rob0126
Veteran Member
Let's roll it back to a time before corporations, when everyone was a living breathing human, and not a dead entity.
ECON Entire Dollar General Store Closes After Staff Quits Over Lousy Pay
- Thread starter Blacknarwhal
- Start date
Let's roll it back to a time before corporations, when everyone was a living breathing human, and not a dead entity.
West
Senior
But (the catch 22) since around the 1970s 0r earlier, if one wants to grow your business and have employees, one must/should incorporate and have a lawyer at least on retainer and or a officer in the corporation.
Ask me how I know this.
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Mark Armstrong
Veteran Member
I've been having good luck with the old-fashion double-edge blades I buy there, 5 for a dollar. Made in Vietnam now, but about as good as when they were being made in Taiwan.
WTSR
Veteran Member
But (the catch 22) since around the 1970s 0r earlier, if one wants to grow your business and have employees, one must/should incorporate and have a lawyer at least on retainer and or a officer in the corporation.
Ask me how I know this.
The war on Individual capitalists continues....
naegling62
Veteran Member
Yes, as I suspected, with social media these workers will interlink much like people on the political fringes. Once activists unite, they can shut this business model down very quickly. This just may be the start of a cascading event that will lead to other industries and companies.
Corporations in their zeal to find workers will be very vulnerable to these economic activists.
This is basically it. This is how it works at my company as we are owned by a private equity firm.
People invest their money hoping/expecting a certain return. The whole business is run based on that return. If you aren't meeting it, expenses and people get cut. If you beat it, more money for the firm and the employees in the form of annual profit sharing (for most workers it's a couple thousand dollars).
Our company isn't bad from my point of view, but if I was a warehouse worker in one of the distribution centers I would probably feel differently. I've talked with quite a few of those workers and the ones who have ambition and want to do more work themselves into lead or supervisory roles. They mostly speak highly of the company. The ones that just want to do the minimum to stay employed generally hate the company.
As an employer I can tell you that apparently that loyalty is only supposed to work one way. Today's workers have absolutely no idea what it takes to run the financial side of a business. For every dollar you pay someone in payroll you have nearly a dollar in employment costs, possibly more if there are uniforms involved that you give employees. Someone else here ... I thing it as @West mentioned payroll costs. He's not smoking dope and was spot on.
People are assuming the quitters in the OP were the golden ring of employees. I doubt it. And being a middle manager has always sucked because you get it coming and going. No one makes you be a manager, it is something you have to accept.
They could have quit and gone to find new jobs. Instead they are trying to make a statement and in the process sounding like a bunch of libs that want to work a no-skill job yet get paid and treated like the Carnegies and Rockafellers. I hope their statement brings them the joy they were looking for because it sure isn't going to bring them economic security anymore than the no-skill job of working at DG was ever meant to.
colonel holman
Veteran Member
Absolutely correct. They live only on quarterly profit-loss statements, seeking to squeeze out another dime. They often have zero clue about the investment and what it needs to flourish, and zero consideration of any ethic or morals of how they get that extra dime. We see it anywhere investment groups take ownership, seeking the biggest quickest payback with zero other considerations. Watched them buy a paper mill, then watched mill rot to the ground due to zero maintenance or necessary longterm investment. Could not spend any $$ on that stuff unless they saw immediate profit return. Anyone questioning that get walked to their car.
The only successful outcome was the mill was purchased (at a deeep discount, due to deterioration)... by the Chinese, and hailed as heroes for saving a small US community from economic collapse. Watched it happen right here.
colonel holman
Veteran Member
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colonel holman
Veteran Member
This is all according to plan... which is to de facto force a rise in min wage without legislating it, by paying folks so much not to work that employers have to overbid the govt payments. Which of course bumps everyone’s wages much much higher all along the full range of the pay scales. They seek essentially to double salaries across the board in a pitiful attempt at resetting society according to socialist dreams
Blacknarwhal
Let's Go Brandon!
The Colonel's right, Tripod. Really; the Horatio Alger novel of yore is long since not the standard. Ragged Dick isn't getting a good job at some rich guy's company after saving his pet poodle any more.
West
Senior
Mostly due to less and less small business employers, by Mandate!
It's way more of a government micro managing by way of mandate and payroll liabilities.
The big corp attitudes of only looking at profit and treating employees like shit, is mostly by government mandate.
If we did not have a imaginary government employee working side by side every employee that does nothing but cost equally the real productive employee, things would be much different and small businesses would be booming even more!
If small businesses total mandated payroll liabilities was cut by 99% and we had huge tort reforms.....the big box stores and WM, DG, etc... would go out of business.
It's all government mandated BS that kills small businesses and better jobs.
naegling62
Veteran Member
Bingo.
naegling62
Veteran Member
Just wait till they lower the EEOC guidelines to a company of 10 employees. I think that was one of Hilary's positions. EEOC is a nightmare.
West
Senior
Also for every extra dollar the minimum wage is mandated up, the government (and their enforcers) makes another dollar.
Also unions benefit too they base their hrs off minimum wage in a round about way, prevailing wages go up as minimum wages go up. It raises all of the many government bureaucratic bureaucracies and crony capitalism.
My reward for doin' a good job Monday was gettin' to come back to show up for work Tuesday. Same thing Wednesday.
My last job started in '83, makin' $4.76 an hour and workin' 06:00-09:00 and 15:00-18:00. Second week, still a split shift but 8 hours and 6 days a week. After a month I was doin' 05:45-18:00 and lucky to get a half-hour lunch. Second month I added Sundays most weeks 07:00-09:00 and 15:00-17:00. Third month, same schedule @$5.00 an hour and did that for most of a year.
Mid-'84 I took fewer hours but made $10.01.
Retired in March this year at $31.50 an hour, but most of the intervening years were part time, and my best year grossed about 55 grand. Did I have some bosses who sucked? Yeah. Did I work right through pneumonia? Yeah. Were some of the things I did downright stupid? Sure.
Would I do it all over again? In a minute.
YMMV
LoupGarou
Ancient Fuzzball
Which is why WE need to do two things quickly:
1. Identify and monitor the social media networks that they use (and how they get to them). Knowing those connections and how they connect to them will come in handy VERY soon.
2. Create our own networks and databases of the activists that cause issues. If they don't like corporate America, then they can be omitted from it. Refuse to hire anyone that is causing issues.
Old Gringo
Senior Member
Hamburger flippers and discount stores are a good fit for the newly graduated to initiate them into the work force. A lot of grads started there while deciding where to go after leaving school. A good fit....with no job skills and no resume.
The good ones see a bit of real life and work up.
The bad ones stay and complain. They want to start at the top with a parking space next to them door.
Good jobs....bad jobs
Good workers....bad workers.
Gravity takes effect.
They usually wind up where they belong
rob0126
Veteran Member
You make it sound like its suppose to be a priviledge to work for you, regardless of how bad you treat the employee.
Managers have more stress and responsibiities for certain, but thats why they get paid more. And also why many get bonuses and other perks with the job.
I'll sympathize with a manager if they will help make my job tolerable, regardless of how terrible it is.
I worked some terrible jobs but because my boss was a nice person and honestly tried to help thru the suck, I could bare it and press on.
Do you see what Im saying?
You catch more flies with honey.
pauldingbabe
The Great Cat
Actually the raises in retail management aren't across the board. My hubby's company ( Lidl USA) raised starting pay to $15. this past February. Everyone below Asst. Manager got a pay raise. No raise for management. None.
Then they can start their own business and take the risks.
Bottom line? Perform or get out of they way and suffer the consequences
I realize that will appear too harsh to some people. But that is the way the world works and why many people fall in holes of their own digging. They just don’t know how to stop digging and start climbing.
pauldingbabe
The Great Cat
Here is how life works.
You have a skill set. I am willing to pay you to utilize your skill set. We come to terms about what that is worth to both of us. However we also both have a cost of doing business that has to be addressed at the same time.
If I hire you as an employee then I am obligated to the state and feds to pay taxes and payroll expenses on your behalf because
they sure don’t benefit me. What I pay has to come out of the profits of the business which has its on costs such as overhead, the tools and supplies you use, etc.
The higher skill set the more valuable you are, not just to me but to yourself because there will be competition for your time.
On your side, if you do not hold up your end of the bargain you agreed to, your value is diminished as a direct consequence.
Most companiesdo not penalize good stores by making them pay for underperforming stores. If you have a good location, a good manager, good employees then you get the hours you need to increase the number of employees on the floor at any given time. If you screw up in any of those areas them you don’t. That is why district managers are so important, to head off issues before you wind up with a disaster on your hands.
When people start emoting the system falls apart and those with the most to lose,investors as an example, will pull out and the employees lose.
homecanner1
Veteran Member
DG is dependent on location. The two I shopped in two different places were spotless and had loyal staff of half a dozen women who were in the grand mother age group and treated each other well. If they are urban or suburban and hire 20somethings, then its problematic. I will no longer set foot in any Family Dollar due to their disorganized state. They were always a mess. Unloaded boxes blocking aisles, employees not showing up for shifts.
DG always had the country store approach, bread, milk, eggs, batteries, charcoal, canning jars but also a liquor license for beer and wine, a western union outlet, phone card refill. Just about the only things you couldn't do there was get keys made or buy a fishing license to make it truly one stop shopping. And there may be DG that have those services. They have to wear many hats at the cash register and deal with an elaborate discount coupon system $5 off if you spend $25 on Saturdays. Their corporate needs to pull back from non productive areas so they can invest more back into the functional established stores
The tell is always what music is playing in a store. Or none. It will tell you about the managerial vs staff struggles, esp if its Spanish language radio in the back area storage vs black urban contemporary out front, always listen by the double doors.
My former DG was very cool, country classics always playing and I miss having one in town.
DG always had the country store approach, bread, milk, eggs, batteries, charcoal, canning jars but also a liquor license for beer and wine, a western union outlet, phone card refill. Just about the only things you couldn't do there was get keys made or buy a fishing license to make it truly one stop shopping. And there may be DG that have those services. They have to wear many hats at the cash register and deal with an elaborate discount coupon system $5 off if you spend $25 on Saturdays. Their corporate needs to pull back from non productive areas so they can invest more back into the functional established stores
The tell is always what music is playing in a store. Or none. It will tell you about the managerial vs staff struggles, esp if its Spanish language radio in the back area storage vs black urban contemporary out front, always listen by the double doors.
My former DG was very cool, country classics always playing and I miss having one in town.
LoupGarou
Ancient Fuzzball
Usually the difference being "Exempt" versus "Non-Exempt" employees. "Exempt" usually follows being salaried, and "Non-Exempt" usually follows being hourly wages, although there are some exceptions for that rule. If you are "Exempt", then you probably are getting bennies, but there is no minimum wage bottom. If you are Non-Exempt, you may not get bennies, but you can get overtime.
Workforce is usually "Non-Exempt" so that they can't be worked without overtime. Management is usually "Exempt" so that upper management can work them to death if they don't have anyone below them for some reason. Thus the reason I like being self employed in my own S.P. LLC. of one.
During Trump's time in office, there were some changes to the rules on overtime for salaried workers.
I don't remember the exact details, but it was a notable change.
I don't remember the exact details, but it was a notable change.
pauldingbabe
The Great Cat
I understand what your saying and the above would be the case at most every other company. Unfortunately hubby's company keeps everyone inside a store on an hourly bi-weekly pay schedule. From cashier to to management is hourly.
Never seen it before.
rob0126
Veteran Member
Sounds like a wicked system that needs to be destroyed.
Pre corporation times, you didnt have .gov breathing down your neck, costing you time and patience.
Business dealings were a bit more lively but thats part of freedom.
The current system is harsh and it will soon end, but we still cant take our anger and frustrations out on employees.
A good boss is one who is cool under pressure, and can shield the good employees from the corporate bean counters harassments. (Ask me how I know this)
Not many folks can do that.
A good boss is one that can keep the business open. Customers come first. The rest of us get in line after them. No customers, no business.
Looks like you never been a boss.
Mike
Old Gringo
Senior Member
A realistic description of the capitalist system which we have used to develop the US. Everybody bitches about the Capitalist system then they copy it at the first chance.The only thing harsh about it is it requires an employee to go to work for his/her compensation. From what I'm observing Russia, China, and other developing countries have developed their economy by the same method.
Management is not only there for employee interaction but also to manage the companies resources
You would not be able to work for me if you could not provide a profit, bean counters or not.
Old Gringo
Senior Member
Keeping the business open means keeping a job for the employees.