H‑E‑B Should Be Ashamed

Rant

They pay their curbside employees such a minuscule wage at $12.50/hour. McDonald’s pays 75% of their employees over $14/hour.

The temperatures have been almost 100f everyday as of me starting my job here and real feel temperatures exceeding 105f. The attire is stupid, my thighs and feet are blistered and raw from walking so much and sweat from the sweltering heat and they still require us to wear denim or khaki shorts/jeans which are too hot to wear.

My coworkers and managers (with the exception of a couple good, hard working ones) are lazy. They tell me to stay off my phone and to do audits and transfers during any down time while they stay on theirs and stand around and talk for the majority of their shifts. They only help when we are slammed. Otherwise it feels like mostly me and another curbie are bringing out the orders by ourselves.

By the time I finish loading an order and can step back inside I have to start pulling another. I feel heat exhausted every shift and my body will ache and knees feel like they will buckle underneath me.

The fact that curbside makes $15+ to stay in the AC is dumb as well. The pay should be reversed. The labor is more intense and the time crunch is harder. I used to do e-commerce at Krogers and Petco who had higher quotas and expectations and it was easy in comparison. And I don’t mean to throw shoppers under the bus, I’m sure they are hard workers who were curbies once as well, but the pay sure is twisted.

H‑E‑B leads on this persona that they’re a good company to work for but they’re really not. And they should honestly be damn ashamed for what they are paying curbside and parking lot attendants. If I didn’t lose my car and job last month from an accident I would have walked out day one. The only thing making this job remotely tolerable are the obscenely nice customers.

in HEBby Yokailotl

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johnfilmsia

The issue is the aging population is working later in life than ever before, which slows down the natural retirement/new hire replenishment cycle, a labor logjam.

“The labor force participation among older Americans has been increasing since the early 1990s, driven by financial need, longer life expectancy and changes in retirement incentives, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.” - via Forbes

What do you think happens if people retire 10-20 years later than their seniors did back when they were young? Especially if you work in a non-backbreaking industry that doesn’t require a young, healthy body like office work…

NeoMoose

Is your point that people who still need to work should stop?

johnfilmsia

I’m just saying beating the drum of “It’s your fault that you’re stuck in a job that doesn’t pay a living wage!” is tired and out-dated, and I suspect you haven’t had to apply for a new job post-2020. I have, and it’s hell out here.

Also wages haven’t kept pace with inflation in slightest. You’ve probably heard minimum wage would be $21 if it did, but consider that $10 in 2010 is $14.49 today. Hell, $10 in 2020 is $12.17 today. Here’s a calculator if you don’t believe me: https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=10.00&year1=202001&year2=202405

NeoMoose

I don't really cast blame. Lots of circumstantial stuff can happen. I will say that it has always taken effort to climb the ladder. Like it or not, applying for a job is a competition, and one has to stand out.

And yes, I have gone through extended periods of unemployment. It's absolutely brutal. And don't forget that age discrimination absolutely becomes a thing as people get older.

I believe every stat you mentioned about minimum wage, but the first thing someone should be thinking about if they're working for minimum wage is how are they going to get off of the minimum wage. The idea behind a salary is you want to create enough value for a company (or yourself if you're self-employed) that you command higher than minimum wage anyways.