Sign on bonus for fast food?

[RedAngie]

My company has had to import workers from various countries to fill summer positions at beach locations for decades. Very difficult this summer and last. A few locations had to curtail operating hours or even close temporarily due to staff shortages.

 

[Southernmiss]

Robots coming to a store near you.

Wonderful! More jobs for robot builders!

 

[dvcgirl67]

Sign on bonuses are happening across the entire economy right now. Fast food is just "in our faces" because we drive by those places and see the signs for hiring bonuses...etc. A few of the biggest reasons that aren't in the headlines as much as the "extra $300 unemployment"....are that one million women had to leave the workforce due to a lack of childcare. Secondly, a lot of immigrants went back to their home countries during the pandemic...and haven't come back. Some that were here illegally, can't get back in. And finally, we've had a record number of retirements during the pandemic. Whether or not those retirements "stick" remains to be seen.

I've completely changed my initial plans about my own business. Even just a few months ago I thought I'd work to rebuild it quickly. But the number and type of calls I'm getting is just too much. I don't have the energy or inclination to do it. I'd need to hire another 3-4 people that I don't know, and even with background checks...etc, I know it's going to be very difficult to find people. And the types of calls that I'm getting aren't the kind of repeat business that I'd want. They're desperate for help to care for their pets "right now!!" The world is just a bit crazy right now, and I'm very happy to be in a financial position to not have to dive back in to the crazy pool. I suspect I'm not alone.

 

[dvcgirl67]

And while they sit at home demanding that living wage that no one can define, how are they paying their bills? If the answer is because they are collecting unemployment, then the problem isn't a they-aren't-paying-enough problem. It's a government meddling problem. If they aren't going to work and not getting any kind of income replacement, then yes, it would be a work/employer pay relationship problem.

Unemployment in many states is so low that a person couldn't possibly live alone and pay bills...or even live with roommates and pay bills. Plus the "extra $300" has been removed in over twenty states now. Also, the grand majority of people who are unemployed right now haven't been unemployed this entire time. There are very, very few industries that have been shut down this entire time....maybe live events, and even that is coming back quickly.

In my area, I am even seeing landscaping trailers with "help wanted" signs on them. I've never seen that. And it tells me one thing....a bunch of immigrants no longer live here.

 

[Pooh2]

Most of the restaurants around here are only opening 5 days per week due to short staff and losing out on summer tourist dollars.

We called in our take-out order the other night, showed up at the appointed time and waited another hour for our order and the order was half missing.

Many fast food places are open with window service only and drastically reduced hours.

Three dunkin's near us are only open 6am to noon, window only.

The tourists who are flooding the state are having to buy coolers and food at the grocery stores due to restaurant closures.

We are doing a cross country road trip this summer.
Definitely going to bring a cooler and snacks to carry us over in a pinch.

 

[wvjules]

I know many places are doing this where I live - the amount of people not working is terrible. Fast food places and restaurants closing for an entire day due to no help. Restaurants having an hour or more wait time when there’s not many customers due to little help. It’s so sad for the business owners and so sad for the customers. We don’t go out to eat that often, and when we do want to, we decide not to because the restaurants we want to go to are always an hour+ wait and the parking lot is half full. Hopefully things go back to normal soon for everyone’s benefit.

I hope things never go back to normal. "Normal" wasn't working for a lot of people.

 

[Moliphino]

Robots coming to a store near you.

Some grocery stores had robots even before covid.

https://thecounter.org/supermarket-robot-automation-ai-organized-labor-stop-and-shop/

 

[AndreaDM]

It's not just fast food places offering sign on bonuses. I work for a software company (project management) and HR is offering $1000 referral bonuses for any available positions. I don't even know of anyone looking right now to be able to refer them!

 

[DLgal]

Most of the restaurants around here are only opening 5 days per week due to short staff and losing out on summer tourist dollars.

We called in our take-out order the other night, showed up at the appointed time and waited another hour for our order and the order was half missing.

Many fast food places are open with window service only and drastically reduced hours.

Three dunkin's near us are only open 6am to noon, window only.

The tourists who are flooding the state are having to buy coolers and food at the grocery stores due to restaurant closures.

We are doing a cross country road trip this summer.
Definitely going to bring a cooler and snacks to carry us over in a pinch.

Wow, where do you live? Things are pretty much back to normal around here.

 

[RedAngie]

It's not just fast food places offering sign on bonuses. I work for a software company (project management) and HR is offering $1000 referral bonuses for any available positions. I don't even know of anyone looking right now to be able to refer them!

But does the potential employee receive a bonus if hired?

 

[aprilchem]

It goes far deeper than that. The labor force saw a lot of contractions due to:
-Retirements from people who kept giving it "one more year" and the pandemic gave them a push out the door.
-Parents who took on the role of teacher/babysitter while daycares were closed. Now that the families realized they can get by on one income, it takes a lot to get them to return.
-People who used their time off during the pandemic to increase their qualifications
-Retirees who left the workforce because they didn't want to deal with the health risks (Wal-Mart greeters, for example)

Also we lost 600,000+ Americans to COVID. Not all of them were in the workforce, but some of them were. In addition, many additional are not able to work due to long-haul symptoms.

 

[momz]

I have seen the signs for fast food workers. Most retail clothing stores in the mall have "now hiring" signs as well. Both of my kids are happily working this summer. But, the were able to grab jobs that they consider "fun". DD (20 and home from college for the summer) is working at an escape room downtown. DS (17 and heading into his senior year) is working at the local minor league ball park. They are both enjoying these jobs a lot more than they would enjoy a fast food gig. I imagine fast food these days would be an unpleasant place to work. Lots of stress to get orders out fast, lots of demanding customers. No thank you.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Wonderful! More jobs for robot builders!

IE more jobs for factory robots.

 

[AndreaDM]

But does the potential employee receive a bonus if hired?

That I'm not sure of, I just know that's the email I got from HR for the bonus on our end.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Now that's interesting.

The narrative is that with the added unemployment paying everyone $15/hour to stay home, no one is trying to get back to work.

We talked about this at work, 6 of us and not one of us could say they knew anyone who wasn't working and was staying home. So now my thoughts have changed to, where are all these people who aren't working that everywhere is under staffed?

I encountered my first call of a place saying they couldn't open because of staffing. Mom wanted KFC, I don't like to do the drive-thru, especially a place I don't know their menu. I went to the door and the dining room was closed due to staffing. Drive-thru only. I had no choice but to sit there in my car and study the half menu as I do know they have more than what was listed, just didn't know what it would be called and didn't see it.

Yeah, I don't know anyone choosing unemployment over working either.

I do think there are a lot of factors at play that are creating this problem. My own personal example: I am a teacher and after a difficult year in so many ways, I have chosen to take the summer off from teaching summer school. The pay was not worth the aggravation and my spending was down during the pandemic so I can afford it. Most teachers and support staff felt that way. As a result, they have had to hire a lot of younger, less qualified, people for the summer. My DD18 (fresh out of high school) is working as a paraprofessional in the summer school program for $25 an hour, no nights, no weekends or holidays. Hiring her would have been unheard of just 2 years ago. Because of this she doesn't need to work the ice cream shop job she had originally planned on. Many of her friends are in similar situations, working jobs that they never would have been considered for a couple years ago. There's a real domino affect in play in some of these situations.

 

[OKbyme]

I knew of many people choosing unemployment over working. Especially in the beginning with the $600 bonus! My oldest DD was really annoyed as she was considered an "essential" worker in a nursing home/rehab. Had Covid go through there and though the company was awarded money from the gov't as well, they never passed it on to the employees.

My youngest DD worked at Dunkin. She was making $15 an hour and we live in a low cost of living area. That is good money for unskilled labor. They were getting slammed with customers and couldn't find anyone to work. She was often called to come in and fill a shift. She was doing college online, but after months of that she was burned out. Also, customers were nasty, nasty, nasty. She said they would literally scream at them in the drive through. Towards the end they were offering her an additional $50 for every hour she worked over her shift. She left weeks earlier then she had originally planned.

We have signs everywhere looking for workers. And the wages have gone up and often with bonuses. If I weren't helping with my 4 yr old grandson, and younger, I would jump on that in a NY minute!

 

[OhMari]

My company has had to import workers from various countries to fill summer positions at beach locations for decades. Very difficult this summer and last. A few locations had to curtail operating hours or even close temporarily due to staff shortages.

The same thing is happening at Wisconsin Dells. Workers were imported from Poland and relied on these works for over 20 years. Many of the resort pools at the Dells are swim at your own risk. Noah's Ark one of the top 10 water parks in the US are at cut hours and days. I think they finally opened more now after the 4th of July.

I live in a town, where over 1200 kids graduated high school. We have 3 high schools in our town. 1 public and 2 private. There are that many kids also in each grade level in high school. Our 2 swimming pools are at very limited hours. Same as last year for COVID. I do laps at a very old, yet a very large Olympic Style Swimming Pool and they are open 2 hours in the morning for laps, or rehab.-walking exercising and 2 hours from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The pool is shut down the rest of the month of July, because they do not have enough lifeguards. The other pool in town just opened for the month of July and that is more of our Aquatic Pool with slides and such. After July 31st. they are closing back down and our Olympic Style Pool will have regular swimming pool hours, with 2 hour increments until August 21. It is so sad, our pools used to be open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I get the COVID situation, they are still staying safe with giving everyone a chance to swim at least 2 hours. But where are the lifeguards. Our city recreation committee should of went into the schools and recruited for lifeguards. We actually have an indoor pool in our high school. As someone mentioned, parents are taking their kids on vacations, afraid for them with COVID, I really do not know if I would want my child out in the public doing service work. There are a lot of crabby people out there.

 

[neverlandsky]

Netflix’s Andre and his Olive Tree touched upon this. Chefs were saying back in 2017 that the environment has changed where workers didn’t want to work hard and expect to be the boss within a year’s time. That they were happy to make bagels and muffins even wasn’t their own.

Honestly reflecting back we personally saw this workers shift staring in 2017 as well. Covid pulled the trigger further for some including us that have been sacrificing for decades and got tired of work politics where you never will be good enough even when you’re extremely good and goal posts were constantly moved where it was impossible to reach.

This is global. For us, we realized we can have more with less. We grew tired of the 60-90 hour work weeks with forced cancellation of PTO. The stress was unbearable when people beneath you are leaving in droves and you’re been held accountable for the societal shift in the working world. Plus corporations have been cutting and chopping away at benefits for a good ten years now as well.

Simply put. It’s not worth it to live for work anymore. Working to live, living with less, and having a meaningful life is in the forefront.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Yeah, I don't know anyone choosing unemployment over working either.

I do think there are a lot of factors at play that are creating this problem. My own personal example: I am a teacher and after a difficult year in so many ways, I have chosen to take the summer off from teaching summer school. The pay was not worth the aggravation and my spending was down during the pandemic so I can afford it. Most teachers and support staff felt that way. As a result, they have had to hire a lot of younger, less qualified, people for the summer. My DD18 (fresh out of high school) is working as a paraprofessional in the summer school program for $25 an hour, no nights, no weekends or holidays. Hiring her would have been unheard of just 2 years ago. Because of this she doesn't need to work the ice cream shop job she had originally planned on. Many of her friends are in similar situations, working jobs that they never would have been considered for a couple years ago. There's a real domino affect in play in some of these situations.

I have heard this from teachers as well....lots deciding not to work this summer.

Good for the teens/college kids who are moving up into positions that others don't want right now. Likely a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I don't eat fast food very often at all, but the restaurants we've been to so far since being vaccinated seemed to be staffed well enough. Two of those times the restaurants were so incredibly loud that it was almost impossible to hear the people we were dining with. I'm not sure we have guidance yet on a booster vaccine...but I'll take one as soon as it's available. After being in restaurants with people "scream talking"....it's really easy to see how this whole thing spread so quickly in the air.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

That's not pandemic. That's teen culture changes that have been happening for at least 10 years.

I've got 3 young adults. 2 are not getting paid to work, but it's because of where they are with their education and not the pandemic. They are leaving the house every morning for shadowing and volunteer activities needed for their college degrees (pharmacy and medical). So they are not working traditional jobs.

Another has taken an internship in her area of study this summer. She used to coach at soccer camps during the summer. She's now working for our Department of Marine Resources doing ecology work.

And before this summer, like yours,, my kids didn't really work much in traditional part time summer jobs.

School gets out in late May and back to school is the first week of August. Then you have AP summer work, athletic and band practices, college visits, SAT and ACT exams, etc. That doesn't leave much time for traditional summer jobs.

I sign on to this 100%. Good for your kids!!!!

My son has always had football camps and recruiting visits in the summer and never had a summer job. Ironically, now that hes on a college team, this summer he actually has time to work, albeit only for a short while because camp is coming up soon.