.daggerpress.com/2014/09/05/the-big-q-should-fast-food-restaurants-pay-workers-15-per-hour/#comment-276658



Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.

Disposable Employers

 ~ Musing the Balance of Things ~ 

Employers view employees as disposable garbage; I wonder how long it will be until employees look at employers as disposable?

Think about it...

During this global economic depression, bosses have taken delight in reminding their employees of just how disposable the workers are.

"You don't like it!? Then quit. There's five million illegals that will do your job for less."

America is crumbling into unstable, part-time, minimum-wage, temporary jobs.

These jobs pay the same, most come with zero benefits, and workers have to depend on welfare just to survive.

So why stick around?

Jobs are coming back but most of them are coming back as part-time, minimum-wage, temporary jobs with no benefits.

So why stay in a miserable, part-time job working for a jerk of a boss?

There are millions other dead-end jobs out there; some of the bosses may even be decent enough to work for.

Eventually workers are going to figure this out and will begin treating employers as disposable.



Comments
Please, keep your comments clean, civil and relevant. Cussing with foul language just for the sake of using foul language only proves the person to be an obnoxious, dull-witted fool.