I was at the rental car counter last night at 10:30 PM PST and a middle-aged man with a customer service tag on his shirt did a wondeful job processing my request. He wore a business shirt and tie, that seemed rather nice and I could tell that he he had experiencing tieing that tie as it was tied in a very business like manner — trim and neat. He was clearly not the manager — his tag simply said customer service.
20 years ago, this kind of man would have had a middle management job in a major corporation making probably 3x what he must be making now behind the counter. I know because I used to sell to people like him all over the country.
And he is not the first I have seen behind a counter. How are we improving our economic viability as a country when educated men and women are behind the customer service counter making maybe $20/hour?
There is nothing new here if you have read The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, but the experience brings forward questions from the book into a new reality. Does this man have a family? Is he working odd hours while his kids and wife are home? What is this job doing to his relationship to them and him?
My sense is that there is an invisible world not really noted in the press of many, many people who are struggling to have a better life than their fathers. Many of them are working at Walmart and other low paying service jobs in a disruptive work/life balance without basic benefits such as healthcare, much less the kinds of financial benefits many have made in sacrifice of home and family time, including yours truly.