by Monica Palmer
This morning when your alarm sounded, I’m sure you merrily readied yourself for the day and gleefully marched out the door to work. Right?
Ok, the scenario may have varied slightly. Let’s face it, not everyone gets giddy about going to work. I think that might be why it’s called a “job.”
Job satisfaction is a relatively new concept. Just a few generations ago, I doubt my grandfather spent much time pondering whether or not he was happy sweating in the train yards for Burlington Northern. He worked there because it was a job he could do, and he needed the money to support his family.
Modern day employees expect a little more than that from their life’s work. They actually expect to derive a certain amount of happiness from their job as well.
According to a recent survey conducted by CareerBuilder, an increasing number of employees are unhappy with their job. In fact, many of them report they plan to change their place of employment in 2014.
Of course, we must bear in mind that this study was conducted on a site where people go to scope out greener pastures, so the sample could be a bit biased. I mean, it’s kind of like conducting a marital happiness survey on a dating site. That said, many employees in today’s workforce do have some valid reasons to be unhappy with their employment.
Five years ago, our country was in the middle of what many consider the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. During this time, layoffs and downsizing became a common occurrence, and people who did maintain employment were told that they were “lucky,” because there was someone else out there who would love to have their job.
This mentality has fostered a kind of forced acceptance in the modern day workforce. Employees are hesitant to ask for more hours, better benefits or a higher wage, because they know that even today there are people ready and willing to do their job.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that just a few months ago 10.4 million workers were classified as unemployed. At the same time, there were only 4 million job openings. So, if you do the math, you’ll see that’s about five unemployed workers for every 2 available jobs.
This situation of having more employees than available jobs is undoubtedly a contributing factor to the startling fact that since the beginning of the so-called “economic recovery” in June of 2009, the median income in this country has actually DECLINED 4.4% according to a Sentier Research report on household incomes.
The price of childcare, groceries, utilities, rent, etc. are all going up in accordance with a recovering economy, but incomes are going down.
Last month, there was a mixed reaction to the news that the food banks in Missouri distributed 117,007,189 pounds of food in 2013. That’s an increase of nearly 23% over 2012. This news was satisfying for those of us in the business of feeding the hungry, because we know that the high distribution was driven by high need. However, there were more than a few raised eyebrows and questions about why people are still “asking for handouts” when the economy is on the upswing.
After four years of “economic recovery” the median income is lower, and hard-working people are finding it more and more difficult to make ends meet. The record-breaking food distribution by Missouri food banks last year fed a lot of Missourians you might not ever expect would require assistance. These are the folks that are lucky enough to be employed, but not lucky enough to be earning a livable wage.
There are hungry and hurting families in Missouri in need of genuine recovery. If we are to achieve it, we must know the facts. If you would like to help, I humbly ask you to share this blog, like our FaceBook page, or follow us on Twitter. Understanding the root causes of poverty and hunger are essential in creating and enacting a solution. Please do what you can to help. Together we can solve hunger.