Minor grievance #7,763,985: you see them here, you see them there, you see them everywhere. They’re the bored-looking souls employed as human signposts, sitting or standing in the cold holding up an ad for a nearby restaurant.
The restaurant is always 100 metres that way, or just around the corner. For some reason, I find it rather off-putting.
It makes me rather disinclined to go to the restaurant at all. I know that places need to advertise, and that the human sign-posts get (probably minimum wage) work from it, but it just seems all a bit grim, especially in this weather. I can’t imagine it’s a job anybody would want to take unless they were hard up on their luck; it’s certainly not something I’d want to subject anyone to if I owned a premises.
What do you think? Am I being a job snob, or should shops and restaurants just pay for advertising space?
Wednesday 14 December, 2011 at 11:54 am
This blog is so fucking middle class, it’s laughable.
Wednesday 14 December, 2011 at 12:25 pm
well, don’t read it, Sam. Plenty of people do like it, can’t please everyone
Wednesday 14 December, 2011 at 12:25 pm
one of the barbers in the IFSC actually have a guy walking about in a sandwich board, like something out of the Beano. You can also add in shops/restaurant that have their “mascots” dancing at road junctions to attract people in.
I guess its not the greatest job in the world, but neither is cleaning toilets, pumping gas or working in an office with a bunch of jerks 😉 I can also understand why businesses in hard-to-find backstreet locations use them – they can’t rely on passing trade.
Wednesday 14 December, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Ha ha! Sam, I agree. This blog is very much full of minor rants and grievances, and I guess many of them could be considered “middle-class”, but so could a lot of journalism out there.
Wednesday 14 December, 2011 at 3:50 pm
I am not sure what’s wrong with middle class?
I also agree on this, don’t like the sandwich board advertising and sort of feel it must be really demeaning for the people doing it.
Add this to the chuggers and walking up the main streets in Dublin is like an obstacle course.
Wednesday 14 December, 2011 at 4:02 pm
I agree Peter. The place where I work part-time recently hired a man to do this job, he comes in to get the sign in the morning and brings it back 5 minutes before closing, he stands out in the cold all day(approx 8-10 hours) for minimum wage and he is not treated or respected as a member of staff, ie: he’s not invited to the Xmas party. If anything, he should be getting employee of the month, incl bonus, for December (it’s so cold!!) and being paid the same as the rest of us. I am so appalled at this (and have said so; fell on deaf ears) that I have begun to seriously dislike my employers for it. Seriously depressing stuff. I wouldn’t support businesses who use this form of advertising as I’ve seen first-hand how badly treated these folks are. And I know it is still a job but it should be a well-paid and respected job but it’s not.
Thursday 15 December, 2011 at 12:07 am
I ignore them on principle, for the “obstacle course” reason. There is just too many of them in certain places and the traffic becomes impossible.
Thursday 15 December, 2011 at 10:08 am
I don’t resent them, in fact I feel really bad for them. The poor people are freezing their a** off and they don’t even get a decent pay. They would be better off on the dole, and certainly more comfortable too, so I think they are in fact quite brave. As for the businesses, as Liam said, some are hidden in remote back street so they need the advertising. Of course, if these places were extra good, word of mouth would be enough, though
Thursday 15 December, 2011 at 11:20 am
I feel sorry for them, I wish they could read a book or listen to music to help pass the time. Must be such a boring long day. I wish the shops would just put a sign on a stand and not pay some poor soul to stand there. But I suppose its better money than no money. I know some friends of mind did something similar in Sydney when backpacking around Australia.