Curse this U.S. economy!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Since we’re rapidly coming upon the advent of another planting season, it has fallen upon me to hire on a couple warm bodies where I work. Despite it being a landscaping company, and despite the fact that the people I hire will be working directly with the livegoods (i.e. plants), I’m not really choosy and am willing to hire and train the ‘right person’. In other words, I don’t expect Michael Dirr to walk into the front door looking for a job (ok, so none of you know who Michael Dirr is…)

Good sweet Jesus, the people that walk through the door. Does no one put on clean clothes to apply for a job anymore? I’m not lookinng for a suit and tie, but a pair of clean khakis and a shirt with buttons would go a long way over the guy in the torn t-shirt, bandana and baggy pants hanging around his ass. I’d almost… maybe… possibly be willing to think that maybe these guys could clean themselves up and give them a chance if they were freakin’ literate. I have on my desk at work a stack of 15-20 applications from people who have mispelled the name of their school, their previous jobs (“construksion”??), even the town they live in!

I guess the ole economy is to blame. Between my workplace and the next major intersection, I counted six places that were hiring. Anyone with half a clue is already hired. The few that aren’t won’t work for what I’m allowed to pay them. I’ve gotten amazingly lucky with one woman who came in and wanted to work outside and so choose working with us over, say, Wal-Mart. I got lucky with another guy who’s halfway decent (although he’s never worked retail) and I think just doesn’t realize he could be making an extra $1.50/hr at Meijers. I still need one more person and I only have about a week to find him in.

For the record however, if you’re young and looking for a job, take the time to clean yourself up. Use your “best” handwriting on the application. Speak as if you’re trying to convince someone to hire you to work in a public capacity and not as if you’re discussing favorite radio stations with your friends. Given the average applicant, you’ll set yourself up above them just by making a realistic effort to look and act professional.

Well, back to the grind. We also need an assistant estimator ASAP and in two weeks of ads, have gotten zero applicants. Stupid economy…

P.S. Yes, I know the economy is what keeps me in business, but I was working before it got so good that the only unemployeed people are the virtually unemployable.

“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”

2

I remember when it was 1988 and I lived in Toledo Ohio during 15% unemployment, and a man couldn’t get a job without murdering the fellow there before him. I’d worked in a cemetary years before, so applied to landscaping companies. I didn’t get a “no thank you;” I got the phone slammed down on my ear by office admins who’d long since grown tired of my kind of phone call. If they’d have given me an interview I’d have rented a fucking tux! They weren’t nice to me
for the same reason yor applicants don’t seem to give a damn about you: they don’t have to.
Don’t complain to us unless you can tel us of one single time when, out of the goodness of your heart, you hired someone you really didn’t need because otherwise he’d have been living out of his car like I had to. Though you may not wind up in brushing your teeth at Sunoco, you stand to lower your profit margin. I understand (you see, I have come up since then). But please remember the Aesop fable about the dog’s reply when his master rebuked him for failing to catch the hare: “I was merely running for my supper - he was running for his life.”

3

Slithy, a lovely rant but since I was all of 15 in 1988, my hiring duties were reduced to arguing whether it was my turn or my sister’s turn to take out the garbage. Furthermore, I seriously doubt the typical 17-20yr old demographic I’m shooting for is harboring any grudges against the hiring situations twelve years ago. For that matter, if someone living in their car was to walk in tomorrow and show themselves to be a halfway intelligent human being who can read, write and talk like they have an education past the 5th grade, I’d hire them in a flash. However, since I don’t own the company I work for, my abilities to hire the masses out of charity are a bit limited. Nevertheless, I have been polite to anyone who’s walked in the door and asked for an application even if their application turned out to be an illegible scrawl of mispelled words written in blue crayon.

That said, in 1989, upon turning 16, I got a job on my birthday and have (thankfully) been employeed ever since excepting times I’ve chosen not to be (such as during college). I have no doubts that my willingness to act employable made as much of a difference in my job landing luck as the local economy. Acting like you don’t give a damn about a job, even in today’s market, isn’t the way to get hired. If I was interested in hiring people who don’t give a damn, I’d of been done three weeks ago. Instead, I’ll hold out for someone who does give a damn and hire them for the long haul and provide them with continued employment as opposed to hiring the first warm body and firing said body two weeks later when they’ve proven themselves as incapable of doing the job as they first presented themselves to be. If you walk through my door and ask for an application, it’s obvious you want a job. So act like it. Is that so hard?

“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”

4

Jophiel, please excuse me my “lovely rant,” and I will excuse you of your youthful condescension: I’ll allow that we both come by it honestly.

 Does the phrase "there but for the grace of God go I" ring a bell? Okay - you let yourself off the hook on my question: "out of the goodness of your heart, you hired someone you really didn't need because otherwise he'd have been living out of his car?" by virtue of the fact that you've not the final say in who gets hired. So I will ask again - did you ever ADVOCATE to those who would have the final say who should be hired - not by virtue of what their application form looks like - but by what you saw in their eyes when you TALKED TO THEM AS FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS. Yes Jophiel, they're in there, grooming standards notwithstanding, and it's your job to reach them. If times were tougher it would be the other way and then you, Jophiel, would have it easier.

BUT: if times were tougher, as you wish they were, entire families would be being evicted and family men would be waiting on line for minimum wage jobs. Honestly, would you gladly offer that as the price of your middle-managment convenience? Because, in fact, without you knowing it, it is.

 Jophiel, I'd like to give you credit as a hardworking, honest young man for more than that. Do me a favor - don't look at the application form. Look at the applicant. Like it or not, you've been placed in a position of leadership (not the position of "choosership" you may have wished). Leadership consits of two things: communicating the standards to YOUR people, and holding them to those standards.
5

[Quote]

I guess the ole economy is to blame. Between my workplace and the next major intersection, I counted six places that were hiring. Anyone with half a clue is already hired.
{/Quote]
So why can’t Carl get a job? :frowning: Heck, why can’t I get a job??

Cessandra

I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!

6

:Notes Typos:

Oh, maybe that’s why.

Cessandra

I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!

7

Aw geez. I think I’m supposed to ask permission from Wally fer this first, but I’ll risk a short extension of my field promotion . . .

Slithy Tove – What in the sweet name of John Kenneth Galbraith are you talkin’ about? I damned near lost my home and my business in that '88 recession, and I don’t recall ever thinking that someday I’d get my reward for persevering in the form of some resentful ne’er-do-well I couldn’t hire back then showing up twelve years later and trying to rub my nose in the fact that now that he’s an older and less accomplished ne’er-do-well I still won’t hire him.

Back then my charity was lacking because it was all I could do to stay out of bankruptcy court and keep my people from losing their own homes. Today my charity is lacking because I can’t afford to hire people who think I owe them the job just because they neglected to move out of their cars along the way. It sounds to me like it isn’t Jophiel who’s in need of some honest perspective here.

Leadership also requires looking out for the interests of the folks who hung in there and helped keep the company alive in the tough times. That would include not diluting their pay and eroding their ability to do their jobs by hiring a putz.

Dr. Watson
“A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.” – Elbert Hubbard

8

Further proof that when you feel bad, there are plenty of people around who will inspire you to think
“No matter how bad things get, at least I’m not that guy!”

It works great.

Hey look, there’s Chris… I feel better already!

“Winners never quit and quitters never win, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.”

9

Slithy, perhaps you have a hard time understanding how businesses work. If you did not get hired by a landscape company in 1988 when unemployment was at 15%, I’m willing to bet it had a hell of a lot to do with the fact that not many unemployeed people pay for landscaping. Hiring you was not going to hurt their “profit margin”, it may have very well put someone out of business to have to pay an extra set of hands to remain idle while no one was asking for work. Likewise, if 15% of the people weren’t working, it would make a thousand times more sense to hire someone experienced (if you needed help at all) than someone off the street. See, landscaping is really something of a luxury, and people like to pay for a quality job when they buy luxuries, else they wouldn’t be spending money on them. I’ve no idea how qualified you are, but if the times were that bad (I have rose colored visions of that time since I was a mere lad of 15) I’m willing to bet more qualified applicants than yourself were filling the few positions open. If my livelihood was on the line, you bet your proverbial bippy that I’m hiring the experienced guy over the charity case.

As for hiring charity cases in general, I don’t remember saying that out of work mothers of seven were coming through my door looking for work. I said that I was beseiged with illiterate teenagers who are dressing like they’re off to a hip-hop concert, not a job interview. Perhaps I should have made that clearer. Right about now, I’d love to hire a mother of seven since she probably has enough sense and ability to juggle the tasks I’d need her for. Granted I don’t go out on the streets looking for the homeless, but I’m managing a store, not an out-reach shelter. If the homeless want a job, I’ll be more than happy to talk to them and hire them based on their abilities to fill the task at hand. There’s a sign right out in front saying “Help Wanted - FT/PT” if they’re interested; should be real easy to find.

I’ll be first to admit that my “curse the economy” reference was a bit tounge-in-cheek; I assumed people would realize that. Needless to say from the above, if the econmy was to collapse it wouldn’t do my industry any favors. However, I can open the newspaper to the business section on any given day and read the same lament, “XXX many jobs unfilled in XXX industry.” Why this is supposed to count as an excuse to ignore the basics of business conduct and dress is beyond me. I previously said that “I have (thankfully) been employeed…” so your grace of God comment falls on deaf ears. I’m glad for what I have, but when I’ve worked at places that decided to thin the ranks and I remained at the end of it, I know there was some reason why.

Cess, all I can offer you is to move to the west suburbs of Chicago and drive the strip along Naper Rd. from Lily Cache to Boughton. You might not find the job you want, but trust me, you will find a job. Otherwise, have Carl give me a call :wink:

Goodness, this is starting to sound like a Pit thread.

“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”

10

Alright!! This is certainly the best news I have heard all day, as I have always wanted to work in the XXX industry!!!

11

Where are you located?? It’s sounds real close to my neck of the woods?

I have great faith in fools, self-confidence my friends call it.—
Edgar Allan Poe

12

Why? You looking for a job? Anyway, since I’ve revealed my location many a times before with total strangers due to the SDMB meets and the “What’s your town named for” thread, I live in Naperville.

“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”

13

Actual dialogue with unemployed stepson (he’ll be 21 in July) whose girlfriend is pregnant:

Last October – stepson had just started his fourth job in less than two years.

SS: “Think you can get me on at Acme?” (where I work, not real name, of course)

AP: “Your work history needs improvement. We’re going to be hiring for quite a while. So why not stay where you are for a year or so, show you can stick with something, and apply with Acme later?”

SS: “Okay.”

January –

SS: “Think you can get me on at Acme?”

AP: “What happened to your last job?”

SS: “It didn’t pay very good, and they didn’t give me enough hours, so I quit.”

AP: “So doing nothing pays better than your last job?”

SS: “Well, no.”

I’m just stunned, but apparently no one’s told these young kids not to quit a job until they have another one lined up. Especially with a baby on the way.

We get tons of applications from people who have big gaps between jobs, and their “reason for leaving” a prior job is “not enough pay.” Duh!! Don’t they understand how that sounds?

And as to the OP: Appearance, handwriting, grammar and spelling skills aren’t important to us (factory work, it gets dirty and it can be hard).

One of the best workers we hired last year wore a woman’s shirt to his interview, and he smelled like he’d rolled in something. He’s never missed a day or had an accident or pinched anyone’s boobs. (Wish we could say the same about some of our “suits”.)

Sorry for the ramble.

14

Auntie Pam, I’ve often thought the same thing about the current idea among some people that since jobs are plentiful, they can bounce around from job to job every three months. One day, these people will want a “real” job and the person in charge of hiring might wonder why the applicant can’t hold a job for longer than a quarter year. And you’re right, working for $5.75/hr is $5.75/hr more than you make sitting at home.

As far as appearance goes, the people I hire work in a public capacity in an environment that stresses professionalism and service. Therefore, professionalism is one of the very first things I look for. You’re right however that it’s not the same for ‘manual’ work such as factory, repair, mechanical or whatever. If I was hiring someone to work on the tractors or the trucks, it wouldn’t mean much to me what the person looked like, but for a job where they’ll be the customers’ first impression of the company, it’s another story. All in the job in question, I guess.

“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”