In Canada, as well as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and parts of Europe, employers are struggling to meet adequate staffing requirements. This article from CTV News is one of many that is taking a look at this problem.
This labour shortage is more pronounced in the service industry – food industry, accomodation, transportation, recreation, tourism, manufacturing, construction, meat processing and packaging, and retail. As demand for these industries get back to pre-covid levels, finding the necessary employees to fill vacancies is an ongoing issue.
Media and business groups have been looking at the issues driving these labour shortages. These issues include – retirements as planned or moved up due to Covid, movement to careers offering work at home options, workers leaving the job market, and workers receiving pandemic benefits.
My view – One issue never discussed, is one that affects society as a whole these days. Division driven by special interest groups – in this case labour unions to a point but, most notably Business Groups. I worked as an employee for decades. For the most part, especially up until the last decade, companies worked together – owners/management, and employees. This was especially true in smaller independent companies. In the past decade, business groups have become more and more aggressive about recruiting business owners/managers to join their organizations. I have seen and heard their pitch and I have seen the results. Owners/managers are convinced that they are being used and abused by their staff and taken for granted. They are convinced that they are hapless victims who do so much and get so little in return. They are convinced that their only hope for regaining their power, to which they are obviously entitled, is by joining an organization, with like-minded business owners/managers. Having joined, and with ongoing encouragement from their Business Group, they lose all respect and appreciation for their staff and treat them accordingly. Covid has given these employees options and they have taken them. Some employers are now offering higher wages, benefits, and better work conditions. For many, employees, it is too little, too late.
That is my News and Views for today. As always, feel free to comment below!
Take care and have a great day! 💞
Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie 
What a beautiful plant. Interesting post, I had not thought about that, but you are probably right about a lot of the employees. I just hope everything gets sorted out and the supply chain and workers will all be back in order. Hope your day is going well Anne.
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You too, Frony. That plant was a begonia that I got this spring. It produced a couple of beautiful blossoms and then didn’t do much of anything. I hope so too but I don’t expect it will happen any too soon. People are too divided to get anything worthwhile accomplished.
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Sad but true about the division.
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I’ve been bullied by management pre-covid but still bullied. This is why people quit jobs, not the job so much as the management. I started looking for work in May of this year and had very few offers. Companies are hiring? Not from my perspective. Corporate America doesn’t care about the average employee. All they see is money and profit made on the backs of we the little peons…
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Definitely true of bigger corporations and a lot of them are looking for younger or inexperienced employees that they can exploit. I loved the work I did as well and there was a time when I wanted to work until I was at least seventy. Not any more!
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Exploit! Mold, bend, contort into well-performing robots that work for peanuts on the dollar.
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