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Tell that to the plethora of hotels that are constantly hiring contractors to clean their hotels because their staff either quit due to lack of pay or being ove

by ihsw2 9y ago

Tell that to the plethora of hotels that are constantly hiring contractors to clean their hotels because their staff either quit due to lack of pay or being overworked due to lack of staff. The same for trucking companies that are haemorrhaging drivers. The same for the construction industry. Market efficiency implies the market is managed well. It's not half the time.

shostack 9y ago
From a hotel accounting standpoint I honestly wonder which is more profitable for what I'd assume can be classified as a low-skill job: 1. Hire more employees and/or pay higher wages or other benefits to retain experienced (and thus presumably more efficient and effective staff) 2. Churn and burn with abandon because there will always be people desperate enough for any job to keep themselves off the street, even if it's just until they can find something marginally better I'm not making any judgements on the morality of this...just raising the question since I have a guess that #2 is more profitable.
- SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
  I suspect that number 2 is less profitable: the quality of work drops, your reputation drops, and the effective market rate you can charge drops. But I think you can get trapped in a number 2 situation regardless -- eg, there's an economic downturn, so people spend less, the business "cost optimizes", which causes people to spend less, etc. I think the second case is a sort of "survival" mode witnessed in fundamentally unhealthy economies where businesses are being squeezed because people in general are being squeezed.
HillaryBriss 9y ago
Frances Gabe, an Oregon woman who took the first steps toward a self cleaning dwelling: http://kuow.org/post/remembering-frances-gabe-oregon-inventor-self-cleaning-house http://kuow.org/post/remembering-frances-gabe-oregon-invento... i think the idea still needs some refinement before it can be rolled out at a Holiday Inn though

by ihsw2 9y ago

shostack 9y ago

From a hotel accounting standpoint I honestly wonder which is more profitable for what I'd assume can be classified as a low-skill job: 1. Hire more employees and/or pay higher wages or other benefits to retain experienced (and thus presumably more efficient and effective staff) 2. Churn and burn with abandon because there will always be people desperate enough for any job to keep themselves off the street, even if it's just until they can find something marginally better I'm not making any judgements on the morality of this...just raising the question since I have a guess that #2 is more profitable.

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
I suspect that number 2 is less profitable: the quality of work drops, your reputation drops, and the effective market rate you can charge drops. But I think you can get trapped in a number 2 situation regardless -- eg, there's an economic downturn, so people spend less, the business "cost optimizes", which causes people to spend less, etc. I think the second case is a sort of "survival" mode witnessed in fundamentally unhealthy economies where businesses are being squeezed because people in general are being squeezed.

HillaryBriss 9y ago

Frances Gabe, an Oregon woman who took the first steps toward a self cleaning dwelling: http://kuow.org/post/remembering-frances-gabe-oregon-inventor-self-cleaning-house http://kuow.org/post/remembering-frances-gabe-oregon-invento... i think the idea still needs some refinement before it can be rolled out at a Holiday Inn though