Now Hiring: The Good Ol' Days

Just this week, Jimmy and I were talking about the good ol' days of washing dishes here at the Uptown, and how we go through periods of hiring and employment where it's really difficult to find and keep reliable, loyal and hard-working staff for just that particular position alone. During the mid 90's, Jimmy and I were heavily relied upon to work those weekend nights, weekend after weekend

My father has no idea how easy he had it with us. Today, we can go for weeks not knowing if our dishwasher is even going to show up for the next shift. It is a very valuable and important position within any restaurant. So, when we go through stretches like we are in now, where we have found that reliable, loyal and hard-working younger staff, we are very much appreciative of them. 

So, that got us to talking and Ray made a comment about how old we are getting. He's right! I NEVER thought I would be THAT guy talking about how, "Back in my day, in 1996 when I made $4.75 an hour, I worked so hard... blah, blah, blah."

Well Jim, we are now THAT guy!

And that led me to share the following video/speech that Ashton Kutcher gave last week at the Teen Choice Awards, in which he started the speech by saying, "Lets just face it, this is called the old guy award!"

Ashton is the same age as Jimmy and me, plus our group of friends. He said many of the things that - in regard to working - we all talk about quite often... much the same way our parents probably talked about our generation when we were growing up. I'm sure we had less work ethic than they did, and they had less work ethic than their parents did etc., etc. And it's kind of scary, the road it appears we might be traveling down. But, here we are. This is now how we perceive that next generation. 

I thought Ashton said many things well in his speech and hope that it reaches as many teenagers today as possible. If you can, share it with them. Not everyone is entitled to a job, a car, an iPhone, or an iPad. Sometimes you have to work to be afforded your next opportunity. And as Ashton said, "Opportunity looks a lot like work."