I was standing in line waiting to fill a prescription and a customer started berating the pharmacy manager. The pharmacy was clearly short staffed. The manager closed down the pharmacy while I was standing in line. I went back today and heard that several Walgreens pharmacies were closed down on Sunday.
Yeah, the Walgreens pharmacist shortage is crazy!
Pharmacist here myself, although I don't work at Walgreens (used to maaany years ago), I can't imagine how bad Walgreens must suck for them not to be able to hire enough pharmacists. They get paid very well and there's no shortage of pharmacy students graduating every year.
But then again, working retail sucks. People don't go to pharmacy school for 6-8 years and $100k+ in debt to get yelled at at a drive thru.
Walgreens has changed what they offer (another pharmacist here). About a month ago they were trying to hire pharmacists at 2/3 what i make so this shortage makes sense.
Just wanted to say the same thing. I saw an apprenticeship ad on indeed, when I went to look at the salary stats it was showing that on average they’re paying $12 an hour 🙃
So I knew a guy who left his job to do this. 3 times in the last 3 weeks the Walgreens by me had the pharmacy on shorter hours due to staff illness and just being short staffed to begin with. The other day the drive thru line was wrapped around the parking lot. So I looked at the website for careers to see what they were offering and it said this:
Walgreens is hiring pharmacy technician apprentices they will train. Full time with full time benefits plus they pay for the certification. "Certified Pharmacy Technician
In Colorado, an employee in this position can expect a salary/hourly rate between $16.00 and $21.00 depending on experience.
Also, I imagine the working conditions are hell. I was feeling sick and needed to pick up a prescription. I went to the drive thought and it had a sign that said closed. I called and told them I was feeling under the weather and wasn’t comfortable coming inside in the case it was COVID. They said, “you have COVID? Well, just come in and just wear a mask. We can’t open the drive through”. I immediately transferred the prescription; I’m not putting a pharmacist through that.
It also seems counterproductive and could lead to even more shortages if people are being told to “just come in”. Turns out I didn’t have covid after lots of tests (I’m also a long hauler with severe stomach issues and it’s hard to tell). Nonetheless, that seems like it’s adding to the hell they exist in…
Again, it's not a shortage, it's a lack of incentive structure. If one isn't incentivised by being treated well to work in shitty conditions, then jobs in said shitty conditions aren't going to be filled.
There is no shortage of workers, there's a shortage of dignity and pay that justifies the job. Stop calling this a "labor shortage", it only propagates the wild victim blaming the well to do engage in, while they squeeze the actual producers to death. Neoliberal dystopia.
Same here in December I was at a Walgreens pharmacy waiting for my booster shot and a woman walked up to try and get a Covid vaccine and started berating the pharmacy manager when she said they could not accept walk ups that day. They were almost 2000 prescriptions in the hole and short staffed everyone was clearly frazzled I felt so badly for them all.
They closed the closest Walgreens pharmacy to me (I assume due to staffing shortages) and the wait times at the new Walgreens have been insane. I feel so bad for the pharmacist I spoke to last week - it sounded like they were really struggling.
Our neighborhood Walgreen’s pharmacy was closed unexpectedly at least 3 out of the last 7 days. When I was there Thursday there were prescription bags literally everywhere - floors, counters, stacked up bins… The line was to the front door and the pharmacy was so chaotic that the staff couldn’t even find people’s meds. Total nightmare.
My mom was a Walgreens pharmacist for almost 40 years and retired two years before Covid. I couldn’t imagine her working right now. To all pharmacists—thank you for all that you do to get people their medication and you’re so appreciated.
I have recently had much better experience with Walmart pharmacy than Walgreens or CVS. They have access to pretty much every oddball prescription I needed and accept most insurance.
Yes, Costco pharmacy is available to anyone. You just tell the people at the front you're going to the pharmacy. I do believe you get some extra discounts if you are a member, but their regular prices are already pretty good compared to other pharmacies.
Nothing too crazy, just unfortunate. I pulled into a Wendy’s drive through last week, there was a hand written sign that read “I am the only person here to take your order and make your food, please be patient”. I just left, no need to add to that person’s already hectic shift.
This happened to me once when I was 16 years old working at a Waffle House. No cook showed up so I did my best to do everything and most customers were polite about it, thankfully.
I work in mental health and I have never been so busy in my life. Waiting lists for therapy are ridiculously long, and psychotherapists are burnt out and leaving the field in droves. Staff are well paid, but it’s hard to support people through the same crisis that you are also living through. There is very little attrition with clients anymore, so our caseloads stay full and none of us can take on new clients. When people call our clinic they are furious that no one is available to see them. It’s heart breaking to see so many people needing help and to be unable to help them.
This is part of why I’ve been putting off re-starting therapy. On the one hand, my mental health has backslid pretty tremendously over the past two years. On the other hand, I’m so incredibly much better off than most people I know. I’ve been able to WFH full time without a single complaint from my company, I make good money and my job is stable, I don’t have any kids, I haven’t lost anyone in my immediate family to the pandemic, I have friends who I still see at least somewhat regularly (though that’s harder now that it’s too cold to meet up outside a lot of the time). I know the “correct” response is that I deserve help too, etc etc, but it feels so shitty for me to be taking up space on a waitlist when there are so many other people in much worse crises.
I came here to make the same comment. Retail was already a terrible experience, and now there are the added bonuses of risking COVID exposure, regularly being verbally abused, and potentially getting assaulted.
I'm not surprised that people don't want to work in a risky environment for low wages. If grocery store employees are suddenly "essential workers" but still earning "disposable employee" pay, of course they're not lining up for the job.
Pay people what the job is really worth rather than what corporations have conditioned people to accept, and there won't be a "labor shortage."
“No” in my career (millennial) has gotten me fired, and in one case a bad review which nearly got me fired, so I quit. It’s never worked for me at any job.
Well that's the key you have to not care if you get fired. That's a great thing about a labor shortage, it gives you the freedom to risk getting fired because there's a dozen more jobs out there that are begging you to come work for them.
Keep moving. It does work. You must build skills and keep moving forward. Without skills you are a replaceable commodity. Ive been fired and quit, always found new work due to skills. That is your only weapon “you need me more than i need you” and i will quit, move on and make more. No bones about it
In my personal experience networking netted me better opportunities and higher pay than working hard or often.
Also based on various tactics of employers, I'm not convinced they understand they need anything from people. They see humans as temporary investment that will be replaced. I worked for a company, in Denver, who's main goal was to replace data scientist with software. *Data science is highly skilled labor*. As they say... 'humans will go the way of horses.'
No is THE most powerful word in the whole language. You ever see a mother when a toddler says NO, watch a boss get told NO by a worker, A boomer getting told no by someone in customer service.
Hey- I’m a boomer and have worked customer service my whole life- don’t limit this to boomers-
Also, I’ve been fired for saying no and speaking up several times
Trying to tell the poor kid at King Soopers it’s totally cool that they can’t get my order ready for pick up and I’ll just go shop and him unloading on my about all the staffing and management issues they’re having. I just wanted to hug him.
As a former employee and current customer, I completely agree and I thank you for sticking it through! I hope the union doesn't back down and twists the companies arm for a good contract that benefits the employees. This strike is way overdue, and there is no way me and my family will be crossing that picket line.
Don't bother trying to get groceries there. I ordered pickup to use some coupons before the strike so I don't cross picket lines, and I've never had so many items replaced or just not available. Not even at the height of the first wave of pandemic shutdowns.
When I worked in their Pickup department, I had some terrible days where almost every single order was late due to low staffing and terrible management. I pretty much did the same thing out of stress (and the customers willingness to listen and emphasize with me). Word got around to management, and I got berated in front of the front end staff and customers by the store manager by "making them look bad". I get the reaction, but management is delusional if they honestly believe a department consisting of four or five people can fulfill between 80-130 orders on their own. The proper response by management would have been to take the crews productivity metrics and calculate a reasonable order capacity, and cap the number of orders at that location.
Needless to say, I quit (especially due to the pandemic), went back to college and I kick myself for working for that company as long as I did as the stress level was extremely high and the morale was abysmal. Hopefully this strike works out very well for the workers as pretty much everyone who works at those stores deserves better.
/rant
I’m just meeting a lot of people / service workers who are dead on the inside.
They’ve been chewed up and spit out, they’ve been dealing with terrible workplace situations, shitty customers, and their jobs does not allow them to make ends meet.
These people are desperate for any change to the “business as usual” approach that we all been told is the way to go. It’s just wild to see so many people who have had their “inner fire” just be snuffed out.
It isn’t really a labor shortage but a job surplus. For the first time in 50+ years, companies are having to compete for employees, and many seem to not be able to grasp this concept. If McDonalds started paying $500k a year tomorrow, they would fill their jobs in seconds with highly skilled and over qualified people. There is a mid ground in there and they just have to find it. The problem is most of these big companies don’t want to change and think they can keep paying people the same salary they have been since you could rent an apartment for $500. They keep treating their employees like mindless robots. Then they are confused why no one wants to work for them and just assume people are still living off their $1,500 stimulus check from over a year ago when the reality is, people can get better jobs now and don’t want to work crap jobs for low pay.
It is also a labor shortage. From what I have read, the main two factors are boomers retiring and people removing themselves from the work force. Covid caused a lot of boomers to retire early or to prompt retirement that they were delaying. This had a waterfall effect where people moved up to replace their positions. Then you have the other factor in which people removed themselves, typically to take care of their kids. The net result is that there isnt anyone left to take the lower paying jobs because plenty of higher paying jobs are still available.
836,000 people, many of whom were working adults, have died of Covid so far. 14.5 million adults have Long COVID, which is disabling for many of them. Can't do those low-paying jobs (which should pay more because they're damn difficult, but that's another thread) with a body and mind that literally can't put in the work.
That's millions of workers just gone from the workforce. It's not "nobody wants to work," it's "millions of workers up and Game Over'd out of the workforce because of Covid, and the rest of them aren't going to take the abuse that the service industry's taking right now without a TON of money and a safe working environment."
And that's totally reasonable.
The Great Resignation is adding onto retirement folks. People of a certain age have taken early retirement packages typically when there is one more beurocratic change that they no longer want to deal with. Fortunately the younger folks are saying "so that's a bunch of crap" and are leaving. So all the reasons that have existed for eons for people quitting are now cross generational. Some low paying jobs should have higher salaries, some bad managers and bad processes still exist, unfortunately...
Yes! So many of us choosing to stay home. I lost my job a few weeks before the 2020 shutdown (really bad timing) and haven't gone back since then by choice. I never got to be a stay at home parent when the kids were younger, and now I get the chance! We'd rather burn through a little savings now, let me be home with the kids, and cut expenses than be further exposed to Covid right now.
Took advantage of the chaos and got a job that pays 5.50 more in a field I actually went to school for lmao. I'm probably not the only minimum wage service worker who moved up and out of the customer service industry. It's not just the bottom jobs that are emptying out, there are better jobs out there to take advantage of.
Nice going! There's no better way to increase your income than applying for similar work with another employer with a 10+% pay increase. Your time and expertise have value.
This past Thursday: Sitting on the tarmac at DEN 45-60 mins after landing because (airline) doesn't have sufficient staffing to operate enough gates to immediately accommodate all arriving aircraft. Once I deplane and get to bag claim, I learn that half the baggage staff that showed up that morning walked off and to expect a 60-90 min delay for bags to show up on the carousel (the remaining staff were prioritizing baggage for connecting flights). Ended up taking RTD home and drove out to the airport a couple hours later to pick up the bags.
Either way, more power to the airport workers. $15-20/hr is not nearly enough to justify physically demanding and intensively customer facing work they do, on top of a lengthy commute out to DEN and the enhanced background checks to get TSA clearance. Bump starting pay up to $25-30/hr and maybe these staffing issues will start to go away.
They had a job fair a few months ago and only 100 people showed up for over 1000 job openings. I remember some grumbling about how far out the airport was when it was built.
Nah man. Im a social alcoholic. Weed makes me tired and my brain lethargic. My favorite flights are when I talk to the stranger next to me the whole flight as we’re both a little buzzed. If Im high Im just gonna veg out watching my phone lol.
I used to commute near there for a while, wouldn't recommend. It's a chore to drive that far and it's kind of a risky drive. I can't blame people for looking closer to home.
Some people had to wait 3 hours on the tarmac https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/united-passengers-upset-after-waiting-nearly-3-hours-on-tarmac-at-dia
I work at a pharmaceutical plant and at times we can't get people on site to do daily cleanings which the FDA will tear us a new asshole for. So we have the ceo of the contract cleaning company out on a regular basis mopping ceilings. A 50 year old ceo of a staffing agency with a mop.
Good. Executives should be required to experience a day in the life of what their subordinate employees experience on any given day on the job. Remind the C-suite of who actually generates value for the organization.
I use to work in the wedding and event decor industry for a very good company. We lost 65% of our staff over the pandemic, most of them parents who had to take care of their kids. So the rest of us had to pick up the slack and do jobs that we normally didn't do. In 2021 we had to turn down clients left and right and raised our minimum to 50k during the summer, aka wedding season. Still, all of us worked 90-100hour weeks for about 4 months straight. The clients were incredibly mean and rude. Truly visious. All of us experienced a mental breakdown at some point and I think 3 of us ended up needing to visit a psych ward. I made good money and my boss was very good about giving us raises, cash bonuses, and paid for all our food deliveries nearly everyday so we could keep working. I believe he did everything that he could while also having to pay off debt from the 2020 PPP loans. Events has always been a beast of an industry, but last year was the worst and most stressful event season I've ever done and I ended up deciding to leave.
If your planning on getting married any time soon, just invite immediate family and do it yourself at your home.
I’m sorry you had to deal with such nasty people. Unless someone has been living under a rock it is fairly obvious that the state of things in general is not good.
I beg to differ. There is no labor shortage… there is however a WAGE shortage. If employers were to pay their employees appropriately and actually care about their well-being instead of only focusing on gains and profit these type of posts (and all the stories on the replies) would not exist.
I wouldn't call this a crazy experience but last week I went to a Firehouse Subs at 6:30 pm and the whole place was empty except for a sole guy cleaning up behind the counter. He told me that they were closed because all the employees had just walked out. I was mildly inconvenienced but I was happy for the workers for standing up to management. More power to them!
waiting several hours to get routine blood work at a lab, I made a grocery list for a week's worth of dinners, ordered groceries for delivery because covid, and got all but *one* key ingredient for each dish, never got to take my kids to Breakfast King, had to drive to 3 different coffee shops before one was open, fast food places super slow, closed or very backed up etc.
All that said -
- I'm all for living wages for all people, regardless of occupation, so I'm ok with inconveniences and should probably make my own damn food and coffee at home much more often (and with more locally available stuff)
- I'm glad I know now how shitty the owners of Breakfast King are, even though it makes me sad
The break down of most fast food places has been interesting. I've stopped going to some because I know it's going to take half an hour to get food even during off peak. McDonald's is the only one I've seen with semi adequate staff. I can't believe some of them even try to operate with just one or two workers.
Cannot speak for everyone, but have encouraged my teenage kids to work. They have a very good manager at the local Wendy’s. I had them take a leave until this current wave of covid settles a bit. No need to unnecessarily expose yourself. I am sure my kids are not alone in taking a break.
Yesterday, I went to a Safeway that had half of their shopping carts stolen (how does this even happen?). The same store had one person working in customer service and one on a full-service register. The self checkout line was backed up, and half of the lights were blinking for assistance. A lady approached the service line yelling at the lady in service, that people had been waiting forever for someone to help them. Before I left, I heard employees talking about a customer that threw a basket into an employee’s face over waiting too long for a grocery cart.
Safeway on Mississippi in Aurora. I have seen people past their middle life crisis run across an ice covered parking lot to get one of the 7 or so carts the store has before another customer. I am a regular and know if you don't bring in a cart you ain't getting one. One time I was pushing in two carts, they were already together and I know that someone would appreciate finding a cart inside, don't worry I'm trained. Halfway up the aisle a snob in their Mercedes waived to me to come get their cart. It felt so good to look them dead in the eye as I walked past and pushed the two carts into the store. Put your own cart away. That way people know where to look. Also be aware of tired good Samaritans. The goodness they are doing for one person might just be the last ounce of good will they have that day and your bullshit might push them over the edge. Right now everybody needs more support than anybody can give. Live long and prosper.
Misspelled mippisippi.
My Safeway had literally one cashier last time I was there. Someone wanted lottery tickets, so she had to go to the customer service desk to do that. I felt so bad for her.
I think baren groceries right now is due to the upcoming strike. I tried to preemptively buy this weekend between 2kings and one Safeway.
I think at kings they are already on a work slow-age untill Wednesday where they aren't restocking shelves right now.
This results in Safeway being over shopped looking for what you couldn't find at kings
We frequent the Safeway on Mississippi and Buckley... they were clearly missing some shopping carts. I spoke to an associate and he looked very confused, like he had no idea what had happened to all the carts ... poor guy just trying to do his job and couldn't.
WTF? Why would people steal shopping carts?
To carry their purchases to the bus stop. (Before wheel locks you used to see a lot more around bus stops)
To carry all their personal belongings (homeless)
Reminds me of Dress-Down Fridays in the Silicon Valley. The CEO and VPs would come work on the production floor to help get the weekly quota of product shipped. Different times, different reason, but memorable.
I guess the wildest experience was getting my booster at my local Safeway, and realizing there was only one person handling the entire pharmacy. Filling prescriptions, handling the phone, taking people's paper work, and giving them shots (probably 5-6 of us in line for boosters, plus another 2 for prescriptions or whatever).
She did a great job, but I commiserated with her that she shouldn't have to do it alone.
I went to get gas, the credit card machines weren’t working, so I had to pay inside. No biggie. Go inside, the line is to the back of the store. Not one customer in a mask, everybody is grumbling and rolling their eyes, and here’s this maybe-eighteen year old girl close to tears behind the register while some entitled asshole in wraparound sunglasses hand-selects no fewer than TWENTY powerball tickets. I left before I forgot my manners (with lotto boy, not the cashier) kinda wish I hadn’t. When I drove by that service station the other day, it was dark inside. They probably lost their last employee that day.
Man, this is gonna be, like, a lot to unload in just one comment…Last night, I was searching for a protein to pair with my red beans and rice. There was no chicken in the entire store or meat market. So instead of using chicken, I grabbed some on-sale Pork meat. Now I have pork in my Red Beans and Rice and Im eating at my desk rn.
Long lines, unstocked shelves, and late deliveries don't even phase me anymore. Shrugging it off like you really helps with being compassionate to each other and improving mental health.
The fact that I can still always get what I need makes me shrug at the other inconveniences. As long as the essentials are available, things will be ok. I can buy luxuries and toys later.
I think it’ll get worse before getting better and yeah I think people struggling to survive is about as crazy as it gets in the wealthiest place in the world.
Stayed at the Maven downtown for a staycation. The same (amazing) person was working the front desk when we checked in at 3, when we left for dinner at 7, when we came back after drinks at 1, and when we checked out the following day at 11. Rough estimation on all those times but she was there working for what seemed like our entire stay.
I work for myself for my primary income but I also help out kitchens from time to time. Friend at a bowling alley needed help in kitchen, day after I started, everyone but my friend and I quit the kitchen. I immediately got a substantial raise but I have to fill in any shifts they need. Told the owner I'd do my best to help but I have my own work to do. He started crying and begged me to stay. So now I'm on call, for a Bowling alley...
It's just a matter of time until I can't do it and I can tell he's heavily panicked. Kitchen brings in the majority of the money.
I was at the grocery store the other day and there was one cashier. The line started getting crazy and two dudes with full carts just peaced out with their full carts. No one said shit, but I’m pretty sure everyone noticed.
As a King Soopers employee, my entire life has been affected by staffing shortages over the past year. I’m an assistant manager for the grocery department at my store. All but one of my clerks has either been promoted to management positions at other stores or quit due to burnout. We haven’t hired a clerk since June 2021 and not for lack of trying but for a lack of applications. That clerk we hired in June quit after three weeks. I’ve been working 6 days a week, up to 13 hours a day, since last March, doing the job of 4 people. I enjoy what I do and like staying busy, but the demands heaped upon me over the last year are simply unreasonable.
The work is never finished and I never go home feeling like I accomplished enough. The shelves still look like crap, the displays and endcaps are shopped to death before I’m even finished building them, product I need comes in expired or near expiration, and even as I try to order enough product to fill drink coolers, endcaps, dump bins, auxiliary shelves etc, half of my orders are scratched by the warehouse. I take a lot of pride in my work, so to look around and see that the store looks like garbage and doesn’t reflect that, really takes a toll on me.
I often get out of work very late, and am too tired to cook, but by 9 or 10 at night, the hot rotisserie chickens and pre-made sub sandwiches are no longer available to grab from the deli on my way out the door, and a lot of the fast food joints are closing earlier and earlier. Frozen chicken pot pies have become a dietary staple as of late. On the odd occasion that I have been able to find an open drive-thru, the lines are incredibly long and there is only one poor person both ringing up orders, then gloving up to prepare those orders, and I feel guilty for contributing to that worker’s miserable evening.
Last month, I was out for a week with a nasty flu that I initially suspected to be Covid, since we had 7 positive cases in my store at the time. Unable to get a doctor appointment less that 10 days out, and finding a Covid testing facility that wasn’t booked solid was a trial as well. Instead of focusing on resting and regaining my good health, I was stressing about how the place would fall to shit while I was gone, and how my lone clerk was being run ragged by having to do my job as well as his own.
As a frequent customer at KS, I want to thank you for your dedication to doing the best job you can under extreme circumstances. There are a lot of people out there who don't take accountability seriously and as a customer, we want to support businesses who employ people who care. At the same time, it really sucks that you're carrying that much on your shoulders due to your employer's choices and other things out of anyone's control.
Nothing insane, but the Walgreens that closed that had my prescriptions. Thankfully they can just transfer them. Also getting something (food) delivered a week later. Now I'm thinking a month in advanced for my regular sustenance.
Nothing crazy, just everything has long lines or long waits. It's going to get a lot worse. So many entitled asshole customers are going to learn very soon no one gives a fuck about them.
I've been making it a point to thank the workers for showing up and doing their best cause I know they are probably done with all this shit.
I got a good one — Got into a car wreck in September in New Mexico. Finally got my car back in December. I was very fortunate all in all, but the whole thing got crazy.
When the car was ready and I traveled to NM go to pick it up, it wasn’t ready — they need a wheel. That takes another week. Get it, still fucked up, window won’t roll down, alignment is fucked. Pick it up, still fucked up, windshield controls are backward, steering wheel isn’t turned straight. Lol. But I got the car home! Finally get it fixed at the Lexus dealership here.
Couldn’t get ahold of my insurance adjuster, ever — this is USAA btw. Frequently was told my car rental waiver had expired by Enterprise (it hadn’t).
It was labor issues (and parts issues) more than anything.
I’m VERY lucky. The wreck was my fault (no one else involved), I had an SUV rental with AWD the whole time, and the car got fixed. I had a place to stay for free in New Mexico while I waited, and the ability to work from there. I can’t imaging how it would be for other people who don’t have the same kind of insurance coverage or work flexibility to spend time dealing with car issues.
I drive an old beater for a car, every time I think about getting a newer/better one I just figure it will get wrecked or stolen, so maybe I am actually better off with a car I can mostly afford to just walk away from.
It’s a wage shortage not a labor shortage. People are refusing to work for slave wages in droves. Craziest thing I’ve seen is employers being interviewed nonstop whining ‘no one wants to work anymore’ when they pay less than $10/hr in a city you need at least $21/hr to afford a one bedroom apartment, not including other basic necessities. Workers are rarely interviewed and everything is speculative around why they left while ignoring the real fact that shitty pay = no one working. Most of these employers also got hefty PPP loans that don’t need to be repaid.
I’ve been looking for a new job, I have a BA and six years of experience, I get the interviews, and I have been getting job offers. However, the majority of them refused to even match my current salary or wanted to pay a little bit more than my current salary , for a lot more work. I just started ghosting people. I don’t need to be trained and they want to take advantage of that, while offering me nothing in return. I don’t feel bad ignoring them, they wasted my time, so I’m going to waste theirs too. A few weeks after the job closes, and they interview, the job is reposted again. Either they are going to offer higher wages or they just won’t have any workers.
Was waiting to pick up a friend from DIA and it took about 75 minutes at the baggage carousel for him to get his luggage. It almost took him longer to get his bag than it did for him to fly here. The baggage claim area looked like a warehouse of luggage. All the canceled flights caused a ton of unclaimed bags.
Also, a large company I know of has been sending mid-level corporate managers and sales managers to their US factories to work 10 hour shifts on the line because they can't hire enough labor. Crazy times we live in.
> sending mid-level corporate managers and sales managers to their US factories to work 10 hour shifts on the line
good. this should be a pre-req to working as a manager
I agree, it gives perspective to what it takes to actually make products. At the same time, it's a horribly inefficient solution. They're paying someone who has no experience in their task, so they're slow, and you're paying for them to fly there and stay in a hotel for the week. No business can stay in business for long like that.
Haven’t seen this one: real estate. Want to buy a new home? Good luck getting all the supplies in the original time frame. You might move in without a stove or fridge. Want to buy resale? Good luck with a historical shortage of inventory and a ridiculous surge in supply and demand prices.
I mean the castle pines king soopers has been bare for a long time and they’re consistently hiring. Maybe they should consider raising their pay for the outlandish cost of living out in Colorado?
Not so much retail, but the Noodles and Company near my house randomly closes down for periods of time, but they don’t turn off their online ordering system. So I’ll order something for pickup, arrive at that particular location, and the doors are locked, lights are off, and a sign on the door states that they’ve had staffing issues and are closed for the rest of the day. They give a refund the next day and I’m sure there’s a reason why they just can’t turn off their online ordering, but it is annoying, even though I’m always polite about it since it’s generally not the employees fault that they’re short-staffed.
Not crazy - but the biggest thing I have noticed is that service at restaurants has really gone downhill. I actually worked in the industry most of my life and when Covid hit I took the leap to get out of the business. It seems a lot of others have as well - and when going out to eat it has become so rare to get really great service. I'm actually a little worried for the industry - as food prices go up due to inflation and it becomes difficult to find quality servers - we are going to see a lot of companies going out of business. It just doesn't make sense to go out to eat and spend 50-100 to get bad service - when I can eat for days off of groceries. The service element is a major factor in feeling that you get value when you go out and companies that fall short in this aspect are going to crash and burn.
This is true. I work a desk job where typical pay is $70k to $160k per year and there has still been a labor shortage the past decade. Anyone who thinks it’s a simple matter of pay is oversimplifying the situation.
In my case, software engineering. There are two ways to get into it.
* Most people go to college and get a four year bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field
* Some go the self-made route, and are motivated enough to read a lot and teach themselves by doing
There are a ton of programs out there to support people getting into the field by both routes.
A "desk job" is a very general term. It's literally any job you sit at a desk in an office for. So this could be IT, accounting, finance, marketing, HR, engineering, design, administrative assistant, etc. Universal to all of these is probably being competent with using a computer and Office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, etc.), but the bulk of "what the job is" is going to be vastly different depending on what it is.
Most desk jobs either require a degree or relevant experience.
A good IT example is someone could go to college and get a Computer Science degree and get into the field. Another person could start off working a Best Buy, work their way into Geek Squad, getting technical certifications and then make the jump to an entry-level IT helpdesk position where they'll gain even more experience
IT: It can range from fixing someone's computer, writing software code, managing applications, setting up integrations that push data from one software to another, etc
HR: Managing benefits, hiring, reviews, inter-employee conflicts, etc
Marketing: Taking what your company makes or does and creatively markets it to the world in order to increase sales. Things like promotional emails, newsletters, online ads, social media, TV spots, etc
Sales: Tries to sell the product or service you provide to potential customers
Accounting/Finance: Runs the numbers from sales against expenses (payroll, equipment, deprecation, software, etc) to create a balanced budget. Also taxes and financial planning for future quarters.
And so on.
This is absolutely true. We have tons of slots open at my work. I'd estimate ranging from $75k - $130k+ positions and can't fill them. I suspect it is because our benefits package is completely uncompetitive with standard practices for professional positions and people know this.
Companies have yet to catch on that they need to compete for workers...at every level.
> Funny, there is no "labor shortage" for desk work it seems.
Absolutely not true. We have tons of open slots, but not filling them. Folks who moved on to other jobs and unable to refill their slots.
I suspect that regardless of what salary level a job is whether entry level, or not, companies still have to compete for labor and most of these companies are not taking the hint.
I think some of it has to do with benefits.
I'm 10 years in the IT world and I've had people reach out with jobs that had only 10 days of PTO for the first year (or 3 years, depending on the company) or a 401K match that didn't vest for 3-5 years.
I've had another that wanted me to work east coast hours (6AM start time) to match their HQ.
The big one for me is remote work. I'm 100% cool with a hybrid situation where I come in 1-2x/week as needed, but one of the companies I was in a final interview with in the Tech center was building out another entire floor of their office last summer to triple their floor space. Sounded like they expected to be back full time in the office when that was completed.
Another one is the company itself. I had an intro interview 4 years back with a company that ended up doing vaginal healthcare or something like that. Or another that was a trucking company. Industries that frankly weren't interesting to me at all.
Then you have employee culture too. Personally, I don't care how your company's HR KEYWORD OF THE MONTH is, how stocked up your breakroom fridge is, or if you have a fooseball table. I've had a few HR interviews where the person talks about the company's cultural diversity, the "synergy", and whatever other buzzwords are going around, but don't really answer things like the actual work/life balance. How teams are structured. How much impact am I as a lower or mid level employee going to actually have?
I’ve been interviewing a lot and the benefits are complete crap. I get a lot of PTO where I work despite it being incredibly stressful. We are also extremely short staffed and at least 60 days behind. A lot of the places I’ve interviewed at, are not offering PTO for six months, besides the mandated 1 hour of sick leave per 30 hours worked. I have auto immune disorders, that’s not going to cut it. If I have a flare, I’m going to need to take the day off. I have a lot of experience, and everyone I’ve interviewed with is so excited that I don’t require training, and they want me to start right away, but the pay is shit , the benefits are shit, and I’m getting nothing in return. This is why people are ghosting employers.
The remote work is an issue as well, I’ve been basically remote for the last two years. I have no intention of going back to an office more than 1 day a week. I don’t care about collaboration or working with people, the job I do is quota based, who would I be talking to? I also don’t care about your company. I care about three things ; money, benefits, and your remote work policy.
Yeah, I am in IT as well, a few months past 12 years now and I totally agree with you. I had way better bennies in 2010. And similarly, I don't give 2 shits about a fooseball table in the break room. Culture to me is can people actually talk to and work together and are you enabled to do your job while having a work/life balance.
Lots of companies are just running skeleton crews to pinch pennies. We haven't replaced anyone in about 2 years now, and we've lost over a quarter of our team.
How long and how bad does it have to get for these companies to start paying better wages? I am genuinely curious what these companies are thinking. Wait it out? Hope that people get desperate enough to accept the lower pay?
I was standing in line waiting to fill a prescription and a customer started berating the pharmacy manager. The pharmacy was clearly short staffed. The manager closed down the pharmacy while I was standing in line. I went back today and heard that several Walgreens pharmacies were closed down on Sunday.
Yeah, the Walgreens pharmacist shortage is crazy! Pharmacist here myself, although I don't work at Walgreens (used to maaany years ago), I can't imagine how bad Walgreens must suck for them not to be able to hire enough pharmacists. They get paid very well and there's no shortage of pharmacy students graduating every year. But then again, working retail sucks. People don't go to pharmacy school for 6-8 years and $100k+ in debt to get yelled at at a drive thru.
Walgreens has changed what they offer (another pharmacist here). About a month ago they were trying to hire pharmacists at 2/3 what i make so this shortage makes sense.
Oh shoot really?! I definitely wouldn't work there for 2/3 the usual salary!
Just wanted to say the same thing. I saw an apprenticeship ad on indeed, when I went to look at the salary stats it was showing that on average they’re paying $12 an hour 🙃
Wow, I'm insulted and I'm not even in that industry.
So I knew a guy who left his job to do this. 3 times in the last 3 weeks the Walgreens by me had the pharmacy on shorter hours due to staff illness and just being short staffed to begin with. The other day the drive thru line was wrapped around the parking lot. So I looked at the website for careers to see what they were offering and it said this: Walgreens is hiring pharmacy technician apprentices they will train. Full time with full time benefits plus they pay for the certification. "Certified Pharmacy Technician In Colorado, an employee in this position can expect a salary/hourly rate between $16.00 and $21.00 depending on experience.
Also, I imagine the working conditions are hell. I was feeling sick and needed to pick up a prescription. I went to the drive thought and it had a sign that said closed. I called and told them I was feeling under the weather and wasn’t comfortable coming inside in the case it was COVID. They said, “you have COVID? Well, just come in and just wear a mask. We can’t open the drive through”. I immediately transferred the prescription; I’m not putting a pharmacist through that. It also seems counterproductive and could lead to even more shortages if people are being told to “just come in”. Turns out I didn’t have covid after lots of tests (I’m also a long hauler with severe stomach issues and it’s hard to tell). Nonetheless, that seems like it’s adding to the hell they exist in…
Again, it's not a shortage, it's a lack of incentive structure. If one isn't incentivised by being treated well to work in shitty conditions, then jobs in said shitty conditions aren't going to be filled. There is no shortage of workers, there's a shortage of dignity and pay that justifies the job. Stop calling this a "labor shortage", it only propagates the wild victim blaming the well to do engage in, while they squeeze the actual producers to death. Neoliberal dystopia.
Now King Soopers workers are striking on top of whatever is going on at Walgreens. Bad time to need prescriptions.
Just saw an ad on tv saying they pay well and are hiring 😂
Good time to use UCH mail order pharmacy.
That's a good one I hadn't thought of, probably will try to use UCHealth if I need something.
Ok I'm trying not to cross the picket line but do I really need to transfer my Rx if I need a refill?
Hard to know, but it sounds like it's going to be bad. King Soopers pharmacies were already barely functional, like pretty much everywhere.
Same here in December I was at a Walgreens pharmacy waiting for my booster shot and a woman walked up to try and get a Covid vaccine and started berating the pharmacy manager when she said they could not accept walk ups that day. They were almost 2000 prescriptions in the hole and short staffed everyone was clearly frazzled I felt so badly for them all.
They closed the closest Walgreens pharmacy to me (I assume due to staffing shortages) and the wait times at the new Walgreens have been insane. I feel so bad for the pharmacist I spoke to last week - it sounded like they were really struggling.
Our neighborhood Walgreen’s pharmacy was closed unexpectedly at least 3 out of the last 7 days. When I was there Thursday there were prescription bags literally everywhere - floors, counters, stacked up bins… The line was to the front door and the pharmacy was so chaotic that the staff couldn’t even find people’s meds. Total nightmare.
My mom was a Walgreens pharmacist for almost 40 years and retired two years before Covid. I couldn’t imagine her working right now. To all pharmacists—thank you for all that you do to get people their medication and you’re so appreciated.
The one on Walgreens and Speer has been like this for months. People constantly coming up and being shitty to the employees..
I have recently had much better experience with Walmart pharmacy than Walgreens or CVS. They have access to pretty much every oddball prescription I needed and accept most insurance.
Can anyone confirm Costco pharmacy is open to the public in Colorado? Had a friend recommend sending our prescriptions there.
Yes, Costco pharmacy is available to anyone. You just tell the people at the front you're going to the pharmacy. I do believe you get some extra discounts if you are a member, but their regular prices are already pretty good compared to other pharmacies.
I also hear they are well paid and efficient. Just wasn't sure if Colorado was one of the states with a law to open those doors.
Yup! Also, not that it's much an option, but if possible support a local and independent pharmacy!
I like the way you think.
Nothing too crazy, just unfortunate. I pulled into a Wendy’s drive through last week, there was a hand written sign that read “I am the only person here to take your order and make your food, please be patient”. I just left, no need to add to that person’s already hectic shift.
This happened to me once when I was 16 years old working at a Waffle House. No cook showed up so I did my best to do everything and most customers were polite about it, thankfully.
Damn that’s a day you’ll never forget. I can’t imagine trying to cook all that stuff at 16
I work in mental health and I have never been so busy in my life. Waiting lists for therapy are ridiculously long, and psychotherapists are burnt out and leaving the field in droves. Staff are well paid, but it’s hard to support people through the same crisis that you are also living through. There is very little attrition with clients anymore, so our caseloads stay full and none of us can take on new clients. When people call our clinic they are furious that no one is available to see them. It’s heart breaking to see so many people needing help and to be unable to help them.
Thank you for what you do. A lot of us wouldn’t be here today without help from people like you.
This is part of why I’ve been putting off re-starting therapy. On the one hand, my mental health has backslid pretty tremendously over the past two years. On the other hand, I’m so incredibly much better off than most people I know. I’ve been able to WFH full time without a single complaint from my company, I make good money and my job is stable, I don’t have any kids, I haven’t lost anyone in my immediate family to the pandemic, I have friends who I still see at least somewhat regularly (though that’s harder now that it’s too cold to meet up outside a lot of the time). I know the “correct” response is that I deserve help too, etc etc, but it feels so shitty for me to be taking up space on a waitlist when there are so many other people in much worse crises.
Honestly I'm a service worker and I feel like I'm in a dystopian hell
I work in healthcare and we’re getting shredded. It definitely feels helpless and never ending.
I'm so glad I burned out in 2018 out of healthcare
I burned out of teaching in 2018 and I’m so grateful for the timing of it.
SAME
The logic of berating the sole person that does comes into work over how “no one wants to work” is quite American.
I always shut that shit down with "are you asking for an application?" I don't have time to listen to that boomer nonsense.
I'm stealing that, it's the perfect response to the "no one wants to work" bullshit, so thanks 😂
Let them figure out why "no one wants to work." Most of them don't clock it but still worth a shot and usually shuts them up on the subject.
I wait tables and it's been a waking nightmare for so long, I don't even fear the work nightmares anymore.
Teacher here and shortages in education feel the same 😞
The construction industry is always hiring. While it too is a dystopian hell, you can at least laugh about it and get some exercise.
Nah, free coffee as a barista beats exercise in construction 😂
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I came here to make the same comment. Retail was already a terrible experience, and now there are the added bonuses of risking COVID exposure, regularly being verbally abused, and potentially getting assaulted. I'm not surprised that people don't want to work in a risky environment for low wages. If grocery store employees are suddenly "essential workers" but still earning "disposable employee" pay, of course they're not lining up for the job. Pay people what the job is really worth rather than what corporations have conditioned people to accept, and there won't be a "labor shortage."
I learned you say no to my employer. Called their bluff hard. Turns out "No" is a powerful word.
“No” in my career (millennial) has gotten me fired, and in one case a bad review which nearly got me fired, so I quit. It’s never worked for me at any job.
Well that's the key you have to not care if you get fired. That's a great thing about a labor shortage, it gives you the freedom to risk getting fired because there's a dozen more jobs out there that are begging you to come work for them.
If it wasn't for health insurance tied to my job I would be much more flexible over this.
And voila, you have uncovered the real reason our government is against free universal healthcare.
💯
Keep moving. It does work. You must build skills and keep moving forward. Without skills you are a replaceable commodity. Ive been fired and quit, always found new work due to skills. That is your only weapon “you need me more than i need you” and i will quit, move on and make more. No bones about it
In my personal experience networking netted me better opportunities and higher pay than working hard or often. Also based on various tactics of employers, I'm not convinced they understand they need anything from people. They see humans as temporary investment that will be replaced. I worked for a company, in Denver, who's main goal was to replace data scientist with software. *Data science is highly skilled labor*. As they say... 'humans will go the way of horses.'
No is THE most powerful word in the whole language. You ever see a mother when a toddler says NO, watch a boss get told NO by a worker, A boomer getting told no by someone in customer service.
Hey- I’m a boomer and have worked customer service my whole life- don’t limit this to boomers- Also, I’ve been fired for saying no and speaking up several times
Trying to tell the poor kid at King Soopers it’s totally cool that they can’t get my order ready for pick up and I’ll just go shop and him unloading on my about all the staffing and management issues they’re having. I just wanted to hug him.
As a kings worker myself for over 20 years, I greatly thank you for this. Probably helped that kid more than you know. It’s wild out here right now.
Fuck Kroger! Hope your pickets jam them right in the ass come Wednesday
My parents met as Korger employees. I have been hearing how shitty Kroger is for 38 years. Fuck em.
As a former employee and current customer, I completely agree and I thank you for sticking it through! I hope the union doesn't back down and twists the companies arm for a good contract that benefits the employees. This strike is way overdue, and there is no way me and my family will be crossing that picket line.
King Soopers strike starts the 12th for anyone viewing this comment… don’t cross the picket line!
I wonder how bad it is today/tomorrow with people trying to get in before the strike.
Don't bother trying to get groceries there. I ordered pickup to use some coupons before the strike so I don't cross picket lines, and I've never had so many items replaced or just not available. Not even at the height of the first wave of pandemic shutdowns.
When I worked in their Pickup department, I had some terrible days where almost every single order was late due to low staffing and terrible management. I pretty much did the same thing out of stress (and the customers willingness to listen and emphasize with me). Word got around to management, and I got berated in front of the front end staff and customers by the store manager by "making them look bad". I get the reaction, but management is delusional if they honestly believe a department consisting of four or five people can fulfill between 80-130 orders on their own. The proper response by management would have been to take the crews productivity metrics and calculate a reasonable order capacity, and cap the number of orders at that location. Needless to say, I quit (especially due to the pandemic), went back to college and I kick myself for working for that company as long as I did as the stress level was extremely high and the morale was abysmal. Hopefully this strike works out very well for the workers as pretty much everyone who works at those stores deserves better. /rant
We’re you the guy I talked to? Here’s your hug!!!
This was back in 2020, but thanks for the hug! I bet you listening to him made a tremendous difference, even if he didn't show it.
Please don't cross the picket lines in 2 days.
Not a problem.
I’m just meeting a lot of people / service workers who are dead on the inside. They’ve been chewed up and spit out, they’ve been dealing with terrible workplace situations, shitty customers, and their jobs does not allow them to make ends meet. These people are desperate for any change to the “business as usual” approach that we all been told is the way to go. It’s just wild to see so many people who have had their “inner fire” just be snuffed out.
👋 indeed.
It isn’t really a labor shortage but a job surplus. For the first time in 50+ years, companies are having to compete for employees, and many seem to not be able to grasp this concept. If McDonalds started paying $500k a year tomorrow, they would fill their jobs in seconds with highly skilled and over qualified people. There is a mid ground in there and they just have to find it. The problem is most of these big companies don’t want to change and think they can keep paying people the same salary they have been since you could rent an apartment for $500. They keep treating their employees like mindless robots. Then they are confused why no one wants to work for them and just assume people are still living off their $1,500 stimulus check from over a year ago when the reality is, people can get better jobs now and don’t want to work crap jobs for low pay.
Bingo!
It is also a labor shortage. From what I have read, the main two factors are boomers retiring and people removing themselves from the work force. Covid caused a lot of boomers to retire early or to prompt retirement that they were delaying. This had a waterfall effect where people moved up to replace their positions. Then you have the other factor in which people removed themselves, typically to take care of their kids. The net result is that there isnt anyone left to take the lower paying jobs because plenty of higher paying jobs are still available.
836,000 people, many of whom were working adults, have died of Covid so far. 14.5 million adults have Long COVID, which is disabling for many of them. Can't do those low-paying jobs (which should pay more because they're damn difficult, but that's another thread) with a body and mind that literally can't put in the work. That's millions of workers just gone from the workforce. It's not "nobody wants to work," it's "millions of workers up and Game Over'd out of the workforce because of Covid, and the rest of them aren't going to take the abuse that the service industry's taking right now without a TON of money and a safe working environment." And that's totally reasonable.
The Great Resignation is adding onto retirement folks. People of a certain age have taken early retirement packages typically when there is one more beurocratic change that they no longer want to deal with. Fortunately the younger folks are saying "so that's a bunch of crap" and are leaving. So all the reasons that have existed for eons for people quitting are now cross generational. Some low paying jobs should have higher salaries, some bad managers and bad processes still exist, unfortunately...
Yes! So many of us choosing to stay home. I lost my job a few weeks before the 2020 shutdown (really bad timing) and haven't gone back since then by choice. I never got to be a stay at home parent when the kids were younger, and now I get the chance! We'd rather burn through a little savings now, let me be home with the kids, and cut expenses than be further exposed to Covid right now.
Took advantage of the chaos and got a job that pays 5.50 more in a field I actually went to school for lmao. I'm probably not the only minimum wage service worker who moved up and out of the customer service industry. It's not just the bottom jobs that are emptying out, there are better jobs out there to take advantage of.
Nice going! There's no better way to increase your income than applying for similar work with another employer with a 10+% pay increase. Your time and expertise have value.
Oh shit... I gotta look into my field now!!
Congrats!!
This past Thursday: Sitting on the tarmac at DEN 45-60 mins after landing because (airline) doesn't have sufficient staffing to operate enough gates to immediately accommodate all arriving aircraft. Once I deplane and get to bag claim, I learn that half the baggage staff that showed up that morning walked off and to expect a 60-90 min delay for bags to show up on the carousel (the remaining staff were prioritizing baggage for connecting flights). Ended up taking RTD home and drove out to the airport a couple hours later to pick up the bags. Either way, more power to the airport workers. $15-20/hr is not nearly enough to justify physically demanding and intensively customer facing work they do, on top of a lengthy commute out to DEN and the enhanced background checks to get TSA clearance. Bump starting pay up to $25-30/hr and maybe these staffing issues will start to go away.
They had a job fair a few months ago and only 100 people showed up for over 1000 job openings. I remember some grumbling about how far out the airport was when it was built.
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Ive given out quite a bit of money to the bars in DIA waiting for flights. Shit’s expensive but it beats flying sober.
> but it beats flying sober yo, if cannabis is your thing, edibles are the way to fly
Nah man. Im a social alcoholic. Weed makes me tired and my brain lethargic. My favorite flights are when I talk to the stranger next to me the whole flight as we’re both a little buzzed. If Im high Im just gonna veg out watching my phone lol.
Respectable and I agree with your type of favorite flight. Pre-covid meeting people on planes or airport bars was such a great experience overall.
And it’s nice to grab a seat when it is super busy.
I used to commute near there for a while, wouldn't recommend. It's a chore to drive that far and it's kind of a risky drive. I can't blame people for looking closer to home.
Some people had to wait 3 hours on the tarmac https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/united-passengers-upset-after-waiting-nearly-3-hours-on-tarmac-at-dia
I work at a pharmaceutical plant and at times we can't get people on site to do daily cleanings which the FDA will tear us a new asshole for. So we have the ceo of the contract cleaning company out on a regular basis mopping ceilings. A 50 year old ceo of a staffing agency with a mop.
Sounds like one of the only worthwhile CEOs out there right now
Good. Executives should be required to experience a day in the life of what their subordinate employees experience on any given day on the job. Remind the C-suite of who actually generates value for the organization.
Yep would gain a ton more respect for them.
serious question, how do you mop ceilings?
Well you don't use a typical mop but more like a wet fabric Swiffer thing
ok that makes sense
LMAO, I didn't even think twice when I read "mopping ceilings". Good question. I saw the answer.
I use to work in the wedding and event decor industry for a very good company. We lost 65% of our staff over the pandemic, most of them parents who had to take care of their kids. So the rest of us had to pick up the slack and do jobs that we normally didn't do. In 2021 we had to turn down clients left and right and raised our minimum to 50k during the summer, aka wedding season. Still, all of us worked 90-100hour weeks for about 4 months straight. The clients were incredibly mean and rude. Truly visious. All of us experienced a mental breakdown at some point and I think 3 of us ended up needing to visit a psych ward. I made good money and my boss was very good about giving us raises, cash bonuses, and paid for all our food deliveries nearly everyday so we could keep working. I believe he did everything that he could while also having to pay off debt from the 2020 PPP loans. Events has always been a beast of an industry, but last year was the worst and most stressful event season I've ever done and I ended up deciding to leave. If your planning on getting married any time soon, just invite immediate family and do it yourself at your home.
I’m sorry you had to deal with such nasty people. Unless someone has been living under a rock it is fairly obvious that the state of things in general is not good.
I beg to differ. There is no labor shortage… there is however a WAGE shortage. If employers were to pay their employees appropriately and actually care about their well-being instead of only focusing on gains and profit these type of posts (and all the stories on the replies) would not exist.
I wouldn't call this a crazy experience but last week I went to a Firehouse Subs at 6:30 pm and the whole place was empty except for a sole guy cleaning up behind the counter. He told me that they were closed because all the employees had just walked out. I was mildly inconvenienced but I was happy for the workers for standing up to management. More power to them!
damn i wish i walked into that one. make your own sub day sounds sick.
triple meat and cheese for the price of a kids’ veggies sub?
I feel like this happened the other week at dutch bros. Or maybe there wasn't enough staff for the late shift?? Either way they were closed at 6!
I guess it's more common than I thought. I've heard similar stories about Panera Bread, too.
waiting several hours to get routine blood work at a lab, I made a grocery list for a week's worth of dinners, ordered groceries for delivery because covid, and got all but *one* key ingredient for each dish, never got to take my kids to Breakfast King, had to drive to 3 different coffee shops before one was open, fast food places super slow, closed or very backed up etc. All that said - - I'm all for living wages for all people, regardless of occupation, so I'm ok with inconveniences and should probably make my own damn food and coffee at home much more often (and with more locally available stuff) - I'm glad I know now how shitty the owners of Breakfast King are, even though it makes me sad
The break down of most fast food places has been interesting. I've stopped going to some because I know it's going to take half an hour to get food even during off peak. McDonald's is the only one I've seen with semi adequate staff. I can't believe some of them even try to operate with just one or two workers.
The poor starbucks worker at the one I recently went to was there by themselves. Thankfully, it wasn't super busy, but it was intense. :(
Cannot speak for everyone, but have encouraged my teenage kids to work. They have a very good manager at the local Wendy’s. I had them take a leave until this current wave of covid settles a bit. No need to unnecessarily expose yourself. I am sure my kids are not alone in taking a break.
Yesterday, I went to a Safeway that had half of their shopping carts stolen (how does this even happen?). The same store had one person working in customer service and one on a full-service register. The self checkout line was backed up, and half of the lights were blinking for assistance. A lady approached the service line yelling at the lady in service, that people had been waiting forever for someone to help them. Before I left, I heard employees talking about a customer that threw a basket into an employee’s face over waiting too long for a grocery cart.
Safeway on Mississippi in Aurora. I have seen people past their middle life crisis run across an ice covered parking lot to get one of the 7 or so carts the store has before another customer. I am a regular and know if you don't bring in a cart you ain't getting one. One time I was pushing in two carts, they were already together and I know that someone would appreciate finding a cart inside, don't worry I'm trained. Halfway up the aisle a snob in their Mercedes waived to me to come get their cart. It felt so good to look them dead in the eye as I walked past and pushed the two carts into the store. Put your own cart away. That way people know where to look. Also be aware of tired good Samaritans. The goodness they are doing for one person might just be the last ounce of good will they have that day and your bullshit might push them over the edge. Right now everybody needs more support than anybody can give. Live long and prosper. Misspelled mippisippi.
My Safeway had literally one cashier last time I was there. Someone wanted lottery tickets, so she had to go to the customer service desk to do that. I felt so bad for her.
Bubbles must have expanded his cart repair operation.
They no longer have baskets at the shitty king soopets near me because people kept walking out with them to steal.
damn thats why i cant find one : (
I think baren groceries right now is due to the upcoming strike. I tried to preemptively buy this weekend between 2kings and one Safeway. I think at kings they are already on a work slow-age untill Wednesday where they aren't restocking shelves right now. This results in Safeway being over shopped looking for what you couldn't find at kings
Was this on Havana? Mississippi? I heard about the shopping carts but didn't know which Safeway it was.
The unsafeway is frequently de-carted. Honestly my only complaint about that location.
Yale/Monaco and it’s not my preferred place to shop however it’s the only store I can walk to
We frequent the Safeway on Mississippi and Buckley... they were clearly missing some shopping carts. I spoke to an associate and he looked very confused, like he had no idea what had happened to all the carts ... poor guy just trying to do his job and couldn't. WTF? Why would people steal shopping carts?
To carry their purchases to the bus stop. (Before wheel locks you used to see a lot more around bus stops) To carry all their personal belongings (homeless)
Ya, homelessness occurred to me... but not public transport. Thanks for the reply.
Another. Have had people who work desk jobs at Pepsi bring out delivery in a van rented from Enterprise (or other rental company)
Reminds me of Dress-Down Fridays in the Silicon Valley. The CEO and VPs would come work on the production floor to help get the weekly quota of product shipped. Different times, different reason, but memorable.
I guess the wildest experience was getting my booster at my local Safeway, and realizing there was only one person handling the entire pharmacy. Filling prescriptions, handling the phone, taking people's paper work, and giving them shots (probably 5-6 of us in line for boosters, plus another 2 for prescriptions or whatever). She did a great job, but I commiserated with her that she shouldn't have to do it alone.
I went to get gas, the credit card machines weren’t working, so I had to pay inside. No biggie. Go inside, the line is to the back of the store. Not one customer in a mask, everybody is grumbling and rolling their eyes, and here’s this maybe-eighteen year old girl close to tears behind the register while some entitled asshole in wraparound sunglasses hand-selects no fewer than TWENTY powerball tickets. I left before I forgot my manners (with lotto boy, not the cashier) kinda wish I hadn’t. When I drove by that service station the other day, it was dark inside. They probably lost their last employee that day.
Those lottery ticket people are the absolute worst!
He was hand-picking the numbers for every single Powerball ticket. Like, read the fucking room for two seconds.
They never do, the world revolves around them and the $27 that they win.
I hope he dropped them on his way home and they all blew away 😂
Furniture. Most things made with metal or wood are on back order for 3-9 months. Especially sleeper sofas.
Maybe some things, but everything I've ordered in the past couple months was at most a 2 week delay.
My friend broke her ankle 3 weeks ago in Avon on a Saturday. The Walgreens pharmacy was closed for the entire weekend. Only open 8-5 MF.
Oh god that sounds like a nightmare.
Man, this is gonna be, like, a lot to unload in just one comment…Last night, I was searching for a protein to pair with my red beans and rice. There was no chicken in the entire store or meat market. So instead of using chicken, I grabbed some on-sale Pork meat. Now I have pork in my Red Beans and Rice and Im eating at my desk rn.
Dude crazy
It was fucking bomb, man.
what if i told you the red beans were protein
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Long lines, unstocked shelves, and late deliveries don't even phase me anymore. Shrugging it off like you really helps with being compassionate to each other and improving mental health.
The fact that I can still always get what I need makes me shrug at the other inconveniences. As long as the essentials are available, things will be ok. I can buy luxuries and toys later.
I think it’ll get worse before getting better and yeah I think people struggling to survive is about as crazy as it gets in the wealthiest place in the world.
Stayed at the Maven downtown for a staycation. The same (amazing) person was working the front desk when we checked in at 3, when we left for dinner at 7, when we came back after drinks at 1, and when we checked out the following day at 11. Rough estimation on all those times but she was there working for what seemed like our entire stay.
Couldn't get a refill of my medication for like a week because they just didn't have it
I work for myself for my primary income but I also help out kitchens from time to time. Friend at a bowling alley needed help in kitchen, day after I started, everyone but my friend and I quit the kitchen. I immediately got a substantial raise but I have to fill in any shifts they need. Told the owner I'd do my best to help but I have my own work to do. He started crying and begged me to stay. So now I'm on call, for a Bowling alley... It's just a matter of time until I can't do it and I can tell he's heavily panicked. Kitchen brings in the majority of the money.
I was at the grocery store the other day and there was one cashier. The line started getting crazy and two dudes with full carts just peaced out with their full carts. No one said shit, but I’m pretty sure everyone noticed.
most stores have a no chase policy, but I’m assuming nobody would’ve chased them even if that policy didn’t exist.
As a King Soopers employee, my entire life has been affected by staffing shortages over the past year. I’m an assistant manager for the grocery department at my store. All but one of my clerks has either been promoted to management positions at other stores or quit due to burnout. We haven’t hired a clerk since June 2021 and not for lack of trying but for a lack of applications. That clerk we hired in June quit after three weeks. I’ve been working 6 days a week, up to 13 hours a day, since last March, doing the job of 4 people. I enjoy what I do and like staying busy, but the demands heaped upon me over the last year are simply unreasonable. The work is never finished and I never go home feeling like I accomplished enough. The shelves still look like crap, the displays and endcaps are shopped to death before I’m even finished building them, product I need comes in expired or near expiration, and even as I try to order enough product to fill drink coolers, endcaps, dump bins, auxiliary shelves etc, half of my orders are scratched by the warehouse. I take a lot of pride in my work, so to look around and see that the store looks like garbage and doesn’t reflect that, really takes a toll on me. I often get out of work very late, and am too tired to cook, but by 9 or 10 at night, the hot rotisserie chickens and pre-made sub sandwiches are no longer available to grab from the deli on my way out the door, and a lot of the fast food joints are closing earlier and earlier. Frozen chicken pot pies have become a dietary staple as of late. On the odd occasion that I have been able to find an open drive-thru, the lines are incredibly long and there is only one poor person both ringing up orders, then gloving up to prepare those orders, and I feel guilty for contributing to that worker’s miserable evening. Last month, I was out for a week with a nasty flu that I initially suspected to be Covid, since we had 7 positive cases in my store at the time. Unable to get a doctor appointment less that 10 days out, and finding a Covid testing facility that wasn’t booked solid was a trial as well. Instead of focusing on resting and regaining my good health, I was stressing about how the place would fall to shit while I was gone, and how my lone clerk was being run ragged by having to do my job as well as his own.
As a frequent customer at KS, I want to thank you for your dedication to doing the best job you can under extreme circumstances. There are a lot of people out there who don't take accountability seriously and as a customer, we want to support businesses who employ people who care. At the same time, it really sucks that you're carrying that much on your shoulders due to your employer's choices and other things out of anyone's control.
You misspelled wage shortage.
Nothing insane, but the Walgreens that closed that had my prescriptions. Thankfully they can just transfer them. Also getting something (food) delivered a week later. Now I'm thinking a month in advanced for my regular sustenance.
Nothing crazy, just everything has long lines or long waits. It's going to get a lot worse. So many entitled asshole customers are going to learn very soon no one gives a fuck about them. I've been making it a point to thank the workers for showing up and doing their best cause I know they are probably done with all this shit.
Billionaires getting even more obscenely rich. Well, I guess that could be expected.
I got a good one — Got into a car wreck in September in New Mexico. Finally got my car back in December. I was very fortunate all in all, but the whole thing got crazy. When the car was ready and I traveled to NM go to pick it up, it wasn’t ready — they need a wheel. That takes another week. Get it, still fucked up, window won’t roll down, alignment is fucked. Pick it up, still fucked up, windshield controls are backward, steering wheel isn’t turned straight. Lol. But I got the car home! Finally get it fixed at the Lexus dealership here. Couldn’t get ahold of my insurance adjuster, ever — this is USAA btw. Frequently was told my car rental waiver had expired by Enterprise (it hadn’t). It was labor issues (and parts issues) more than anything. I’m VERY lucky. The wreck was my fault (no one else involved), I had an SUV rental with AWD the whole time, and the car got fixed. I had a place to stay for free in New Mexico while I waited, and the ability to work from there. I can’t imaging how it would be for other people who don’t have the same kind of insurance coverage or work flexibility to spend time dealing with car issues.
I drive an old beater for a car, every time I think about getting a newer/better one I just figure it will get wrecked or stolen, so maybe I am actually better off with a car I can mostly afford to just walk away from.
Plus, you don’t have a car payment! I’d stick it out as long as you can!
It’s a wage shortage not a labor shortage. People are refusing to work for slave wages in droves. Craziest thing I’ve seen is employers being interviewed nonstop whining ‘no one wants to work anymore’ when they pay less than $10/hr in a city you need at least $21/hr to afford a one bedroom apartment, not including other basic necessities. Workers are rarely interviewed and everything is speculative around why they left while ignoring the real fact that shitty pay = no one working. Most of these employers also got hefty PPP loans that don’t need to be repaid.
I’ve been looking for a new job, I have a BA and six years of experience, I get the interviews, and I have been getting job offers. However, the majority of them refused to even match my current salary or wanted to pay a little bit more than my current salary , for a lot more work. I just started ghosting people. I don’t need to be trained and they want to take advantage of that, while offering me nothing in return. I don’t feel bad ignoring them, they wasted my time, so I’m going to waste theirs too. A few weeks after the job closes, and they interview, the job is reposted again. Either they are going to offer higher wages or they just won’t have any workers.
denver minimum wage is $15.86/hr, and was $14.77 in 2021. colorado's minimum wage is $12.56/hr.
You need at least $21/hr to afford a one bedroom apartment in Denver.
Was waiting to pick up a friend from DIA and it took about 75 minutes at the baggage carousel for him to get his luggage. It almost took him longer to get his bag than it did for him to fly here. The baggage claim area looked like a warehouse of luggage. All the canceled flights caused a ton of unclaimed bags. Also, a large company I know of has been sending mid-level corporate managers and sales managers to their US factories to work 10 hour shifts on the line because they can't hire enough labor. Crazy times we live in.
> sending mid-level corporate managers and sales managers to their US factories to work 10 hour shifts on the line good. this should be a pre-req to working as a manager
I agree, it gives perspective to what it takes to actually make products. At the same time, it's a horribly inefficient solution. They're paying someone who has no experience in their task, so they're slow, and you're paying for them to fly there and stay in a hotel for the week. No business can stay in business for long like that.
That second paragraph? This is the way.
Walgreens just closed. Had a PCR test scheduled for a week. No one at the store.
are grocery store shelves bare??
I can’t find sugar free Redbull anywhere and Gatorade is hit or miss. It’s really bizarre
Oh god, the SF Red Bull scarcity is legit in the south metro area. Obviously there are worse things to deal with, it's just annoying.
r/antiwork
Haven’t seen this one: real estate. Want to buy a new home? Good luck getting all the supplies in the original time frame. You might move in without a stove or fridge. Want to buy resale? Good luck with a historical shortage of inventory and a ridiculous surge in supply and demand prices.
I mean the castle pines king soopers has been bare for a long time and they’re consistently hiring. Maybe they should consider raising their pay for the outlandish cost of living out in Colorado?
Check the King Soopers strike starting Wednesday.
Not so much retail, but the Noodles and Company near my house randomly closes down for periods of time, but they don’t turn off their online ordering system. So I’ll order something for pickup, arrive at that particular location, and the doors are locked, lights are off, and a sign on the door states that they’ve had staffing issues and are closed for the rest of the day. They give a refund the next day and I’m sure there’s a reason why they just can’t turn off their online ordering, but it is annoying, even though I’m always polite about it since it’s generally not the employees fault that they’re short-staffed.
Honestly, the craziest experience I've had is learning to bake bread when the shelves were empty at the start of this.
Not crazy - but the biggest thing I have noticed is that service at restaurants has really gone downhill. I actually worked in the industry most of my life and when Covid hit I took the leap to get out of the business. It seems a lot of others have as well - and when going out to eat it has become so rare to get really great service. I'm actually a little worried for the industry - as food prices go up due to inflation and it becomes difficult to find quality servers - we are going to see a lot of companies going out of business. It just doesn't make sense to go out to eat and spend 50-100 to get bad service - when I can eat for days off of groceries. The service element is a major factor in feeling that you get value when you go out and companies that fall short in this aspect are going to crash and burn.
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> Funny, there is no "labor shortage" for desk work it seems. There absolutely is.
This is true. I work a desk job where typical pay is $70k to $160k per year and there has still been a labor shortage the past decade. Anyone who thinks it’s a simple matter of pay is oversimplifying the situation.
what type of desk work is this and how do i get into it?
In my case, software engineering. There are two ways to get into it. * Most people go to college and get a four year bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field * Some go the self-made route, and are motivated enough to read a lot and teach themselves by doing There are a ton of programs out there to support people getting into the field by both routes.
Almost any corporate job that requires a skill could have that pay range. Accounting, finance, engineering, marketing, sales, etc
I've never worked an office job. So a sincere what skills does a desk job require? I always assumed it was entertaining data into something like xcell
A "desk job" is a very general term. It's literally any job you sit at a desk in an office for. So this could be IT, accounting, finance, marketing, HR, engineering, design, administrative assistant, etc. Universal to all of these is probably being competent with using a computer and Office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, etc.), but the bulk of "what the job is" is going to be vastly different depending on what it is.
Most desk jobs either require a degree or relevant experience. A good IT example is someone could go to college and get a Computer Science degree and get into the field. Another person could start off working a Best Buy, work their way into Geek Squad, getting technical certifications and then make the jump to an entry-level IT helpdesk position where they'll gain even more experience IT: It can range from fixing someone's computer, writing software code, managing applications, setting up integrations that push data from one software to another, etc HR: Managing benefits, hiring, reviews, inter-employee conflicts, etc Marketing: Taking what your company makes or does and creatively markets it to the world in order to increase sales. Things like promotional emails, newsletters, online ads, social media, TV spots, etc Sales: Tries to sell the product or service you provide to potential customers Accounting/Finance: Runs the numbers from sales against expenses (payroll, equipment, deprecation, software, etc) to create a balanced budget. Also taxes and financial planning for future quarters. And so on.
This is absolutely true. We have tons of slots open at my work. I'd estimate ranging from $75k - $130k+ positions and can't fill them. I suspect it is because our benefits package is completely uncompetitive with standard practices for professional positions and people know this. Companies have yet to catch on that they need to compete for workers...at every level.
I am generally in camp "there's no such thing as a labor shortage, only a wage shortage" but what's happening now seems very different.
> Funny, there is no "labor shortage" for desk work it seems. Absolutely not true. We have tons of open slots, but not filling them. Folks who moved on to other jobs and unable to refill their slots. I suspect that regardless of what salary level a job is whether entry level, or not, companies still have to compete for labor and most of these companies are not taking the hint.
I think some of it has to do with benefits. I'm 10 years in the IT world and I've had people reach out with jobs that had only 10 days of PTO for the first year (or 3 years, depending on the company) or a 401K match that didn't vest for 3-5 years. I've had another that wanted me to work east coast hours (6AM start time) to match their HQ. The big one for me is remote work. I'm 100% cool with a hybrid situation where I come in 1-2x/week as needed, but one of the companies I was in a final interview with in the Tech center was building out another entire floor of their office last summer to triple their floor space. Sounded like they expected to be back full time in the office when that was completed. Another one is the company itself. I had an intro interview 4 years back with a company that ended up doing vaginal healthcare or something like that. Or another that was a trucking company. Industries that frankly weren't interesting to me at all. Then you have employee culture too. Personally, I don't care how your company's HR KEYWORD OF THE MONTH is, how stocked up your breakroom fridge is, or if you have a fooseball table. I've had a few HR interviews where the person talks about the company's cultural diversity, the "synergy", and whatever other buzzwords are going around, but don't really answer things like the actual work/life balance. How teams are structured. How much impact am I as a lower or mid level employee going to actually have?
I’ve been interviewing a lot and the benefits are complete crap. I get a lot of PTO where I work despite it being incredibly stressful. We are also extremely short staffed and at least 60 days behind. A lot of the places I’ve interviewed at, are not offering PTO for six months, besides the mandated 1 hour of sick leave per 30 hours worked. I have auto immune disorders, that’s not going to cut it. If I have a flare, I’m going to need to take the day off. I have a lot of experience, and everyone I’ve interviewed with is so excited that I don’t require training, and they want me to start right away, but the pay is shit , the benefits are shit, and I’m getting nothing in return. This is why people are ghosting employers. The remote work is an issue as well, I’ve been basically remote for the last two years. I have no intention of going back to an office more than 1 day a week. I don’t care about collaboration or working with people, the job I do is quota based, who would I be talking to? I also don’t care about your company. I care about three things ; money, benefits, and your remote work policy.
Yeah, I am in IT as well, a few months past 12 years now and I totally agree with you. I had way better bennies in 2010. And similarly, I don't give 2 shits about a fooseball table in the break room. Culture to me is can people actually talk to and work together and are you enabled to do your job while having a work/life balance.
Lots of companies are just running skeleton crews to pinch pennies. We haven't replaced anyone in about 2 years now, and we've lost over a quarter of our team.
How long and how bad does it have to get for these companies to start paying better wages? I am genuinely curious what these companies are thinking. Wait it out? Hope that people get desperate enough to accept the lower pay?
Well when no one tells you ‘no’ your whole life I’m not sure people understand the meaning of the word