Eating The Rich - A Menu

Put their money where your mouth is

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Abolish billionaires. ✊🏼✊🏼✊🏼

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Quiet Hiring

Restructures, promotions without pay rises, temporary extra tasks etc

Alongside Quiet Quitting and Quiet Firing, the third hushed workplace HR epidemic going on is Quiet Hiring. Bear in mind, none of these practices are actually new, we just have new terms for them and greater awareness.

Quie Hiring is the practice of employers restructuring roles to have more tasks and responsibilities for the same pay, promotions without pay rises or temporary extra tasks to cover a staffing gap that neve seems to end. Not hiring adequate staff and expecting existing employees to pick up the ‘slack’ is an example of Quiet Hiring that happens all the time in nearly every industry. 

With legislated minimum wages, awards, working conditions and maximum hours, the output of work quantity during those hours is one of the only ways left for corporations to maximise profit from staff. The goal is to achieve the maximum output for the minimum input while maintaining the skills required. 

Which makes sense, no one is in business to be a charity however promising future benefits and staffing support that they have no intention of delivering on is exploiting the good will of the employees and can amount to wage theft. 

As with all contracts, check them regularly to ensure that what you are being asked to deliver is what you agreed and negotiate time frames and remuneration whenever possible.

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Quiet Quitting

I prefer to call it ‘Acting your Wage’ but Quiet Quitting is the current buzzword for it. Your employer's aim is to get the maximum output from you for the minimum input. You need to be actively on your own side and not make it too easy for them!

“I’m sure you heard the new workplace buzzword — quiet quitting. It’s a term for workers who have decided not to do extra unpaid tasks and only do the work in their job descriptions.

The whole purpose of quiet quitting is to:

Keep your job

Stay in good standing

Reduce workplace stress

Reduce stress at home

Have a working life that is fair and balanced

There are many other reasons for quiet quitting, but these are the most common.

Quiet Quitting is not about:

Taking revenge on your boss

Undermining the mission of the company

Sabotaging the projects or the efforts of your co-workers

Making customers unhappy

If your intention is to “show them” how valuable you are and make them sorry they didn’t pay you more, you’ve got this all wrong. This is not about revenge.

It’s not about taking a noticeable stand against the practice of overworking employees. Yes, you are taking a stand, but you do not want anyone, not even your co-workers to notice.

Who should not ‘quiet quit?’

Keep in mind that in certain careers, overtime and bringing work home goes with the territory. You can’t ‘quiet quit’ jobs like that and not do a disservice to clients, degrade your professional reputation, or possibly get fired.

Quiet quitting is not for you if you are on a career track. That much should be obvious. It is for standard run-of-the-mill, non-management jobs., especially ones without a career path.

Here are some tips and cautions for the would-be quiet quitter:

Be very clear about what your job duties are.

Know what the expectations are for your position.

Start with the job description ad you responded to. Review the paperwork and your notes from the time you were hired and whatever training you might have received.

At this point, you might become angry to realise how much more you are actually doing. Let that strengthen your resolve.

Learn what types of things might be covered in your yearly review. Be sure to meet all those expectations, so there is no misunderstanding that you are doing the job you have been hired to do.

Quiet quitting is not for slackers.

You will have to be mindful enough to do the job you were hired for because you are not going to be doing all those extra things for which there is no compensation.

Be gradual.

People will notice if all of a sudden you are not answering text messages after work or emails on the weekend.

Map out a plan and gradually implement it week by week.

Start with your mental attitude after you leave work. As soon as you leave at the end of the day, find some distraction, or new ritual to help you brush off your day.

At the office, no one will notice if you change the small things first. Then gradually drop the extra stuff one by one.

Don’t ‘quiet quit’ your attitude.

The change in your behaviour will be less noticeable if you maintain a good attitude.

Stay pleasant. Don’t play into the stereotype of the quiet quitter that has been developing lately. Maintain a positive attitude.

Do the best job you can on your actual job duties, but of course, you were already doing that.

Be careful not to goof off too much during work hours. You can get away with this if you are doing a bang-up job and always going the extra mile, but not if you’re just doing an adequate job.

The Key to Quiet Quitting is Stealth

You do not want to tell anyone — I mean anyone — what you are doing.

Remember. the operative word here is…‘quiet’

The last thing you want to do is tell your co-workers what you are doing.

Some people tell their co-workers that they are or want to ‘quiet quit.’ This is a mistake.

People you think are your friends at work are nothing of the sort. Friendships at work are nothing more than strategic alliances. Never forget this.

Alliances change frequently in a work environment. It could be due to a change in management, people transferring to another department, or new pressures being introduced.

Your secrets are never safe. Co-workers can and will sabotage you. You have to keep up appearances.

Don’t ‘quiet quit’ your co-workers.

Your co-workers will notice the change in your work behaviour long before your boss does.

They may not be aware that you are quiet quitting, but they will be resentful if your new behavior is dragging them down. If you work on projects together, be especially careful not to jeopardize the success of the project.

Remember, you are quiet quitting on your employer, not your colleagues.

And, one last thing…

When you ‘quiet quit,’ understand that you are going to make your co-workers look good by comparison. You have to be okay with that.

Some co-workers will take advantage of that. If there’s a promotion on the horizon, they will go for it that much more enthusiastically.

They could end up being your future boss!:

Great content that hilariously demonstrates Quiet Quitting and Acting Your Wage is Veronica’s series by Sarai Marie - definitely recommend checking it out: https://www.instagram.com/p/Chu7Y6NrjCr/?hl=en 

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Real Wages

While the actual dollar amount of your weekly pay may be rising, it’s important to pay attention to the Real Wage you are earning. AS CPI increases each year the value of a dollar goes down. That is, the amount of goods or services that dollar can buy you decreases. This is called the purchasing power of money. 

An Australian dollar 50 years ago in 1973 could buy the equivalent of $11.35 in 2023, an average inflation rate of 4.89% per year. So in order for your income to be worth the same - to have the same purchasing power - as it did last year, the minimum pay raise required needs to match the rate of inflation each year. 

$1 in 1973 → 2023 | Australia Inflation Calculator

This inflation calculator uses the official Australian consumer price index. An inflation rate of 4.98% per year means $1 in 1973 is worth $

In the 12 months prior to March 2022, the ABS shows that CPI increased by 5.1% however the Wage Price Index (WPI) only grew by 2.7%, meaning a Real Wage loss of 2.7%. So anyone that didn’t get a payrise of at least 5.1% got an effective pay cut. Remember, CPI works for employers as well - their costs are higher but they can charge more for their goods and services and this should be passed along to staff in the form of wages that match CPI.

“Despite low unemployment rates, wages growth has not kept pace with inflation, so real wages have declined – in some cases noticeably”

Reserve Bank Australia Statement on Monetary Policy 2022

Asking for a pay rise isn’t greedy or taking from the company, their motivation is to maximise output for minimal input so you need to advocate for yourself and ensure that you continue to be remunerated fairly for your work and experience.

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Minimum income vs average cost of living

Cost of living calculator: https://costofliving.studyaustralia.gov.au/ 

“In 1907, the Harvester Decision set a ‘living’ or ‘family’ wage. It was supposed to allow an unskilled labourer to support a wife and three children, to feed, house, and clothe them. Justice Higgins of the Arbitration Court decided that 7 shillings a day, or 42 shillings a week, was fair and reasonable wages for an unskilled labourer. Additional amounts were paid to more skilled workers, for example an additional 3 shillings to a fitter or other tradesperson. These additional amounts were known as ‘margins’. In the Harvester Decision, a fair and reasonable wage for more skilled employees was for example 10 shillings a day for ‘journeymen’, or tradesmen.

This became the basis of the national minimum wage system in Australia.”

Source: Harvester case | Fair Work Commission

Imagine what that would look like now!

We normally associate wage growth with CPI or inflation, so by that metric 7 shillings a day in 1907 equates to an income level of $361.20 in 2022 as the minimum wage for an unskilled worker, and $516 per day for a tradesman or skilled worker. 

Certainly some industries and trades have kept up with this top tier with the latest ABS data showing that the top 10% of earners make approx the equivalent $2,580 per week.

But the average yearly salary in Australia is 90,800, or $1,746 per week, well below the skilled worker minimum. 

In August 2022,

25% of all employees earned less than $800 per week in their main job (25th percentile)

50% of all employees earned less than $1,250 (50th percentile/median)

75% of all employees earned less than $1,900 (75th percentile)

90% of all employees earned less than $2,720 (90th percentile)

Source: Employee earnings, August 2022 | Australian Bureau of Statistics 

So looking at the ‘unskilled’ worker figure, the 2022 calculation of the Harvesters Decisions minimum recommended wage $361.20 per day equates to $1,806 per week, which is still above the $1,746 2022 Australian median income cited above.

The current minimum wage legislation in Australia in 2023 is $21.38 per hour, or $812.44 per week - less than half the amount accounting for inflation over time calculated above. And ABS data in February 2022 had 2.6million of the working population of 13.4million on minimum wage - that’s nearly 20% of the entire workforce.

But the workforce looks different now right? Less kids, more women, more double income households… not every working person is a man supporting a wife and three kids.

But, should that matter? 

The value of each person's hours hasn’t changed. Whether the person doing the work is supporting others, whatever age (within reasonable child protection laws and safety), whatever gender, race, religion etc - an hours work produces an hours labour. Putting the onus on what their costs are and how little they need works for the employers but it drives down the value of the hours for everyone.

How is someone who is supporting a wife and kids, or who has greater medical expenses, or wants to contribute financially to good causes supposed to be able to compete with someone who is single, frugal and selfish if they are bidding for the same job? 

Removing or lowering the minimum wage creates a supply and demand driven race-for-the-bottom society where employers can pocket more of the profit and as a society we are driven to be self-serving, lonely and discriminatory.

There are also fears that higher wages will increase inflation and push prices up, worsening the wealth gap and making basic goods increasingly unaffordable. But this is just corporate protests to protect their own interests:

“New empirical research reveals the main driver for inflation in Australia is excess corporate profits, not wages, and that inflation would have stayed within the RBA target band if corporates had not squeezed consumers through the pandemic via excess price hikes.

A Profit-Price spiral is the main driver of inflation in Australia, rather than a supposed “Wage-Price” spiral, which does not exist

As of the September quarter of 2022 (most recent data available), Australian businesses increased prices by a total of $160 billion per year over and above their higher expenses for labour, taxes, and other inputs, and over and above profits generated by growth in real economic output

Without the inclusion of those excess profits in final prices for Australian-made goods and services, inflation since the pandemic would have been much slower: an annual average of 2.7% per year, barely half of the 5.2% annual average actually recorded since end-2019.

That pace of inflation would have fallen within the RBA’s target inflation band (equal to its 2.5% target, plus-or-minus 0.5%)

Excess corporate profits account for 69% of additional inflation beyond the RBA’s target. Rising unit labour costs account for just 18% of that inflation

The RBAs 9 back-to-back interest rate rises would have been unlikely without excess profits and prices based on the RBA’s own policy framework

Real wages in Australia fell 4.5% in 2022, the largest fall on record

“This empirical evidence shows excess corporate profits are the main culprit driving inflation, not workers’ wages,” said Dr. Jim Stanford from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work.

“For Australians doing it tough this data would be aggravating.

“We’ve been told a story that workers need to restrict wage growth and accept a permanent reduction in living standards in order to fix inflation. This evidence shows that’s an economic fairytale.”

Source: Profit-Price Spiral: Excess Profits Fuelling Inflation & Interest Rates, not Wages | The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work

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NoBoDy WaNtS tO wOrK aNyMoRe

Has been cried by employers for over a hundred years and has never been true.

People like to work. Every Universal Basic Income test every run has shown people continue to work when given ‘free’ money and there is an endless list of benefits aside from income to being employed. However, primarily and usually, people's driving factor to work is income. The employee is selling their time, skills and energies to the employer. And the employer wants that as cheaply as possible. There is a direct conflict for the employer of wanting to not do the work themselves and not wanting to pay someone else to do the work. They also usually remember doing the job themselves and what they were paid then stays as a fair value in their minds, despite it being years or decades prior. 

People want to work. People like to work. It’s beneficial for social, cultural, emotional, physical, mental and other reasons. It builds pride, develops a sense of identity, helps grow communities and engages physical and mental energies. 

What people don’t want is to be taken advantage of or treated poorly. This is not a workforce issue, this is an abuse issue. If you can’t afford to pay your employees a fair wage, then you don’t have a successful business. Other people do not owe you their time and abilities just for you to be able to call yourself a business owner.

“Basically: there’s too much stick, and not enough carrot. “The social contract is breaking down. It’s not working,” writer James Ball said on a recent episode of the New Statesman podcast. “Work doesn’t pay. You can be in professions and you can’t get a house. We haven’t had a pay rise, collectively as a nation, since 2007. People are doing everything ‘right’ and not getting the living standards of their parents at their age.” As Ball suggests, the financial crash has had long-lasting consequences: as the Resolution Foundation reported in 2019, young people’s pay and prospects have been forever “scarred” by the events of 2008. Additionally, new research from the RSA has found that 63 per cent of young people in full-time work experience financial precarity, rising to 79 per cent of those receiving universal credit.

Eve Livingston is a journalist and author of Make Bosses Pay: Why We Need Unions. “Throughout young people’s lifetimes, work has paid less and less and conditions have worsened as successive governments have cut protections and dismantled union power,” she says. “In that context, it’s no surprise that young people are questioning the value of work or don’t see the point in doing it at all – if you know that work won’t pay for you to have any quality of life then there might seem to be little point in doing it just for the sake of it.”Source: Young people don’t want to work. Now what? | Dazed

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Capitalism - it's all over us

“All bodies are good bodies, and that includes yours…..We need to tell our girls that their bodies exist for them to use, not for others to look at”

Source: Fight like a girl, Clementine Ford, page 39

“Revenue in the Beauty & Personal Care market amounts to US$6.72bn in 2023. The market is expected to grow annually by 2.76% (CAGR 2023-2027).”

Source: Beauty & Personal Care - Australia | Market Forecast. 

“Approximately $22 billion is spent annually on beauty products in Australia. The average annual beauty industry expenditure for Australian women is $3,600.” 

14 Feb 2023

Source: Australian Beauty Industry Statistics 2023 – Accumulate Australia.

“The pink tax refers to the phenomenon of gendered pricing. That is for items targeted or marketed towards women having a higher cost than comparable products targeted towards men. The pink tax is not an actual government mandated tax, but a marketing tactic and income-generating scenario for companies.

Women are paying an average of:

29% more for razors,

16% more for body wash, and

12% more for underwear.”

Source: The pink tax explained: the real cost of being a female consumer 

“Women pay nearly 50% more on average for income protection, while dry cleaners can charge up to double for women’s blouses. It’s called the “pink tax” and it costs the average woman more than $1,300 extra each year”

Source: https://elladex.com/insights/what-is-pink-tax-the-real-cost-of-being-a-woman 

“In my opinion, beauty standards are the gnarled and rotten roots of all that’s wrong with the industry and perhaps the world. They are tools of oppression that reinforce sexism, racism, colorism, classism, ableism, ageism, and gender norms. They are built into our societies and embedded into our brains. They contribute to anxiety, depression, dysmorphia, eating disorders, self-harm, and low self-esteem. Even the oxymoronic term “beauty standards” sets me off. I mean, imagine trying to contain a concept as immeasurable and incorporeal and emotional and energetic and evolving as beauty within one set standard? Why? For what reason? To serve whom?”

Source: How White Supremacy and Capitalism Influence Beauty Standards | Teen Vogue 

Riots not diets.

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Bill-aversary

Every company has a retention team that will offer you a better deal if you try to leave. Do this at least every 12 months. 

Make it a special occasion, have a bill-adversary date! Grab a glass of wine, some comfy clothes, and treat yourself to a nice dinner and flowers with all the $$ you’ll be keeping for yourself instead of contributing to the mega corps.

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Home Brand vs Label

This one is a little counter intuitive - we’re trying to give as little money to the corporations as possible which in this instance means buying the more expensive brand.

Woolworths, Coles, Aldi.. wherever. The ‘home’ brand is often made by exactly the same manufacturer as the branded label next to it however the mega corps are using their buying power to screw the manufacturer to a cheaper price in the hope of forcing out the branded label, either to buy them out or drive them out of business, meaning there’s less competition for them. Which coincidentally means less options for you.

And less competition means less pricing comparisons so once they have the market they can charge what they like. Which we know, is as much as possible.

OFten the only difference between the home brand and label option is the packaging, which plays a huge part in our decision making process:

“The best example is from Coca-Cola. This brand is super sensitive to consumer perception, (as you have to be when you’ve been selling brown sugar water at a high price for over a century).

But in 2011, they made a misstep. They ran a Christmas promotion in the US, changing their cans to white instead of the usual red. Consumers revolted. They complained to Coke that the soda tasted different, and the company swiftly switched back to the safety of traditional red.

Packaging is the great magic trick performed for consumers. We think it’s just to wrap up the contents. Instead it’s a huge part of the experience.

At Oxford University in the UK, a psychology professor called Charles Spence has done countless experiments on this phenomenon and made hundreds of discoveries. For example, if you serve strawberry mousse in a white container, it tastes 10 per cent sweeter than if it comes in a black container. Or, coffee tastes half as intense if you serve it glass instead of in a white cup.

Red makes things taste sweet, blue makes things taste saltier, round things taste sweeter than square, etc, etc. There is a huge catalogue of linkages between shape and colour and taste. (This explains why a company like Cadbury has trademarked their exact shade of the colour purple — they know how much their flavour depends on it.)

Professor Spence gets funding for research from big companies who want to change their packaging to make the experience better for consumers. He has already changed the sound a deodorant spray makes, so the men’s Axe deodorant makes a much louder, tougher sound than a woman’s spray.”

Source: Why Woolies had to kill Homebrand 

So buying the fancier label (preferably still Australian made to keep as much local competition as possible) prevents this evil monopoly plan from moving further towards its BuyNLarge Wall-e like apocalypse dream future.

Source: WALL·E | Typeset In The Future 

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Nobody wants to be exploited. Ever.

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Farmers Markets

Local farmers markets can be found running in all major populated areas every weekend with a range of fresh produce, locally made goods and crafts and other supplies. 

Often considered to be for the bougie, upper income or hippies, farmers markets actually are comparable in price to the major supermarkets and offer superior quality and freshness, as well as a better experience and knowledge from dealing directly with the supplier.

“Of the 135 comparisons between the farmers’ market and the supermarket, the farmers’ market was cheaper in 60 cases, the supermarket was cheaper in 30 cases, and the prices were similar in 45 cases (similar meaning within 10% of each other). Of the 150 comparisons between the greengrocer and the supermarket, the greengrocer was cheaper in 80 cases, the supermarket was cheaper in 30 cases, and the prices were similar in 40 cases.”

Source: Costs, farmers' markets, supermarkets | Local Food Connect 

In addition to the price and freshness benefits, the goods will be seasonal, often more organic and with less pesticides and you learn the best ways of enjoying them, as well as having a great family friendly outing that doesn’t have to cost a cent if you don’t want to purchase anything.

And remember, this isn’t a budgeting guide or a get rich guide - this is a eat the rich menu. And buying at the markets, even if it’s more expensive sometimes and less convenient, is directly keeping your dollars out of those gold filled swimming pools.

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These are a super practical and fun way of doing low maintenance guerilla gardening, or for getting plants into hard to reach places. The clay protects the seeds until it rains, giving them the best chance of germinating and can be carried around in a protective bag for use at a moment's notice. You’re an always ready Guerilla Gardener with these in your arsenal!

Some water to mix it up

“The seed from the majority of species can be used in seed bombs, especially trees, shrubs, grasses, annuals and perennials. Foxglove, annual paper daisies and many members of the poppy family dislike root disturbance caused by pricking out, or splitting up clumps of seedlings, and often grow better from seed bombs than by conventional sowing in trays or pots.”

Source: https://www.homestolove.com.au/how-to-make-seed-bombs-9866 

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“fighting filth with forks and flowers, and is essentially the illicit cultivation of someone else’s land”.”

Source:Richard Reynolds, On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries.

Every city has areas of weed filled or bare land that may have once had gardens long neglected, or been cleared then forgotten. Guerilla Gardening is taking these areas and making them beautiful or even functional without requesting permission from the land owner. 

In Australia this is actually illegal because our western mentality is so entrenched in the idea of land ownership over purpose or function but don’t worry about that. Just be smart and careful!

How to start Guerilla Gardening:

Find your area

Ideally somewhere that is near to your home or that you frequent often for convenience and so you can keep an eye on your progress or any attacks. Look for easy to access, bare ground that isn’t obviously under someone's observation. Eg, an overgrown patch of weeds next to a footpath  near your office is probably fine, your neighbours backyard is not

Select your plants

What purpose do you want for your space? Is it to be beautiful? Grow food? Encourage bees and insects? Determine the outcome you want and then make a list of the types of plants that would work in the climate, conditions and season. Bear in mind to use natives as much as possible and avoid invasive species. Make your reclaimed space as useful as possible with suitable, non-invasive edibles, and kick start a serious urban food forest. Make sure your plants are hardy and low maintenance as well to give them the best chance of survival.

Hit up local nurseries, community groups, neighbours or even local councils for the plants you want to use. As these plants are going to be in public places they may be stolen, destroyed or eaten by animals so only plant what you’re willing to lose! Research whether you want to start with seeds or already established plants. Borrow the tools you need and grab the mulch or fertiliser from giveaways on marketplace or community groups. 

Organise a time and recruit a friend to start working on your project

-OR-

Build some Seed Bombs for a more subtle influence.

Start your garden, clearing out as required and planting your selected plants. If you’re concerned about getting in trouble, do your gardening at night or just west hi vis and act confident

Make sure to check it regularly, watering and caring for the plants as required 

Congratulations! You are now a Guerilla Gardener!

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Capitalism: ruining joy in all forms

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