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I was laid off from my job in February. I was lucky enough to find a contract (W-2 only) position making about the same money - at the same corporate campus, but this is a limited term job and might be over with any day now. I've been actively searching for a new job for the last three months and I am blown away by how much the job market has changed since the last time I was actively looking for something.
Wages are down, and if you try to play hard to get - they go get someone else.
This one gets me all the time. People who have it in their heads that they should not have to work more than 40 hours a week. I have met very few professionals who made good money who didn't put at least 55 hours a week in the office
I'm not talking about upper level management who get paid very very well. I'm talking about the peon who makes far less and is still expected to work extra hours for nothing.
1) Experience has nothing to do with talent. We all start somewhere.
2) Everyone needs to learn the processes of a particular workplace. Also, as that workplace introduces new technology and so on, you'd better believe OJT is necessary. Employees should not have to pay to take a seminar offsite out of their own pockets.
3) Spreading an employee too thin will give you thin results. If you want people to excel, it is up to you, as the employer, to get the most out of their strengths. Anything else is bad management.
4) You get what you pay for. GIGO--garbage in, garbage out.
5) If you can't afford to give your employees health care, you have no business having employees. If you don't see the value in giving your employees time off, and you aren't familiar with how much more productive well-rested employees are, you'll soon be out of business anyway, because your products will start to suck, you'll be turning over staff like flapjacks at a country brunch (with all the attending costs of orientation and ramp-up for new employees), and eventually someone is going to make a big mistake that wrecks your reputation.
6) That is simply not true. I'm 44 years old and I haven't worked even 45 hours in one week since I was 23, while working for someone else. (When I break 40 freelancing, it's because I'm marketing my skills and doing all of the administrative stuff, like researching prospects.) Ditto nearly all of my colleagues. If your employees are working 55 hours a week all the time, it means one of several things: they are not qualified for the jobs they are in, which is your fault for hiring them; you are understaffed, which is also your fault; they have personal problems and don't want to go home.
Your words are those of an exploiter, and they represent all that is wrong with the American workplace these days. I suspect that when the economy turns around, you'll be screaming bloody murder about how good help is hard to find--if you're still in business at all.
1) People without experience are not talented.
2) People who are talented do not need OJT... that's why they are called talented and not clueless.
3) Talented includes cross-training in the modern work place. If all you can do is one task, you are not talented.
4). Yes, I am seeing this. People are desperate and will work for less. I don't see how this is a bad thing for employers.
5) Try paying for your "crap" benefits on the market as I do. They're expensive. See #4.
6) Professional jobs have long required 55+ hour a week commitments and many professionals are salaried. Nothing new.
But you are the one who says that the successful are the ones your talking about. Its just the economic realities really.Even in past recessions business did not hire the untrained over the trained;it would make no sense to.Even what skills are needed is changing quicker than ever and its been no secret unless a person had their head in the sand.
Yes, but I think no matter how experienced you are, there is going to be a learning curve and period of transition. Even if I am working 8 years in my position at our NY office, then transfer to the same job in LA, there is going to be learning their way of doing things vs. back in NY. In any case, a good employer that wants to make sure a quality job is done will take the time and provide necessary training. Not expect someone to just jump in and do a bang-up job on day one, which is what you hear about some of these companies expecting.
The trouble with this recession is that many companies have gotten used to having fewer employees, and are still trying to get away with not having to hire more, or pay a decent wage like they used to. You hear about this even though these companies are making record profits, they are hoarding every penny they can for themselves. Same deal with outsourcing when we heard the giant sucking sound of the jobs going away overseas.
I do see them shooting themselves in the foot when doing this long enough. High turnover will result in a lower quality product and service. Not only that, but when people are not paid a decent wage - fewer people will be buying their products. The top 1-2% of rich cannot sustain this economy alone. Henry Ford understood this, which is why he resolved to pay his workers a decent living wage.
Last edited by catnip8056; 08-21-2011 at 06:59 PM..
i'm not talking about upper level management who get paid very very well. I'm talking about the peon who makes far less and is still expected to work extra hours for nothing.
I do see them shooting themselves in the foot when doing this long enough. High turnover will result in a lower quality product and service.
I agree with what you are saying. The only issue with this is, low quality products and services have never stopped American's from consuming. We buy products from China that are toxic. Sure they catch some of it... After awhile! And when it comes to the services, the workers themselves I have found to be more polite and harder working then ever. I went to some restaurants last week. Wow, was the wait staff polite, timely, and seemingly concerned that I enjoyed my experience. When it comes to worker interactions with the customer (me), I have not been disappointed in the past few years. It isn't just restaurants either, but a good example. The workers themselves are hustling out there.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RedJacket
I'm not talking about upper level management who get paid very very well. I'm talking about the peon who makes far less and is still expected to work extra hours for nothing.
Most states have laws requiring that for hourly employees overtime be paid for more than 40 hours work.
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