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It's surprising to me that anyone would take it as a "swipe" at American workers.
Just to take one example, my daughter's been working at the local McDonald's for nearly four years, since her freshman year in high school. It's not easy and fun; it's hard work.
The Hispanic immigrants are the mainstays of the store. They work really hard and keep the place from collapsing. Some of them have multiple jobs or work split shifts; 60-80 hours a week is not uncommon. Some of them are pregnant or have several children to support. They're not sophisticated or educated people but they do know how to show up on time and put in a full day's work!
Some of the ladies in the kitchen basically don't speak English. My daughter suspects several of them are illegals. But the manager obviously just looks the other way, because there is no other choice.
Meanwhile... the "American" help comes and goes. They'll come in for a few days or a week, then disappear. A lot of them have problems -- substance abuse, mental illness, or just plain laziness and lack of work ethic.
Starting pay at this store is $16/hour. For 30+ hrs/week, they offer health, dental, and tuition reimbursement.
It's a job. I'm surprised they are always looking for help because you know, money is money. Apparently people have other options. But these 20-something and 30-something guys who come in and work for a day, then quit... how do they live? Why aren't they more committed to working? Beats me.
The Hispanic immigrants you speak of that are mainstays don't have other options. Some of them are the working poor. Pregnant and several kids to support? You actually believe you can support a family working at McDonalds? The reality is that some families depend on a fast food salary. They don't complain. That's a misnomer as well. Don't mean they work any harder than American workers. Immigrant workers come and go as well. That is just the human condition. You find something better and leave. That's across the board. Your daughter proves my point about American workers bust their hump just as much as immigrants. Good for her!
The Hispanic immigrants you speak of that are mainstays don't have other options. Some of them are the working poor. Pregnant and several kids to support? You actually believe you can support a family working at McDonalds? The reality is that some families depend on a fast food salary. They don't complain. That's a misnomer as well. Don't mean they work any harder than American workers. Immigrant workers come and go as well. That is just the human condition. You find something better and leave. That's across the board. Your daughter proves my point about American workers bust their hump just as much as immigrants. Good for her!
How much do you want to bet that OP is NOT an immigrant?
The Hispanic immigrants you speak of that are mainstays don't have other options. Some of them are the working poor. Pregnant and several kids to support? You actually believe you can support a family working at McDonalds? The reality is that some families depend on a fast food salary. They don't complain. That's a misnomer as well. Don't mean they work any harder than American workers. Immigrant workers come and go as well. That is just the human condition. You find something better and leave. That's across the board. Your daughter proves my point about American workers bust their hump just as much as immigrants. Good for her!
My daughter, and her fellow high schoolers, are there to earn spending money, not to support themselves. But, now, she's got the skills and experience that if she had to, she could support herself by working at McD's and, probably one or two other jobs at the same time.
I wish more high schoolers would take advantage of these opportunities to learn how to work. I washed dishes when in high school, and in college I had a summer job at a park where I had to shovel horse manure. You learn how to hold your nose and do the work. But even so, I think I didn't learn to work hard enough.
Anyway the immigrants I've come across have almost always been much harder workers, fewer complaints, more dedicated, etc. Sorry if your experiences were different but that doesn't invalidate my observations.
And yes, some of these women are living 4-5 people in one apartment, the entire family is working, a grandmother is watching the kids, and they're working 80-100 hrs/week. This is the reality, not some TV show.
The manager of my kid's McD's is an immigrant from Latin America, along with his wife and two kids. All four of them work at the McD's. They walk to work and don't own a car; the older girl, my kid's classmate, is the first in the family to learn how to drive, and first to go to college. She's getting all A's. In my opinion, this is the best kind of immigrants, here for a better life, working very hard.
But we've wandered off the subject of "I might be unemployable". I guess the message to the OP is, take some inspiration from these folks, and get out there and start over.
I get tired of hearing about how hard the immigrants work. A swipe at the American workforce. Born and bred Americans work just as hard if not more. What I think is the underlying tone of that statement is that Americans will not work for low wages. That's why these entities hire immigrants. Immigrants depress wages, IMO.
Bingo! Illegal immigrants won't complain about law wages ir bad work conditions if they can't speak English or if they don't want to attract attention.
My daughter, and her fellow high schoolers, are there to earn spending money, not to support themselves. But, now, she's got the skills and experience that if she had to, she could support herself by working at McD's and, probably one or two other jobs at the same time.
I wish more high schoolers would take advantage of these opportunities to learn how to work. I washed dishes when in high school, and in college I had a summer job at a park where I had to shovel horse manure. You learn how to hold your nose and do the work. But even so, I think I didn't learn to work hard enough.
Anyway the immigrants I've come across have almost always been much harder workers, fewer complaints, more dedicated, etc. Sorry if your experiences were different but that doesn't invalidate my observations.
And yes, some of these women are living 4-5 people in one apartment, the entire family is working, a grandmother is watching the kids, and they're working 80-100 hrs/week. This is the reality, not some TV show.
The manager of my kid's McD's is an immigrant from Latin America, along with his wife and two kids. All four of them work at the McD's. They walk to work and don't own a car; the older girl, my kid's classmate, is the first in the family to learn how to drive, and first to go to college. She's getting all A's. In my opinion, this is the best kind of immigrants, here for a better life, working very hard.
But we've wandered off the subject of "I might be unemployable". I guess the message to the OP is, take some inspiration from these folks, and get out there and start over.
I think we have a middle ground more than disagreement. I worked fast food, mowed neighbors lawns and worked at the park cleaning up trash, etc. This was while in high school and over summers between high school. In college, I worked at UPS at night and parts of the summer loading/unloading packages. Sure, not saying immigrants don't work hard like your examples. However, us red blooded Americans have the same work ethic. LOL! I am laughing because my dad at the time when I was pre-teen to teenager took me to mow those lawns in the heat of July. I think it was a lesson of work ethic and also to steer me away from that type of hard manual labor. Now I have done the same with my kids, I have a riding mower but I make both of my kids, son and daughter, use the old Toro self propelled. Lol. They both understand what lesson I am giving them. They don't complain. At least not in ear shot. Back to the OP and my parents life lessons. My dad used to have a paper route when I was in college so I could have spending money in college. He would drop newspapers off before he went to his regular full time job. Point being, keep grinding and results will follow. Never too old.
Why don't we give the OP advice instead of looking down on them? We don't know what's happening with them.
Read through the whole thread and pay attention the handful of responses OP cared to leave. The thread's been full of helpful advice but it's obvious OP's not interested in constructive feedback.
If there were medical issues or some kind of family situation involved then he could've mentioned these and people who had gone through the same would've chimed in. Instead of clarifying how someone in 2021 living in an area with low unemployment can be rejected by all fast food or retail employers he just posted some nonsense like I applied to x openings on Linkedin and got no response.
Read through the whole thread and pay attention the handful of responses OP cared to leave. The thread's been full of helpful advice but it's obvious OP's not interested in constructive feedback.
If there were medical issues or some kind of family situation involved then he could've mentioned these and people who had gone through the same would've chimed in. Instead of clarifying how someone in 2021 living in an area with low unemployment can be rejected by all fast food or retail employers he just posted some nonsense like I applied to x openings on Linkedin and got no response.
So OP should be stuck to CityData like glue instead of GOING to actually use the advice?
I'm very surprised the OP hasn't gotten a fast food/retail job myself but I'm not judging them. Not everyone wants to air out every personal detail.
Read through the whole thread and pay attention the handful of responses OP cared to leave. The thread's been full of helpful advice but it's obvious OP's not interested in constructive feedback.
OP, you've received plenty of sage advice. It's your choice to take it or leave it. This is a good point at which to close the thread.
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The reality is that some families depend on a fast food salary. They don't complain. That's a misnomer as well. Don't mean they work any harder than American workers. Immigrant workers come and go as well. That is just the human condition. You find something better and leave. That's across the board. Your daughter proves my point about American workers bust their hump just as much as immigrants. Good for her!
