Whats with workers nowadays?

Ohhh come on!! Don't tell me everyone is so literally happy at work, or doesn't have someone that drives them nutts with thier work ethics?

Not everyone is a saint......

I pride myself on my work ethic. I install high end appliances and I don't like to leave a job until everything is perfect, but the turn around rate of installers is huge. A lot of people come in thinking it is an easy job and a week later they quit with sore backs. unfortunately some stay and make their partners job much harder by their laziness. Having a good partner is imperative in my job because you have to spend 8-12 hours a day with this person so whenever I had a partner like this I never hesitated to tell the people that mattered.

I don't blame you sublime. Been there, done that.

I guess the thing that bothers me the most is people will put in an application for a job, and then half ass it. Someone has to take up thier slack and in the end, they are getting the same rate of pay you are. Thats not right, but than again...whose smarter?

I actually had a woman come in for one of the jobs that I had opened up. I knew from the get go that she wouldn't do what was expected of her. I talked to her about the job and explained to her that there was more to it than seemed. That it was tedious at times, loads of prep work and etc. The next day when it was time for her to show, she never showed up. And matter of fact, we haven't seen her in the cafe since then. Whats up with that?

It sounds like you talked her out of the job.



You have a point and not that they would care but the sense of accomplishment after a job well done is enough for me. Or in the more literal sense I am getting smarter by doing more and gaing more experience where the other guy will eventually get fired.

I probably did talk her out of the job. That was my aim to start with. If they still want it after I talk about all the crap that goes with it, then they might be worth hiring. IF you scare them off to start with, they would'nt have given it a half hearted try. And I need everyone giving 110%....

I like the sense of accomplishing something....at the end of a day. I like a challenge...and when I can win that challenge, I feel GREAT!

Reading this makes me realize how very very lucky I am.

I have very little turnover in staff - but my staff is small, only about 10 people.

I will quickly fire anyone who is not pulling their weight or who doesn't buy into the idea of what we are doing. Most of my applicants tell me how "fun" they think it would be to work at a photo studio and I too try to talk them out of it.

It's hard! You are dealing with people's egos and weaknesses and insecurities as much as anything else. It is very demading physically and psychologically and a lot of it is total durdgery.

And yes, you have to clean the toilets, and dog pee, and kid vomit and whatever else a human and their affectations can throw at you.

If they make it past the first two weeks they are usually there until hell freezes over.

Yes Boomerang you are lucky....bless you!

And you go.......about firing people that aren't pulling thier wieght. I don't blame you one bit!!

Thats all I ask........is do your job. And if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

I've had jobs I LOVED and Jobs I HATED.

My supervisors treatment of me had alot of effect on that. I guess I need an attaboy more than $$.

I also need the rich not to show off so much when I have worked for them. (Like spending 4million for a "pet" Elephant, having their picture taken and giving it to us for Xmas gifts).

If I perceive My Employer does not value me, it makes it hard for me to value him or his business.

Nowadays I do not define myself by what I do, What I do helps me have $ to help define who I am.
No one is going to care as much about your business as you do..Firm/Fair ig good.

The lazy will not put up w/the firm..Hiring Friends and family s/b avoided if at all possible.

Awww, I had to revive this...

AS some of you know, I have been working overtime at my job for the past 6 weeks. This is my first weekend off in that length of time, more or less, my first day off in 6 weeks. YIPPPPPEEEEEEEE

But let me tell you...I am still at a loss over people and thier work ethics!!

9 or 10 weeks ago, I had a young lady that was working for me, put in her 2 week notice. She followed through with it and finished out her two weeks. I was thankfull for that much. She's the young lady that took over where Mr. Pissy Pants left off beforehand. I could not get that young lady to do as expected...that was a fiasco. But she left, and I was honestly proud that she quit, she was running off my customers left and right...no matter what I done to change things. (I actually had to stand over her at times and watch what she was sending out)

I hired another young lady, that really wanted to work...really really bad!!! YEAAAAAAAAAA RIGHT!

She lasted 9 days....make a long story short, after having to tell her REPEATEDLY how to make things, how to put it on THE PLATE..ETC, I made her cry...and she didn't show up the next day.

That was the start of my 6 week run without a day off.

Up next was another young lady that I hired.(a couple of weeks later)..a sweet girl...one that wants to work and I trained her for 5 days straight, she run every step that I made and I honestly thought she was going to drop like a fly. But she made it, until the first weekend by herself...I get a call from her the night before. She was in a sling........yadda yadda yadda.

So........that left me in the kitchen again........

I called the other lady that I had working in the cafe, I'm up to a month now without a day off.....I told her to be at work at 10 the next morning, that I would do breakfast and she could finish up the day. SHE QUIT.....because as she put it,.."She didn't give a damn that I hadn't had a day off in a month, she wasn't working 4 hours on a Sat, she HAD PLANS!"

So...........that left me stranded again.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo, Up comes a lady that is in her 50's, or so I think. She's very convincing, she's done this work before, she CAN DO IT........SHE's DONE IT ALL. Application in hand, .....looks good, I hire her.

I am desperate at this point for help, since there is none.......

I tell her, that I'll train her for 5 days straight, and then she's being turned loose on the weekend. That I have to have a DAY OFF!!!

So the first Sat...that I'm to start training her, we just happened to call her the night before to make sure she would be coming in with me, and thats when she tells us that..."welllll.......you see, I did'nt know how to tell you, I have to do a Defensive driving course on Sats...and I'll have to go and do that, I can't start on Sat, it'll have to be Sun." Desperate for help, I let it go.....and let her start on Sun.

That was my first mistake.

She comes in.........and I have never in my life had this much trouble trying to explain things to someone. She does not comprehend a DAMNED THING that I'm telling her.

She's late her 3rd day.....I tried to let it go...

On the 4 day of training her, I am BESIDE MYSELF.......I'm not only playing THERAPIST, but I'm having to REPEAT MYSELF every 2 minutes.

Come to find out, this women that I thought was in her mid 50's is only 40.........she's a reformed meth head, been clean for 8 months. She is soooooooooooo burnt out that I would have better luck training my 6 year old how to do it. Not to count, she is an alcoholic to boot...thus the defensive driving courses... I'm at my wits end with her...and wanting to let her go...tell her to just go home. She's begging me NOT to fire her...which makes things worse..BUT This is fruitless......I am going behind her having to tell her to put things back up in the cooler, fridge, freezer, to wipe down things, wash this, wash that...I'm better off on my own.

Its not that hard, I have notes on everything posted here, there and yonder to guide you though it. ITs repetetive things, you have to do everyday. She's done them for 5 days...and still don't know anything I have told her, pointed out to her.....its frustrating as hell.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrr....LOL

It might be an idea, if you can, to get a professional recruiting company to do your interviewing for you. They can filter through applications and sort the dross, do the preliminary interviews and send you the best three. You an interview them yourself or just sit in on the final interview and select the best candidate. I've done it and it works well in my experience.

I may be wrong, but you get what you pay for. In lower paying jobs like prep cook, it's hard to find people that will bust their ass for that price range(as an employer) job. I used to be surprised, as a little Slappy working as a cashier at a grocery store, how lazy people were in general.

Then again, there's people that make a ton of $$ that are lazy bastards, too.

I understand managing a restaurant is job with extraordinarily high stress levels.

I've only worked at a couple of restaurants, not managed, and I can tell running a busy place could be hell. Dealing with the whole staff, plus the high amount of ignorant demanding customers.

I think Makesmeshiver lives in a rural area small town without much of a nearby population of ready sharp workers to interview, goodfielder. This must be terribly frustrating.

Ah thanks ossobuco - you're right, that on top of running the business (as has been pointed out, a challenge in itself) would be a huge burden.

Okay then I have an idea. If Makesmeshiver is tracking the thread, might I suggest that behavioral interviewing (I'm using American spelling because you might like to google it, there are lots of resources on it) might be useful if you aren't using it already.

And has been pointed out (there is a lot of practical wisdom in this thread) the applicants are probably not (only probably) going to be too academically inclined, but behavioral interviewing can be used easily because it asks people specific questions based on their personal experience and asks for an extrapolation so that the interviewer can make a (usually) accurate prediction about fufure behaviour (oops I used my spelling).

Feel free to PM me if you need any more info Makesmeshiver.