Brinens and Things

I've seen the "help wanted" signs everywhere too, but Meta-Boss in particular seems to be having no trouble finding new employees. He's still his usual (high) amount of reluctant to do so because *training* them is a pain in the ass, but it's been a couple weeks since two people abruptly dropped their availability a lot, and he's already well on his way to replacing them and not needing me to cover all their empty shifts anymore.

I have never been explicitly told this, nor have I overheard any English-language conversations about it (sometimes I'm tempted to learn Hindi just so I can feel like a full person), but reading between the lines I get the impression that Meta-Boss is very hooked into the local Indian community and has an easy time finding a guy who knows a guy who could use a new sponsor for their work visa.

(Every time we have immigration-related chatting, my co-workers are always surprised that my family skipped straight to permanent residency and didn't come here on a work visa: apparently that's not the Done Thing in India. My first manager, when he was telling me about how he'd just obtained permanent residency, even described his new permanent-resident ID card to me as if he thought I'd never seen one before!)

As is so often the case, I guess, "the brown immigrants are taking our jobs" applies mainly to jobs the locals rejected. Although I can see how this could snowball into an equilibrium where fast-food/retail jobs are *only* (or even just primarily) available through networking with the Indian community, and where non-Indians mostly *can't* access them even if they want to. (AFAIK, I got the last open-to-all-applicants slot before Meta-Boss got good enough at networking not to need job listings anymore: as far as anyone looking around at job ads or handing out unsolicited resumes would know, there have been no openings at my workplace in four years.)

Meanwhile, getting *any* desk job, let alone a remote desk job, is a nightmare: oh, there's plenty of *listings*, but they all have tons of competitors. I'm currently taking a break from job hunting to focus on obtaining some more accounting-software certifications, in order to have the right to put some more keywords in my resume; I may well end up spending a year or more with a four-hours-a-day commute, or doing accounting 3 hours/week while I continue with my fast-food job, just to bootstrap into having some related work experience.

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>>even among those of us who can commute, I'm hearing a good deal of "If I have to go back onsite with people I know are lying about their vaccination status in order to avoid masking, I'm getting a different job".

For people in that situation, I recommend the me method: show up to work in a high-grade respirator, go about your business like everything's normal, and silently dare your boss to fire you. I can't recommend this to *everyone* because I [knew my superiors well enough to know I wouldn't be fired for it + was willing to accept the risk of being permanently restricted to one shift per week] (and in particular I can't recommend it to voice workers because talking on the phone is nearly impossible with my respirator on), but if one has a non-speech-based job and has already decided that one is unwilling to work at a job with unsafe air, one can give them an ultimatum rather than just quitting.

No, seriously, I think you should tell your co-workers this. Give them the purchase links I recommended. Maybe crowdfund for anyone who can't afford $30 for a base unit and a pair of filters. If your bosses won't *give* you a safe work environment, then *take* one, and see if they are willing to go so far as to actively stand in your way.


(P.S. Also, they're great against wildfire smoke! I highly recommend that people living in the Western U.S. have one even for that alone!)