The common theme amongst people nowadays is that the coronavirus has impacted the working life of all Americans. But people cannot seem to agree on how COVID-19 has impacted the workforce.
Some of the more common themes are that people are too lazy after receiving stimulus checks and just want to stay at home, COVID-19 is a cop-out for those people who want a few days off, and the like.
The common thing, then, is that people want to be at home instead of at work. Many employers are left in the dark as to why people do not want to come to work.
Chief among those employers asking this question is Harald Hagan, the Service Manager at Lou Sobh Honda. He is among those who believe that people have gotten too lazy.
“This issue of low workforce has always been around, but it has become a bigger issue since the end of COVID-19. Ever since the government sent out stimulus checks to individuals who got laid off, people have just wanted to stay home and collect checks.”
He also mentioned how even today, he sees people who are still relying on unemployment/stimulus checks instead of working. He says that he hopes it works out in the end for those people, but he is worried that they will soon be unable to fend for themselves.
David Wikle, Parts and Service Director of both Lou Sobh Honda and Lou Sobh Kia agrees with Hagan about the dwindling numbers in the workforce, but he attributes it to people who just want time off without using their paid time off.
“Some people just use COVID-19 as an excuse. It has become the recent version of an employee’s car breaking down. It makes sense for the first couple of times, but after that, it just seems like they do not want to work.” – David Wikle, service manager and director at Lou Sobh Honda and Lou Sobh Kia
He went on to say that he had one employee call out of work last week due to COVID-19 related illness. This would not be such a problem, he continued, if that same employee had not have called out of work for COVID-19 the week before. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the whole thing but knows that he cannot do much without any evidence to the contrary.
