My take on such idiocy is that the pandemic just might have given people a chance to get off the hamster-wheel for a while and rethink the capitalist nightmare.
Maybe working at minimum wage jobs or less-than-minimum-plus-tips with little or no benefits, juggling child care and transportation...or maybe even making out ok but still not doing well made them realize that living paycheck to paycheck and crisis to crisis for ungrateful business owners and detached corporate 'human resources' departments might not be all there is to a working life. Even for those who did keep working through the pandemic, the outpouring of praise was only sporadically matched by anything of substance. 'Essential" and "Heroic" didn't exactly translate into grateful very often.
Maybe people looked around at the pandemic landscape and realized that to much of the business world, they were absolutely expendable. When commerce fell off the cliff during shutdowns and quarantines, many (notice I didn't say all) businesses and industries cut their losses by cutting people first and now they're crying because the first to go aren't lining up to be the first to come back to do it all again next time.
Many companies of all sizes lobbied hard against raising minimum wages for those that were left and others are fighting tooth and nail against unionization, better healthcare, better working conditions and meaningful retirement plans. All this is 'socialism' and anyone who wants it at their workplace is looking for 'something for nothing'. Does anyone blame a big chunk of the workforce for not being exactly overjoyed to jump back in?
The list of businesses that got CV19 taxpayer-funded relief is long and distinguished and the money they received is hardly mentioned but "nobody wants to work" is the hashtag. "People are looking for a handout instead of a job" is the narrative but corporate America happily took far more in government bailouts than individuals and I haven't seen one post harping on the business world. Why is that? Why is the vaunted 'free market economy' not able to adapt to a new reality that people are less willing to be used and abused by their employer? Why is it going to be catastrophic if the minimum wage increases? I thought that was how capitalism is supposed to work? If you can't make it in the marketplace as it is, your enterprise fails and someone who does it better takes the cake. Labor is going to cost you more these days. Evolve or go under. That's what you've told your workforce for years.
I know small businesses got crushed by the pandemic and many companies large and small went belly up but that's not the issue I'm talking about. I also know that lots of businesses did bend over backwards to help their people and that shouldn't be forgotten either but that's not what makes me so angry.
My point is that the trend to point fingers at working people and let employers off the hook is wrong. This is when we'd be better off demanding a paradigm shift in how business treats it's workers. Maybe when they're not seen as just 'headcount' they'll come back. Maybe when there's something to come back to that isn't the same old same old. Maybe when they don't need a job-and-a-half or two plus public assistance to live above the poverty line (are you listening Walmart?) or a future that goes beyond next week or the next stockholder meeting, they'd be a little more enthusiastic. Maybe "You're just lucky you have this job..." isn't enough anymore. Maybe if they thought they could make a little more than a fraction of a percentage point of what the CEO makes they'd feel more like diving back in. Maybe...
Here's some thoughts for the titans of commerce...pay your people a wage they can live on and treat them with a little dignity. Worry about the things they have to worry about...housing, childcare, transportation, healthcare, retirement...things your upper echelons take for granted. These aren't 'something for nothing', they're value for services rendered. You pay CEOs exorbitant packages to allegedly attract the best (and pay bonuses even when they fail both the company and the stockholders) and yet can't fathom why your lowest paid employees deserve anything less. You want the best? Pay fairly for it. You want to retain them? Give them reasons to stay instead of reasons to leave. Ponder for a bit why your working people are unwilling to take yet another increase in their healthcare premium or a wage freeze while you require they also take on the workload of the people you figured you didn't need anymore. Demand from yourselves what you demand from them. And stop blaming your failure to adapt to a changed reality on those you've already bled white.
"Nobody wants to work" is putting the blame on an awful lot of people who aren't lazy...they're just tired of living and dying for a wage they can't survive on for people who just don't care.
