By Tom Bemis Celebrating increased hardship faced by potential employees brings career penalties. An executive who celebrated the idea that higher gas prices will make potential employees more desperate for work is himself now out of a job. In an email posted on Reddit last week, the executive at a franchise operator of Applebee’s restaurants wrote that “the labor market is about to turn in our favor,” thanks to higher inflation and in particular higher gas prices. “Most of our employee base and potential employee base live paycheck to paycheck,” the executive, identified as Wayne Pankratz, wr…