Paramedic’s Angry Post About "Burger Flippers" Making $15/hr Goes Viral

[glenn1]

No they definitely create problems, not my point. Automated cashiers and other automation will just be a pain in the ass for the assistant mgrs and the other employees, and they won't be getting paid any extra for dealing with it. Customers create their own problems that machines or even humans have a near impossible task of dealing with.

Of course automation won't be flawless and it's almost certain there will be some use cases where the initial version of the technology fails. But increased automation for repetitive tasks has been underway for decades. I see no reason why fast food would be immune anymore than bank tellers were to ATMs, gas station attendants were to automated pumps, etc. And just like with those industries the automation won't completely do away with labor but will greatly reduce it. Whether the adoption of automation scales linearly with minimum wages is perhaps a more relevant question to ask.

 

[theeedude]

LOL, Paramedic is pissed off at fast food workers that he's only making $15 per hour while his company charges several thousand dollars per call?

 

[Rakehellion]

Does the paperboy still have to make a living? What about the triple retiree who's working just to have something to do? What about the spouse who is comfortably supported by a significant other but chooses to get a minimum wage job just to have some spending money? What about the student who is just working it for the summer? What about the teenager who works while living under his parents' roof? None of these people "need" enough to live and raise a family.

So fire them all. People with no bills to pay don't need to have jobs while others are starving.

 

[Rakehellion]

You expect the employee to competently perform their duties as they agreed to work for a given wage upon agreeing to employment. A fast food restaurant shouldn't have to pay above minimum wage for basic competency. Any teenager should be able to perform this work.

You can "expect" anything you want but the reality is your employee is doing the least amount of work he can to avoid being fired because you're paying him the least you can to avoid him quitting.

 

[BoberFett]

You can "expect" anything you want but the reality is your employee is doing the least amount of work he can to avoid being fired because you're paying him the least you can to avoid him quitting.

Raising minimum wage doesn't change that, it only changes the amount paid to the lazy employee who does the bare minimum.

 

[MongGrel]

Robots don't fail to show up to work just because they didn't feel like it. Doesn't work? You can replace it without getting sued.

I'm not sure how you can possibly believe that technology causes more problems than the workers it displaces. Are you typing these responses into your computer yourself, or are you speaking them to a typist who then mails the hard copy to an a computer operator? Because, you know, computers and the internet are a pain in the ass and don't work 100% of the time.

You really seem to have a poor grasp about what is involved with automating anything to begin with.

 

[ivwshane]

LOL, Paramedic is pissed off at fast food workers that he's only making $15 per hour while his company charges several thousand dollars per call?

That's actually not the case at all.

 

[SlickSnake]

https://www.distractify.com/share-the-wealth-1279867405.html?ts_pid=2&ts_pid=2

This whole wage uproar is pretty stupid actually. And paramedics around here, start out at $18 an hour, so somebody is getting ripped off in NY.

Anyway, most large fast food "restaurants" hire mostly part time help, at 20 hours a week or less, so they have a larger pool to draw from when 4 people suddenly decide to not show up for work during a dinner rush. And they will NEVER pay hourly employees any overtime, no matter WHAT happens. The various mangers on salaries will be forced to run the restaurant alone before that ever happens.

So when some penny pinching numskull like a Dunkin Donuts CEO is complaining about it, when donuts have THE highest profit margin for ANY fast food restaurant I know of, then you know for sure that these corporate guys are flat out lying imbeciles that are only afraid higher wages are going to hurt their incomes from profit sharing and stocks. The majority of commercial fast food companies can handle this without any problems at all.

If this also effects mom and pop restaurants, then they are the ones it might actually hurt, because most of those aren't run very efficiently to start with. Basically it means they will have to leave more money in the register instead of pocketing it and cooking the books, and actually pay more taxes on it, too, THE HORROR!

 

[davmat787]

You can "expect" anything you want but the reality is your employee is doing the least amount of work he can to avoid being fired because you're paying him the least you can to avoid him quitting.

I don't think expecting an employee to perform the duties agreed to in exchange for a known wage is a cutting edge concept. If they are intentionally slacking in protest of their wage why reward that behavior when you could hire another person?

If you're after a higher wage out performing peers, showing up on time everytime, and a good attitude will give greater standing than under performing as a threat and demand for a raise.

I just don't get why this is considered wrong or condescending. It's about ones work ethic.

Note that it has nothing to with be in favor of or opposed to an increase to the minimum wage.

 

[davmat787]

This whole wage uproar is pretty stupid actually. And paramedics around here, start out at $18 an hour, so somebody is getting ripped off in NY.

Anyway, most large fast food "restaurants" hire mostly part time help, at 20 hours a week or less, so they have a larger pool to draw from when 4 people suddenly decide to not show up for work during a dinner rush. And they will NEVER pay hourly employees any overtime, no matter WHAT happens. The various mangers on salaries will be forced to run the restaurant alone before that ever happens.

So when some penny pinching numskull like a Dunkin Donuts CEO is complaining about it, when donuts have THE highest profit margin for ANY fast food restaurant I know of, then you know for sure that these corporate guys are flat out lying imbeciles that are only afraid higher wages are going to hurt their incomes from profit sharing and stocks. The majority of commercial fast food companies can handle this without any problems at all.

If this also effects mom and pop restaurants, then they are the ones it might actually hurt, because most of those aren't run very efficiently to start with. Basically it means they will have to leave more money in the register instead of pocketing it and cooking the books, and actually pay more taxes on it, too, THE HORROR!

A CEO of a publicly traded company does have a legal obligation to maximize share value. CEO's compensation is largely comprised of stock awards so the personal profit motive you mention does apply to but they are legally compelled too anyway.

All these entry level jobs used to be performed by teenagers and not today's reality of people trying to support a family which is the symptom of the root problem: The wholesale selling out of the middle class by government policies that allowed so many jobs to move outside the country.

 

[Rakehellion]

I don't think expecting an employee to perform the duties agreed to in exchange for a known wage is a cutting edge concept. If they are intentionally slacking in protest of their wage why reward that behavior when you could hire another person?

Have you ever hired someone? Been understaffed? It isn't the easiest thing in the world.

 

[Rakehellion]

Raising minimum wage doesn't change that, it only changes the amount paid to the lazy employee who does the bare minimum.

It will attract more skilled employees who'd otherwise never consider a career in foodservice.

 

[Rakehellion]

Robots don't fail to show up to work just because they didn't feel like it. Doesn't work? You can replace it without getting sued.

You can replace it for $10,000 plus labor and downtime. All because some drunk kid stopped by at 3 in the morning and stuffed gum in the dollar slot.

 

[CZroe]

So fire them all. People with no bills to pay don't need to have jobs while others are starving.

You mean... *gasp* DISCRIMINATE?!

Since when was it OK to force someone with a useful and in-demand product or service to use it for supporting families other than the owner's? You're saying that because it's easier than some higher-paying jobs and, thus, a single parent raising a kid would rather make a living wage doing that, you can't have a job for teenagers that employs teenagers and pays an appropriate wage for teenagers. That's laughable.

 

[davmat787]

Have you ever hired someone? Been understaffed? It isn't the easiest thing in the world.

Yes, have been the hiring manager for both my team and others, also dozens of interviews for positions within our division with the authority to send the candidate on to next interviewer or send them home if I felt they didn't have the skills needed or wasn't a good fit or any legal disqualifying reason.

Candidates typically interviewed with 4-5 people, with the final interviewer being the hiring manager. We completely grilled candidates and asked very tough off the wall questions. I know I was mentally exhausted after my own interview loop. Never would we lower standards in order to quickly fill a position.

 

[Darwin333]

Quick question; do you pay people more when you want a better quality employee or do you pay them less?

I generally give my employees raises after they have increased the quality of their work/knowledge/productiveness not before and just hope like hell they will increase the above qualities. That's just me though...

 

[Ns1]

You can replace it for $10,000 plus labor and downtime. All because some drunk kid stopped by at 3 in the morning and stuffed gum in the dollar slot.

so...cheaper than worker's comp? :biggrin:

 

[Rakehellion]

I generally give my employees raises after they have increased the quality of their work/knowledge/productiveness not before and just hope like hell they will increase the above qualities. That's just me though...

And where does such an opportunity exist at McDonald's?

 

[ivwshane]

I generally give my employees raises after they have increased the quality of their work/knowledge/productiveness not before and just hope like hell they will increase the above qualities. That's just me though...

Yes, that's assuming they do what's asked of them. And even still, you pay them more money.
When your employees can no longer or are no longer willing to do what you ask you have to hire new people. One of the reasons companies pay more for new employees is to not only to get better employees but also to improve their retention.
Hiring people for the same pay as current employees and expecting more out of them is illogical.

 

[CZroe]

And where does such an opportunity exist at McDonald's?

No one is forcing them to work at McDonald's.

Oh, and they absolutely do exist. Someone who is significantly faster or more efficient than others will be quickly promoted to shift manager and invited to train others in the techniques that make them so fast/efficient. As a shift manager, it's usually very easy to move up to location manager, especially if the current location manager sucks. From there they can either leave with good references or move up if it's a particularly large franchiser (I've seen many chains where a franchiser is big enough to have his/her own regional managers).

It's very easy to use that management experience to get higher-paying positions of responsibility elsewhere.

 

[ivwshane]

No one is forcing them to work at McDonald's.

Oh, and they absolutely do exist. Someone who is significantly faster or more efficient than others will be quickly promoted to shift manager and invited to train others in the techniques that make them so fast/efficient. As a shift manager, it's usually very easy to move up to location manager, especially if the current location manager sucks. From there they can either leave with good references or move up if it's a particularly large franchiser (I've seen many chains where a franchiser is big enough to have his/her own regional managers).

It's very easy to use that management experience to get higher-paying positions of responsibility elsewhere.

So then why are fast food joints typically associated with crappy customer service (specifically the big franchises like mcdonalds)? If what you said was true and indicative of the industry as a whole, we wouldn't be talking about their crappy service, would we?

 

[BoberFett]

You really seem to have a poor grasp about what is involved with automating anything to begin with.

OK Spanky, whatever you say.

Someone go tell the automakers that they need to scrap all their robots, some fucktard on the internet says it won't work.

 

[BoberFett]

You can replace it for $10,000 plus labor and downtime. All because some drunk kid stopped by at 3 in the morning and stuffed gum in the dollar slot.

You're right, what was I thinking.

Somebody inform the whole world that vending machines will never work. They're too expensive and people can break them.

You and Mongrel must be friends.

 

[MongGrel]

OK Spanky, whatever you say.

Someone go tell the automakers that they need to scrap all their robots, some fucktard on the internet says it won't work.

I used to build a lot of those assembly lines for GM/Delco in the mid 80's

And various other ones.

 

[ivwshane]

A CEO of a publicly traded company does have a legal obligation to maximize share value. CEO's compensation is largely comprised of stock awards so the personal profit motive you mention does apply to but they are legally compelled too anyway.

All these entry level jobs used to be performed by teenagers and not today's reality of people trying to support a family which is the symptom of the root problem: The wholesale selling out of the middle class by government policies that allowed so many jobs to move outside the country.

I'm really not trying to pick on you but the bolded is not correct.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...cdfb14-9336-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...rs/corporations-dont-have-to-maximize-profits