Chorin’
When I was but a lad, my first job was chores on the farm. My grandfather had a working farm and once I was big enough I was put to work. Summers and school breaks would find me at the farm working. Haying, fencing, choring among other activities not discussed in polite society were the things expected of me. And not that I minded either, a summer of throwing hay bales, shovelling gravel, digging fence posts or wrangling calves would have me returning to school in the fall tanned and strong.
My first job during the school year was working at a Beckers Store. A convenience store known for its milk that was in the local mall. The store was just outside the main mall entrance which on Sundays held a flea market. This was the only place you could buy a pack of smokes on Sunday at the mall. I was very busy.
Several of my friends then got jobs at the Consumers Distributing store in the mall and convinced me to join them there. A catalogue store with a small warehouse in back where we would scurry with little sheets of paper to the designated shelf of the product on that sheaf. We all waited for the day that someone would order the personal vibrator that all of us boys knew was not to alleviate shoulder tension. Next I went to work at Frank Vetere’s pizzeria and for the next decade I worked in restaurants and bars.
These jobs did many things for me, not the least of which was provide money to me for the things that adolescence requires. Dates, cars, drinking and paying for university myself. More importantly they instilled in me a love of working that exists still to this day. It is what drives me forward. There is no greater reason why I have returned to university than to enable my next career. Even though at my age most men are dreaming of retirement and golf and young buxom girls, I am daydreaming of opening a local law office to service my neighbours and friends staffed with young buxom girls!
My daughter is in her late 20’s and shares this love of work. While we did not have a family farm for her learn this love at she did have the opportunity to work at the dance studio where she learned the value of friendliness and dedication. Both the instructors she helped and the parents of the children she worked with shared their respect and gratitude for her efforts. This went a very long way to helping her in her development of a work ethic.
She next worked in a grocery store as a cash out girl and gradually rising in the ranks to work at the customer relations desk doing returns and handling complaints. Folks loved her because she was respectful and listened and she could only do this if she enjoyed what she was doing. Currently my daughter is working at the new restaurant venture of a celebrity chef. So impressed with her resume and interview they created a new position just to be able to hire her.
If my daughter was 14 or 15 years old today this might be another story altogether. In checking Stats Canada’s current youth unemployment numbers the level of disenfranchised youth is almost 15%. Setting aside the money, the experience that these students are missing is far more valuable than anything else. Imagine a generation of Canadians that does not have a drive to work naturally instilled in them during their formative years. What do they learn instead? The lessons of dependence, first upon their parents, then upon the government.
My friend was recently in Cuba for a scuba vacation with a side trip to Havana. He and his wife were shocked at the conditions they experience while there. A dinner at a recommended Italian restaurant brought the news that the excellent spaghetti carbonara was not possible as they had no eggs, no pasta, milk, soda water, coffee or dessert. They had shrimp, apparently it was quite good. In Havana the most used dining facilities were the garbage cans with the folks trying desperately to feed their families. In a frank conversation with one of the locals, a statement was made that chilled my friend.
Explaining what the old age pension in Cuba was all about this fellow described what his grandparents were expected to live on. Twenty five pesos a month with a bag of rice and one of beans. When my friend pointed out just how desparate this sounded this local did not disagree. But made the comment that it is difficult to feel bad for these older folks as they are the people who voted this political regime into existence. Given that Canada’s current government, which effectively is ten years in power, was put in place by older primarily female voters, this dependence culture demographic has the potential to be extremely problematic for us older citizens.
So what has replaced these young workers? As it AI? Not likely as the small restaurants and convenience stores of today still require someone to pour the coffee and stock the shelves. No what is replacing these young workers are temporary foreign workers and foreign student workers. There is a letter on the Tim Hortons web site suggesting that only 5% of its staff are in the TFW program. That small town franchisees cannot find sufficient workers for their 24/7 operations.
I recall some decades ago when buying a Tim Hortons meant working overnight because that was when the donuts and other baked goods were made. Each store was actually a bakery and as such someone was ther overnight and all that was needed to keep the doors open was one other staff member to man the counter or drive through window. That other staff member was also being trained to be the baker because once you had trained bakers you could open a second franchise.
Today they just thaw and dip the donuts possibly even less than that. No particular skills are required to work at a Horton’s anymore, speaking passible English is now optional for some positions. Also knowing now how poor the service is at a Hortons compared to decades ago I scratch my head at the numbers of staff behind the counter. How it can make financial sense to have so many staff doing so little unless the staff are being paid next to nothing.
Indentured service, modern slavery, both are terms becoming fashionable when describing staff at Hortons and a multitude of other small businesses. With the foriegn students that are desperate to earn money to stay in school in our country regardless of the lies that brought them here and the TFWs that can only work the job they were brought here for are all under the thumb of the business owner who hires them. A look into the demographics of these small business owners may also provide a startling understanding of why this is becoming accepted practice.
Our youth is at risk which places our nation’s future at risk. It is time we started doing the chorin’ necessary to stave off this catastrophe. Demanding our government put our youth before everything is first on the morning list of chores for me.