Yesterday, I was in desperate need of a haircut and my favorite barber wasn’t open, so I had to resort to going to the local SuperCuts. When I walked in around 5pm, I noticed that the sign on the door said that the store was open until 9pm on Wednesdays. After waiting for about 10 minutes, a young black woman in her late-20’s or early 30’s said that she was ready to cut my hair.
As we made small talk, I learned that we both have three-year old sons. I also learned that she is a single mother who is engaged to get married (not to the father of her child) and that she had previously worked her way up to a management position at the Hair Cuttery across the road. She is also the manager of this store.
Not long after she began cutting my hair, her cell phone rang and she took the call. She was making arrangements to get her son picked up from day care. It turned out that her corporate overlords had originally promised that she could close the store at 6pm, because it was the eve of Thanksgiving. As a result, she had arranged with the day care facility that her son could stay a half-hour late, so she would have time to close the shop and drive over there by 6:30. But her corporate overlords reneged on their promise without any notice, and told her that she needed to stay open until 9pm.
Single black mothers take a lot of crap in our society, but this woman is taking care of her business. She’s doing everything anyone could ask of her. And this is how she is treated. I guess she is lucky that she could find someone to pick up her child or she would be out of a job. And, why? Because she took her bosses at their word.
So, remember stories like this today when you see people who have been forced to work on Thanksgiving. Some may want the hours, but many are doing it because they have no choice. The workers count for nothing in today’s corporate world.
Unfortunately, with the seemingly unstoppable shift in this country toward low wage service jobs, this is probably going to become the norm. Much like the story about the Pizza Hut manager, fired for not wanting to open his story on Thanksgiving; this touches more and more people.
This isn’t really anything new, though. I remember the same kinds of pressures and shitty treatment, largely of women and single mothers, in the early years of my work life. Back in the 80’s I supervised a department of mostly younger women for a few years. There were a lot of divorcees and single mothers. It took a real effort on my part to accommodate their circumstances while shielding this fact from upper management. Most people in mid-level positions of authority simply will not make an effort to work things out when it comes to day care issues, sick children, and school conflicts; which largely fall on the women. Sadly, it seemed like it was mostly the other women who did not require those accommodations that wanted to run to my bosses and bitch about the “special treatment” that was given. If I had not had a boss who gave me the authority to work things out myself, I likely would have had to just fall back in line with the “official company policy” regarding work hours, and essentially told these women, “it sucks to be you”.
The biggest factor now is that there are so many more of these types of jobs, which employ younger single and divorced women. The corporations have always been shitty dickheads.
Supply and demand. You know my thoughts on how to increase the workforce so this sort of abuse will decline and wages will go up (consumption based Federal Taxes).
I’m stuck having celebrated Turkey day one day early. So now I’m looking to go to store or eat out today. I’d suggest to anyone in my conundrum to go to stores early(before noon) and if eating out tip until it hurts.
Sure. How about a carbon tax?
And then throw a $15 minimum wage on top. Or at least repeal Taft-Hartley. I’d take either one.
Postal Service also. In order to get Thanksgiving off, I had to take this whole week as vacation. I probably will de drafted for Christmas and New Years also as they fall on Wednesday this year. What does Wednesday matter you ask? It’s our byzantine rules for drafting on holidays. There are always volunteers, even on Christmas, largely single older people and guys going for the Christmas time and a half, enough so that the minimum required can be done. But operations always predicts a large mail day. Who mails on Thanksgiving and Christmas? You and I don’t count because they don’t pick up mail on holidays. The only mail coming in is on trucks from other postal facilities and from mass mailers who drop the mail off with us directly. I’ve worked on Christmas before. On a running shift (a shift that does not do preventative maintenance but only fixes immediate problems), mail is processed for about half an hour, then it’s done and employees wander around sampling holiday goodies for 7.5 hours. What was the purpose? I really think it’s just to annoy the employees. On a maintenance shift, we do spend the day doing PM on machines that have only run thirty minutes or so. Again, just to be bastards.
There are plenty of bastards in private industry, but government bosses have raised being a bastard into an art form.
This has only a tangential relation with your topic, but you do recall, do you not, the euphemistic sense in which the Magliozzi brothers used the phrase “[to be in] desperate need of a haircut” ? I remind you of this only so as to explain why the first clause of your post reduced me to explosive laughter, which would not otherwise be an appropriate response.
An important and large topic.
Several years ago, after spending huge amounts on haircuts at high-end salons, I began going to Supercuts. On average, I get just as many good and bad cuts as I always have. What is different is that the Supercuts hairdressers appreciate a decent tip. $10 cash seems reasonable to me.
Doubt if my friend’s daughter hadn’t been white that getting in on ground floor of Supercuts (high school grad, no college, and as a receptionist and not a hairdresser) would have made her wealthy.
Boo:
Do you go to the one near the Mall?
I read this post after watching the Lions beat the Packers and before that the parade in NYC. Perhaps before we cry about all the retail workers doing their thing today, we should spare a moment to think of the paraders, NFL players and all those that contribute to our entertainment today. They should get the day off too.
Well, some people like the work on those days.
Years ago I lived in Michigan and the local TV interviewed the Lions about the Thanksgiving game. To a person they all loved that the Lions were one of the Thanksgiving teams. They finished the game (they get the early one) then headed off to a team-paid feast with the families, then got several days off before getting back to work.
Obviously that’s very different than the retail workers who often have no choice.
How much did you tip her? Likely it would be more important than having her story posted on the Tubes.
$20 would have been fair.
thinking about it, I gave her a 36% tip.
Sounds about right. If I get a $15 haircut I pay $20.
There is a story of the first successful attempt to reach the top of Mt. Everest. Upon the descent of the highest mountain in the world, the first man to the summit, Edmund Hillary was asked what his thoughts were when he reached the top of the mountain. Where upon he mentioned how he thought how great it was for human adventure and how the expedition was an inspiration for God and country.
Likewise, a similar question was put to Hillary’s colleague and Sherpa guide Tensing Norgay, the second man to climb the summit. He stated, simply “how do I get down.”
Talk about getting down to the lick-log and focusing on what was really important.
One can appreciate the view standing on top of the mountain, but you’re going to have to face the reality of climbing down from it after the romantic notions pass.
So, since the woman was getting the shaft from her employer, a good tip would not only put some cash in her wallet, it would act as a sign of support or sympathize with her situation.
You don’t have to be an aristocrat to practice noblesse oblige.
I pay $12 for a haircut. I hand the woman a $20, and say “the rest is for you.”
btw: its a damn good haircut, too.
Thank gawd tho that white feminists are right there to tell black women who have the opportunity to raise their children without having a paid job, that they’re a national shame.
I’m a very early baby boomer; my generations primary failure in life, and their have been a few, has been our collective inability to educate to gen- xer’s and millennials about the history of the union movement in this country. So many employers devalue the worth of the labor of their employees. Apparently it is an “Merican value” to do so. How we got to this point is very hard to comprehend, even to a guy who lived through it one day at a time.
Good story. Child care is a huge huge issue for many. This is one reason why we have the antibiotic overuse crisis – if you are an hourly worker, you want a SOLUTION for that sick kid, and you do not want a discussion by the doctor as to why you cannot get antibiotics, even if they are not appropriate for standard otitis media (earache) problems.
Your employees, from servers, to performers and management, come together five days a week as a team to bring a great show to your patrons. Do you not feel that your hard working employees deserve these holidays to spend with their families!!!! I think so 🙂
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