So, CEOs and other business leaders seem baffled at how to actually attract help for their companies. I mean, they seem to love capitalism, until capitalism forces them to make lifestyle changes that they don't like. Then it's WHAA NO ONE WANTS TO WORK ANY MORE and degrading passive aggressive comments about how lazy people are. Listen, here, snowflakes, we're sick of your crap, and in a real market dynamic, you can't really get away with treating people like slaves. That works in a situation where everyone is forced to work, and has little say in the manner, but when people have true freedom, as they would have under indepentarianism, then things change quite a bit. So I'm going to offer some suggestions I think would help.
1) Pay people more
It's basic market economics. Lower supply of something with higher demand means prices go up. You can't get away with paying people $8 or $10 an hour just to survive, it just doesn't work like that. People need a living wage, you should be offering $15 an hour or more ideally. Of course, some businesses do this and they still have problems. As it turns out it's not as simple as paying more money.
2) Make the application process easier
Remember how back in the 1970s everyone said you could just walk in somewhere and get a job? Yeah, now we spend hours filling out forms and applications and then we don't get call backs. A lot of places either don't read our applications or just throw them out. Uh, you want people to apply make it easier to do so.
3) Stop expecting the perfect fit
Employers love to hold out the perfect employee, normally someone with years of experience who will work for entry level wages. Often the requirements are absurd, but for the most part because pre corona the workers were so desperate, someone would fit the bill. Well, people still have these insane standards while simultaneously complaining people aren't apply. Uh, yeah, lower your standards a bit. be willing to train people. Especially if you advertise yourself as an "entry level position". Too many times I've seen "entry level positions" that require 2+ years of experience and then we're told "well it's entry level in the company." Uh, BS. Be willing to train people and let people in who aren't the perfect fit.
4) Offer medical insurance
On top of wages, a good healthcare plan would go a long way in attracting help. Too often employers don't even want to offer healthcare because of costs, forcing what should be a full time position into multiple part time positions just to avoid giving care. Speaking of which.
5) Have realistic scheduling demands
Employers these days seem to demand employees be available whenever. 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. You're expected to drop what you're doing and come in at a moment's notice. People end up taking shifts they hate, and often have little room for a life to themselves. Really, what I find most degrading about work is that you're basically a slave. I'm expected to be on call at your convenience 24/7. Give your employees realistic schedules and be flexible with them.
6) Don't bust their butts
To go further into the master-slave mentality that accompanies employment, employers are often rude to employees. You can see it just in the entitlement complex behind "no one wants to work any more". Yeah, all of those passive aggressive comments about "get your stimulus checks here" and "free sunshine and exercise" don't make me want to work for you. They make me wanna run the other way. Really, it does seem like employers these days expect slaves. And maybe what sucks most about your position is that you literally treat your employees like crap and they won't put up for that abuse for ANY amount of money.
7) Enforce cultural changes
And I dont mean by this trying to brainwash people into company culture. I mean actually getting rid of that exploitative master-slave mentality in other aspects of work. Attitudes like "if you have time to lean you have time to clean" makes it seem like we're to perform ritual drudgery for your amusement just because we're on the clock. Dress code changes are in order in a lot of places. Some places should allow employees to work from home instead of wanting people in the office to keep them under their thumb. I mean employers really are desperate to keep any power despite not having much right now. And why can't cashiers have a stool? Really, American work culture is the worst. Not being able to sit or lean and needing to look busy and martyr ourselves for you make work even less appealing to us.
8) Maybe 40 hours a week is too much
Maybe 2 weeks of vacation is too little. Have you ever considered switching to a business model with more work life balance? Maybe your job, if its an office job, actually requires 15 hours a week of actual work and not 40? Maybe people want to be able to take weeks off and travel the world come summer? Maybe you should accomodate that?
9) Remember the human
This might come off as a foreign concept, but your employees are people. Despite what they told you in the job interview, their passion is most likely not what they're doing. They're just there to pay bills and earn money. But, because you guys have such high, unrealistic standards, they are often forced to work under your insane demands. Again, I refer to wage employment as de facto slavery a lot. I'm not kidding. These guys are contorting themselves to please you. Because you pay their check. The second your power is less than absolute, you freak out and act like you don't know what you're doing. Uh, remember you're hiring a person. This person has a life outside of your job. They want to do things with their life that isn't your job. And you are best to remember that.
Honestly, for as staunch of an anti worker I am, theres a lot of good reasons I'm like that. It's because I view our economy as so degrading to individual dignity that people are reduced to slaves. For as much "freedom" as capitalism promises, it rarely delivers, as in reality we are slaves to your beck and call. We have to do what you say, and put up with all your crap, without any back sass, or any protest. Yes, you do basically want slaves. And so much of employment seems to be about breaking peoples' spirits to turn them into nice little worker bees for you, where any independence is hated on.
I imagine some people who come across this blog will think I'm an entitled little crap. Well, screw you, if that's your attitude. I'm telling it like it is. Maybe people SHOULD be like that? After all, if capitalism worked as the ideals act like it does in econ textbooks, work would be like this. You have buyers of labor, and sellers of labor. And people who buy and sell labor work out a fair price for that labor both sides agree to, under conditions that they both agree to. If both parties approached this as completely free agents, I wouldn't have much of an issue here, and I'd imagine most of the demands I have made in this post would already be part of the agreement. But capitalism doesn't work like that. People are forced, via propertylessness, to labor for others. And that makes a normal labor market quite exploitative and oppressive for the worker. And that's the environment people are used to. So when people gain just a tiny bit of freedom and aren't all piling in writing up hundreds of applications that basically sounds something like "please master, give me a job", well, all of the sudden the ruling class loses their crap. They complain, and they moan, and you know what? I feel not sorry for you one bit. I LOVE this current economy. heck, I wish it was always like this. It's great. I just wish we had a UBI so that people could be true free agents in the labor market and their work place and not coerced into servitude. Then you guys would have to implement these changes.
Honestly, sink or swim, I don't care. If a lot of you go under because you can't figure it out, well, market dynamics are like natural selection, the strongest and most adaptable survive, and those who don't, don't. Great concept when applied to companies, not great when applied to humans themselves. Humans aren't expendable in my humanitarian perspective, but companies are. And you know what? You go out of business because you cant attract help? Well, tough crap, someone else will fill your shoes as long as there's some profit motive in it. That's the great thing about capitalism, and one of the reasons I prefer it over socialism. If there's a failure somewhere, it can easily be compensated for by the rest of that system. I mean, I'm pretty much convinced we can provide for all even if we lose like a third of the current economy (depending on what goes under of course). So, as far as I'm concerned, sink or swim, make my day. I long for a cultural revolution that makes work more palatable to me. I mean, for as anti work as I am, I'm really just anti forced servitude. I have no issues with work if the arrangements are truly voluntary. While I seek a post work future, it's primarily to make the idea of needing to force everyone to work obsolete. Of course, if no one TRULY wants to work, I'm fine with automating everything. bring it on. I just want to end this paradigm of forcing people to work because it's the source of our misery in my opinion.
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