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March 25, 2006
Why Can't We Find Work?
A week ago in France, a group of "young worders" — aged 26 and under — staged a rally to protest a new law making it easier for companies to fire workers under 26 during the first two years of employment.
These young individuals are upset, they claim, because this new law will make it too easy for companies to fire young workers at a time when it is already nearly impossible for young people to find work. According to one report, the under-26 demographic sports a daunting 20% unemployment rate!
It would seem to me, however, that if I were a business owner considering hiring someone, but knew that if I didn't like their work, or just their personality, that I would have to jump through a strenuous series of hoops to un-hire them, I'd probably try very hard to continue operating without bringing anybody new (and thus unproven) aboard. When hiring a new pwerson becomes a risk, it's tempting not to hire at all. This is worse among young workers who may not have significant experience under their belt -- and thus no laundry-list of references proving their capability and willingness to work.
So, as an under-twenty-sixer myself, I'd be in favor of lowering the risk involved in hiring young workers, even at the expense of "job security."
Why? Because I know that I'm a valuable asset to my employer — and would never take a job otherwise &mdash so I'm not afraid of being fired (in fact, I live in a state where you can be fired for any reason — or no reason &mdash and yet I've held my current position for over four years!). I'd want to encourage potential employers to "take a chance" on me by lowering the risk. This way, they might hire me figuring if I didn't work out, they could always send me on my way.
If you make firing hard, you make hiring dangerous, and thus rare. The young workers in Paris should be protesting against the misguided social policy that is the direct cause of the outlandish 20% unemployment rate, rather than protesting a law that will, in all probability, result in more young workers being able to find higher-paying jobs and decreasing unemployment among young workers.
— The Shelanman
Posted by andrew at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)
March 23, 2006
The Desk Saga Continues
Updated 3/25/2006 at 10:14PM
Last night, after having been unable to get anyone from A.B.E. to return my phone calls or e-mails for over a month, I received a call from the A.B.E. Delivery guy, telling me he had a pair of doors to deliver.
Today they arrived. The doors looked to be both the right color and the right size. They were even properly handle-free.
But, they were lacking the necessary hardware for installation! So, the delivery guys took both the old doors and the new doors away, and promised to return with the proper parts in 15 minutes.
Here's hoping the idiots can get it right this time...
(for the previous segment of the story, see Customer [un]satisfaction from January)
— The Shelanman
Update: The installers returned with hardware already installed in the doors. Of course, the hardware was in a different place on the new doors than it was on the old, so naturally they had to drill fresh holes in my hutch to attach them.
They gave me no warning or indication that they were about to drill four more holes into an already-hole-riddled piece of furniture... so I didn't have the opportunity to stop them. The desk is now complete. I find that the frame of the desk -- the desktop, the sides, the bookcase -- are all of excellent quality and craftsmanship. The hutch, the doors, and the drawers, however, would not be out of place on a rack in an IKEA -- they are poorly constructed, not all the same shape or size, and fit together only "fairly well." The doors on the hutch are so absurdly wobbly... I've leaned on them, and I don't think they will fall off... but there's a lot of vertical play in the hinges...
All in all, not worth the $1400 I paid, or the 6 months and 4 trips it took to get it set up.
— The Shelanman
Posted by andrew at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)