pardon me while I wait

The other day on the radio I heard a report about a drop in US productivity. The report included an explanation about how such a thing was calculated, something having to do with output and labor involved (I'm not an economist!). The speculation was that if productivity didn't increase, businesses would have to raise prices to compensate for few items for sale.

All of this came to mind this afternoon while I was at the grocery store, and I had to sit in my car and wait to move into a parking place because the young worker retrieving shopping carts was so busy text messaging that she failed to do her job in a timely manner. So, not only was her productivity on an ebb, so was mine!

Businesses don't need to raise prices, they need to ban cell phones from use in the workplace! The way a lot of people behave you'd think there was an inalienable right to have a communications device serve as a necessary appendage. It's bad enough that cell phone use in cars causes drivers to be distracted from their primary task of driving, now the public is served with less satisfaction because employees aren't focused on their work. Oy, vey...