Wages and discontent

1

I saw an article where a Tik Tocker was shocked to find that a janitor at Buc-ees makes the same wage as her office job as a case worker. Ahhh, OK, so?

When I was younger and in the job market, I understood that many people had jobs that paid more or the same as I. However, I also realized that some jobs paid more because people didn’t want to do them or didn’t have the training to do them. I might change jobs because it was a better fit for me. I changes jobs many times over the decades.

I never jumped jobs just to make more money unless it was a job I wanted to do. I didn’t see this woman want to change jobs to be a janitor because it might have been easier. It certainly might not be perceived as more upscale than hers, so why does it matter that someone makes more money doing something different? I just didn’t see that what others might consider a menial job was surprising that it paid well.

Early on in my career, I was a dishwasher and also cleaned restrooms at a restaurant along a parkway. Some days we could get 50 busses in a short time. I was getting just above minimum wage at the time but worked hard and got a raise. The plus for the job was that the restaurant gave us XX dollars worth of food free as we were not able to leave to go elsewhere to eat. However, the Manager told us that although we were supposed to be limited to that dollar amount, we could eat all we wanted.

2

How much weight did you gain at that restaurant? I read an article that managers are dreading managing GenZ because they are so easily offended and entitled. Even my GenZ daughter feels the same way.

3

Actually, not much weight gained, although one day I was sent to the freezer to re-arrange the candy. I was allowed to eat all I wanted. I discovered frozen Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

I was on summer break from military school. It is the same school where, years later, Kevin Plank would attend and learn to sweat! He then went to the University of Maryland and created Under Armour. Some of his military school teammates and many other alumni went to the NFL so I am sure they helped him spread the word about the clothing.

In military school you can have younger people telling you what to do. Understanding and experiencing that helps later in life. I just read that a woman was upset at a fast food place with the young counter person. She demanded to speak to the manager and was surprised to see that the manager was only about 19 years old.

Maybe I am just too old now, but it just seems that many people appear to not understand how life works. People who are younger, work less than you or work in what you consider a meanial job can make more money than you, do better in life or whatever.