"Our employees are just fine"

Some employers in the U.S. are having a hard time finding employees, and are putting up signs putting the blame on others. Supposedly, "No one wants to work anymore." [Source]
On one hand, you can read them and think "What a bunch of whiners. I have to (or had to) suffer as a laborer, so they should, too."

But I saw something that one of my brother's co-workers in Milwaukee had shared on Facebook, and it made me think.
At the time of my brother's death, he was hustling to make ends meet. The Milwaukee night club scene had shuttered because of COVID, so he started up a car-washing gig.

He had also helped his day job -- a restaurant called the Lucky Ginger -- transition to a delivery-based business. He was using his FB account to communicate specials and did the deliveries himself. His job title, "Bartender," was a massive understatement.

So as I see signs saying "people don't want to work anymore," and read about states refusing federal unemployment insurance supplements [Source], I think of him and his friends. And it makes me angry -- it's an insult on top of an injury.

He, and others like him, *were* working, but they got laid off because we didn't know how to act responsibly in a pandemic. Then they had to deal with an unemployment system that was designed to make things even *more* difficult.

I understand why. The unemployment system was set up to treat claims with skepticism. The thinking was "It needs to be difficult so people get back to work right away."

But then -- as if to compound the frustration -- the system meant to process relief *itself* experienced problems. In Georgia, "the labor department closed its offices to the public to protect its own workers from the virus. Now, claimants must depend on the internet, email and phone for information and responses to their questions. Many complain that it is virtually impossible to reach a staffer." [Source]

It's been enough to make you want to tear your hair out.

So if what we're seeing now is a shift toward a more "worker-centric" economy, I welcome it. It would be good to have, in the words of economist Betsey Stevenson, "an economy that is less driven by the desperation of people at the bottom and more driven by people being able to go to jobs that they feel appreciated in." [Source]

I can't speak for everyone. And I recognize that there are some people who are using this moment to get one over on the rest of us.

But many workers, like E.T. here, are *not* fine. "A lot of people are doing a re-evaluation to figure out what’s the right path for me to be on in a 21st century labor market. And how do I balance what I want out of life— work, family, my personal goals. And so we see this very high number of the unemployed saying they’re considering changing occupations or industries."

As much as I'd like other people to get low wages so I can continue to enjoy cheap stuff, I think we should be OK with that.