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Antiwork

The irony of looking down on low wage service jobs, saying they’re only for teenagers, but then complaining about the teens who are working them

People will say how service industry jobs at retail stores and restaurants are “unskilled” and therefore the people working them don't deserve a living wage. Because apparently the jobs are only for teenagers/young people who still live with their parents. Adults who are trying to support themselves with these jobs are just losers who need to simply “get a better job”, so if they choose to work these jobs, they deserve to be in poverty. But then these same people turn around and complain about how the teens working these jobs goof off, don't do their jobs, and give such bad customer service. I saw a complaint that someone wrote on Facebook the other day, saying how this young girl working at the restaurant was so incompetent and had a bad attitude. And then literally said, “they shouldn't hire 16 year olds to work here.” Yet I'm sure this same…


People will say how service industry jobs at retail stores and restaurants are “unskilled” and therefore the people working them don't deserve a living wage. Because apparently the jobs are only for teenagers/young people who still live with their parents. Adults who are trying to support themselves with these jobs are just losers who need to simply “get a better job”, so if they choose to work these jobs, they deserve to be in poverty. But then these same people turn around and complain about how the teens working these jobs goof off, don't do their jobs, and give such bad customer service. I saw a complaint that someone wrote on Facebook the other day, saying how this young girl working at the restaurant was so incompetent and had a bad attitude. And then literally said, “they shouldn't hire 16 year olds to work here.” Yet I'm sure this same person would tell an adult working the exact same job to “get a better job” if they want to be able to eat and pay rent. Like, which is it? Either these jobs are for “teens who just want to earn some extra spending money”, or they should be done by older more mature people, and pay a livable wage. You can't have it both ways.

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