While I respectfully disagree with your interpretation, I don't totally disagree.
That being said, explain to me how I would justify to ANY potential employer in a basically agricultural state, why they should pay me the $30/hr I made in Southern California as a Planner/Scheduler, to be nothing more than a receptionist taking payments from folks when they come thru the door?
Regional differences in salary structures I can understand.
When my 17 yr job came to an end because the plant closed it doors, several years later there were STILL engineers out of work because they felt they deserved to start out at the top wages they were being paid when our plant closed. They were depressed because, either their wives were working piddly jobs just for them to get by, or they ended up divorced --- none of which is any surprise to me.
Well, an engineer usually is a very specialized kind of beastie - once they get involved in a particular discipline, they're pretty much useless in any other field, especially when they have a lot of years in the job. I don't know the specifics, but I do know that the more specialized you are the harder it's going to be to find another job in that field. I would say they do it to themselves, but that would probably sound cruel.
Honest, but cruel.
It also hinges on their lifestyles - you
know how someone who makes big bucks for a long time assumes that those bucks will always be coming in. SoCal isn't known for their humble ways, so I would imagine these guys did the whole nine yards with the fancy overpriced houses, trophy wives, fancy cars, electronic toys, etc. - so of course when that all comes to a screeching halt they're going to be running around like chickens without heads.
If they had led a simpler life, found a wife who wasn't a gold-digger, drove a 10-year-old pick-up truck, then perhaps their dismissal wouldn't have seemed quite so bad.
When you buy into the fantasy, it's nobody's fault but your own when you eventually have to wake up.
One can't spend their life being a "Legend in their own mind", if they want to eat. When good jobs are lost or a person retires from their good job, they need to understand they start at the bottom again; hopefully not clear at the bottom, flipping burgers at McDonalds but nonetheless closer to the bottom rung of wages than the top.
Why? Why start at the bottom again? I understand the economic necessity of a move like that, a necessity all too common nowadays, but theoretically at least you should be able to stay within your field, if not at your previous salary grade then at least at something approaching a living wage - not like McDonald's.
And yes, I know, all the good jobs are going to India and Malaysia.
layful:
He paid me way more than what the average salary was for a secretarial/receptionist help at that time and I only had to be there three days a week.
If it was more than the LOCAL average salary then yes, I agree, it was fine. I was under the impression that he was paying you chicken-feed ... er, horse-feed.
I didn't take anything from anyone because nobody, that he could trust handling big amounts of cash, had any of the other qualifications. I am a Yankee living south of the Mason-Dixon in a county where they are still upset over who won the Cival War, yet he had more faith in my abilities (and was willing to pay more than the going rate) than those of some of his cronies wives, who just wanted to "play" at having a job. He needed somebody he could trust and, amazingly, he figured out in a very short time, I wouldn't steal, I'd answer the phones, I'd do everything an employee is SUPPOSED to do - work and be ethical about it.
Not to be a stinker, but I would say nobody that YOU knew of. If the local talent pool is indeed that poor (and as a fellow Yankee I'm refraining from expressing my own thoughts on the matter!) then yes indeed he got the best part of the deal.
I have never felt I was taken advantage of, elst I would not have stayed seven years. Believe me, I have quit high paying jobs for that very reason, I recognize the difference between "I really appreciate you but I don't have a lot of money to pay you" and "hehheh, let's see what we can get out of this witch, she's making top dollar and needs a job"
Appreciation goes a long way, agreed. If he TRULY doesn't have a lot to pay you, then of course it's your decision whether or not to take the job. I've just had too many experiences with the latter type, the ones who hide their money under the mattress and plead poverty. It not only makes
them cheap; I feel it cheapens ME to take a job under those circumstances.
I think I stated in my original post that I left that position in 2011. The 30-something that took my place is as honest as the day is long but can't type, and refuses to help people, even when the answers are simple.
Witness the wonders of the modern educational system / parental advisement structure.
Some of the financial tracking stuff I used to do on an Excel spreadsheet, because I was bored, became so valuable the current agent hired an account because my replacement can't do the work.
So what did I take away from somebody else? Nothing -- all the qualified help in this area are too busy working full time jobs to support their families------------------
IF that is indeed true then no, you haven't taken anything from anyone and I apologize if I offended you. I just thought you were working for peanuts when someone else would have been hired at a much higher salary. THAT'S what starts the eventual downfall of both a business and an entire industry. I've seen it happening in the freelance writing field - there are "content mills" that pay writers something on the order of $2 for a 500-word article, and believe me there is no shortage of "writers" knocking down the doors applying for those positions.
But it cheapens the field and it gives a bad impression to the hiring companies - namely, that ALL writers are cheap. I read these writers' work and I can barely understand what they're saying. A lot of them, because of the global reach of the 'Net, are from third-world countries and have difficulties with the English language, yet they take jobs that would otherwise be available for American - or any OTHER nationality - writers with much more refined skills. It's a no-brainer for those writers, though - making a dollar or two a day is for them luxury wages. As a result the content-mill industry is slowly imploding - it's reached a critical mass of no-talent writers and cannot support any more. Yet the crowd-sourcing phenomenon continues unabated in many other fields ...
THAT'S why I have a knee-jerk reaction to low wages coupled with high talent.
