She wanted a job - Page 2

Originally Posted by miked

I personally know many examples of extremely un-ambishous, under-employed and happy about it individuals. Mike

I try to keep it real Mike.

In all honesty that sounds like me. I do enough to get by but beyond that ....... nah, it just ain't worth doin'.

It's all a question of what keeps people motivated. Money doesn't mean much to me. If people try to come down on me with shame & guilt i just laugh and rape them with logic. Threaten to fire me and i'll happily try to find someone for you that could do the job better.

The thing that really drives me to excellence is knowing that somebody out there is depending on me to do my job. Failure is not an option .... not on my watch !

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The biggest problem with the boss / worker relationship is that the worker doesn't really have a vested interest in the outcome. If they punch out at the end of the day and there's a problem with the operation it's the owner's problem.If they get fired or laid off because the business went belly up they don't stand all that much to lose.

The boss stands to lose EVERYTHING so they're more strongly motivated to perform.

It's mostly about what best serves your self interest. Most people are selfish and self serving. There's nothing wrong with that. You have to be that way to survive.

What's the job spin? I'm nearby and know a couple of hard working reliable people looking for work. Feel free to PM me

Originally Posted by MattyNoNeck

I’m 29 now and I am starting to realize what it can be like for a boss or an owner who has dead weight to deal with. But I’ve worked with great younger people and lazy older people. I really don’t think age matters that much, I think it is the quality of the person’s character that makes a good employee…or boss!

I hear what you're saying. A person's character has a lot to do with it. It's something i touched on in another thread. I was saying that everyone has their own temperament. Some are bold and yet others are timid by nature. Those with a bold temperament are better suited to leadership positions while those with a timid nature are better suited to being followers.

Neither one is any better than the other ... it's simply who you are. Be excellent at what you're meant to be.

So much of all of this comes down to the unspoken agreement :

You know the old saying " That you'll never get rich working for somebody else" ? It's true !

The people who are followers (employees) have made a choice to tradeoff any real chance of success for the security of a steady job.

As a leader (boss) it's your responsibility to provide a safe, stable, and structured work environment along with a steady paycheck. Further, it's not enough to be really good at what you do. You have to be able to work with, and effectively manage, people. That's an entirely different skill set. And ... you will probably end up working TWICE as hard as your employees. It's no easy task.

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There's something else in the works these days though:

It reminds me of an interview that was done with a steel worker shortly after the fall of the former U.S.S.R. The iron curtain dropped and the news media from the west came in to investigate what had been going on behind the scenes for all of those years. Their steel industry was badly outdated and in a shambles. When the steel worker was asked his opinion he grew thoughtful and summed it all up in one short phrase. He said:

For thirty years i pretended to work and for thirty years they pretended to pay me.

I've always felt, and my military service backs this up much the same as already said, that your performance as a leader is the number one effect on your employees. I work my arse off every day as an example to my son and to the part timers. The guys I have now that I've kept around know that as I grow the company they have a very good chance of going full time with me. I am trying very hard for that reason, because I get so much more enjoyment in my labors when the people around me benefit from it and can appreciate the work for what it is. That's my ethic and my integrity.

To heck with those who can't keep up, McDonalds is always hiring. This thread shows me that ideals and similar ethics come from the cream of the crop from ALL walks of life and from ALL ages. Yes I agree the elder generations tend to have a methodical ethic thats perfect for the e waste business but in my case I need the naturally informed person who grew up around computers and can recognize the parts for what they are, able to cull the stuff marked for reuse. Every day is a struggle, when it's not I didn't try hard enough that day.

I believe it all boils down to who the person is / how they were raised versus a generational thing. I'm 29 and have a manager in her 50s. Our main priority is to unload trailers. Usually when we get someone new she will point at me and say "follow him around he'll show you". It isn't that she's lazy or bad at her job, it's just that she's older and can't do the more physical things. Which I understand. There's also a man I work with who has been there for 40 years. The newer, mostly young, people will complain that they "do less" than the rest of us. A quick reminder of how they busted their a**es for a lot longer than we have and earned the right to tell us what to do usually works.

So I had the opportunity to train a lot of different kinds of people the (few to some) years I've been working. A lot of times it depends on how you approach a person. There are people who are lost causes. But I've found the best approach is if I'm considered to be "in charge" I won't have someone do something I wouldn't do. If my manager is absent or on vacation I've found that to be the best approach. I usually start an hour before them so when they arrive I show them a long list of things that needed to be done. Most of which, to put it bluntly, suck. I then follow up with "I've done the entire list already, this is what's new that needs to be done." 9 times out of 10 they're cooperative. The 1 out of 10 usually is an a**hole.

We had a kid who was related to management and worked really hard for me. However, for whatever reason, he was seen as lazy. He was about to go on leave for the Army National Guard. His last day with us before he left we had a large trailer of that crap-in-a-box heavy furniture anyone can build at home. You could tell the nerves of being 18 about to go to boot camp were getting to him so for his last day I unloaded the skids myself. He was going to help but seeing how he worked so hard leading up to that day I told him to enjoy his day and let the girls know when he'll be back and that he's single. Probably bad mentoring on my part but oh well. Since he has come back to work though, he never shied to do a single thing I have asked. Really fast, too.

I can't relate to you private business owners, though. It's a lot easier when not owning the place you're trying to help manage and could have multiple replacements quickly.