By Daniel Nardini
When my wife Jade had applied for a job back in 2020, she had sent in a resume and hoped whatever company that wanted her would call and schedule an appointment. This is what happened, and eventually she got a job. However, over the past couple of months, when Jade had some days off, we went to a cafeteria we know. By chance, my wife talked to some of the cleaning staff there. They were Filipinas who did the cleaning and maintenance there. They told my wife that they had been hired by an employment agency as a group who then sent them to this cafeteria to maintain the facilities. This was under contract between the agency and the cafeteria, and their contract was specified for a certain amount of time when they could work for the cafeteria. After that, the Filipinas could stay and continue working under a new contract (if both the agency and cafeteria wanted to keep them), or they could be employed elsewhere. Rarely were the workers terminated, so they had a pretty stable job and steady employment.
According to Jade, this is how the arrangement works. Usually a group of prospective employees apply at an employment agency. Sometimes individuals do as well. The agency checks to see if they have a criminal record (which saves a prospective employer the trouble), and then if approved these workers are taken to where they will work with the understanding that they will go there on their own to the workplace. This is the gist of what takes place. Some employment agencies might require the workers to give a percentage of their wages for a certain period of time, and sometimes the worker(s) might be sent to another branch of a company if the company requests it. Jade found that the workers she talked to were happy with this arrangement. Many of the workers that she had spoken to had had bad experiences with employers when they tried to get work on their own. They either could not find work, or the employer treated them badly. An employment agency was kind of a go-between for employees who are looking for a good employer and for employers looking for workers who had already been screened.
The drawback is that the place where a worker can go to is in the hands of an agency. The wages and working conditions had already been taken care of. Further, the workers have part of their wages deducted and going to the agency. In this case, they are part of an anonymous workforce doing what they have been assigned to do. But apparently it all depends on what an individual worker thinks will work to their advantage. Over the years, Jade has been discovering that many employers will not hire individual applicants who have not been screened by an employment agency. This had made it harder for my wife to find work as a lone applicant. I am now wondering if I was out in the workforce now would I find it possible to be hired as a lone applicant to do the job I was able to get at Lawndale News a generation ago? It seems that in so many ways this is becoming part of the work scene in the 2020’s; people are only as good as the labor they can perform. They are a resource only needed for the work they can do. If they become sick or injured on the job they will no longer be needed. Maybe many people are happy with this situation, but I personally would not be. I would rather be known by my name than as a number.
More a Resource Than a Name
By Daniel Nardini
According to Jade, this is how the arrangement works. Usually a group of prospective employees apply at an employment agency. Sometimes individuals do as well. The agency checks to see if they have a criminal record (which saves a prospective employer the trouble), and then if approved these workers are taken to where they will work with the understanding that they will go there on their own to the workplace. This is the gist of what takes place. Some employment agencies might require the workers to give a percentage of their wages for a certain period of time, and sometimes the worker(s) might be sent to another branch of a company if the company requests it. Jade found that the workers she talked to were happy with this arrangement. Many of the workers that she had spoken to had had bad experiences with employers when they tried to get work on their own. They either could not find work, or the employer treated them badly. An employment agency was kind of a go-between for employees who are looking for a good employer and for employers looking for workers who had already been screened.
The drawback is that the place where a worker can go to is in the hands of an agency. The wages and working conditions had already been taken care of. Further, the workers have part of their wages deducted and going to the agency. In this case, they are part of an anonymous workforce doing what they have been assigned to do. But apparently it all depends on what an individual worker thinks will work to their advantage. Over the years, Jade has been discovering that many employers will not hire individual applicants who have not been screened by an employment agency. This had made it harder for my wife to find work as a lone applicant. I am now wondering if I was out in the workforce now would I find it possible to be hired as a lone applicant to do the job I was able to get at Lawndale News a generation ago? It seems that in so many ways this is becoming part of the work scene in the 2020’s; people are only as good as the labor they can perform. They are a resource only needed for the work they can do. If they become sick or injured on the job they will no longer be needed. Maybe many people are happy with this situation, but I personally would not be. I would rather be known by my name than as a number.