Nam Y. Huh/The Associated Press
Help Wanted signs are sprouting up all over.
Without enough workers, businesses can’t stay open.
The day after Thanksgiving – the day when all chain stores start clamoring for everyone’s gift-buying dough – I stopped at Family Dollar for some paper towels. The store was closed.
On the day after Thanksgiving.
Why? The sign on the door vaguely cited “staffing shortages.”
The following Tuesday they were closed again. When I passed by on Thursday, they were open. The posted sign alerted customers that for now, because of a shortage of workers, they will be open fewer hours – from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (However, if you phone the store, the computerized recording incorrectly states their hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.)
The sign doesn’t say it, but a supervisor confirmed the shortages are related to illness. A lot of people are out sick.
Seems nowadays “staffing shortages” has become an umbrella term that sometimes means a lot of workers are out sick but the store doesn’t want to tell the public the workers are out sick. Which makes me wonder the nature of the illness.
“Staffing shortages” led the collections office at City Hall to shut down temporarily at some point last month, first just on Wednesdays, then every day. When the closure affected Wednesdays only, I offered to work there on Wednesdays. But they weren’t looking to hire. Those worker shortages, too, turned out to be illness-related.
Back inside the Family Dollar with the Help Wanted sign, I asked for a job application to take home. (I’m not looking to work there, but I wanted to understand the process.) I was refused.
“You do that online,” I was told.
So there you have it. Even in stores with Help Wanted signs practically begging for help, the supervisors won’t let you apply for a job unless you apply electronically. Which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Not everyone has a home computer. Not everyone has a telephone with an Internet connection. Still, a lot of people, I’m willing to wager, would fill out job applications if they could do so on paper.
Some of the stores that require you to apply online have, to their credit, set aside a computer in the store to make it easier for the applicant.
But most stores haven’t.
Job applications online vary from user-friendly to impossible.
If you want to work for the post office, you have to apply online. The web-site warns you the process will likely take several hours, so don’t begin until you have the time to complete it.
No wonder they’re not getting enough applications.
One recently retired postal worker confided, “If I had to apply by computer today, I wouldn’t. It’s too difficult.”
Many applications ask for way too much information. The local Hannaford requires all applicants to go online, where the application requires a Social Security number. If you leave that line blank, you can’t apply.
Hey, if you want my Social Security number, first make me a job offer. I advise not divulging your Social Security number on an application that might eventually be hacked. If you want to work in a supermarket, then apply at Market Basket, where you are still allowed – heck, required – to apply on paper. It’s a very simple two-page form.
One local bank, when I applied in person on their computer, required not just the name of my college and the year of graduation, but the school’s address (with Zip Code) and phone number. Thirty-five years after graduating, I didn’t know the phone number. Without that number, the application stalled. One was not allowed to leave the line blank, and I wasn’t going to put down a false answer.
If the application were on paper, I would have written “Will find it out for you by the time you interview me.” But that’s not how things are done in the computer age. The computer dictates how you must answer. If you waver from the expected norm, you are rejected.
I’m also stumped by applications asking for phone numbers of all my former supervisors. Most places I worked have either gone out of business or moved to a different location without telling me, and all my former supervisors are long since retired or deceased. The computers don’t care. They routinely reject my applications for not including all the information demanded.
It would be interesting to see if mom-and-pop shops, which tend to be more receptive to non-electronic applications, are suffering the same staffing shortages as big chain corporations.
As for the worker shortage, the cause goes beyond sick workers. Employees are quitting, often without having something else lined up. They are tired. They have been put upon in the pandemic. They have been stressed by unappreciative customers, frequently changing hours, and low pay for robot-like duties.
Some businesses are raising wages to attract workers. But look carefully. The local McDonald’s has a sign out front trumpeting they are hiring and paying “up to $14 an hour.” But you have to sidle up close to read the “up to” section. From a distance, it looks like “$14 an hour.” But it isn’t.
Hey, all you stores that are suffering, we customers and workers have some compassion. But if you want to attract or retain workers for the long term, then try something bold – such as providing health insurance or a profit-sharing plan.
Then you’ll receive tons of job applications.
If that’s too rich for your budget, then at least allow for paper applications.
Arthur Vidro is one of the Eagle Times’ recurring financial columnists. His “EQMM Goes to College” appeared in the May/June 2021 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
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