Less Pay, More Jobs!

[thongd4me 69]

My wife was an over-achiever in Thailand, an award-winning teacher of Thai language for 26 years.

Naturally as there is very little demand for teaching Thai professionally here, she got 2 part-time

jobs, one in ladies' retail and another in a supermarket deli. In BOTH jobs she has got glowing

performance reviews and she knows she is a cut above most of the slackers that work for

that kind of salary. She couldn't believe how lazy some of her co-workers are and I said that

for the kind of salary they are offering, you will get the same kind of employee.

This question refers to the supermarket deli job. The company is in bankruptcy but still

manages to pay the employees. Last week when I picked her up she grabbed me from

the check-out line and said she needed help. Apparently the folks that ran the fresh seafood

counter had been let go much earlier in the day and they asked her to weigh and wrap the

seafood when a customer appeared to request that service. As the seafood counter and

the bakery counter were adjacent to the deli, that was possible for her to do as there

were fewer customers later in the day. I pointed out however that she wasn't hired to

work seafood and bakery and that there should be someone at each of those counters

all the time. At that point she had grabbed me to help her to remove all the seafood stock

from the display case into the walk-in refrigerator, which I helped her do. At this point

it really was getting out of control. She said she has to do it or she will be in trouble

with the manager. I said she should ask the union or someone who knows if they

can make her do that, while still paying her the same çhit salary. She was hired

for one job which keeps her very very busy and now they are slipping 2 more jobs

on her. She claims that they will be hiring someone for those jobs soon, but I said

don't bet on it. :o :o :o

[tru_loves_journey 117]

Hi, I have seen this happening in alot of workplaces. Due to cut backs in many companies they are'nt hiring and they're putting the workload on the current employee's to save the company money. From ppl I have talked with they're just doing the jobs and taking on the excess work just to make sure that they don't lose their job in these hard times. Hang in there hopefully they will be able to hire some extra help soon and take the workload off of you. Take Care

[thongd4me 69]

... From ppl I have talked with they're just doing the jobs and taking on the excess work

just to make sure that they don't lose their job in these hard times. ...

That's exactly what she is doing for the time being; thanks for your comment.

[Ribs & Beans 19]

Hi, I have seen this happening in alot of workplaces. Due to cut backs in many companies they are'nt hiring and they're putting the workload on the current employee's to save the company money. From ppl I have talked with they're just doing the jobs and taking on the excess work just to make sure that they don't lose their job in these hard times. Hang in there hopefully they will be able to hire some extra help soon and take the workload off of you. Take Care

I agree with this. It's another unfortunate side effect of the recession--those that are fortunate enough to be employed are being over-worked. I (a USC, if that makes a difference) experienced the same thing at my last job. I was hired on at a clinic as a translator. Two weeks later, they fired the front desk assistant, and that became my job too...then 3 months later, they fired a part-time physical therapy assistant, and suddenly THAT became my job too! I told my clinic manager that it was too much for me to handle, and they briefly hired another full-time staff member to help me, but then they transferred her to another location shortly after. To add insult to injury, they would often chastise me for missing a detail or not doing something immediately. I was lucky enough to find a new job in my preferred field and quit. It wasn't until I turned in my letter of resignation that they saw my value and begged me to stay on, but there was NOTHING they could do to get me to keep working in that situation! I hear that since I've left, they've had to hire two full-time people to replace me, so that feels kind of validating.

Sorry I have no good advice for your wife. I hope they hire someone to help her soon, or that she can find a new job opportunity. Good luck to you both!

[Fandango 1,439]

I had a second job in a major dept store's salon. The salon was commissioned differently in that it had a different protocol and pay, which was good for me. However, for the rest of the store's associates, working for this company was CRAZY. The pay sucked, the work was hard, what the company expected was almost laughable....but the thing is, they started letting people go, and when they did, entire sections of the store had no dedicated salespeople. For example, they'd expect someone from housewares to monitor adjacent depts, like lingerie.

The salon was so different - pay was exceptional, no one bothered us, we weren't expected to do anything else in the store but be in the salon. We could take breaks when we pleased, come in late if we had no customers, leave early, etc. Regular associates - if they arrived more than 5 minutes late, it counted as a half day's absence! They had 2-15 mins breaks and their lunches scheduled in their schedule...so, if they were making sales at that given moment, they would either have to leave right then or lose their break. If the store was busy when their lunch was scheduled, and they couldn't leave, they had to get the store mgr's approval to move it!

Grown men and women working for $7.65 an hour. In a leading 'nice' dept store. It boggles the mind. The benefits weren't even all that great.

Anyhoo, I don't live in a union state, so that may be a HUGE factor, but it's done here all the time.