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inthetriad,
Our position is totally opposite of what you have experienced and from what we hear from others that are having trouble finding good workers. Most of our positions do not require a college education although we both have them as do some of our employees. Most are in this field because they like it (it's one of those). We hear the same things from others looking, all we want are people that WANT and are WILLING to do the job that is required that it takes to get the job done and yes it may require "getting dirty". We are a small business w/ more than one location, many years ago when we had to clean our own places we had people balk at having to help actually clean up after themselves. They were "to good" to clean a toilet or sweep the floor or put the dishes from lunch in the dishwasher that they got dirty. Yeah right. If I the owner do not see myself as "to good" to do manual labor and do grunt work then no one else in this place is. Lol, we actually provide free drinks to everyone, in the fridge, help yourself to our employees. I am the one that goes every other week and buys a truck load of drinks (soft drinks, gatorade, bottled water, etc), buy it, load it into a truck, and drive it to the place. Most of the time I end up unloading it myself (I would say 98%). Yet they feel they should not help restock the fridge when it is running low? Then complain that I did not buy X flavor this time? This is the attitude that is killing the workforce of today.
MidniteBreeze,
You are right. Someone has to step up and take responsibility. Do I blame the schools? Not totally because they have to play to the parents that make every excuse for their kid for their sorry behavior. Do I blame the kid that is now an adult? Well, they have been allowed to do as the please all their lives and never answer to anyone for any of their actions. So who is it? Well, the parents had the kids till they started school at 5. The parents have the kids more time than the schools do. Just look at the dress of what has transpired over the course of the last decade. We service every industry/business in the spectrum. I don't want my employees walking into a doctors office looking all scruffy, unkept and such. I don't care if they are the outside salesperson making a call or delivering a product or there to repair something. They should look presentable. I mentioned the showing up on time that you brought up:
"young people lack very basic "soft" skills...i.e., showing up on time, presenting a professional appearance, dealing effectively with customers and supervisors, staying on task and not having to be re-directed every 5 minutes...etc."
This is so true. I see it everyday. Don't tell a customer to "kiss off" or such just because you messed something up. Admit your mistake and take care of it. Mistakes happen but it is HOW it is handled that makes the biggest differnce. Then most important, LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES! If you keep repeating the same mistake that costs us money and time every day or week then it is not worth having you around. The whole entitlement thing is a whole other issue. I've heard enough to get my bp up over that one. Sorry, but I'm the one (and my husband) that sacrificed everything we had back then. Sent my then baby to stay w/ my folks for days at a time so we could work 10-12 (hubby more like 14) hour days and 7 days a week. Yes, I know you are working hard too. But you don't show up till 8:30 and leave at 2:30 prompt every day (I heard this one today, lol). Meanwhile my husband gets there at 6:30 and does not get home till after 8:00 at night. I know we are shorthanded but you have an OFFICE JOB!! We are NOT shorthanded IN THE OFFICE!!! While my husband is doing manual laber during the day and filling in where needed to make sure customers get taken care of then staying late to do HIS paperwork. Okay, enough. High stress right now and that one today was just a lil more than I really wanted to hear. LOL, and the being redirected every 5 minutes. My husband can SO RELATE to that. He says he babysits more than anything.
I believe there are plenty of employers out there that do treat their employees fair and want to. The health insurance is a HUGE ISSUE!!! Trust me on that one. We provide it and every year it is the same thing. The premiums go up over 20-30% but the coverages go down. We have to shop around and be careful of what we do so that WE CAN keep providing this benefit. The insurance industry is hurting it more than the business owners. If it comes to keeping the doors open and paying the bills and drop the coverage then that is what is going to happen. We WANT the insurance. We have a family too. We want them to have good health care. We have to use the same coverage you do. By law if we buy it thru the company for us WE HAVE to provide it for YOU. Not only that but we want YOU and YOUR family healthy. We pay for the insurance so that you do stay healthy and can work. And I can not tell you how many times we have had people call in sick for two or more days and when you ask if they have gone to the doctor they say "no". I PAY FOR YOU TO HAVE MEDICAL INSURANCE COVERAGE!!!!! USE IT!!!!!!!
Basically I think it all boils down to what MidniteBreeze stated. There are too many people that do not know "how" to work.
Yes, I understand that health care is a huge issue and expense for everyone, employers and employees alike. Another problem with no easy solution. Of course it begs the question, should the government seriously consider implementing a universal health care program? Sure sounds nice, but as they say, there's no free lunch.
I guess the big question is what would cost the "average Joe" more in the long run...the current system of employer-subsidized insuance premiums or the inevitable tax increases needed to fund a national health care program? And if we DID have universal health care, would the overall quality of such care suffer? (Mediocre health care for all??)
It certainly has been debated to death on both sides, but in the meantime there are still thousands of Americans with NO coverage at all. And of course those are the folks who are caught in the middle, they make too much to get government assistance but not enough to pay the premiums (or they have a job in which their employer can't or won't provide coverage at all.)
Even people like me who have a "decent" health plan...my premiums aren't bad and I'm pretty well covered if anything "major" happens...but a lot of the "little" stuff isn't covered. No "routine" physicals, no vision coverage, etc. etc. And the first $1000 I pay a year comes out of my pocket. So if I have a "minor" problem like an injured ankle (could just be a sprain or it might be broken, who knows?) or a bad cough (could just be a cold or it might be bronchitis, who knows?) I'm not really motivated to go spend 2 or 3 hundred dollars (or more!) unless I have reason to believe it's actually something serious. So much for preventative care!
Well, I believe I've ranted quite enough for tonight. Will someone pleae PM me when they have all this all figured out? LOL.
momof2dfw: What kind of work do you do? Perhaps someone on this message board has the skills you are looking for...
As for myself, I have had enough good jobs and crappy jobs to feel that anytime I'm getting a decent wage, not being yelled at, someone's angry at me or I'm in some kind of physical pain; whether it be from muscle strain or pain from extreme heat or cold that I have a kick ass job.
What I do now, I generally like it a lot. If I'm hurting, it's usually from the weather and a lot of the year it's not cold enough for that. Usually my supervisors and our customers are pretty reasonable.
I didn't do well in highschool and part of that was me distracting myself and part of it not having a clue at how hard or annoying some jobs really are. I didn't do much in the way of part-time work until the end of my time in highschool so I learned the hard way later than I would like to have.
After highschool I got a 2 year diploma studying to be an aircraft mechanic, then I found out the hard way that people who aren't already licenced aren't in demand here. So I changed to a different field of industrial inspections. Over the last 2 years, in between jobs (work contract to contract) I've studied for six different types of industrial and weld inspection methods, so that I can be more versitle and get more hours of work from my employer.
I always try to be on time, though occaisionally I might be a few minutes late by accident. I will always try to call ahead of time to inform someone I can't make it in.
Until I read this thread, I thought my attitude was typical, or at least not unusual of people who never went to university.
I am not surprised. Heathcare is the only industry that can't be shipped overseas. We used to be the richest countryin the world. We used to make most of the products used around the world and we used to feed most of the world. We've given that all away. Now we depend on the other countries to supply us. Heaven forbid we should ever get in a conflict with China!
yes it is .recently outsourced to India -Medical Transcripting and now MRI and X-rays are read there as well of course by a liscensed physichan but from which accredited school or counrty?
I Saw an article for tutoring online that recieves grants from Bush,' no child left behind .It is in India . an english speaking Indian tutoring of all things English .
It's worse than you think. A lot of the high-margin healthcare jobs *can* be shipped overseas. Radiologists, for example, can do reads remotely. Nothing prevents hospitals from investing in a PACS and setting up a bunch of reading workstations in Bangalore. Once we set up Indian specialists to get reimbursed by Medicare and once they figure out it's cheaper to buy granny a ticket to Guatemala for her hip replacement, it's off to the races.
The cleaning of bedpans and mopping of floors can't be outsourced, though.
Magpies
but only visa workers from the phillipeans do at a hospital here in clearwater .
They found that the number one complaint from the employers is the fact that today's young people lack very basic "soft" skills...i.e., showing up on time, presenting a professional appearance, dealing effectively with customers and supervisors, staying on task and not having to be re-directed every 5 minutes...etc.
When the business and educational leaders got together to talk about this, some of the "logical" issues came up. Employers need to take at least some of the blame for things like low wages, lack of benefits, inflexible scheduling, unpleasant working conditions. Schools need to take at least some of the blame for failing to prepare our students academically for college and post-secondary training.
But a big question came up: whose job is it to teach those basic "life" skills? Most of us would agree that this is the parents' responsibility. Far too often schools, employers and social serivice providers find themselves dealing with young people who can't function appropriately at work, at school or in society. 99% of the time their parents are one of the following:
-enablers...angry at "the system" themselves, have a sense of "entitlement"
-helpless...in spite of good intentions, have completely lost control of their own kids
-dysfunctional...can't take care of themselves--drug addicts, alcoholics, etc.
I don't know where this "breakdown" in society occured, or who is initally to blame. Parents? Schools? Employers? The government? "Society" at large? It's the proverbial chicken and egg. And even if we could pinpoint the source, what is the cause? Is it a generational problem? An economic problem? Lack of planning? Greed?
Lots of questions, few answers, no apparent solution.
This came up recently when one of the girls college championship teams visited the White House and half the girls showed up in flip flops. Now some may say whats the big deal, big sin, etc. Its not a big sin, but a sign of the times (for better or worse) and speaks to the comments you mentioned above about lack of soft skills or social graces. For those of you with kids >13 go talk to your kids about their myspace page and go ask to see it, and their friends pages and you will see the reality of what is going on 'behind the scenes' - I dont want to sound like an old foggie since I'm not, but with the electronic culture where everything can be learned/viewed on MTV or on the internet a lot more 'crude' stuff is just part of their growing up experience, from clothes to acts to language. Hence its part of our culture now. Kids in college are being warned to take down their myspace pages because employers are checking them out to see what the person is 'really like' in their normal lives.... ironic.
As for work/employee relationship - it goes both ways. I can't speak for the entire nation but in the manufacturing industry up north you are treated like a piece of meat... in my field you are expected to come in early/leave late, not take your full lunch, not take all your vacations, when they eliminate people from your department, whomever is left over is supposed to pick up their jobs, you get stressed to pieces... and then the companies want all this great performance in return. Yeh right. So they basically burn through employees - use em up, and throw em out down the road. Why can this happen here? Supply and demand... in Michigan many jobs are dissapearing and people will gladly do the work (any work) so no one can complain and they know there is someone waiting outside the door happy to do any of the drudgery or go through bad conditions to have ANY sort of paycheck. It sounds very opposite wherever you live. I guess the people in your part of the country are not seeing the desperation some people are going through here. When you need any job to pay for food for family or keep house over head its a different situation perhaps. But companies take advantage of it up here.
On the flip side, I have read of companies in magazines who treat their employees very well and in return they have very low turnover rates, and pleasant working conditions and good productivity. Create the environment and usually you draw in good workers. Much like cities that create the good environment (schools, crime, cost of living) get the type of people moving there that most cities want and compete for.
momof2dfw: What kind of work do you do? Perhaps someone on this message board has the skills you are looking for...
As for myself, I have had enough good jobs and crappy jobs to feel that anytime I'm getting a decent wage, not being yelled at, someone's angry at me or I'm in some kind of physical pain; whether it be from muscle strain or pain from extreme heat or cold that I have a kick ass job.
What I do now, I generally like it a lot. If I'm hurting, it's usually from the weather and a lot of the year it's not cold enough for that. Usually my supervisors and our customers are pretty reasonable.
I didn't do well in highschool and part of that was me distracting myself and part of it not having a clue at how hard or annoying some jobs really are. I didn't do much in the way of part-time work until the end of my time in highschool so I learned the hard way later than I would like to have.
After highschool I got a 2 year diploma studying to be an aircraft mechanic, then I found out the hard way that people who aren't already licenced aren't in demand here. So I changed to a different field of industrial inspections. Over the last 2 years, in between jobs (work contract to contract) I've studied for six different types of industrial and weld inspection methods, so that I can be more versitle and get more hours of work from my employer.
I always try to be on time, though occaisionally I might be a few minutes late by accident. I will always try to call ahead of time to inform someone I can't make it in.
Until I read this thread, I thought my attitude was typical, or at least not unusual of people who never went to university.
I have a theory that they just should take kids out of school in 9th grade for 1 year and put them in a line job... I know that is "child cruelty" - I don't mean anything unsafe like meat packing but something simple, monotonous and boring as hell. Then they will be a lot more motivated to make something of themselves instead of looking forward to a job like that for 40 years.
Now the problem with that is usually if you are doing poorly in school by 9th grade, its going to be hard to make up (doable - but not easy) especially if you're reading and math skills are years behind where they should be.
I dont know how you find a job for kids younger than that, maybe pull them out in 6th grade for 3 months and make them do boring busy work as another option.
But many kids (and I cannot blame them, humans usually go to the path of least resistance), float through HS in the easiest classes with no big picture motivation instilled in themselves because they just don't know what the future is like and their parents don't talk to them about such things and most likely these parents went through life the same way.
I still remember I had 1 required course in HS in 11th or 12th grade - the one class every person needed to graduate, CIVICS. It was the only class the "smart" kids (or those on higher tracks within the HS system) got mixed up with the "average kids". I remember sitting in that class and it was the only 1 in HS I never needed to open the book, or do homework - if I simply listened to the most basic things the teacher said any 7 year old could of passed the class. So I realized at that point how pathetic the educational system is for many kids - if this is what the 'average' class is for the 'lower tracks' that the schools are pushing kids through - no wonder we are falling behind as a nation and kids can pass through HS with such poor reading/math skills. Essentially if you have a heartbeat, show up 90%+ of the time and do the tests you are basically guaranteed a C- and they will push you out the door at graduation.
Interesting statistics found today in an article... and shows you why health care costs are going up 8-12% every year. If not for health care and housing the past 5 years we'd have no job growth in the country; and now one of those 2 pillars (housing) is going to see a slump...
"The health-care industry has added 1.7 million jobs since 2001.
The rest of the private sector has added none, as a gain of 900,000 jobs in the housing sector has been offset by losses elsewhere. (BusinessWeek)"
no realy like i do not know this! i was laid of because of illegal imigrants with fake papers only to go into home construction where i have to work with more fake legals to compete and my wife got laid of from the private sector heath care and now works for medicare.i am selling my home because taxes are killing me from real estate speculaters doubling prices on the housing projects next to my established home causing my property value to skyrocketwhich is forcing my tax to go up yet my income is sliding backwards .
Soon their will be goverment cheese again like last time when the only manufactures lay off thousands because gas cost too much to drive big american land yachts .im moving to the woods again because the city caught up to where i live in the woods know ,buying a cow to milk cause i do not want to milk a goverment hand out .I will raise meat goats for sale to the second wave of middle easterns who will buy the rest of Detroit Steel City this time round when the laid of factory workers move to florida and artic gulf to fill new off shore (right off the beaches) oil rigs and refineries so we can buy big cars again and contiue to live like monarchy in large mini castles that need cheap forieng labor to build and clean and mow cause or spoiled princes and princesses won't.we in florida have had it good i guess it must be bad up north for so many people to want to move here now. which means my pay will slide again.and I work for myself now but so does everyone else now.
During high school and college I worked almost 7 years for a major movie theater chain. I won't mention the name, but I can tell you this is the cheapest company in the world. Of course I worked there with the understanding that it was just a typical, low wage "nowhere" job...just something to make a little extra spending money while I was in school, but seriously....we were open 365 days a year and they were too cheap to pay any kind of overtime on holidays! No holiday bouns, no comp time, not even a cheesy mass-produced corporate Christmas card. I started at minimum wage and 7 years later I had been "promoted" to relief managar and was making a whole 1.75 more an hour than when I had started. Whoo-hoo.
By the time I finally moved on to "bigger and better" things, I knew that place inside out and was trusted to run the whole operation, keep the customers happy, keep track of the inventory, take the money to the bank at night, etc. etc. But still, corporate HQ didn't see fit to pay me more than $6.00/hr! If I had really wanted to, I could have robbed that place blind and it would have been a long time before anyone of "importance" figured it out.
So why did I stay there, you ask? Well, surprisingly, I wasn't the only one. There was a core group of us that called ourselves "lifers." Most of us had been there at least 3 years. (Quite a stint for a minimum wage job!) Some of us also worked second jobs but couldn't bring ourselves to quit the theater. We stayed there because while the COMPANY sucked, our little forgotten, far-flung theater up in the north woods had great people.
In spite of the crappy wages, our managers did their best to make it a nice, fun place to work. We had a little deal worked out with the other theaters around town where we could get passes to each other's movies for free. We got free pop and popcorn at work. They did their best to schedule around other things going on in our lives, and when they couldn't, we'd often cover for each other...we were like a little family. We socialized together and it wasn't uncommon to find people who weren't even working that day to be hanging out at the theater and even pitching in if something needed to be done.
Of course I wasn't trying to feed a family on this job, but it just goes to show how those "little" things can really boost morale and create loyal employees. Though we worked for a big company that we all hated, our little theater had that personal "mom and pop" feel which is sadly so lost in today's workplaces.
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Sorry, but I'm the one (and my husband) that sacrificed everything we had back then. Sent my then baby to stay w/ my folks for days at a time so we could work 10-12 (hubby more like 14) hour days and 7 days a week. Yes, I know you are working hard too. But you don't show up till 8:30 and leave at 2:30 prompt every day (I heard this one today, lol). Meanwhile my husband gets there at 6:30 and does not get home till after 8:00 at night. I know we are shorthanded but you have an OFFICE JOB!! We are NOT shorthanded IN THE OFFICE!!! While my husband is doing manual laber during the day and filling in where needed to make sure customers get taken care of then staying late to do HIS paperwork. Okay, enough. High stress right now and that one today was just a lil more than I really wanted to hear. 
LOL, and the being redirected every 5 minutes. My husband can SO RELATE to that. He says he babysits more than anything. 
random story...
