Thursday Thirteen

I have been seeing a lot of people complaining about not being able to find workers at the moment. Most are blaming the federal government's unemployment compensation. People can make nearly as much staying home doing nothing as working, or so the employers say.

Perhaps this is a moment of reckoning? If a business owner can't find workers right now, then perhaps that job shouldn't exist, at least not in its current incarnation. 

I thought I'd see if I could come up with 13 other reasons besides unemployment benefits that might be contributing to this perception of worker shortage.

1. Childcare. Many parents have had to change their work schedules and/or leave jobs to deal with the lack of public education as schools moved to online learning. Childcare is expensive. How many families discovered that they could do without the second income if they weren't paying for childcare?

2. Elder care. We have a number of elderly folks who are staying home who might otherwise have gone to assisted living. Now, because of Covid, they are afraid to go to such places. Someone must care for them. This generally falls on a family member, who would not have time to work.

3. Concern about Covid exposure. Any job that deals with the public offers a stronger risk of exposure.

4. The boss is an anti-vaxxer.

5. The boss insists on vaccinations. (Yes, it works both ways).

6. The hours are poor and compared to the wages, not worth it.

7. People have learned to value something besides money in the last year, like time spent with family, and no longer want those 60-hour work weeks.

8. People have learned new skills or gone back to school (online) to learn new skills and plan to change careers, not go back to waitressing or clerking or whatever.

9. People have determined that they want to live life on their terms, and not be a wage slave. They have discovered they can do with less. 

10. Some have discovered skills they didn't know they had and perhaps hope to use as a step up to an entrepreneurial career. (Painting, working with clay, whatever.)

11. The atmosphere of the workplace is toxic. Word gets around. People know what places to avoid. 

12. The workplace isn't following appropriate guidelines for Covid right now (no masks, etc.)

13. There is no affordable housing in the area where the job is located.

I could come up with more, but hopefully I'm making a point here. I don't think it is all about the unemployment benefits. I think we're at a place where people see that there is more to life than the almighty dollar bill - that time spent on self-care is vital, that time with loved ones is necessary, that a life lived in a box churning out work for someone else is no life at all. A year of reflection can create great change in the thinking processes of people.

Capitalism is a poor economic system. It requires that there always be people on the bottom to trounce on. There are better ways of doing things. 

Perhaps the population as a whole is figuring that out.

It is not always about the money.

(This turned up in my FB feed this morning.)

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 705th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.