A friend of mine who likes to eat at the Taco Bell fast-food chain was given an invitation to participate in a customer survey. Her reward would be a free meal—for a Taco Bell employee.
My friend worked for the Wendy’s fast-food chain in her youth, years ago, and she told me that in those days it was taken for granted that any employee was entitled to a meal (within reason) on their shift. She was surprised that this is no longer the norm.
What we have now is a fast-food restaurant chain whose executives not only underpay their employees, but don’t care that they have a reputation for underpaying employees, and appeal to the public’s sense of charity to help. Not that this is unique.
I realize how lucky I have been to spent most of my adult life in the afterglow of the New Deal. I wish I could think that today’s harsher, more impersonal world is a temporary aberration.
Phil Ebersole's Blog 