Greetings fellow readers, we have a new series here starring Johnnie Does, he will be passing on conversations he has with naïve people regarding real life issues in our society. There should be no shortage of content since well…the naïve and hypocritical are everywhere. Let’s start things off with 2 conversations over the past week.
First off “90-Day Calendar Guy”
90-Day Calendar Guy happens to own a small business. Recently, he and I went out to lunch at a burger joint right near my office.
Let me back up. William and I talk about the 90-day calendar quite a bit, but as a refresher, it relates to the stock market and companies being required to report their quarterly results every 90 days. After said results are reported, the company will fire/raise prices/lower quality so next quarter’s numbers are better, innovation goes out the window in exchange for continued short-term gain. I call this local business owner “90-Day Calendar Guy” because he consumes at least 6 hours of CNBC, Fox Business, or Wall Street Journal daily! If anyone knows about earnings, the market etc. it’s him.
Now back to my lunch story…To set the scene, this restaurant is a quick service place, so you order at the counter, the menu is limited and your food comes out in about 10 minutes to your table. This place has 1 person work the till, 1 person to get the food to the table, and about 3 cooks in the kitchen. Our visit was during the lunch hour and there was a substantial line forming; we were about 7th in line. The line moved at a glacial pace. My colleague lost his cool, he started calling out to have the cooks come out and take orders….something they may not know/be able to do with our arcane food preparation laws. He proceeded to complain to the manager, because, well even though he owns the business and lunch hour could be extended at his whim, that wasn’t good enough for him. Our food came out later, we ate and headed back to the office. The entire time he could not believe what he just saw, saying they need to hire more staff or get a competent manager, I disagreed.
He could not believe my opposition to his ideas, so I hit him with knowledge that essentially ended it. I told him this is the 90-day calendar my friend and welcome to the real world. You love it when the numbers are good and when the numbers are bad you cheer cost cuts/layoffs, you cannot have it both ways!
Commentary
Here is the problem. You have a guy who feels he is more important than everyone else in the room. He must be under the impression that this small business operates similar to a Wal-Mart where you open another aisle if more than 2 carts are in line.
As far as his comments about getting the cook out of the kitchen, you obviously know very little about food safety laws, or maybe you just don’t care? Read some of the laws regarding handling ready to eat food, then touching a cash till or handling customer’s money, your head will spin. The fines are insane, and shutting down your restaurant on both a permanent or temporary basis are very much in play if you violate these laws. Don’t believe me, go to a Subway or any sandwich shop, you will see different people making sandwiches with a designated person working the register. As far as hiring more workers, he should know better, especially since “every penny counts during earnings!” When it comes to hiring staff, you must staff for the entire day, you simply cannot tell a worker to check in at 11:30 leave at 1:30, then see you back here at 4:30 and stick around till 7:00, this is not viable…maybe he thinks it is? Sure sounds like it. Good luck finding someone willing to work that schedule. Staffing is done, knowing full well between lunch and dinner hour that things will be backed up more than usual but he will be adequately staffed for the non-peak hours.
Simply put he doesn’t practice what he preaches or maybe just lacks any ability to understand basic economies of scale? Bottom line? He just flat lacks common sense. Oh by the way, later in the work day he remarked about a company in which he invested because they didn’t make their quarterly numbers and he wanted to see layoffs as the answer……you can’t make this up folks.
Next up: “Punish Them, Don’t Punish Me” guy
One of my customers–I’m an insurance agent–happened to be the unfortunate victim of a rear end accident causing about $1,500 damage to his car; no injuries, accident not at fault, no harm to rates. Keep in mind he was not out of pocket $1 as the other company accepted liability and paid the damages. Then he basically turned psychotic, and I mean that in the most honest way possible, he went off on me saying we needed to take her license away, keep in mind we weren’t the insurance company to pay out on this. Not satisfied with his answer he went all the way up to the office of the president, still not getting his desired outcome. Who does this guy think he is? By the way, he is not a member of law enforcement, or any branch of government who could demand action, this guy pushes paper at the lowest level for the state! This should scare almost anyone reading this.
To make matters far more interesting, he was involved in another accident 2 months later, him being at fault, in an accident causing injuries to another party. By the time it is settled, this accident will cost more than $20k when it’s all said and done.
Funny thing is he came in worried about his future rates. I said it won’t be as bad as he thought, but I said thankfully we have a policy of not revoking people’s drivers licenses over just 1 accident. He looked at me dumbfounded, then bestowed some of his “wisdom” on me yet again. Saying he shouldn’t lose his license because it was merely an accident….sounds similar to the person who hit him, am I right? He went on to say it would be a violation of his basic human rights…where is that in the constitution? Then he said, “I work for the State therefore I cannot lose my driver’s license.” I guess a class C License is required to push paper now? This guy really was something else to interact with.
Commentary
What did this guy really think he was trying to do? If you have an IQ north of room temperature, you have to know that an insurance company has no power to take away your driver’s license, we can cancel a policy, but we have to let the State know what that criteria is far before any action is taken. In addition, if you did take someone’s driver’s license away what makes you think they would obey that order? It is a common occurrence in Elk Grove to read the crime blotter and hear about someone being arrested for driving on a suspended/revoked license! The reality is people need a way to get to their work/school etc. now you want to take this away over 1 small transgression viewed as a civil matter? Again notice I said civil not criminal! Not to be outdone, when you committed the same infraction, you wanted to be exempt from your own consequences? How rich is that? Then he pulls the card that he works for the state? Like that somehow makes him someone who is above the law? DAFUQ?????
Final Thoughts:
Both of these gentlemen are over 50 years old, which makes them old enough to know better. These conversations while possibly funny, are downright disturbing. Both of these guys claim my generation, I’m 33, are destroying this country….funny thing is I can only think of a handful of Congressmen and maybe a few local elected officials that are my age, most are over the age of 50, even more are 60 plus.
Truth is, these are two of the worst offenders. One wants to hire more workers, pay them benefits, and play God in regards to their schedules when it suits management, yet terminate their employment when it effects the bottom line? The other says punish people by revoking their driver’s license, yet when he commits the same offense he is somehow pardoned?
I’m sorry I thought this was America? I guess this is just the land of the controlled and home of the Whopper? Worse yet, both of these men claim to be Republicans, and both claim they voted for Trump, yet I guess they have beliefs that are selectively applied? Both used to tell me the most dangerous place in America is between Sen Chuck Schumer and a camera, I disagree, I think it’s when these two morons are allowed to speak their supposed “beliefs.”
They claim to care about our country’s future, yet by their actions it is clear that they could care less. They have no problem knowing that their present lifestyle is subsidized by future generations; such selfishness by the “Baby Boom” generation is a frightening legacy. Sadly both have reproduced so we will be subjected to many more people who have similar inclinations of entitlement in the future.