Comments by "Daniel Bradford" (@Falconlibrary) on "'The big quit' as millions leave jobs in US - BBC News" video.

  1. We recently had a tornado tear through the town of Mayfield, Kentucky. Workers at a candle factory wanted to leave before the tornado hit, but were told they'd be fired if they did so. Some of those people were killed, others badly injured. The factory was destroyed and now all of the workers who survived the tornado are unemployed. Their reward for risking their lives to make profits for the owner.
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  2. I retired in 2021 after 30 years as a teacher. The inhumanity of bosses started after the 2008-09 financial crisis, when employers clearly gained the upper hand and management became drunk on their own power. In 2012, my younger sister died at the beginning of the school year, so I called the Director of Human Resources that I was going to take a week off for my sister's funeral. She told me that she wouldn't approve the leave and that if I didn't report to work as scheduled, I'd be fired. I went anyway, and got a termination notice the day of my sister's funeral. My union took over at that point and said I wasn't fired, because only the Board had the power to hire and fire. To their credit, the Board members were shocked that the HR director had acted that way. No one at any point--not my principal, not my union reps, not the Board members, nor the HR Director--ever said the simple words "I'm sorry for your loss." I resigned from that district at the end of the year and went elsewhere, but each district I worked in had similarly inhumane practices. I suffered a stroke and was told I had to discharge myself from the hospital for an important meeting the next day. I showed up deathly ill and had a second, smaller stroke at the meeting. I suffered permanent damage as a result of being forced back to work prematurely. And that's in public education, with a union to bargain for my rights. I can't imagine how bad things are for non-unionized workers who have NO rights.
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