Boomers responsible for labor shortage

[justme]

Or at least a good chunk of it.

Over 90% of the 3.6 million Americans that said they were no longer looking for a job last month are over 55. Pointing to people retiring early.

www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/business/labor-shortage-boomers-millennials-nightcap/index.html

[Opti]

A few of those would be Gen X as the youngest Boomer is 57 something. I doubt all of those are hard retires as well. Because of the pandemic, some people are bopping in and out of the workforce because they can. One of my former coworkers decided to quit in advance of the vaccine mandates and in part due to Delta. She's between 60 and 65. She was working PT. She sat out part of the beginning of the pandemic due to assisting with childcare and issues w/ mgmt at the time.

Some people won't be looking because they can afford to go to school or do training. Some might be waiting until conditions improve or we get into spring. I would not be surprised if the majority of people let go from their jobs this year are 55 and over.

[busymom]

Well how about that?  The boomers are actually needed by society.  Who knew?  

[Opti]

Also, some people don't like looking for work until after the holidays. It sounds like an answer to an unemployment question, are you actively looking for work? I know another person who would like to be working but they are out on disability due to getting Covid when having active health issues. My guess is sometime in the future, if they get well enough, they will look for work in 2022.

I am not in touch with all the peeps that disappeared from the healthcare workforce in the early part of 2020. I have a feeling there are many Moms that still have not returned to the workforce, but would no longer be counted, because they left in 2020.

[Deleted]

A lot of the jobs they can't fill are physically demanding.  Even being on your feet all day on cement floors can leave you with problems.  That's a lot of the retail and food service jobs.  If you're in your 50s and have been doing that since your 20s, yes, your body is probably ready to give up.  I'm 68 and consider myself to be in darned good shape but a waitressing job would be way more than I'd want to handle although many boomers do out of necessity.

[dannylion]

Eventually, the Boomer-haters will get their wish and all of us evil Boomers will be dead.  It is unlikely that all the world's problems will miraculously disappear at that point, so new scapegoats will have to be found.  Post-Boomer generations might want to start taking notes before all the Boomers are gone so that the members of the newly scapegoated generational cohort will know what to do when they step into their role as destroyers of civilization.

[buystoys]

Dec 19, 2021 16:12:11 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Eventually, the Boomer-haters will get their wish and all of us evil Boomers will be dead.  It is unlikely that all the world's problems will miraculously disappear at that point, so new scapegoats will have to be found.  Post-Boomer generations might want to start taking notes before all the Boomers are gone so that the members of the newly scapegoated generational cohort will know what to do when they step into their role as destroyers of civilization.

Millenials outnumber boomers.  Problem solved! 

[tallguy]

Okay, yes.  I retired early.  But it was YEARS before the pandemic and the government handouts started, and YEARS before this study.  IT'S NOT MY FAULT!  IT'S NOT!  IT'S NOT!  IT'S NOT!!!   

And the rest of you will have to fix this yourselves.  I'm not going back just to bail y'all out.

[Opti]

Dec 19, 2021 16:05:30 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

A lot of the jobs they can't fill are physically demanding.  Even being on your feet all day on cement floors can leave you with problems.  That's a lot of the retail and food service jobs.  If you're in your 50s and have been doing that since your 20s, yes, your body is probably ready to give up.  I'm 68 and consider myself to be in darned good shape but a waitressing job would be way more than I'd want to handle although many boomers do out of necessity.

Agreed. There's more competition for jobs that you sit for part of the time. Someone I know works a retail job and spends a good portion when not working lying on the couch or in bed because that's what their body can take. I don't have the funds or the will to go to a Chiro to work a job like that. 

[Opti]

Dec 19, 2021 16:25:05 GMT -5 buystoys said:

Dec 19, 2021 16:12:11 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Eventually, the Boomer-haters will get their wish and all of us evil Boomers will be dead.  It is unlikely that all the world's problems will miraculously disappear at that point, so new scapegoats will have to be found.  Post-Boomer generations might want to start taking notes before all the Boomers are gone so that the members of the newly scapegoated generational cohort will know what to do when they step into their role as destroyers of civilization.

Millenials outnumber boomers.  Problem solved! 

I get along fine with many Millenials in RL, but thankfully they are not into these silly generation wars and generalizations. All the crap that happens now (name calling, blaming, inability to keep straight who they even are) will probably come after them when they come of age.

[swamp]

Dec 19, 2021 16:12:11 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Eventually, the Boomer-haters will get their wish and all of us evil Boomers will be dead.  It is unlikely that all the world's problems will miraculously disappear at that point, so new scapegoats will have to be found.  Post-Boomer generations might want to start taking notes before all the Boomers are gone so that the members of the newly scapegoated generational cohort will know what to do when they step into their role as destroyers of civilization.

Gen X has stepped up.  But we don’t care. 

[Deleted]

... and of course if the boomers were all trooping back to work the headline would read, "Younger generations can't find work because Boomers are stealing all the jobs."

[Opti]

I think part of the issue is employers and what employees are expected to do and put up with. Retail, food service, and airline attendants are just some of the jobs that employers expect employees to put up with unrealistic customers for usually not great pay. No surprise that these sectors are hurting. If Employers started backing away from the customer is king model and embraced the whiny customers cost you money model, I think things would change for the better. If more employees from the lowest on the org chart were empowered to take less shit, more might be willing to stay or come back.

Of course, during the pandemic entitlement and abusing others seems to have reached a fever pitch. It will take strength and determination to change the model ... if some are willing. For many, any customer is worth more than an employee, probably still holds true and who really wants to be at major risk of Covid, being physically hurt or possibly killed?

Also, rarely do articles investigate what employers could change. Not all un-homed people are mentally ill and/or incapable of work. Modifying jobs based on available workforce seems wise, but few seem to take that road. MO. 

[Opti]

www.yahoo.com/news/papa-johns-restaurant-manager-says-174207610.html


A former manager of a Papa John's location Colorado says he was fired after 13 years with the brand.



He was let go a day after he closed the restaurant three hours early due to a scheduling conflict.

Chris Jackson told Insider he has been with Papa John's for more than 13 years and had been working long stretches of back-to-back open-to-close shifts for the pizza chain due to difficulty with hiring and retaining staff during the pandemic.

ackson explained that on Monday, the Tuesday evening shift leader told him they had a medical appointment and couldn't cover the shift. Jackson said he too had a family medical obligation at that time and asked his area manager for coverage.



On Tuesday afternoon, Jackson was told that no one was coming to cover the shift, so he closed the restaurant at 5pm. The next morning he was fired.

Its stuff like this that makes me believe employers are equally to blame for the labor shortage. Sure in a perfect world, this would never happen, but it reads as if he had an original medical obligation and he tried to get coverage and couldn't. I wonder if who fired him thinks they aren't going to be in a world of hurt from then until the end of the year without that 55 hr coverage.

I wonder if we are going to regaled with one of those employer rebuttal articles soon.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I'm sure knowing they were first on the chopping block with pressure to either retire or be laid off the moment employers started doing math in March of 2020 didn't exactly endear them to their boomer age employees.

I swear they assumed the employees would come crawling back. Hopefully accepting lower pay in exchange for being grateful to have a job again.

Surprise. Then you all stopped investing in training taking your aging workforce for granted now there aren't young people available to fill the void.

And Yong people have watched their parade realized there is more to life than bending over for $12/hr every article has pounded in that you MUST negotiate during job interviews. I'm sure employers are shocked that offering to not kill them in the morning isn't enough to get them to sign the dotted line.

This was all going to happen eventually. The pandemic sped up the timeliness. It's not boomers fault that emplers were caught with their pants down. They should have started shifting at least a decade ago.

[NastyWoman]

A friend gave me a travel coffee mug. It reads "Retired 2021, not my problem anymore". I really really like this friend so who am I to argue with her 

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2021 23:44:30 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Surprise. Then you all stopped investing in training taking your aging workforce for granted now there aren't young people available to fill the void.

<snip>

This was all going to happen eventually. The pandemic sped up the timeliness. It's not boomers fault that employers were caught with their pants down. They should have started shifting at least a decade ago.

A very interesting Great Courses series on the Black Plague noted that afterwards, peasants were able to get much better working conditions because so many of them had been killed off.

[bookkeeper]

I feel that having 800,000 people dead from covid has something to do with the labor shortage.  If half those people had jobs, we are short some workers. I also speculate that there has been a large generational transfer of assets due to the number of people who have died. In my circle of friends, some have inherited from their family members who are gone.  Others who have been faithful investors have done very well in the market in this past year.  Extra money in a boomer's bank account means they really aren't interested in working that part time job during a pandemic.

Our son and his wife just had twins.  Our daughter in law will not be returning to the workplace during the pandemic.  It makes no financial sense to pay for two infants in daycare, even if she could even secure the spots.  

[daisylu]

Am I the only person who does not pay attention to the generation wars? If I know you to be a good and responsible person then that is all that matters to me.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Dec 20, 2021 9:11:19 GMT -5 daisylu said:

Am I the only person who does not pay attention to the generation wars? If I know you to be a good and responsible person then that is all that matters to me.

I do sometimes for amusement. Based on the year I was born I can either be Gen X, a millennial or not exist at all.

So sometimes I read articles just to see how much I can be blamed for in a single day.

I don't put any stock in them. My parents are the tail end of boomers and nothing like the beginning.

DH is Gen X and if I'm lumped in we are 10 years apart. We grew up totally different.

My brother is squarely a millennial. I'm seven years older we also grew up totally different.

This generational stereotyping is exactly that.

I don't blame boomers for the worker shortage. I blame employers for not planning for this eventually outcome and for being short sighted greedy bastards in 2020.

Most of the big corps had record profits. The fact you rushed to lay off and forcibly retire people in order to achieve it is on you. Maybe take some of those profits and put it into on the job training.

[billisonboard]

Dec 20, 2021 9:11:19 GMT -5 daisylu said:

Am I the only person who does not pay attention to the generation wars? If I know you to be a good and responsible person then that is all that matters to me.

I find it funny how we humans invent something like "generations" and then act as if they are real.

[swamp]

Dec 20, 2021 9:31:25 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Dec 20, 2021 9:11:19 GMT -5 daisylu said:

Am I the only person who does not pay attention to the generation wars? If I know you to be a good and responsible person then that is all that matters to me.

I do sometimes for amusement. Based on the year I was born I can either be Gen X, a millennial or not exist at all.

So sometimes I read articles just to see how much I can be blamed for in a single day.

I don't put any stock in them. My parents are the tail end of boomers and nothing like the beginning.

DH is Gen X and if I'm lumped in we are 10 years apart. We grew up totally different.

My brother is squarely a millennial. I'm seven years older we also grew up totally different.

This generational stereotyping is exactly that.

I don't blame boomers for the worker shortage. I blame employers for not planning for this eventually outcome and for being short sighted greedy bastards in 2020.

Most of the big corps had record profits. The fact you rushed to lay off and forcibly retire people in order to achieve it is on you. Maybe take some of those profits and put it into on the job training.

Gen X doesn’t exist. Nobody ever talks about us. We were ignored as kids, and were still ignored. We’re the ones keeping shit going.

[swamp]

Dec 20, 2021 9:11:19 GMT -5 daisylu said:

Am I the only person who does not pay attention to the generation wars? If I know you to be a good and responsible person then that is all that matters to me.

I pay attention only to see if gen x is even mentioned. 9/10 no.

[swamp]

Dec 20, 2021 9:41:22 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Dec 20, 2021 9:11:19 GMT -5 daisylu said:

Am I the only person who does not pay attention to the generation wars? If I know you to be a good and responsible person then that is all that matters to me.

I find it funny how we humans invent something like "generations" and then act as if they are real.

Generations are real, culturally. I’m sure I had many of the same experiences as Pink, Thyme, chiver and other posters who are my age. But it doesn’t mean we all act the same.

Except for thyme. We’ve got some doppelgänger shit going on.

[justme]

I posted this more as a counterpoint to all the articles I've seen that blame those crazy millennials not wanting to work for the shortage.

It's not just one thing. It's a lot of things, but mostly it's employers being assholes and people finally not taking it.

Though I was surprised at how the boomers were pretty much all of the "fuck you I'm not looking for a job" group given how much I hear about those lazy millennials living off government benefits.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Dec 20, 2021 10:21:31 GMT -5 justme said:

I posted this more as a counterpoint to all the articles I've seen that blame those crazy millennials not wanting to work for the shortage.

It's not just one thing. It's a lot of things, but mostly it's employers being assholes and people finally not taking it.

Though I was surprised at how the boomers were pretty much all of the "fuck you I'm not looking for a job" group given how much I hear about those lazy millennials living off government benefits.

So why does this matter?  Considering boomers range from 57-+, when they got laid off they were close enough to retirement they maybe didn't have to work.  So how does this make them lazy?  They have worked 40+ years already.  

This is what has happened with DH.  He got laid off and has decided to move up his retirement a year or so.  There are no government benefits involved as he has another 1.5 years to Medicare and nearly 4+ to collect SS.  If someone wants to hire him back, they might get him back with the right carrot.  Or maybe not.  

Finally, the labor shortages are largely in service jobs……not the jobs that many boomers are retiring from.  

[Opti]

Dec 20, 2021 9:41:22 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Dec 20, 2021 9:11:19 GMT -5 daisylu said:

Am I the only person who does not pay attention to the generation wars? If I know you to be a good and responsible person then that is all that matters to me.

I find it funny how we humans invent something like "generations" and then act as if they are real.

I think its a marketer thing but far less useful than the annual Panetone colors.

[Opti]

Dec 20, 2021 10:21:31 GMT -5 justme said:

I posted this more as a counterpoint to all the articles I've seen that blame those crazy millennials not wanting to work for the shortage.

It's not just one thing. It's a lot of things, but mostly it's employers being assholes and people finally not taking it.

Though I was surprised at how the boomers were pretty much all of the "fuck you I'm not looking for a job" group given how much I hear about those lazy millennials living off government benefits.

These articles are written for clicks and I think sometimes to promote an agenda. They are rarely well researched. The Boomer generation is defined as those born between 1946 to 1964. A significant portion then is already over 65, more than half of the age range.

I know the Millenial articles are just as useless. NJ Monthly had one a year or two back and I wanted to ask someone about it, but I could tell he didn't want to answer or enlighten me. Marketers are looking for sweeping tendencies to market to and many sites write things simply to get the clicks they crave.

[billisonboard]

Dec 20, 2021 10:14:27 GMT -5 swamp said:

Dec 20, 2021 9:41:22 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

I find it funny how we humans invent something like "generations" and then act as if they are real.

Generations are real, culturally. I’m sure I had many of the same experiences as Pink, Thyme, chiver and other posters who are my age. But it doesn’t mean we all act the same.

Except for thyme. We’ve got some doppelgänger shit going on.

For each ending of a generation, there were individuals born its last hour. For each beginning of a generation, there were individuals born in its first hour. Do they have more or less in common with each other compared to others born multiple years earlier or later? It is the arbitrary nature of how generations are defined that I was addressing.

[Opti]

Dec 20, 2021 9:41:22 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Dec 20, 2021 9:11:19 GMT -5 daisylu said:

Am I the only person who does not pay attention to the generation wars? If I know you to be a good and responsible person then that is all that matters to me.

I find it funny how we humans invent something like "generations" and then act as if they are real.

I also find the tests amusing. In the early 2000s, I had a coworker that always tested as a Boomer, and I always tested as a Gen Xer. Still do, as they like to pick things from when I wasn't alive. I may know a Millenial who would test better than me on Boomer quizzes because of his love history and the past. 

The Gen Xer had a parent who apparently grounded him in much of the cultural 50s touchstones. I hate generation wars but they crop up regularly on this board.