Chicago woke up this morning to its first teachers’ strike in 25 years. We won’t explore the issues behind the strike, but we’d like examine one indisputable fact:
400,000 kids suddenly have nowhere to go.
That awful roar you hear is a quarter million parents crying, “What are we supposed to do with our kids?” Some will send kids to city activity centers. Some will find sitters, or enlist grandparents, or trust older kids to look after younger ones.
But thousands of Chicago parents will have to take time off work—which means employers will have to shuffle schedules, or find replacements, or simply go short-handed. Economists could write volumes on the ripple effects of a teachers’ strike, but there’s no question productivity will suffer.
Our prediction: businesses who hire local will suffer less.
Imagine your kids are 15 and 13. Can you leave them alone at home for the day? That could depend on where you work. If you work halfway across the city or out in the suburbs, you might not think so. But you’re probably a lot more comfortable with the idea if you work six blocks away—if they need you, you can be home in 15 minutes.
Now imagine you run a sandwich shop. Your employees all live nearby. Some of them are parents, and some of them are high school students. Will the strike affect your schedule? Sure. But if the parents need to take time off, you can bet some of the students will be happy to take on the extra shifts. And their friends will probably come by for lunch.
Long story short: When a teachers’ strike (or other major event) disrupts business, employers who are entrenched in their communities are better positioned to weather the storm.
Kauzu.Biz is the first application built to help businesses hire local, with unlimited free job postings and advanced user analytics. Check it out at www.kauzu.biz.
And, for the sake of thousands of Chicago parents and their employers, let’s hope this strike is over soon.
