As I noted, my daughter started doing gig work when she was 17, back in 2018. So, many did do this.
Humans are creatures of habit. Once the habit is broken, and you’re fired, you look for new habits to develop.
And that’s what happened - the extended unemployment benefits gave low-income workers something they have rarely received in America’s 250 year history as a country - time. Time to figure some shit out, time to change their lives, time to do better.
Like many things, COVID accelerated a trend which was already there.
You wind up in one of the slaving-away-long-hours-for-low-pay jobs and you don’t have energy to pursue anything else, or look for alternatives.
Then you suddenly have 15 months at home, with UI and stimulus checks to keep a roof over your head and foodstamps for the table, and you finally rest up and have time to think about things.
You now have the freedom to at least try a gig job, without worrying about being homeless if it doesn’t work out.
Or you’re at home and try a for-pay survey to see what it’s like, and hey, you can do this X hours a week and you not only don’t have to fight traffic during a commute, or wait for a bus in all weather, you don’t even have to put even trousers on if you don’t want to in order to do the work.
Covid gave people enough time to recover from chronic exhaustion, think about their situation, and consider and try alternatives. Some of which turned out to work better for folks than what they had been doing.
That makes sense. There’s a whole segment of the workforce which has found another way to make a living, so those old jobs are left vacant. Either new people will be needed to backfill those old jobs or else the employers will need to improve their working conditions enough to entice people away from their new income sources.
Also, a lot of people cut their “lifestyle” expenses during the shutdowns. People who ate lots of meals out learned to cook. People who went to bars and clubs and concerts all the time suddenly couldn’t.,But when forced too they found out they don’t really need it like they thought. And with reduced going out, they had reduced need for going-out clothes etc. They just don’t need a second low wage job anymore.
From what I see on Reddit, in just the “Am I The Asshole?” sub and “Personal Finance”, tons of people have either moved in with relatives or friends because of covid. Unless they’re all trolls. But it’s true, it’s creating a lot of “Am I The Asshole?” situations.
Relevant here, I think, and I didn’t really want to dig up a tipping thread, especially when a lot of the emphasis is on problems with being required to smile:
And I do think that statistic in the first paragraph has a lot to do with it. Since some of the harassment servers get isn’t sexual, the total percentage has to be higher than that. ‘Here, have a job, and you’re supposed to take it for granted that you’ll be harrassed on the job’ – yeah, an awful lot of people have been stuck with that. But it’s wrong.
Who is committing the sexual harassment? Their supervisors or their customers?
If it’s the customers, then I don’t think it can be defined as sexual harassment. I think it would be defined as lewd, crude, or vulgar behavior. It’s always been my understanding that, by definition, only your supervisor or a person in higher authority at your workplace can sexually harass you. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
You might be thinking about the concept of power differential making even a consensual relationship questionable, due to the inherent power dynamics involved when dating your boss. But anyone can sexually harass anyone, not only a boss.
I cannot conceive of a world where a paying “customer” can slap a 17yo girl on the ass and not have it considered sexual harassment. Someone paying is definitely in a position of authority, CrafterMan. Seriously?
I’m required to take sexual harassment training because I’m on a town planning board. The training is very clear that not only in common speech, but also legally, it’s sexual harassment whether it comes from a boss, a co-worker, a subordinate, or a member of the public.
There are specific issues that may only come from a boss – a credible threat to fire or demote the harassed person if they don’t comply, for instance. But putting hands on people, sexual gestures, and sexual comments are sexual harassment no matter who they come from.
Of course, it’s also true that some service people will go out of their way to flirt with the customers to try to increase their tips. Even still, that’s not an open invitation to harassment.
I’m obviously not condoning it. And it looks like I had an incorrect definition of sexual harassment… I (incorrectly) thought the term only applied to someone in authority at a workplace. Ignorance fought.
