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this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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~~Christ. You're right that it's not better. Work experience I can get behind, apprenticeship I can get behind, but this is so blatantly exploitative and dangerous the only thing that surprises me more is that parents are dumb enough to fall for it.~~
Yeah, just wanted to make sure people knew this wasn’t some new thing. It’s been going on since at least the 90’s, and I’d bet if you found someone older, they’d say it’s been going on longer
Sure, but also I bet my kids would have a blast doing that for a morning.
kids are dumb, they like things that we as adults wouldn't even consider 'enjoying', an afternoon behind the counter of a fast food restaurant they like going to would absolutely be a blast for a child. same reason why we had the macca's fisher price thing back in the 90s, or Barbie sets with real world grocery items, it's a different type of playground for them.
I think it boils down to the whole "we learn by doing" thing that's at the heart of a lot of play. And especially for kids, imitating what you see the adults in your life do all the time holds some mystique and new-ness that makes boring tasks seem like exciting activities. To us, filing taxes and loading the washing machine are repetitive tasks we do out of necessity, but to kids, it's a "grown-up thing" to be able to do.
Define exploitative? As a person that had led these events (not organized them), work basically halts during these events. You are literally showing children how to operate machines. It's a show for the parents. The kids are not being exploited anymore than if you took them to a ranch and they brushed a horse. The children are not improving operations or efficiency. Bu all definitions, they make work worse.
The flyer actually says they're going to train literal children how to work at Chick-fil-A.
There's not much room for interpretation there.
With respect, and I mean it. There is a world of difference between a kid brushing a horse and a training camp for a fast food joint. I mean, really?
Obviously brushing a horse is an unusual and fun experience, but that guy is right that they're the same amount of exploration. Kids want to play pretend at a restaurant. It's fun. Didn't your school do an "enterprise village" type field trip where you all play act grown up jobs for a day? It's fun!
This is not exploration. The children are not providing anything of value period, except perhaps good will towards the brand in the future.
I guess that we shall have to agree to disagree.
Kids should have nothing to do with the corporate world until they are old enough to deal with it rationally. Whatever the rationale is for doing so, fast food joints want to materially exploit people and having kids as young as 5 play as burger slingers is beyond creepy. Feel free to have alternative views about it.
They're training kids to be future workers.
Perhaps just let kids play and forget all about training to be "future workers".
Is this what we've become? Jesus!
F
I agree with that, for a number of reasons. I just don't think we need programs from McDonald's to train 5-12 year olds to be fast food workers.
I mean, the kids aren't capable of doing actual work that would actually be profitable for the company. They're going to slow the entire restaurant way down and probably break things. Honestly this sounds like a bad idea for the restaurant. Imagine the pure fucking chaos if all 30 kids are five years old.
I agree with this in part, but even if they can't do the literal work listed in the actual ad itself, then that just makes it dangerous. ~~They're going to be around hot surfaces and boiling oil and sharp kitchen implements~~ I presume they will be kept away from hot surfaces, boiling oil, and sharp kitchen implements while the real employees do all that stuff, and that there won't be customers in the restaurant at the time. But I'll lay money a kid is gonna get hurt by those things anyway, because they're as young as five and... well, anyone who's dealt with children knows they get into everything. You're bang-on right that there is no way in fuck this is a good idea.
Edit: I also want to clarify, I'm not aiming any hostility at you. I'm just really upset about adding yet another bead to the child labour bracelet America's making itself.
I'd never send my kids there, for sure. Although $50 to watch and feed my kid for a whole day does sound tempting.
The increase in child labour in America does seem concerning. I'm not American so I haven't heard too much but I did hear there are some 14 year olds packing meat? Meat processing plants are awful places to work for anyone but especially kids.
There have been several teenagers severely injured or killed working on and around dangerous industrial equipment in sawmills and meat processing facilities already, yeah, and one company alone had illegally employed over 100 kids for the night shift or illegally hired 13 year-olds (under the minimum age of 14). It's galling and more than a little chilling, in the context of the sustained attacks on reproductive rights and access to contraception.
There's a cynical humor in imagining some poor fast food employees trying to be like "Okay settle down, children, we're gonna show yo--Hey put that down, okay quiet down now PLEASE!" , trying not to lose their minds to a bunch of sugared-up "Braedens" and "McKeinLeighs" who are unaccustomed to listening to anybody that's not living in their iPads. 😂
Like the absolute only reason I'd be a tiny bit okay with this (and that's still insanely iffy) is if the parents were also going to be doing it with the kids as kind of a bonding experience or something, but even then...
Want to bond with your kid, take them to the park, not some corporate hellscape.