cutiepatootiewithahellaradbooty:
There is no part of this diatribe that is not amazing or 100% true.
Yeah ok but people who work minimum wage didn’t go to college so they don’t have all the student loans to pay off so they don’t have to make more than 9 dollars an hour. These jobs are made for teenagers in high school and college trying to get a couple of extra bucks to go out with friends not a mom working at Walmart trying to pay all her bills which is not possible
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Oh god, actually there was something else I meant to say that I forgot about.
I now work in an office setting, after 10 years of working my way up through shitty retail jobs (after I had already obtained my bachelor’s degree, by the way).
It is the cushiest. Job. I have ever had.
I am currently sitting on my ass in a comfy office chair. Typing to you. On a social media website. No one is looking over my shoulder. And even if they did. They would not care. I will never get “written up” for not being “on task” and I will never be asked to stand up for 8+ hours doing physical labor. I don’t deal with the public. I’ve yet to be screamed at by a soccer mom who’s coupon didn’t work, or who’s pissed because the sign said buy two get one free but she thought it said by ONE get one free and tHE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!!!1
No one tells me, “If you got time to lean, you got time to clean!” or any of those other bs comments that retail managers just LOOOOVVVEEE to say when there’s nothing to do but you are still expected to be physically working at all times in order to fully EARN that shitty $7 an hour.
I’ve yet to clean up any actual human feces at this job.
And I make roughly twice what I made at my last retail position. It’s still not a huge amount of money – I still only make enough to barely make ends meet. But the fact that I put up with significantly less bs than I was ever asked to at my minimum wage jobs, and I make so much more money doing it? It’s crazy.
Why is it that in this country, the physically easier a job is, the more money you make???
Our system makes no sense.
this is the truest shit i have ever read in my life
“people who work minimum wage didn’t go to college.”
Alright. So on a scale from one-to-dumbfuck (not accounting for the economic downturn, of course), just how brain-dead are you? I need to know, for research purposes. The sheer levels of idiocy are hard to quantify.
Who wants another story?
I used to be a care worker. Here’s a short list of what is expected of the average care worker:
- ability to administer medicine correctly. If you fuck it up, someone could end up in hospital or die.
- ability to work 14-hour shifts, 7-9 or more. (Then go home and start at 7 again the next morning.)
- ability to respond to everything with kindness and understanding
- ability to respond in the least violent way possible when someone is coming at you with a weapon or trying to choke you. You will note that this is more than is expected of cops.
- ability to cook and clean to a high standard. Yes, you will have to clean things you don’t want to clean. Yes, you’ll get dirty. Let’s hope you’ve got time for a shower when you get back before you have to sleep and go back to work again!
- ability to memorise the likes, dislikes and triggers of about 5-7 people
- ability to handle money appropriately
- oh and you need a high standard of English for forms, notes etc.
Most care companies pay slightly more than minimum wage, but only slightly – and then the workers lose out anyway because of dishonest practices. Also, not that it matters, but most of the people I worked with had been to or were going to college – they were studying maths, science, psychology etc. These were clever people, working in a job that demanded every bit of their brainpower, and they were paid essentially one McDonalds meal for every hour they spent comforting, helping, or giving medicine to people.
Anyway whenever I read the jobs page in the paper I’d see vacancies for office jobs, IT jobs etc that paid much more an hour than what I got, and I realised how deeply fucked up it is that society pays people more for looking after bits of data than they pay people for looking after human beings.