I belong to what many people would call the working class and what others call the proletariat or the plebian class, so my story probably is true for about 75-70% of the American economies employees. I have no health benefits, savings or retirement plan. I live from paycheck to paycheck.
I was working for Dunkin Donuts as a manager. I had only been hired less than a month ago. Something gave me a bad feeling about taking this job early on, but after being unemployed for the previous three months I was at the point where it was either take anything, or live in the streets.
My starting pay was 2/3rds ($650 p/week before taxes and $10 p/hr during training) what I was making previously as a retail manager, at a salary that required 60 hours a week. Although that is not nearly enough to survive on in New York City, it sure as hell beats starving.
Having watched the economy dump and jobs fleeing America by the second, things were looking desperate for me, so I took what I could get and checked my pride at the door.
I didn't realize I would be checking my common sense there too.
More below the fold.
They should change the slogan to say "America runs on fumes" or "America runs on screwing their employees"
I have worked in the food service industry and the retail industry as a manger for the last 5 years. By manager I mean glorified cashier, as many of the positions are managerial in the same way that a food service career is a career.
I guess you could say things started looking bad when I was told I would be doing most of my training at home (unpaid) by taking quizzes online at the Dunkin Donuts home website. Unpaid training you say? It gets better.
First of all, there isn't anything edible for sale at Dunkin Donuts. Only donuts, coffee, ice cream that are full of sugar, sugar and sugar. The eggs are prefabricated frozen discs, the egg white veggie flatbread sandwich does not contain veggies from the looks of it, unless one considers the idea of veggies mashed in egg white as actual veggies, and everything has calorie markers for nutritional purposes without any information as to what that nutrition might be. I mean, a chocolate cake may have 200 calories, but that doesn't mean you should eat it.
After receiving my first two paychecks off the books the first shoe really dropped. On my third paycheck I was paid time and a half for overtime. On my most recent paycheck I was not paid overtime.
When I realized that I would be taking a paycut when I moved from off the books trainee to salaried manager I decided I had to make a switch, but how do you do that when you are working 60 hours a week? It is not like you have the time or energy to apply to other jobs and go for interviews.
Besides the fact that Dunkin Donuts is like working at the Post Office. It never stops! People just keep coming in! You work non-stop, full speed from 6 a.m. to about noon, and then the mid day shift goes home and you are stuck there with less help. By the time your shift is over you are too tired to count your register straight, and that is when you realize how much money they really make.
See, what business owners and franchisees really want in a manger is someone who is smart enough to run their business but dumb enough to not notice how they are getting screwed on their paychecks. Sure they offer health care, but do you think I could afford it? Sure they offer time off and advancement. Why, in a few years from now, I'll move up to french fries, and that is when the big bucks start rolling in.
I like to pretend that I am an intelligent, capable and progressive individual. Surely i can contribute more to our nation than the added percentage I can increase some franchisees yearly sales by. Can I? Yes I Can!
And when I look around my fair city of New York, or my beautiful country, I see all sorts of jobs just waiting to happen. I would gladly take a job rebuilding my country. We need new bridges, new levees, highspeed rail, you name it, we need it. Why can't I and other Americans like me get a job rebuilding our country?
It seems as though the private sector doesn't want to build America. They are too busy going galt, denying you health care and lobbying congress for more favors.
But I know who can fix our economy and put America back to work with good paying jobs with security and benefits. This guy.
I will gladly work for this man, if he would only offer me a job. If our Government spends money ( calm down, this is going somewhere ) we can fix things, every thing, in fact, from our failing infrastructure to health care to our energy/environmental crisis, but it will only happen if we demand it. If we can spend 25% of our Federal budget to fight wars based on lies (Iraq) and GOP incompetence (Afghanistan) we can spend 5% of our budget rebuilding America.
The fact is we found the money to rebuild Iraq, so we can find the money to rebuild America, right?
I could give a damn about the deficit, that fits into my worries right behind The Lizard People conspiracy and the Mets score from last night. My main concerns are my income, my health care, the rule of law and the state of my nation. If President Obama wants to fix America fast, he could start by putting more plebians like me to work instead of the bonus babies who robbed the joint.
I want a job here in NYC. My friends Upstate want jobs too. So do my friends in Michigan and Ohio and California and South Carolina, and on and on. We can not find them right now, too many multi-national corporations are moving them overseas while avoiding taxes by setting up tax shelters outside of the USA. We can solve two problems at once by closing those loopholes that allow Corporations to evade Federal Taxes, and with that money we can rebuild America.
I have been accused of being a far left wing absolutist before. Is this idea too far out there? I don't think so.
I WANT A JOB, NOT A PONY!
Although, if I can't get a job, I'll take the pony as a consolation prize. At least I can avoid the subway fares from now on that way.