Where have all the workers gone?

I felt a bit odd the other day, when, after a morning without as much as a cup of coffee, I stopped at one of those fast-food franchises. I went in and stood at the counter waiting for someone to appear below the signage and coffee pots. The other side of the counter was deserted.

“Hello,” I offered. Nothing. Again, “Hello!”this time a bit louder.

A surprised-looking young man appeared from somewhere behind the machines and said, “What are you doing in here?”

Now, in a retail establishment that is in the business of having people “in here” to purchase their goods and services, that question seemed strange.

“I’m here to get a cup of coffee,” I said.

The young man replied, “We’re closed. Wasn’t the door locked?”

“You’re closed?’ I asked, “But there’s a huge line outside your drive through window.”

“Yes,” he responded. “The drive through is open but the restaurant is closed.”

Before I could ask why he replied, “Short-staffed today.”

Ah. I understood. The huge sign at the entrance offering a beginning wage of over $15 an hour with other workplace enticements should have tipped me off.

I understood, because it wasn’t the first time that short staffing has affected how I live my life.

Where the heck have all the workers gone? All of a sudden there aren’t enough people to fill all kinds of jobs from doctors to lifeguards.

Not four years ago, right before the pandemic, if I called my doctor for a same day appointment, I got one. Of course, I have to add, my reason for the appointment was a legiti- mate problem. It wasn’t as if I had a few free hours and thought I would shoot the breeze with the doctor. If I needed a diagnostic procedure or a visit to a specialist, I would be seen almost immediately.

Now? Are you kidding? Getting an appointment is a tad, no, wait … what is bigger much bigger than a tad … massively more difficult. Here’s my latest example. My mammogram scheduled almost a year ago for this July has been moved to September because of staffing shortages. This particular practice had to close an entire service site for the summer because of staffing shortages.

Haven’t we all heard about the shortage of nurses that required hospitals to hire traveling nurses at uber premium wages?

Locally, some of my favorite eateries no longer offer lunch or Sunday meals. Not enough staff. I hear about pools not being able to open across the country because they don’t have the lifeguards. Trying to find someone to do repairs around the house is like spitting into the wind … no carpenters, masons, plumbers, etc. We sent all our young people to college to prepare for professional jobs, denigrating the value of blue-collar careers so there aren’t enough men and women working in the trades. But then even the professions are facing the staffing famine. Our accountant told us that his firm had trouble finding staff during the last income tax go around. Accountants?

Didn’t the Syracuse City School District have trouble finding enough teachers to begin the year?

There are many reasons for the shortfall of workers, some relating to retirement, educational preparation, COVID (the source of all maladies and complaints,) working conditions and salaries, on and on. Some, and I hear this a lot … think that it can be blamed on the government’s paying people not to work during the COVID years …but then, that has been over for a while, how are these people living without jobs? One response to that question is that these slackers are playing video games in their parents’ basements.

Others point out that, as the demographics change with aging out of the workforce, we haven’t prepared similar numbers to replace those that leave. Aspirational choices for lifetime work have changed. A discussion on a popular syndicated television show came to the conclusion that younger generations see themselves in a variety of jobs, doing the minimum to stay employed until they find something they like better. Apparently, there is a nirvana job out there somewhere and changing jobs helps you find it. You put in the effort to stay employed but hold off putting in your best effort until you find the job that fits your needs. So, along with staffing shortages we have staffing inadequacies … the minimum effort brigade. Where did this kind of thinking come from? Is this one of those generational things?

Oh joy! Maybe that is why, with a short-staffed medical referral service employing people who may only putting in the minimum amount of effort, my doctor’s request for a Holter Monitor for me took two and a half months to be filled. Probably not, but one does wonder.

Work is a concept that is relatively new in human history. During most of that history, humans spent their days providing for the necessities of livingfood, shelter, clothing, etc. Work was life. With the agricultural and the industrial revolutions work became the intermediate, the thing that you traded for the necessities of life. More recently, finding work that meets the needs of the individual and thus the training to get that work has moved us away from the basics. Economic, cultural, generational, geopolitical and climatic changes have affected our relationships with employment, with work.

The anecdotal “great resignation” would tell us that COVID’s shut down of normal economic activities has led some to leave their jobs to seek something that better fits how they want to spend their time.

If there is truth to this anecdote, we should see an explosion of wineries, craft beer brewing, glue gun purchases, small holding farms, soap making and craft fairs. Entrepreneurs seeking personal fulfillment will increase or parents will face the cost of continuing to provide for their adult offspring and their electronic devices. There are help wanted signs everywhere. Where are the workers to fill these jobs? Are the workers here already or are they at our borders, asking to come here for work? That is another question that we will have to answer.

Ann Ferro is a mother, a grandmother and a retired social studies teacher. While still figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up, she lives in Marcellus with lots of books, a spouse and a large orange cat.