'This Isn't Microsoft or Intel'

Last month's stronger-than-expected employment data convinced many mainstream analysts that the economy was on the upswing. They noted that it was the 10th straight month of increased hiring in the private sector and the first overall increase in jobs since May. Those job gains, they suggested, "should give Americans a bit more income to spend." That said, if the following Washington Post report, "For Experienced Workers, a Tough Menu to Swallow," is any guide, their talk of "a bit" more income to spend should probably be taken very literally.

In hundreds of applications for jobs at the District's new IHOP, candidate after candidate reels off impressive work histories: One woman was a clerk at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, another assisted clients at a tax prep firm, and another spent the summer canvassing for Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's reelection campaign. "I speak Spanish well," wrote one woman, noting that she was also a choreographer at a dance school.

Last week's opening of an IHOP in fast-gentrifying Columbia Heights - home to Target, Best Buy and a gastropub featuring $7 pints of British draft beer - offers a glimpse into a stalled economy that has produced a vast pool of experienced job seekers, some of whom are desperate for work, yet quite conscious of having to aim lower than they might in better times.

Many of the IHOP's new employees, who spent last week memorizing the differences between, say, the Viva La French Toast Combo and the Stuffed French Toast Combo, said they were rejects from other major chain stores. Many had been seeking work for six months to more than a year. In the "reasons left" section of their IHOP applications, they boiled their career moves down to telegraphic phrases: "company layoff," "terrible mgnt," "maternity leave."

But even a buyer's market - in which employers have the luxury of sorting through hundreds of hopefuls - poses challenges. In a city with 10 percent unemployment, where more than a quarter of students don't graduate from high school, finding people who know what's expected of them in a workplace can still be difficult.

In the hectic days before the grand opening, IHOP trainers struggled to teach the rookies the menu and computer system - and how to hold their temper. Veteran employees and managers treated the newbies like high-schoolers, chastising them for peeking at their cellphones, chatting with friends during instruction and running late to class.

One morning, when it emerged that hardly anyone had studied the menu the night before, the restaurant's director of operations, Stephen Bennett, boomed: "This is really disappointing! Disappointing! Disappointing!"

"They got a bit of a tongue-lashing," said Tyoka Jackson, a former NFL defensive lineman for four teams who now owns the IHOP franchise with his father, a retired D.C. public library supervisor, and brother, a D.C. police officer. "I was worried. How were they going to respond to the pressure?"

The restaurant's 120 employees were chosen from more than 500 applicants, he said.

"The labor market is flush with people," said Jackson, whose family built the city's first IHOP in Southeast Washington - the first sit-down franchise restaurant in Ward 8. The nonprofit Anacostia Economic Development Corp. is a minority stakeholder in the new outlet. "It's a sad story on one side, but it's been a benefit to us. We were looking for people with hearts, people who smiled. You can't teach that. I can teach how you to properly take an order. This isn't Microsoft or Intel."

America -- the land of opportunity?

Comments

[michael]

"A life of pancakes and $3.32 an hour plus tips was hitting her."

That's disgusting. Slaves, that's all these people are. And waiting staff in the USA get treated like shit and have to grovel for a few pennies extra tossed by the also worthless sods eating the tasteless heart-stopping junk food in crummy shit-holes like IHOP.

How can you have a consumption based society when you pay your workers worse than slaves?

I thought my sister was hard done by at $4.20/hr, but that is just an embarrassment for the most powerful nation on earth.

At least she's now back here and working casual in a country pub for $25/hour. An easy job behind a rarely-busy bar or in a quiet drive-through bottle-o. And no need to grovel for tips or put up with being treated like a lower-class servant every day.

[America the land of distractions...]

The strongest operative force is organization towards oligarchical-corporate-bureaucracy run by a handful of those who are entitled.

http://tinyurl.com/294dpjr

[francismarion]

I worked fast-food when I was young. A pity so many the youngsters today are too proud/stupid to apply themselves.

Slave wages? No, It's called entry level positions, the starting rung on the ladder.

It's either that or welfare/poverty/crime.

Take it or leave it.

[MichaelN]

"I worked fast-food when I was young. A pity so many the youngsters today are too proud/stupid to apply themselves.

Slave wages? No, It's called entry level positions, the starting rung on the ladder.

It's either that or welfare/poverty/crime.

Take it or leave it."

Couldn't agree more. My son, 19, is a soph in college. He was just hired for the upcoming Xmas break (3 weeks) at the top chain jeweler for $14hr, 40hrs and probable OT. Why? Because he has a phenomenal work history AND passed the drug test.

"Success begets success." He applied and interviewed for two highly sought after campus jobs - and was offered both. Why? Because he had a "job history" already (paper route, soccer ref, lifeguard, summer camp counselor out of state for two years) - starting at age 12.

Potential employers want to minimize "problems" and the best way to do that is to have a solid job history and referrals.

These IHOP employees should view this job as an opportunity to eventually be able to, like Michael's sister (above comment) earn $25 rather than $4.40 or $3.40. How? As noted by francismarion - by taking and excelling in "entry level positions, the starting rung on the ladder." Otherwise, you're just a number.

[kevinearick]

Dimension Drive Systems

Under the legacy system, energy drives transportation, which drives infrastructure, around a rapidly contracting dc / one-way loop. Oil is a black hole.

To steer, adjustable infrastructure must drive transportation, which will specify energy, the other half of the system, which as you will see in History, is a quantum process in nature. The people who think they “own” History don’t like that. Transportation infrastructure cannot be developed on an incremental / consumption / downhill slide into bankruptcy. The operators might want to have the generator ready, before the old battery is dead, especially if the planet is waiting on their signal.

How do they sell adjustable infrastructure to the masses addicted to going around the dc loop, faster and faster, into a smaller and smaller hole? GM.

Microsoft was the primary economic activity generator, accelerating “jobs” in every direction, called multiplier effects, all of which were subsidized by America’s storehouse of wealth, its character to pursue liberty. Microsoft lost the race to itself before it began.

The “idea” of tracking individual behavior globally to develop population psychographic control and pushing that self-biased information up to Manny, Moe, & Jack to adjust legacy family portfolios across sovereigns through the central banks, and then compounding the error by spearheading the horizon through the Gates Foundation, to run a globally connected non-profit empire, should have triggered some sirens in the investor’s head.

Have you noticed the non-profits are imploding up the chain of command, as the officers try to retreat into the next level up, igniting it?

When the legacy system discharges, it opens. The same switch closes into the quantum loop, which actually has many closes for the jumper populations. That’s the exit, which becomes the entrance.

The time to get in shape to bug out is not when it’s time to bug out. You do not want to be in Goliath’s shadow when that thread gets pulled.

So, healthcare is the first obstacle. The doctors have been petrifying their patients, and as those drugs are removed, costs go straight up. Repeat cycle, see black hole, GE.

[Crime pays...in fact it pays well...wonder how much is left???]

Fugitive CEO to Pay $53 Million to Settle U.S. Charges

Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, the software executive who fled the U.S. while facing charges for backdating stock options, has agreed to pay more than $53 million to end civil actions by U.S. prosecutors and regulators.

Mr. Alexander, the former chairman and chief executive of Comverse Technology Inc., was accused in 2006 by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn with engaging in a scheme to backdate millions of stock options for himself and others and to secretly awarding backdated options to favored employees through a "slush fund."

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704369304575632790146780672.html#ixzz168bRZBQR

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704369304575632790146780672.html#ixzz168aqSUk7

[Morongobillsbackporch.blogspot.com]

It is true that sometimes you have to start out at the bottom. Especially if you come from the lower rungs of the societal ladder.

If you come from the upper echelon, of course, the situation is a little different. After graduating from Yale or Harvard, you might take an entry level position with Goldman Sachs or start out with a large legal firm, where you will be expected to toil away many long hours on a pittance. How much? Let's just say it won't be minimum wage and you will be able to join a club, not a health spa club, you know the ones like in the movie "Trading Places."

The rest of us wage slaves, who may have worked 30 years somewhere and then got outsourced, will have to content ourselves with endless rejection letters, if we are so lucky to get one, counting the "no's" we get, and in the meantime, running out the unemployment, cashing everything out, and finally getting a big refrigerator box for our new digs on skid row.

Stick a fork in us, we are done.

[NO stocks 4 me]

yeah it kinda rings true on that 03:10. but so does starting out on the bottom and hanging through the shit, also it is easier to do that the younger you are, as we age its a lot harder to swallow your pride.

The the thing with this is that all these "Harvard and Yale" grads out there competing with those "lower" echelon type now, and of course who would you hire? So the ex-cons, HS drop outs, lower class over sized kid is left out, to end up doing what? I assume there's always another gang looking for part time help running drugs, or if your an entrepreneur just start a new one.

[roger]

What as the success of some individuals have to do with the
dire economic conditions of the nation? even under the Nazi
regime some people made pretty good,.
I have a tree in my back yard that is dying,on it there still is a dozen or so good looking leaves,does that make
it a healthy tree?