America, where pulling yourself up by the bootstraps is a bit difficult due to all the sharp bootstrap-cutting objects lying in your path.
A Tupelo woman hired earlier this month by a KFC was fired Monday after the franchise owner discovered she’s homeless.
Eunice Jasica has been staying at the Salvation Army lodge since early December after losing her job, her car and her home.
The nonprofit organization requires its residents to seek employment daily and, upon finding it, to pay for lodging and start saving for a place of their own. Jasica said she had been job hunting for months and was relieved to find work on March 11 at the KFC on North Gloster Street.
A document signed by that location’s general manager on March 12 confirms Jasica had been hired to perform “prep work” and would receive a paycheck every two weeks.
But when Jasica reported for duty Monday, franchise owner Chesley Ruff withdrew the job offer upon learning she lived at the Salvation Army.
“He told me to come back when I had an address and transportation,” Jasica recalled. “But how am I supposed to get all that without a job?”
Firing someone you hired because they don’t have a place to live when the entire reason they took the job was to be able to afford a place to live, and you don’t pay enough to afford a place to live? I’m betting Chesley Ruff is a lifelong Republican.
Luckily, this story now has a better ending.
A woman fired from a KFC in Tupelo for being homeless has found a new job and an outpouring of support.
Eunice Jasica was tentatively hired Tuesday by On Time Transportation to shuttle Medicaid and Medicare patients to and from doctors’ appointments. She still must complete the final stages of her application process but should be on the job by early April, said the company’s office manager, Yolanda Baskin.
The much larger problem is America is largely designed to keep poor people poor, and ridiculously rich people ridiculously rich.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
And has at least one decal or sticker on her SUV (I’m gonna bet the big Lexus) identifying her as a Christian, and does that scrunchy-eyed thing Dumbya used to do when she prays in front of people
Mustang Bobby
This is one of those Charlie Pierce “guzzle anti-freeze” moments until you get to the happy ending.
PS: At her new job she’s doing something better by taking people to see the doctor than providing them with the salt-encrusted junk food that gets them sick in the first place.
Maxwell's Demon
The story will have a truly happy ending when protesters shut down that KFC and any others owned by that greedy SOB. Not holding my breath.
Villago Delenda Est
Death by public vivisection is too humane a way to deal with the likes of Chelsey Ruff.
I hope KFC corporate is made aware of this asshat damaging their brand.
Johnny Coelacanth
“Chesley Ruff?” Jaysus Christ, could he have a more douchebaggy name? “Yes Chesley, do join Chip and Biff at the yacht club for cocktails.”
Chesley is not a woman; Chesley is a 62 year old man.
RobertDSC-eMac 1.25
Mr. Ruff needs to meet the business end of a sledgehammer. Several times.
Ben Franklin
What is it with chicken franchises?
Is it true you are, what you eat?
Higgs Boson's Mate
I’d bet the ranch that Chesley Ruff continues to bitch about freeloaders who won’t get a job.
Tonal Crow
Why do you hate job-creator Chesley Ruff’s freedom so much? If you don’t lay off the hating, she — and millions of other taken-for-granted job-creators — are going to Go Galt, and then who’ll feed you, you ungrateful greedy good-for-nothing hippie libtards?
/wingnut
Davis X. Machina
There is no good reason for anyone to be homeless in this country.
None. Zip. Nada.
You can do anything in the public-policy realm if you have the balls and the money, and if you have the balls, you can find the money.
We don’t have the balls. Completely a defect of the will.
Yutsano
@Tonal Crow: I’ve noticed most franchise owners are wingnutty jerks who squeeze every last dime they can out of their employees while trying to pay as little as possible. I’m certain there are exceptions, but I can’t think of any now.
@Davis X. Machina: If you are homeless, you must have done something to DESERVE being homeless. Otherwise, why would you be? And yes there are people out there who think this way.
terraformer
I keep wondering when enough is enough. Decades of union-busting, increased productivity with a flat (or declining) wage (and salary too), and the highest levels of corporate profits ever seen.
Yet, people are told that this is just the new normal, that this is how it must be in the “new economy.” Maybe the bread and circuses (e.g., “The Voice”, “American Idol”) is working this time.
scav
Chesley Ruff? Name that unique needs to be spread Far And Wide, High Visibility Publicity with his Virtues and Acts Displayed to all, as an example of the best KFC and Tupulo has to offer and admire. Let us applaud This Stellar adherent of All that is Best of ‘Merca and Job Creation. Wouldn’t want just Anyone to get access to chicken-shit jobs and that ‘mercan dream. All Hail the unsung Heros, the Jobs Gatekeepers.
dollared
Chesley (must rhyme with Presley) is going for the Daily Double, adding an age discrimination suit:
Let’s keep Chesley in the news. As the sportwriters say, he’s a good quote.
Ben Franklin
The fools who buy into franchises spend hundreds of thousands and need in the range of $1.5 mil in net worth to get fleeced by corporate grift. They have some protection from low margin scams in that they can’t be forced to participate, but they agree to implement new products and usually have to buy expensive equip directly from the franchiser. They pay a royalty on every gross dollar earned, not profit. KFC probably has a contractual obligation written in, which involves employment policies, and is the source of the problem.
Davis X. Machina
@terraformer:
No peasant mob ever stormed the castle with a Schofield Reference Bible in one hand, and a wireless remote in the other. Pitchforks, and torches yes…..
scav
@Davis X. Machina: Early days yet. Torches and Tweets, Smart-Phones and Spikes, the Remote-Rattling Rabble when Roused could be scarey, especially during an overlong commercial break. . .
Redshift
@Yutsano:
There was some asshat on TPM or Maddowblog (can’t remember) last week, smugly declaring that the main difference between rich people and poor people was their money-management skills, and he was absolutely certain that if you gave them equal amounts of money, within a few years, the same ones would be rich and poor.
I’m sure he thinks he earned everything he has on his own with no help from anyone, too.
Violet
@Johnny Coelacanth: Exactly. Except it wouldn’t be Biff because that’s a northeastern preppy name. It would be Parker or Beau or Hayes or J.D., short for Jefferson Davis.
Davis X. Machina
@scav: The de-facto state religion in this country is the wrong kind of Christianity to get a crusade up — unless it’s against the paynims.
Social justice? Matthew 25:40?
This particular Deus so not lo vult that
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Violet:
Or Bobby Lee.
Yutsano
@Redshift: Sounds like a great sociological experiment to me. How nice of him to volunteer!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Redshift: I always thought one of the several under-discussed aspects of the 47% tape was Willard’s indignation that anyone could think he didn’t EARN everything he had! The notion that he was born on third base (at least) as the son of a governor and major CEO, Cranbrook School, Harvard and the small matter of the $50,000 nest egg (at least a quarter million in today’s dollars) he and Annie had as poor grad students, when they used an ironing board as a dining table.
Amir Khalid
When Eunice Jasica filled in her job application, she’d have listed the Salvation Army lodge as her temporary address, right? So Mr. Ruff would have known that she didn’t have a permanent address yet. And why was she expected to show up for work if she hadn’t been hired? Can’t he even lie competently?
Ben Franklin
@Davis X. Machina:
Further;
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
Violet
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Lower class would be Bobby Lee. Upper class would be Rob or maybe Robert.
khead
Chesley Ruff of Tupelo MS? I wonder if he’s ever heard of some dude named George Tierney….
Lavocat
This is first and foremost a matter of compassion. WTF is wrong with people?
I’ll bet this fine fellow considers himself a devout Christian as well. Jesus would NOT be amused.
Roger Moore
@scav:
So are you suggesting that we need to make Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi the next George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina. We could easily do it by mentioning Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi all the time.
Spaghetti Lee
There are a lot of conservatives out there who wouldn’t even get why this is so messed up.
“Those homeless people need to stop slacking and get a job!”
“How can they get a job if no one will hire a homeless person?”
“Well then they should stop buying cigarettes and liquor and buy a house!”
“How do they pay for the house if they don’t have a job?”
“…Those homeless people need to GET A JOB!”
scav
@Davis X. Machina: Those Tennessee Muuz-lims with their
Clean Feet and Mop Infiltration Ways and that Nasty Pope Cleaning Feet for Wimminz and Muuzlims (notice a theme? Cleanliness is Suspect!) Holy Roller Mud Rollers.
Violet
@Lavocat: Not devout. He’ll consider himself a Good Christian. Big difference.
Davis X. Machina
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Those are merely the outward signs of election, bestowed upon those who, through no merit of their own, but solely the working of a divine will, were chosen from before the beginning of all time.
Our fallible human intellects, even when pooled in the form of legislatures, cannot presume to second-guess the ineffable dispositions of the Almighty.
It’s presumptuous on a good day. On a bad day, it’s blasphemy.
Gex
@khead: Nice call back!
Cacti
I’ll bet Mr. Ruff bitches endlessly about his taxes and how the lazy bums need to get a job.
Davis X. Machina
@Ben Franklin: There was a contest on DemocraticUnderground.com years ago for an elevator pitch-cum-bumper sticker slogan for the Democratic Party. My entry was “Matthew 25:40”.
They hated it. Because you can’t be a Christian and a liberal. It’s impossible. Opium of the masses, perverts in dresses, etc. etc….
Citizen_X
@dollared:
But you already hired her, you mealy-mouthed lying sack.
the Conster
Is Chesley Ruff of Tupelo Mississippi the same Chesley Ruff of Tupelo Mississippi that fired that poor woman who just wanted to work for Chesley Ruff of Tupelo Mississippi – the same Chesley Ruff of Tupelo Mississippi who owns the KFC franchise in Tupelo Mississippi? That Chesley Ruff of Tupelo Mississippi?
Cacti
@Citizen_X:
So his new excuse is that he was practicing age discrimination?
Cacti
@the Conster:
Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi likes to discriminate against the aged and the homeless. I would never eat at a KFC owned by the bigot Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi.
Citizen_X
@Cacti: Yes–against someone younger than him!
Joey Maloney
The part that I like is that since, as TFA helpfully points out, Mississippi is an at-will employment state, meaning that you can be fired for any reason or no reason so long as you obey the various antidiscrimination laws. So Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi was perfectly within his rights to fire (or un-hire, whatever) this woman for being homeless, but now that he’s changed his story and says the real reason was because he thought she was too old to do the job, he’s maybe open to an age-discrimination lawsuit.
Good job, Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi: bigoted AND stupid.
scav
Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi. The Star of Easter Week in Tupelo, Mississippi in the Land of Opportunity and Exceptionalism that is Tupelo, Mississippi and best KFC has to offer the world? That Chesley Ruff? What example of Christian And American Fried-Chicken-Based Secret-Sauce Virtue has he physically expressed this time upon an unworthy world, this Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi?
Cacti
@Joey Maloney:
Indeed.
In his haste to absolve himself of kicking the homeless in the teeth, he admitted to a violation of federal labor law by saying her age was the real reason for the firing.
the Conster
@Roger Moore:
Chesley Ruff of Tupelo Mississippi went to college at the University of South Carolina, the same state that produced George Tierney of Greenville South Carolina and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Chesley Ruff of Tupelo Mississippi and George Tierney of Greenville South Carolina knew each other since Chesley Ruff of Tupelo Mississippi has the same attitude as George Tierney of Greenville South Carolina and George Tierney of Greenville South Carolina has the same attitude as Chesley Ruff of Tupelo Mississippi, also too.
Joey Maloney
@Joey Maloney: Sentence structure fail. What happened to the edit button?
Citizen Alan
I would only add that another part of the problem is that most of the middle class goes along with it because they naively think they’re more likely to end up ridiculously rich than to ever end up poor.
JPL
Leave Chesley Ruff alone. He has lots of homeless friends.
JPL
If it is this Chesley Ruff, he should sell his franchise cuz of his advance age.. link
SiubhanDuinne
@khead:
Yes, very likely.
Jay in Oregon
@Yutsano:
This reminds me of this scene from Babylon 5 (couldn’t find it on YouTube):
http://is.gd/KIeIyh
B5 was ahead of its time in so many ways.
Meepers
Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, MS reviews cologne:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AWM22NV5OUFC1
khead
@SiubhanDuinne:
Good find. That is just craptacular.
quannlace
What the fuck does Ruff care about what kind of transportation the woman has? She got to work okay, didn’t she. Public transport is too declasse? You gotta have your own car to work at the KFC?
Mnemosyne
@Redshift:
There’s something to that if you remember that money management is a skill that needs to be taught and not an inherent virtue. People who are never taught those skills probably will not be very good money managers any more than putting someone who’s never learned how to drive behind the wheel of a car and sending them out onto the freeway will magically make them a good driver.
Of course, when you point that out to people like that, they magically become deaf because they really do think that money management skills are some kind of genetic inheritance and not a teachable skill.
SiubhanDuinne
@khead:
Thanks, but I can’t take credit. Johnny Coelacanth found the link.
scav
This Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi, “A friendly kind-a guy” who has tried many kinds of “clognes” over many years bofore finding one that “For some reason chicks dig this aroma.”? Have no fear, he’s bought 5 bottles (“at the request of several ladies”) just in case he needs to sweet-talk those tetchy women thinking they’ve been employed and things. This was in 06, so maybe he ran out since. I’m sorry, the Lucky You Cologne For Men by Lucky Brand review is irresistable on its own merits . . . .I’m easily amused.
kc
I hope people are boycotting the hell out of Chesley Ruff’s KFCs.
Another Halocene Human
@dollared: So they took away unions and replaced them with lawsuits. But the poor can’t get contingency lawyers for employment suits (usually–I mean, not desperately poor women like this lady, but I have seen barely-hanging-only-middle class with longer tenure at their job do it). So the law also fails to impose the shall we say “discipline” which has caused all of the big fat companies with middle managers who can afford lawyers to enact sexual harassment policies and non-discrimination policies with teeth. (Some of these companies also did enough research to find out that a welcoming, diverse work environment leads to higher morale and better work outcomes, but you see in Tupelo, they have Jesus. Not the real* Jesus, who probably would have agreed with the prior statement, but down-home-Baptist-grifter-Republican Jesus.)
*-mileage may vary
So Rand Paul doesn’t even know what he’s ranting about, since these smalltime tin plated dick-taters can say whatever they want with no fear of reprisal.
Anyway, this is how I feel about it:
Forget it, BJ. It’s Tupelo.
Origuy
It’s not good enough just to mention Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi. You need to link the owner of Ruff Business Systems to the story in the Clarion Ledger.
lojasmo
According to her linkedin page, Ruff is from Columbia, SC. Worst. Place. Ever.
balloon juice sucks
you’re all horrible human beings.
scav
@kc: In Tupelo? Please. Local newspapers mentioned full parking lot. KFC nudge might be the best thing even to dream of. He’ll still be a hero to many, esp local Tupelo, Mississippi business somebodies with Ruff-Love Employment Standards probably spreading like ALEC wildfire.
Lavocat
@Violet: I instantly translate the phrase “good Christian” into “ignorant bastard”. I’m rarely wrong with this translation.
Another Halocene Human
@Redshift: There was some asshat on TPM or Maddowblog (can’t remember) last week, smugly declaring that the main difference between rich people and poor people was their money-management skills, and he was absolutely certain that if you gave them equal amounts of money, within a few years, the same ones would be rich and poor.
That’s probably true statistically (moreso if you cherrypick the self-made comfortable, less so if you go with inherited wealth), and there’s nothing smug about it. Poor people who have grown up poor don’t engage in the sort of long term fantasizing/planning that wealthy people do. Wealthy people, in fact, have a tendency to hoard cash because so much of their identity is wrapped up in a figure. Poor people who come into money sometimes are prepared. But sometimes they may poor financial decisions because of a variety of reasons–obligation to family, simple ignorance of the tax code (less common than you think), getting poor financial advice (very common), overhanging bills/issues from when they were poor, poor health, and finally, the old impulsive behavior.
Yes there are people with poor impulse control. Hopefully that will be less of an issue as the EPA and other government agencies on all levels do the good work of lead abatement. And as bipolar disorder is more widely recognized and people across society gain access to mania-controlling drugs. Truly rich people with poor impulse control are often shielded from the consequences of their actions, but I will concede that the very wealthy tended not to suffer as acutely from lead exposure. I’m sure there are exceptions. (Like living in one of those old houses with lead pipes and lead paint peeling on the radiator, because it’s historic.)
I’ve seen plenty of people who traded away a little financial security for a NEW car. Could have gotten a lightly-used 1 yr old car that was just as good. Could have cleaned up and restored a 10 yr old car with new parts/interior for half the cost. No. New. Made a mortgage payment for the salescreep. Huffed those volatile organic compounds. Worked three jobs to pay the payments, ruined their back, lost one of their jobs due to absenteeism, ruined relationships because they didn’t get any sleep and started acting stupid. (No, sleep is NOT optional!! I’ve watched you on 3 hours nightly and you’re a fucking idiot!)
For some people who will never own a home, whose only retirement is a pension plus social security, I guess I could see how a car would be an affordable luxury that would please them… but I still think people get ripped off. They go to the dealership, pick up these glossy brochures, obsess over how this car will give them status/pleasure, spend hours spinning rationalizations, and ultimately trade away their freedom for nothing. If it’s an American car (and it’s always an American car) it kills you bit by bit with bad parts that need replacing, or it gets in a wreck and you’re still paying payments on a heap. Or you get sick and miss a paycheck and all of a sudden you’re walking to work.
They say willpower is a limited resource. The working poor often have their willpower all used up. They buy into the fantasy of the NEW car. And even cruel reality won’t beat that out of them.
Which is far from saying they deserve to be poor. What rot. After WWII American workers got middle class wages and they entered the middle class. They didn’t stay poor. Most poor people care about their children’s future and will do whatever they have to do for them.
Another Halocene Human
@Violet: Saxby, Haley,
ConstanceCornelius, d/b/a Connie, Leslieeta: my memory of GOP RealNames™ sucks, apparently
cmorenc
@Amir Khalid:
Here’s what probably happened: Mr. Ruff, needing the help, willingly overlooked the obvious implication of Ms. Jasica’s Salvation Army home address. BUT THEN, after a couple of weeks, one or more of his customers recognized Ms. Jasica as someone who was living at the SA, perhaps from having driven by there in the morning or evening while Ms. Jasica was hanging around outside there mixed with other homeless people taking shelter there. Word then got back to Mr. Ruff that some of his customers were becoming aware of Ms. Jasica’s situation, and were a bit icked out about what this implied about the quality of people he had working there (the image most securely non-homeless folk have of people residing at the SA is not one of habitual good hygeine). And so, Mr. Ruff makes a pragmatic, albeit hard-headed/hearted decision that the need to preserve the attractive image of his business outweighs (at least temporarily) his need for optimal staffing. And from a purely hard-headed pragmatic business standpoint, he made a rationally sensible choice here, albeit one devoid of any moral courage.
So, while not absolving Mr. Ruff for hard-hearted moral timidity here, LET’S ALLOCATE A SUBSTANTIAL PART OF THE BLAME WHERE IT PROPERLY BELONGS: Mr. Ruff’s local customer base in Tunica, regarding whom Mr. Ruff was very likely correct in fearing too many of them would get icked out and flee from further patronizing his restaruant, because of their presumption about the low, unhygenic quality of “homeless” employees he had working there. Before any of you start feeling too self-righteous about the KFC-eating citizenry of Tunica, Mississippi, be honest: have you never shied away from eating at a particular fast-food franchise because you felt a bit sketchy about the hygeine of the place? What’s unfair here is the likely presumption of Mr. Ruff’s customers (once they found out she was homelss and living at the SA) that she was therefore an unhygenic, icky person unsuitable to be involved with restaurant food handling.
Roger Moore
@JPL:
ITYM “Leave Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi ALOOONE!1!” But we will not leave Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi alone; we will continue to point out that Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi is a bigoted asshole who deserves a nice long investigation by the EEOC.
WereBear
27 years as a bus driver? The woman must also have the patience of a saint and the concentration skills of a Buddhist monk.
What a treasure she will be in her new job. And Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi should get some instant Karma, special delivery.
Another Halocene Human
@SiubhanDuinne: It always comes back to SC!! The one-time epicenter of the cotton plantation slavery morass (yeppers, they were exporting the whole shebang to other states) and now of small-minded bigotry!
SC is a miserable fucking place to this day. And that includes their port town they’re so flipping proud of. Oh, they have all the brands, just like Georgetown, DC. They also are the coldest people on earth if you are walking down the sidewalk with a person of a differing hue than you. They confirm every misanthrope’s poor opinion of humanity. Daily!
Ben Cisco
@dollared:
There you go.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Redshift: Wait, didn’t Winthorpe & Valentine unsuspectingly end up a target of a bet from the Dukes?
Jamie Lee Curtis is fantastic in the film
fuckwit
This song keeps going in my head whenever I read of this kind of stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8zhNb8ANe8
I swear, what the Rethugs want to do is just line us up against the wall and shoot us.
DavidTC
I’m dead certain that KFC does not require employees in general to have a car, considering how many KFCs are in cities where people do not generally have cars. That would be a _really_ silly policy at the corporate level.
Now, I’m sure KFC does ‘require’ employees to have an address, in that when franchise owner hire people they have to put them in the KFC system and that assumes they have an address (And trying to interpret that as a _policy_ instead the employer just putting in ‘N/A’ would be general asshole behavior.)…except, of course, this woman _did_ have an address.
I’m sure Mr. Ruff would _like_ to be able to blame this on KFC policy, but it’s not. Instead, he decided to blame it on age, opening himself up to, as was pointed out, an age discrimination lawsuit. (And lack of food-prep skill, but it’s worth pointing out that ‘food prep at KFC’ is not something that _anyone_ knows how to do who has not actually worked at a KFC before. It’s not a goddamn cook position, it is rote movement of putting things in fryers and watching timers and wiping down surfaces. You are _trained_ to do it.)
Oh, and even if she didn’t have an address, and there actually _does_ need to be an address (For example, if all checks are mailed from a central office and can’t be picked up at the franchisee.), then the solution is to say ‘Look, we really need to put an address here. Do you have any friends or family we can mail stuff too? Can you rent a PO box? Could we put down the store as your address for a month or so?’ or something like that, not _fire_ her.
Interesting fact: Hey, you asshole managers. This is called _management_. The employees have a job, and it is _your_ job, as managers, to make it possible for _them_ to get their work done. Their work is the work that pays the bills, your job it make sure that _their_ work goes smoothly, and if it is not going smoothly, it is your job to fix that.
If the work is not going smoothly due to employees being bad at it, it is, indeed, your job to attempt to get them to do it correctly, or, barring that, get new employees. If, OTOH, the work is not going smoothly due to random problems you can easily solve, whether it’s a back door that keeps latching itself or a stupid procedure that is just wasting everyone’s time, or a line on paperwork that can’t be filled in, it is your job to _solve that problem_.
It is not your job to badger employees who are actually doing their job or introduce some sort of moral calculus about the homeless or whatever the fuck you think your job is it.
Ben Cisco
Also, Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi (right next to Onepulo) is a ginormous douchbag.
MattR
@cmorenc:
An interesting theory except for the fact that he terminated her before she actually started working there. He is now trying to argue that he never actually fired her since he never actually hired her, but she has documentation of being hired.
@DavidTC: FWIW, if there is a corporate policy (or if anyone wants to lodge complaints with the corporate headquarters rather than with the specific franchise), KFC is owned by Yum! Brands.
Amir Khalid
@cmorenc:
Per the story, Eunice Jasica was hired to work food prep n the kitchen, where I presume she wouldn’t be face-to-face with the clientele, and she was fired on her first day.
lojasmo
@cmorenc:
That’s just a stupid theory, right there.
Bravo (Or brava) for you overwhelmingly boneheaded appologism.
Mike in NC
@lojasmo: Had to go to Columbia, SC one time and couldn’t wait to leave. Never saw so many cops in my life, for some reason.
General Sherman knew what to do with it.
WereBear
@DavidTC: Gosh, I wish you toured the country doing seminars, because it’s pitiful how many “managers” I have had who do not have this basic grasp of what the heck their job IS.
CarolDuhart2
@cmorenc: Working poor here. The Salvation Army does have showers-indeed places like the SA and St Vincent De Paul pride themselves on having clean facilities and order. From what I remember, people had to go out every day and look for work, follow a curfew, and behave orderly. So cleanliness is never an issue.
About money management-you have to have money to manage on a regular basis. It’s hard to plan with temporary jobs and low salary work that can end at any moment.
And buying a new car isn’t as irrational as it looks. A new car is less likely to have hidden defects where you buy a car and then find out as soon as you take it off the lot, there’s an expensive problem that needs fixing.
Another Halocene Human
@Mnemosyne: There’s something to that if you remember that money management is a skill that needs to be taught and not an inherent virtue. People who are never taught those skills probably will not be very good money managers any more than putting someone who’s never learned how to drive behind the wheel of a car and sending them out onto the freeway will magically make them a good driver.
See, I disagree. Basic money management skills are very simple. So when you ask, “Why don’t the poor acquire them?” you’re asking the wrong question. For the most part they do have these skills. (Sometimes even from watching their parents fuck up and swearing they’d never do that.)
The issue isn’t that (although it would help if they taught every high schooler how to balance a checkbook instead of farting around with stock picking and calling that a money management/finance class). The issue is not having the spoons, or the hope, or the resources to think past the next paycheck. The issue is punitive measures from the public and private sphere that throw you into debt for the littlest screwup–only annoying for the middle class, and the hyper-wealthy get treated the opposite by these parties. The issue is rent exceeding income, getting taxed on “income” you never saw (like mandatory tips tax, or tax on work uniforms–thanks, IRS). Unexpected bills there is no cushion to absorb. Helping hands that won’t offer anything until you are destitute and beyond.
There are lots of financially comfortable people who are utterly terrible with money but make enough income to cover their mistakes over and over again. Hell, I had an uncle like that. He was cleaned out twice while living, once when he was dead, and still had money left over because he was a genius as a farmer (those who know what I am talking about will realize how remarkable this is). But, you know, he had to inherit land and lots of it to be able to ply that skill. When you come into this world with nothing in this country, your earning power is limited.
WE HAVE AN INCOME PROBLEM, PEOPLE.
Redshift
@Another Halocene Human:
I don’t disagree, but that’s really another way of saying that in addition to denying the privilege that having savings and family resources to fall back on, the person writing the original comment was also denying the privilege of having grown up in a healthy environment with good schools and parents who could teach you about money management, etc.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Halocene Human: Oh believe me, I know SC all too well. My job (in neighboring GA) takes me there frequently. In fact I’m heading back this Monday.
Excuse any funkly ytping , I am in the middle of a manicure and have fewer fingers than usual at my disposal.
Another Halocene Human
@cmorenc: What, the Christ-stain homeless shelter isn’t good enough for the good people of Mississippi?
Never knew a SA that didn’t believe in the cleansing power of soap myself.
Whatever, if she did prep the customers never saw her. She probably refused the night manager a BJ, making her uppity. Owner didn’t even know the real reason for firing her so he comes up with whatever excuse he thinks sounds good at the time.
@DavidTC: Seconded everything, and of course the SA was her address and where she received her mail.
@WereBear: 27 years as a bus driver is the saddest tale I ever heard. In states where we have unions a 27 yr bus driver would have a good pension, and they need it after fucking up their back, legs, and shoulders driving buses for 27 years. (Those things are NOT ergonomic for anybody.)
What a fucking joke, 27 years driving a bus and now homeless.
Another Halocene Human
@efgoldman: RI is like Miss. with snow because the rich bitches all got mansions there and went galt on taxes so the GINI index there is ridic and ironically (for the scions of the rich bitches) they thus cling to their gods and their backwards social notions like ‘gays are icky’ unlike happier, better educated, less unequal New England states. The place looks like fucking West Virginia as soon as you cross the border. This is what inequality looks like. This is what inequality looks like.
RI had the lowest min. wage and the lowest recovery rate of any NE state including “libbertearian” NH (which went Demoncrat last election, I wonder why), a true example of Koch Bros principles in action.
greennotGreen
@CarolDuhart2: Re: the new car. I would have frowned on the idea of a new car for the working poor, but your comment reminded me of something I actually know: the working poor only have so much money at one time; they probably don’t have a cushion in a savings account. So while they may be able to budget a steady payment, they can’t pay a big repair bill. That being said, when I was among the working poor, I never bought a new car – and I was occasionally out of a car and had to ride with a friend while I saved money for a repair. And I learned how to do quite a few repairs myself. Perhaps a better choice would be to buy a late model used car and an extended warranty? That would insulate against repair bill shocks.
WereBear
Is this ever true. We wound up buying a new car, a ‘leftover” from a previous model year, with a three year warranty. The money they gave us to take it off their hands was a down payment in itself. If one is better able to budget monthly than saving up for unexpected whopping repair bills, it’s a far finer solution.
WereBear
@Another Halocene Human: As I always say:
You can’t save your way out of poverty.
Sgaile-beairt
as far back as 2000 companies were using poor credit ratings, to weed out job applicants….so if youd been layed off, couldnt pay your credit cards, & were trying to get a job to get out of debt….SOL!!
my high school teachers, who werent very liberal except for being union blue dogs, wld say a lot that In america the rich get richer & the poor get poorer, this was during the glory days of Reaganomics….
kc
@Cacti:
The same Chesley Ruff of Tupelo Mississippi who bragged about practicing age discrimination.
Sgaile-beairt
@cmorenc: why wld you make up a just-so story to defend this creep?? you dont know him personally, you dont know what his reasons were, do you??
kc
@lojasmo:
Hey, now, that’s my hometown. It’s not THE worst place ever. It’s . . . well, never mind.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@WereBear: One of the main points of Ehrenreich’s “Nickeled and Dimed”, and of John Scalzi’s should-win-some-kind-of-prize blog post about what it actually means to be poor, was that it costs a lot of money to be poor.
I remember a few bloggers and MSM websites linking to or reprinting that Scalzi post, and the absolute rage of commenters, especially on the MSM sites, who could only see that post, that put a lump in my throat, as a part of a crazed liberal agenda to raise. their. taxes! On money that they earned! and worked for! Even at almost forty and several years observing the rightwing crazy from the Clenis through 9/11 and Iraq, that was an eye-opener for me.
Southern Beale
If only the homeless would just GET A JOB!
Amiright, people?
/sarcasm
LanceThruster
@efgoldman:
Plus, more fun to watch while thanking Glob for not making them like those miserable wretches.
Southern Beale
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Of course. The cards are stacked in favor of the ones who make the rules in the first place. Shocking, I know.
We have this newspaper called The Contributor that a local church helps put together. Homeless and the near-homeless sell it on street corners, they get vendors licenses and everything. You’d be amazed at how many good upstanding citizens are offended that the homeless are selling newspapers (an award-winning newspaper, let me add) as a way of pulling themselves out of poverty. Everyone is all like “get a job!” until they don’t like the job they get.
If only they’d just go away, and be invisible. That’s what they’re really saying.
Svensker
@lojasmo:
Yup. Even when they’d let us out for air during basic training, we could tell it was a shit hole — and we were desperate!
Southern Beale
And speaking of stacking the deck, in case you missed it, some Republicans want to change the 14th Amendment because the whole “birthright citizenship” thing has just been misinterpreted all these years.
Anne Laurie
@Another Halocene Human:
Yeah, remember Justice Thomas’s sister? He got ‘rescued’ by his grandfather, sent to a good school, trained to save his money & network with the Right People. She didn’t get that extra boost, ended up working minimum-wage jobs, eventually dropped out of the workforce & went on welfare because their mom needed a full-time caretaker. And Clarence was happy to explain this proved that poor people are just shiftless…
Poverty is a trap you can escape, if you’re hardworking and talented and lucky. Quite often “lucky” is the single most important factor!
Roger Moore
@greennotGreen:
But late model used cars with extended warranties don’t save much money compared to new cars. The days when a car lost 30% of its value the moment you drove it off the lot are over. By the time a car has declined in price enough to be attractive, it’s also lost a lot of its reliability.
1badbaba3
Man-oh-Man, those mythical FEMA camps are sounding better and better. Almost makes me wish the Prez was as bad as they wish he was. I would love to be as patient with these asswipes as he is, but, alas, I cannot.
Roger Moore
@Southern Beale:
I’m pretty sure there’s also a lot of “do backbreaking work for the pittance I’m willing to pay” mixed in there, too.
cmorenc
@Sgaile-beairt: @Sgaile-beairt:
You all misunderstand the difference between explanation and justification (or absolution). I agree that Mr. Ruff was damn wall on ample notice of her living situation when he originally hired her, but I’m dead-spot on about what his motivation for changing his mind was: fear about how his customers would react to finding out that a homeless person living at the Salvation Army was working food prep at his restaurant, due to their own fears and prejudices about what people living there are like. He hired her because he thought he had a food prep employee slot that urgently needed filling; he discharged her because after initially hiring her, he began to fear how customer reaction to having her work there might adversely impact his business.
Correctly understanding the probable dynamic behind his decision is not at all excusing his lack of moral courage here. My problem with the discussion here isn’t with the unanimous disapproval of his choices and actions, but rather with the failure to recognize that the context of blame is much broader than Mr. Ruff; it extends to the prejudices of his customer base in Tunica regarding homeless people. Yes, they have showers at SA, and yes, many of the residents maintain good hygeine despite the challenges of that living situation. Perhaps Mr. Ruff should have been brave and upright enough to take a chance here to buck and enlighten the prejudiced portion of his customer base, but at the same time it’s Mr. Ruff taking the risk here, not you. It’s easy to be smugly self-righteous in condemning Mr. Ruff with nothing at stake yourself.
polyorchnid octopunch
@Yutsano: It’s what sucks about
CalvinismProsperity Gospel. Might as well call it Sociopathochristianism.JoyfulA
@kc: Nowhere near as bad as Greensville and elsewhere in the Upstate.
greennotGreen
@Roger Moore: Maybe I’ve just been lucky with my used cars.
pseudonymous in nc
Another reminder how “Small Business, The Engine Of Our Economy” is actually populated by a lot of tinpot dictators and dipshits, assisted by at-will employment laws and shoddy regulation.
scav
@cmorenc: You relied upon false assumptions about the timing of events on your first go round and now you’re claiming omniscience as to his innermost and true motivations. Something seems to be cutting close to your knuckles to provoke this assumption of benevelent all-knowingness and charity to the truely oppressed and charitable if it weren’t for those ebil ebil KFC rules or imagined potential customer complaints or or or. . I’m sure he’s got some cozy little self-justifying rationale for it all that preserves his self-esteem. (so what?) His public cover-story seems more prone to change, which makes me unlikely to nominate him for Mr Thwarted Cherryble of Tupelo, Mississippi 2013.
Shalimar
@cmorenc: According to the story, she seems to have been hired by the general manager of that location. The franchise owner then told her she didn’t have a job when she showed up on schedule.
Shalimar
@cmorenc: You have no evidence he was the one who hired her. That isn’t in the article. When I personally try to imagine what happened, what goes through my mind is a general manager who either didn’t know the address she gave was for Salvation Army or wanted to give her a chance anyway, only to be overruled by his boss.
“How do you hire someone who doesn’t even have a place to live? What are you, an idiot? How much do you value your own job?”
That probably isn’t what happened either, but it is more likely than your scenario.
KS in MA
@Mnemosyne: And, non-poor people tend to forget that poor people tend to have poor relatives, whom they tend to help out when they’re in a jam. Just another reason why, when poor people start making some money, less of it tends to end up in the 401(k).
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Tonal Crow: I’ve noticed most franchise owners are wingnutty jerks who squeeze every last dime they can out of their employees while trying to pay as little as possible. I’m certain there are exceptions, but I can’t think of any now.
Just asking a purely hypothetical question here, if someone heaved a brick through the franchise’s plate-glass window every few nights as they replaced the window, do you think that would eventually eat into his bottom line?
Sgaile-beairt
@cmorenc: so you are a psychic then?? wow, whats the winning powerball #??
Yutsano
@polyorchnid octopunch: People actually wonder why I’m not a Christian. Gee maybe there’s a reason…
DavidTC
It actually is somewhat astonishing how the managerial class has become incredibly lazy in this country. Like it’s their god-given right to sit around and get a paycheck for doing nothing at all.
But what do we expect when companies stopped attempting to actually produce goods and services that others want to buy, and instead became operated entirely in a fashion designed to make the stop price go up and down randomly so the smart people investing in the stock market can make money investing in the stock market? Because, as far as _I_ can tell, that is how corporations now function in the US.
I strangely often find myself nodding along in agreement with the far right people 99%. There actually is a class of worthless moochers in this country, an entire ‘moocher class’, and their worthlessness has even managed to infect other people, and it is destroying this country. Those statements are entirely true.
Sadly, it’s the _rich_ that are worthless moochers with an absurd sense to entitlement that they don’t have to work at all, and their worthlessness has even managed to infect _managers_. The system isn’t rotting from the bottom up, it’s rotting from the top down.
dollared
@cmorenc: Sorry, don’t need your didactic approach here. We know the people of Mississippi aren’t all that nice, but it really fucking doesn’t matter.
And the exact approach you are taking, asking us to be understanding about a restaurant owner being afraid of what his customers would think about a particular employee’s appearance, was one of the most common justifications used for discrimination against blacks in the old South.
Congratulations! You just asked us to be broadly sympathetic to our past murderous apartheid regime.
Patricia Kayden
Shame on KFC. Why fire someone because he/she doesn’t have a place to live? What does the fact that someone is homeless have to do with them being able to perform their duties? Senseless.
Patricia Kayden
@cmorenc: Why would restaurant customers care about where an employee lives? That has never crossed my mind when I was eating at a restaurant. I would be more worried if the restaurant was dirty (rodents, roaches, unclean cutlery/plates, etc.).
Redshirt
George Tierney of Greenville South Carolina repented of his wicked Tweets, FYI.
Jethro Troll
If Chesley Ruff of Tupelo, Mississippi doesn’t watch out, he might not continue to receive those government subsidies for workforce training, no matter how much he kicks back to the Republican party.
Fred
But the lady does have a place to live: Salvation Army. Roof, heat, plumbing,… Certainly it is temporary but then isn’t everything temporary?
I’m getting ready to sell my present temporary house so I can rent another temporary house after which I plan to look for another temporary house to buy. Maybe after a few more years I might move to another temporary house or apartment while I wait for my temporary body to expire. No doubt at some time our temporay universe will either implode or just drift apart while all the elementary particles degenerate into ????
Imagine how Chelsey Ruff would feel if KFC pulled his franchise because he has such hopeless PR skills. There must be some minimum standard for this sort of thing.
DavidTC
Also, how the hell would any of his customers even _know_ where an employee lives? Her records aren’t public, so what the hypothetical here? The customers are hanging around the salvation army and then later getting upset when they see the same person? (Why are they _at_ the salvation army if they have such an irrational hatred of homeless people?)
Hell, she was hired for _food prep_. Which, uh, means she won’t really be interacting with customers.
‘Hey, I was at the salvation army the other day, because I like to spit on homeless people. And that woman back there that I can barely see looks like one of the homeless people I spat on! I shall start protesting!’
Look, if employees in a business draw _actual_ outrage from customers, I can somewhat sympathize with letting them go, even if they have done nothing at all wrong. I think it is cowardly and harmful to the business, and often illegal, and standing up to bullies is a better choice both morally and in a business sense, but I can _understand_ the business logic.
That…is not what is going on here. No one protested this. There’s no way anyone would even _know_ about this, and there’s no instances of people successfully protesting things like this when they _do_ know about such things.
Don Pratt
SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD REASON TO BOYCOTT KFC!