ethan, at the top of the hour we re going to get the latest jolts report, these are the official numbers on job openings and people quitting work. we talk all about this great resignation, you may have actually coined that term. people say, oh, people don t want to work, they ve gotten so much money from to work, they v gotten so much money from the government, they re just sitting on their couches. but we re forgetting that many, many low-wage workers are feeling the brunt of this wrath, people who work in service industries and transportation, people who are exposed to covid more than people who can work at home. you have airport ticket workers getting abused day in and day out. is the kind of abuse they re experiencing one of the reasons we re seeing this labor shortage? people are just resigning over it? part of the answer has to be of course. in fact, some of this is not particularly new. arvin carakoonian previously did a dissertation on 911 call
Takers. imagine 911 call takers in a social media environment. and he finds when the public names and shames employees, in response, they do what you would expect them to do. they escape, they sometimes pass the buck, and some of them leave. and i think we re seeing some of that in the great resignation. and partly, the great attraction. we can find, if we re tired of dealing with these customers, let s find a job where we don t have to deal with them. here s the thing, ethan. many of these companies are making massive, massive profits. could they be doing more to help protect or even incentivize their workers on the front lines, right? every day, we re reading about airlines that are offering triple pay to their pilots, but those call center operators who have to talk to people who are waiting three, four, sometimes ten hours after their flights get canceled, those people aren t getting a dime more. sarah did a wonderful job of doing the first step, which is just making this known
New york times writer at large behind this incredible piece, also ethan bernstein with harvard business school, he studies labor there. sara, why have so many people in our society become so angry a year and a half ago we couldn t go to restaurant, we were locked down, we couldn t celebrate with our families. now we re going off on store clerks. why are we this angry? i think we re angry at other stuff and we re taking it out on people in these restaurants, in airlines, in stores all over the place. you know, we can t yell at covid, so we yell at these people who are trying to help us, and it s not just the covid restrictions, it s frustrations over, as you say, not being able to get what you want, over getting it too slowly, over hearing that there are supply chain issues and people have just lost it. i think there s a lot of pent up frustration, rage, fear, fatigue and anger out there.
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