iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Why do they pick me

Started by Skytramp, December 14, 2005, 11:48:34 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Skytramp

My two helpers and I were working at home today, My logger was moving and we took the time to catch up on some repairs.  About 10:00 a guy pulled up in my front yard,  I knew him as he stops by every three months or so, or everytime his wife makes him go look for a job.  To use a neighbors words ( He is unemployable )  I had heard that his wife had left him and noticed that he was driving a pretty new pickup, ( Pity the guy that sold it to him)  He came out to the shop, stepped on several things that didn't need stepping on and blurted out, "My wife lost her job, guess I am going to have to go to work, need anybody?"  I told him no and he left.  A couple hours later another guy stopped by, He was about as drunk as a guy can get and still motivate.  I knew this guy also and have never saw him sober.  Told me how good he was around a mill, could also cut and skid and fix anything that I had.  Said he drank a little after work, ( Guess work starts really early. cause it was noon and he was already drunk. )  Said that he only wanted three day weeks, and didn't like paperwork,  he would just come to work and I could pay him in cash whatever I thought he was worth, also wanted paid daily.  I thought I was going to have to hire him to get rid of him. 
     Help like that is why I cut an 8 man crew back to 4.  The 4 includes my wife and myself.  The other two have been with me for a long time and are really good guys and experianced mill hands.  I don't know how it is everywhere else, but good help around here is really hard to find. 
     I had a guy working for me that was cutting and skidding for xx amount of dollars per thousand.  He had cut his work time to about 4 hrs a day and I was constantly catching him.  It had gotten to the point that I was going to have to replace him, then one morning he came running up to me all mad  and blurted out, "I have to have $10.00 an hour, if I am not worth $80.00 a day I am going to have to find another job."  I asked him if he had ever thought of working more hours.  Then He really got mad.  I still haven't figured out what form of math he was using.  Fortunately the guy that took  his place Did me a really good job and stayed untill his health force him to quit.
I guess we all know some of those, but it just seems as tho there are more of them lately;
SkyTramp; 
Growing old is inevetable, Growing up is optional

etat

Sounds like some of the same guys that hit me up for jobs roofing.  Good help is hard to find for sure.  Don't even remember hardly the last time I could hire a good experienced man for ten bucks an hour.   Good help costs me more like 15.  I've got one guy that I do pay ten who's  just a helper but he's a good un and worth every penny and then some. 
Old Age and Treachery will outperform Youth and Inexperence. The thing is, getting older is starting to be painful.

crtreedude

Yeah - they ain't just up there either... Of course, people come down here and find out that the layabouts look for the new people quick. One problem is that if they figure out you aren't smart about it - pretty soon you have a BUNCH of layabouts and hard luck cases.

Why is it that some of the hardest working people I have ever met have every excuse NOT to be working but some of the best able-bodied peole I have ever seen can't seem to move faster than a glacier.

In our early days - Hector went through a few. He figured - hey, here is a guy down on his luck - let me give him a break... Now a days we check their background and watch them very carefully at the beginning. There are exceptions for sure - sometimes a guy really IS down on his luck and will be very grateful you gave a helping hand.

And then there are the other ones...  >:(

We treat the good ones very well and respect them for the hard workers they are - but the other ones get shown the gate real quick.



So, how did I end up here anyway?

Mike_Barcaskey

from your post I'm gathering you are not paying over $10 and hr.
under 10 and no benes will only get you poor labor, excepting high school and college kids in the summer.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Cedarman

If you pay an $8.00 per hour person $15.00 per hour, you will still have an $8.00 per hour person.  They will still complain, be late, want more etc.  Now if you pay a $15.00 an hour person $8.00 you will notice that they work like a $15.00 an hour person and you will realize real quick that they are making you money and that if you don't raise their pay real quick they will head to your competitor down the road.  Most people at sawmills earn what they are worth.
A smart man that is down on his luck that is looking for a job will let you know that you can hire him cheap so he can show you his true worth and says when you see his true worth that you pay him accordingly.

The problem is that these type of people are rarely down on their luck because their work habits keep them in good luck.
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

sawguy21

Very true, Cedarman, very true.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

Skytramp

Thanks cktate;
     Thats the problem here , the pay scale is so low that most of the ones that are worth their salt have to go where ever the money is.  I pay at least a dollar an hour more than most of the other mills and thats not enough, its just a matter of where we live.  I made the decision to live here in these hills, no matter what, several years ago.  I took some really good jobs working away from home but would spend everything I had saved coming home to visit.  I used to go work in the steel mills doing shut downs, when I needed fast money but the dust really worked on my lungs the last time I went out, so I bought a good welder and started a second business, It is keeping me as busy as I want to be with the sawmill and all.
     Our biggest problem here is Drugs, ( Methamphetemine )  I have had to let three or four good workers go as a result of meth.  That stuff has to be a product straight from the devil.  I have worked with a lot of people with drug and alcohol problems for the last 12 or 14 years and the mess they get their lives in is terrible.  Tried hiring some of the ones that seemed on the road to recovery, but as soon as their lives started getting back to some semblence of normal they would try it one more time and would be off and running worse than ever.
     When I get a gallery going I will show you a pic of a house I did a metal hip roof on, ( My first and my last )  It turned out all right  but was a lot of work and a lot of expensive waste.  I used to do a few shingle roofs  as a side line business  but knees and back wouldn't permit now.
Later;
SkyTramp
Growing old is inevetable, Growing up is optional

etat

QuoteTried hiring some of the ones that seemed on the road to recovery, but as soon as their lives started getting back to some semblence of normal they would try it one more time and would be off and running worse than ever.


You just described just about three fourths or more of the out of work roofers I've ever seen.  It's so sad that so many people choose to live their lives that way. 


Old Age and Treachery will outperform Youth and Inexperence. The thing is, getting older is starting to be painful.

UNCLEBUCK

Meth is a huge problem in my county too(ottertail) . A nice quiet peaceful  county full of farms and lakes .  Also I cant stand to be approached by someone who has been drinking alot  either . I wouldnt make a good bartender thats for sure .  The job service ads in my area are all around 8$ starting . The jobs with 4 years college required start at 40,000$ annually . RN"s are in high demand and excellent pay.I have explained to my nephew all these options and roads to go down in life and my mistakes and he has been a (A) student all the way through 8th grade now .  I keep him excited about life but these next few years is where the teenager kicks in and if he even thinks about drifting away from his big uncle I will be all over him like the plague ! I use to be kegmaster when I was in high school but my dad was a concrete foreman and he didnt mind one bit if I brought my leftovers home and put in the fridge as long as I  acted like a adult . This dope and meth craze really boggles my mind how and why someone would want to destroy themselves .  I will never forget one time my dad said he would hire a friend of a friend so a few days later this long haired hippie shows up drunk knocking on the door at 3 am standing in the rain with his suitcase in hand and had no place to go and my dad give him a 8 week boot camp in about 2 days . The young man got a haircut ,quit drinkin and went to night school for carpentry and ended up a serious union carpenter in minneapolis . He said he will never forget the day my dad flipped his bed upside down and changed his life.
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

Corley5

I'm surprised at how much of an issue Meth has become in Rural America :o :(  It's fairly common to hear about a lab or a dumpsite being found and people being busted for it.  Too bad they aren't catching more of them.  This stuff is serious business :(
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Faron

Every once in a while someone comes in looking for work.  I think they know a little outfit won't have the resources to drug test, as they often look like users.    Meth is a serious problem in southern Indiana as well.  I think perhaps it has hit a peak and is declining somewhat though.  Our county courts were issueing some pretty stiff sentences for a while, and law enforcement hitting the makers hard.  I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone would begin using the stuff.  The charm of not sleeping, paranoia, skin sores, rotting teeth, and all that go with the habit completely elude me.  The worst thing is the effect on kids, ranging from parental neglect to being subjected to the hazardous chemicals while the parents are cooking the stuff, and kids being born with meth already in their systems.  It will never happen, but I would be in favor of capital punishment for selling meth and other drugs.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.  Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote. - Ben Franklin

beenthere

Quote from: Faron on December 16, 2005, 05:59:01 AM
............... The charm of not sleeping, paranoia, skin sores, rotting teeth, and all that go with the habit completely elude me.  The worst thing is the effect on kids, ..........

The ones with skin sores and rotting teeth are not the ones talking to the kids about not taking drugs. Last weeks local paper had an article about a previous drug-user who was now the healthiest looking dude, telling the junior high kids how he had tried everything, and was a heavy drug user and how horrible it was........blah, blah.  How does the kid interpret that? ""Well, it didn't seem to have any long term effects on him, and he is now successful, so maybe its not so bad, and I could always stop using it and just be like him"". 
I think we send the wrong message, and if drugs are so bad, lets use some of the 'bad' examples to show the kids.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Onthesauk

A program out here, believe either in Portland or Tacoma, was a cop who put together a series of before and after pictures of meth heads.  Takes it around to the high schools to show the impact of meth on folks.  Frightening the damage done in just a few months.
John Deere 3038E
Sukuki LT-F500

Don't attribute irritating behavior to malevolence when mere stupidity will suffice as an explanation.

Skytramp

I could talk for hours on the destruction I have seen in peoples lives caused from drugs.  I work with recovering alcoholics and Drug addicts almost on a daily basis, have been doing so for over 12 years and minimal for 2 or 3 years prior to that.  The two drugs that are the hardest to get off of are Meth and Zanex.   Once a person starts to use any drug and if they have an addictive personality, it is next to impossable for them to stop without some help.  No one plans to let things get so out of hand.  They are just having fun.  I recently talked to a young lady from a really prominent family that had gotten hooked on Meth.  She had used it recreationally a few times while in collage, and had easely quit when she realized it could be a problem.  Three years later she was planning to get married and wanted to lose a few lbs to look good in her wedding dress.  She used meth to lose the weight, What she didn't know is that alcohol and drug addiction is a progressive disease.  Even tho she wasn't using,  the addiction was progressing.  In a very short time she was using as tho she had never quit.  As a result, her marriage only lasted a few days, her husband would not tollerate her usage around his young child, She is involved in some very serious legal problems, she has walked out of two treatment facilities after a week and is currently still using.  Her parents are in total denile and are trying to keep everything under wraps, hopeing their friends don't find out.  Trouble is, they are the only ones that don't know.  The poor girl has probably ruined her life and still thinks she is just having fun, and can quit anytime she wants to.
     There is a book that can be found in most libraries, written by Peggy Mann,( A School Teacher ) entittled Pot Safari, a very educational little book on Marjuana, My opinion is that it should be required reading, for all children  over 12 years of age.  Almost to a person everyone that I have talked to that has a drug  problem, started by using Pot.
I've rattled on long enough, sorry, but this subject really gets me going.
Skytramp;
Growing old is inevetable, Growing up is optional

tmullen

 I have always had realy good luck using guys from the local volunteer fire department. The young guys are all trying to find a job while they wait for there phone call for a permanent job with a major depatment . Most have some pretty good qulifications having grown up around farms and the timber industry here in California. I only need a body from time to time since I only cut part time but I always seem to have no problem getting one of the three usual guys to come out for a couple of days and give me a hand at a decent price about $12.00 here on the left cost.
  In all the time I have been using these guys I only had to let one go for showing up to work drunk. He was let go from the volunteer fire department soon after for the same thing when the chief smelled booze on him at a recue call.

It works for me and keeps some of the guys close to the station when the rest of the vounteers are at work. :) :)
when in doubt
fire out

Thank You Sponsors!