Pike Place Market Crabs

Anne’s substitute teacher assignment app, Jobulator, has become frustrating. It frequently dings, announcing a new job opportunity, but either when she first opens the app or slightly later, when after she has accepted the assignment, the app responds with “Sorry, there are no jobs available.” Last year, because of Obamacare and the fact that the school district was unwilling to cover the sub’s healthcare, all substitutes were limited to just thirty hours a week and frequently there weren’t enough subs available. This year the district subcontracted out substitute teaching to the temp service, Kelly. Anne will someday get healthcare through them and in the meantime is eligible to work five days a week. Problem solved, except that this year all of the subs from Kelly-covered school districts are able to compete for the plum jobs in our school district. Bottom line, Anne is still only working about as many hours as she was last year. She could always branch out into say, the food services industry, like the crabby subcontractors pictured above, it’s never fun being treated as a resource, instead of as a person, even if your employer says it values its people as its most important resource.