Who here has sawmill employees?

[mike_belben]

lol

it takes some time to get used to driving with a shed in front of the windshield. 


i adore IH 9670 cabovers and have called on a few.  i went to kentucky to look at an old white/volvo cabover with a 350BC and 9 speed i think but it was poorly stretched and a huge project.  came close to buying several big trucks. that $20k a year insurance premium always brings me back to earth. 

it isnt the life for my spouse anyway.  

[Silverfoxfintry]

In Stirlingshire in Scotland we have been very lucky. The day to day operating of the mill is down to a single mum with two children. She started cleaning the office and kitchen area and was a hard worker. She was looking for more work, so, David took a chance and spent a week with her, showing her how to run the mill.
My god, she is a worker! Yes she has made mistakes, but she is one of the most productive workers he has ever had.
I have taught her the hourly and weekly maintenance. Not only what to do but why it has to be done.
I agree that good workers are hard to find and harder to keep, but once you get one hang on to them.

Take care 

Silverfox.

[Ron Wenrich]

Re:  working by the BF.

I worked around mills mainly as a consultant and hired gun.  I mainly sawed for one mill, and everything was done by the BF.  But, the trick is that you have to be set up as a business.  You have to set the time that you can saw, you have to take care of all the expenses, such as insurance, SS, and any license you may need.  You also can set the conditions of work.  I didn't do repairs, as my mechanical skills aren't as good as my sawing skills.  You also should have income from other clients or sources in the industry.  You won't be covered by workmans comp or unemployment.  You also have to watch out for other liabilities. 

That's real hard to do for an employee.  If you are giving them instructions, such as time of operations, job performance, etc, they will be considered employees, and that means they get all the benefits that the govt mandates. 

I worked that way for 30 yrs.  It was beneficial for both sides.  I sent in a production report every week, and a check was ready the next.  I basically talked to the owners only a couple of times a year.  Their mill foreman ran the operation.  The only time there was friction was when he tried to tell me how to do my job.

[GullyBog]

The first thing to realize is that you're expecting your employees to have the same work ethic that you do.

Ron - you are absolutely right.  I guess the thing is those of us who do go into business for ourselves have always approached every job with the mindset expressed best by Don Henley in his song with The Eagles "Get Over It", at least I sure have.

First time I've looked into this song.  I needed to hear that.  I reckon the unwritten rule of labor is the worker struggles and the boss stresses.  At the end of the shift the struggle is over but the stress never goes away.  Music helps.

[GullyBog]

Lead from the front, don't ask anyone to do what I won't or can't, don't over manage, don't micro manage, pay a fair wage, and treat them with respect.  Most times that isn't enough.[/quote

"Lead from the front" is the only way to get a good one.  People who chase from behind end up in a corner

[Plankton]

Love that story about the cabover trucker :D

Don't have anything to add about employees but just learned how to drive truck last year 18spd no clutch loaded log truck haha. It's not an easy craft that's for sure. Impressed he wheeled out of a dealership never being in one before.

[Solomon]

Good help is hard to find,  Good reliable help is impossible to find.
Every once in a blue moon someone thinks they want to work for me,( I own a Logmaster LM4, ) and they are passionate about it.
 But.... they never last long, a day , maybe two.
 So I now tell them that I hold back a week's pay and if they quit or lay out within two weeks,   they don't get paid.
 If they agree to those terms , I will give them a shot at it.
 In the last 12 years, I've had two guys agree to it, and about a hundred walk away.  Niether of the two stayed long enough to get paid.   Nobody wants to work or learn anything anymore.
 That's what American society has been reduced to thanks to a certian political party of which I am not a member.

[WV Sawmiller]

  I like the idea of completion bonuses. I am not sure about the legality of holding back pay. I worked overseas projects and most of them had something like a 10% completion bonus which got to be pretty significant and an especially good incentive to stick it out after you had already been there 6-7 months and built up some equity. We don't typically sign on for fixed/defined length contracts to work here like you would on a construction project like those often were but giving someone a defined date like a year or 6 months or such would be good incentive.

[Southside]

Over the past two weeks I am seeing applicants from Haiti and now all over Virginia with what I believe are Afghan names. Nothing with any remote experience or qualifications, seems to me just a way to continue getting unemployment benefits or a free trip to the US. 

[GullyBog]

It only takes one generation for our way of life to snuff out a good work ethic.  Time to put more chores on my kids.

[stavebuyer]

I set weekly production goals that added a meaningful amount to everyone's check. Worked pretty well and they got the bonus the majority of the time. Downside is you have to pay close attention to see that all PM and housekeeping tasks are carried out.

[SawyerTed]

Just asked our crew of 7 to do some overtime between now and Christmas and possibly until Mid January.  Money is tight for the company but its even tighter for our crew members.  We explained that our orders for wood shavings are outpacing our current production. 

I decided to ask their input on scheduling based on what our production goals are.  They came up with with a very workable plan that's fair to everyone.  But 5 out of the crew are 45 years old or older (I'm the second oldest here).  Those guys know when the company does well, they do well too.  All seven are doing their share without any complaints.  Having them help make the decisions reduces the complaining. 

In the end we asked some to do an early start and some to run extra hours in the evenings with a rotation that helps everyone have their Christmas celebrations.

[mike_belben]

 bon_fire


Good for the morale 

[longtime lurker]

Thing is that when you start employing people you need to have a degree of flexibility.

Flexibility around when things get done, including time off for holidays and school things and medical things.
Flexibility about how things get done. You can't micromanage or not allow room for initiative. Sometimes you even learn new tricks yourself that way.
Flexibility about what it costs to get things done. One of the trade offs of having people there to make you money is that sometimes you're paying people to sit around and do nothing.

Mostly what I've found with staff is that the old chestnut about getting what you pay for holds as true there as anywhere. You hire capable people and treat them well and pay them well... they stay with you and with the vast majority of people you give them a good work environment, a feeling of being valued, decent money and if they like the work they'll want to stay. And because they want to stay then they have a de facto interest in your business remaining viable and tend to do that bit more to make it so.

You can't blame a guy on minimum wage for wanting to do better for himself.
You can't blame a guy doing heavy manual labour for finding a less physically demanding way to make the same money.
And you can't not pay a guy a competitive wage just because your own equipment is uncompetitive - it's hardly his fault your gear can't punch the volumes required for you to pay him fairly.

And that last is a big thing... for you to make money from other peoples sweat you have to give them tools that produce faster than the water runs out of them. Paying wages for guys to work behind hobby level equipment and expecting them to get more than hobby level production is not a viable option, it just doesn't work except in very rare cases. Paying wages to hump lumber around is never going to make you as much money as paying wages to stack off a green chain for instance.

I wouldn't want to go stand in the sun humping lumber about all day for peanuts myself, no way would I be suprised when nobody else wanted to either.