Galli Gripes: Where Have All the Workers Gone?

Do you remember that horrible song in the nineties that features a woman woefully wailing about where all the cowboys have gone? I am considering doing my own special remix of that song and calling it “Where Have All the Workers Gone?”

You know what I am talking about here. EVERYONE is claiming to be short-staffed. We all feel the pain. When calling companies, we get that dreadful on-hold message that tells us our wait time will be excessive — presumably because they have 30 people calling and two people working. Target, Walmart, and many grocery stores have shifted to primarily self-checkout.

I genuinely want to know…where are the workers?

Everyone is Short-Staffed. But Why?

Many businesses lost the lion’s share of their staff during the pandemic and subsequent quarantine periods. But when those employees did not come back, where did they go? The service industry took the biggest hit. Restaurants, hospitality, and other venues are limping along because their staff didn’t return. But why? Where are those people working now? How are they surviving?

As most of you know, I work in healthcare as my day job. We are also feeling the effects of the staff shortage epidemic in our industry. Our industry has a severe staffing deficit. The company I…