Coronavirus

[MikeG]

Glad you survived. I never heard if my parents lost their sense of smell, but they both seem to be fine now. A friend did, early on before there was any testing. Said he felt almost bad enough to go see a doctor, noticed that he couldn't smell when his new puppy crapped on the floor. Sometime around March or April as I recall. He was unemployed at the time and not getting out much anyway, and had no clue where he might have picked it up.

Any idea where you picked it up?

 

[adsm08]

Glad you survived.

Thanks. I wasn't ever really in any danger though. With my age, gender, race, and health my odds of actually dying from this were less than .001%. I have a better chance of dying on my way to or from work every day. Judging by the driving skills of the people I commute around, a MUCH better chance of dying on my daily commute.

Any idea where you picked it up?

I got it at work. I don't know exactly where. Our one service advisor (who up until Monday was our only service advisor for the last few weeks) started with symptoms Friday, and got tested Monday or Tuesday. That means he wouldn't have been contagious before Wednesday. I could have gotten it from him, but the timeline for that is kind of tight. I think it is more likely he got it from a customer and I got it from the customer's car, or we both got it from handling the keys. We don't sterilize the keys. Then, because I am 34 and in pretty good overall health, and Pete is in his 60s, it just took a few extra days for him to start showing symptoms. I started with some drainage Sunday morning, so my start of symptoms is Sunday, my start of contagiousness is Friday, which means the latest I could have actually been infected was Weds, the first day Pete was likely to be contagious.

 

[Dirtman]

Thanks. I wasn't ever really in any danger though. With my age, gender, race, and health my odds of actually dying from this were less than .001%. I have a better chance of dying on my way to or from work every day. Judging by the driving skills of the people I commute around, a MUCH better chance of dying on my daily commute.


I got it at work. I don't know exactly where. Our one service advisor (who up until Monday was our only service advisor for the last few weeks) started with symptoms Friday, and got tested Monday or Tuesday. That means he wouldn't have been contagious before Wednesday. I could have gotten it from him, but the timeline for that is kind of tight. I think it is more likely he got it from a customer and I got it from the customer's car, or we both got it from handling the keys. We don't sterilize the keys. Then, because I am 34 and in pretty good overall health, and Pete is in his 60s, it just took a few extra days for him to start showing symptoms. I started with some drainage Sunday morning, so my start of symptoms is Sunday, my start of contagiousness is Friday, which means the latest I could have actually been infected was Weds, the first day Pete was likely to be contagious.

 

[Uncle Gump]

We just did our year end numbers for our pizzeria... I'm a bit surprised.

After being down in sales in period two this year... 40% a couple weeks... we ended the year being up 1% overall.

I know the restaurant business as a whole took and is still taking a hard hit... I truly feel blessed to be where we are for the year.

 

[MikeG]

Good for you, restaurants are tough in the best of times, with the place full.

 

[Uncle Gump]

It gets tougher going forward... Illinois is going to a $15 minimum wage.

 

[Dirtman]

I'm sorry but $15 an hour to work in a pizza place is ridiculous unless your the owner/manager or a cook. Minimum wage is suppose to get your foot in the door, not provide a liveable salary. Bumping minimum wage a tad once in a while for inflation is one thing but they are practically doubling it. If anything it's gonna make it harder for younger inexperienced people to get jobs. If you've gotta pay them $15 an hour why bother hiring highschool kids etc. Plus anyone who has actually been working for a while and earned their $15 an hour through time and hard work will have a valid argument, "Why am I making the same as the guy who just started?".

 

[Uncle Gump]

Unfortunately... the majority of todays youth has zero work ethic. Which also means they last a couple two hour shifts before we tell them their services are no longer required. Most aren't worth $5 an hour.

 

[adsm08]

I'm sorry but $15 an hour to work in a pizza place is ridiculous unless your the owner/manager or a cook. Minimum wage is suppose to get your foot in the door, not provide a liveable salary. Bumping minimum wage a tad once in a while for inflation is one thing but they are practically doubling it. If anything it's gonna make it harder for younger inexperienced people to get jobs. If you've gotta pay them $15 an hour why bother hiring highschool kids etc. Plus anyone who has actually been working for a while and earned their $15 an hour through time and hard work will have a valid argument, "Why am I making the same as the guy who just started?".

Back when this whole "Fight for 15" BS started I was making $15 as a C tech in a dealership and not particularly enjoying the high-stress environment. State minimum was $7.25 or $7.50 at the time. I looked my boss straight in the eye and said "If this goes through, my pay goes to $30 and hour, or I go to McDonald's." And since now I don't really work because I have to, but because I want to, if the minimum wage gets a significant percentage bump, and my pay doesn't get an equal percentage increase, I'll probably go find some low-stress minimum wage deal.


But you are right, minimum wage isn't for supporting your family, it is for getting your foot in the door to show you can work and are worth hiring. So at that point what does it matter how low the minimum wage is? Why $7, why not $2? Here's an idea, since minors can't smoke, vote, sign up for the military, or anything else fun, aren't supposed to be supporting families, and they don't pay taxes, why don't we re-write minimum wage laws around them and make minimum wage not apply to them. You hire a kid, you can pay him whatever you want, no minimum, no maximum, it's whatever he's willing to work for. MW kicks in at 18.

 

[MikeG]

Minimum wage hasn't been raised for a long time. Whether or not it should be, is another question.

The market can in fact change the *de facto* "minimum wage" in a given area. In the Austin area, you can't get ANYONE to show up for work, much less do actual 'work,' for less than 10 / hr, maybe 11 or 12.

With tips, etc., my son did better than that, till he got tired of his dysfunctional co-workers, and absentee boss, and figured out he could make more per hour (sometimes more than double) doing delivery services.

Anyway OK jobs for youth, one thing is for sure, standing over a hot fryer and coming home smelling like Taco Hell grease, ought to be all anyone needs to motivate them to go to college! It sure did for me.

The city of Austin's rules on wages, and other things, make the cost of building anything in the city astronomical.... then they bitch because people move to the suburbs, and commuter traffic gets worse.

The market sorts it out, after a while.

Some observations.

 

[Dirtman]

For $15 an hour I'd go pick up some part time work at advance auto or autozone. Now think about it, they have the choice to pay an 18 year old kid fresh out of highschool $15 an hour, or someone like me who has over 20 years work experience. That kid is SOL. I don't need the money but 15 bucks an hour to hand people spark plugs a couple days a week is hard to pass up...

 

[Uncle Gump]

I should add to this and say that I had no choice but to pass the wage increase on to my customer. We sat down with our menu and the price went up on nearly everything we sell. We operate on rather small margins as it is... No other way I can stay open and survive.

The only saving grace is that every other business is going to do the same thing to survive... welcome to the new reality of minimum wage hikes.

 

[Dirtman]

I should add to this and say that I had no choice but to pass the wage increase on to my customer. We sat down with our menu and the price went up on nearly everything we sell. We operate on rather small margins as it is... No other way I can stay open and survive.

The only saving grace is that every other business is going to do the same thing to survive... welcome to the new reality of minimum wage hikes.

How does this work for people like delivery drivers? Usually I tip them really well because they don't make much money. But if they are making $15 an hour, and menu prices went up to pay for that pay increase, not to sound like a dick, but why would I as a customer even feel compelled to tip them?

Also on the other side, what about waiters/waitresses? don't they make less than minimum wage anyway and get paid almost entirely with tips? Does this mean everyone except them starts getting more money?

 

[racsan]

During my stay with dunkin’ donuts, I saw many come & go, I went from newbie to senior baker in 3 wks. (but I dont think “senior baker” was really a title, just the rest of the staff referenceing my age difference) I enjoyed it there and really wasn’t enthusiastic about going back to my job that I had been laid off from 6 months ago. But I gained $4/hr and it puts me in a better postion to buy this place weve been renting for the last 2 years. Yes, very few of todays kids have any work ethic. I could see myself going back to DD later in life , I even loved the hours, go in at 3 am & be home before noon. I dread when my job goes back to 2 shifts and Im on the 4p to 2a shift again.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I can't really answer that... I employ no delivery drivers or wait staff.

We use a third party delivery partner. What I can tell you about that is those people do pretty well. I believe they get a per delivery fee and tips.

I also feel that third party delivery is very lucrative... for the entity... not necessarily the driver.