In 1977, David Allen Coe wrote the song “Take this job and shove it” that soared to No. 1 on the country music chart for artist Johnny Paycheck. Listeners could relate. The 1970s saw rapid inflation, a recession and the Fed responding with interest rates of nearly 20%. Purchasing power was eroded, and the prices of services and goods – gasoline, in particular – were suddenly astronomical.
The value of work came into question and the song’s lyrics became a kind of anthem: “Take this job and shove it/I ain’t working here no more.”
The lyrics strike a nerve these days, too. Burnout was the main driver for the Great Resignation with employees walking away from jobs in a tight labor market in the wake of the pandemic.
We get that small businesses would try to increase chances employees would stick around. But in the case of Animas Chocolate and Coffee Co., it went too far when it deducted payment from a former employee for failing to submit written two-week notice, thereby, violating state wage and hours laws.
Any company suffers when employees don’t give proper notice – ours included. Legally, there’s no recourse. It’s a tough, costly break to train employees, only to watch them leave.
All companies can do is make their workplace culture pretty darn good so workers will stay. This takes soft skills on the part of managers and would, ideally, become integral to business models, with retention another measure of success.
As reported in The Durango Herald on Sunday, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment cited Animas Chocolate and forced it to pay $405.60 in penalties directly to former employee Jordan Brown for failing to pay $93.67 of her wages. (When the citation was given, owner Carley Snider had already paid Brown the money owed.)
The citation said Brown worked for ACC from May 11, 2022, to July 5, 2022, for an agreed-upon rate of $15 per hour. ACC failed to pay that rate for Brown’s final 38.39 hours worked and paid her the minimum wage of $12.56 per hour for the hours worked before giving her resignation instead of her full wages.
This policy to pay lower wages was spelled out in an onboarding packet that Brown signed. The contract says: “Should an employee abandon their (sic) position without written 2-week notice, any hours the employee has worked that are still outstanding will be paid at the Colorado State base minimum wage rate.”
No matter what an onboarding packet says, new employees will likely sign. In that moment, they’re not thinking about quitting. Like a divorce, a couple arranging a wedding isn’t likely considering details and terms if the marriage were to fall apart. And young people new to the workforce might miss implications.
ACC’s tip policy was called out, too, because tips were not paid to employees.
The onboarding packet says ACC “does not utilize a tipped wage salary program and that all tips are the property of ACC and used to subsidize wages for the entire staff.”
Note, the word “subsidize.” Tips were not added to wages.
Again, not an option. The Department of Labor said the tip policy was a clear violation of the Colorado Revised Statute 8-4-103(6), which says, “gratuities are the sole property of the employee“ and "it is unlawful for an employer to assert a claim to, or right of ownership in, or control over gratuities.”
It’s decent – and smart – for ACC to pay workers more than the minimum wage, which increased 8.68% to $13.65 in 2023. But the chocolate shop can’t justify taking tips to subsidize wages.
So how to meet endless business challenges, create best circumstances for employees and reach even higher – growing workers from entry-level positions to management?
In 2022, companies that invested in employee development saw a 58% increase in employee retention, according to a recent report from the industry publication HR Digest. Not all companies can offer flexible work hours or expand benefits. But they can be expansive and creative in building pleasant – and appreciative – workplaces.
In June, Nicholas Bloom, a professor of labor economics at Stanford University, told CNN: “The Great Resignation, by really any measure, is over. That’s moved into the window of history now.”
This may be true, but Colorado mountain towns are outliers in the U.S. job market. One thing, though, is universal – there’s less incentive to quit if workers get what they want.
