… one of the stupidest jobs ever invented. The guys can’t stick with it very long because it’s such a stupid thing to do. I imagine they all quit after one stint, despite risking their ability to get more temp jobs.
I guess the reason they exist is that when times are hard there are an endless number of volunteers to try it once.
But there is a law, posted in every lunchroom, that employers must provide seating for any job done in one position, (This has been on the books since the labor movement was first effective in the 1910’s.)
So, now we have a person on a stool. Better, but still tiring after a few minutes.
Solution: put the sign on a pole attached to a nail at the top of the sign. Now the stick supports the weight, and you supply the wiggle. Wear a big-brimmed hat to avoid heat stroke.
Result: A do-able job. The guy gets paid without being stressed, the agency only has to do the work of starting one guy, and the client gets their inane message delivered.
Hmm… Now how do I get this this common sense information through to people too dense to see it for themselves?
Depends on what state you’re in. AFAIK, Cal-OSHA has no such requirement. Where would you even fit a stool within that 18x18 inch space at a supermarket checkstand?
I’d rather just see the sign-wigglers outlawed. Give them something useful to do that doesn’t involve distracting traffic. There’s a guy who flails around with a sign for a pizza place near here so quickly that it’s impossible to tell what the sign says.
You want to make it easier to do that job? Those guys are a traffic nuisance. I’d rather they weren’t dancing and waving signs around moving cars at all. I want that job to suck as much as possible so they’ll all quit in frustration.
I don’t understand why this job exists. I feel pity for those poor saps and am disinclined to give my business to a company that places such little value on human dignity.
That being said, I think that a more practical solution for making that sort of occupation less soul destroying might take the form of an mp3 player and a substantial quantity of MDMA.
I think your premise is flawed. Every time I see someone at this type of job, it’s someone I’ve seen do it before.
And, frankly, if you find them that too distracting while driving, you might want to consider not driving. There are much more distracting and dangerous things out there.
Oh, and the job exists because people like Larry Mudd are rare. I personally don’t have the money to not go to places like that. Heck, they’re giving people jobs. I wish more people would be willing to take humiliating jobs to help with the unemployment problem in this country. We are such bastards of entitlement.
Oh, and MDMA is addictive when taken regularly. While it might help them in the short term, it could cause actual psychological problems in the long term. Having been addicted before, I’d count that as being more “soul destroying” than a humiliating job.
I’ve always been under the impression that this job was created due to local ordinances that prevent the placing of such signs alongside the road? It could just be an attention-grabbing thing though, like the local furniture store that had a series of cars and trucks with massive plywood signs driving up and down the road in front of the mall.
Which is more irritating: sign-spinners or telemarketers?
Agreed about it being one of the stupidest jobs ever invented. Most of the time they are waving those things so damn much (and spinning them upside down) that I couldn’t even read what the hell the sign is hawking if I wanted to. And even if I could read it, I would make a point not to visit the business on principle.
That’s been my impression also. Business aren’t allowed to post signs for free just anywhere along the road or on corners but if someone is carrying the sign it’s just fine.
We had a kid here for several years who was good enough to gain some local fame and won some national competition-got himself some money for college as I remember.
Indeed, if given careful consideration one might find that there are several problems with this proposed solution. First, workers eking out an existence at this wage stratum may find the regular use of MDMA cost prohibitive. Also, because of the pharmacalogical action of MDMA, while Monday’s dose may be sufficient to get the employee through a day of dancing around like an idiot in public without feeling any humiliation, Tuesday’s labours will likely be fatiguing, with serotonin depletion contributing to general malaise and feelings of personal worthlessness. These negative effects might very well be expected to increase in severity as the work week continues, and this does not even begin to consider whether or not the employer provides adequate dental coverage to deal with the inevitable damage from the resultant combination of high-pH saliva and CNS-stimulant-induced bruxism.
This concern (together with any other reservations that one may have about the feasibility of long term MDMA use to mitigate the problems which face the roadside promotional placard-bearing terpsichoreal service employee) may be somewhat allayed if one considers the possibility that the suggestion might not have been made entirely in earnest, but rather as ironic comment on the practicality of the solution proposed by the OP, in that it has been compared unfavourably with earbuds and MDMA supplementation.
I find it amusing when the sign spinners get confused and set up on the wrong corner–thus pointing people in the opposite direction of the business being advertised.
Here’s an article about the “profession” from The San Diego reader: Keep That Sign Moving.
Telemarketers, no contest. Sign spinners are no more intrusive in my life than billboards, and there is no action involved on my part to deal with them. I notice them like I notice any other potential traffic hazzard, but that’s it.
I really don’t get the irritation with them. It’s honest work. I’m glad I don’t have to do that, but I don’t hold it against those who do.
It’s not part of Cal-OSHA, it’s much older than that, but it’s on those signs that they have to post. I worked as a clerk in a California Ace Hardware and pointed out the sign, and how it said they could get 30 days in jail if they denied me, and so they let me sit at the register on a stool. I have a slipped disk and I can’t stand in one place without pain. But I did the job, and could do the regular things where you move a lot, like helping customers or restocking shelves. Just not standing in one spot. I was there two years and when they closed they helped move to another locations, so I don’t think it bothered them a bit. But I guarantee I’m the only person there that ever thought to read the signs.
Believe it or not, they exist even in Phoenix, Arizona. And they are out there even if the temperature hits 100 degrees or more.
I remember seeing a poor soul in a full “Little Caesar” costume pointing drivers to the store. For me the irritation with this form of advertisement depends on how the companies treat those workers.
If they are kids working for a few hours, being paid properly and doing stuff like this: