&^%$#@! Employees

[squisher]

I wanted to know other people's problems or experiences with hiring, training, and retaining employees. Not senseless babbling and insulting.

I have one employee/groundie. She is my mother-in-law who also happens to be a competition bodybuilder. I am in my first season of self-employment and will be looking to pick up atleast one more employee for next year.

Now maybe you understand why I would be reading this thread.

As far as me sending any (pm)or anything else to anyone computers are not my forte chainsaws are. I can barely log on here.

:greenchainsaw:

 

[Grizzly]

whith helper that I am training to eventually become employees. I keep them on a fixed daily wadge that they are happy about and what I am able to pay them. I tried theohourly thing and they would Milk the job till I had no bottom line to work with. I prety much told them to :censored: off and trained another person that was in it for the money because the resurant he was working at Jipped him for a weeks pay which is what he made in one day working for me. He had potential.
Serously interview your potential new workers and make sure that are motivated and willing to work for you at what you can afford, not what they say they want.

 

[Grizzly]

May I ask why you're reading a thread entitled "&^%$#@! Employees" then?

That told him off.

 

[squisher]

sad thing is I'm still reading this thread and still don't really know why

if you want it done right do it yourself or get me to do it

 

[Grizzly]

sad thing is I'm still reading this thread and still don't really know why

if you want it done right do it yourself or get me to do it

Or you can Hire me to make it look like it came from a magazine, for the whole season.
Let me guess... your a home owner that trims your own trees and your own grass.

 

[squisher]

Dude are you actually 18 and saying this to me. By my calculation I was running saws before you were born. I grew up in Lumby, B.C. Canada my grandfather was one of the founding fathers. Ya Lumby sounds like lumber all my time growing up three mills in town and two just out of town 5,000 people living in the town. I don't mow lawns I cut and climb trees. I rigged for a highlead while you were graduating from elementary school if you actually did. From checking your profile and reading some of your posts I'm not all that sure.

I'm not claiming to be more than I am I've got alot to learn about trees and total tree care but atleast if I take my one employee out for a drink (my mother-in-law) I'm allowed in the bar.

 

[OTG BOSTON]

Dude are you actually 18 and saying this to me. By my calculation I was running saws before you were born. I grew up in Lumby, B.C. Canada my grandfather was one of the founding fathers. Ya Lumby sounds like lumber all my time growing up three mills in town and two just out of town 5,000 people living in the town. I don't mow lawns I cut and climb trees. I rigged for a highlead while you were graduating from elementary school if you actually did. From checking your profile and reading some of your posts I'm not all that sure.

I'm not claiming to be more than I am I've got alot to learn about trees and total tree care but atleast if I take my one employee out for a drink (my mother-in-law) I'm allowed in the bar.

HILARIOUS!!!!

I can't believe I'm still reading this either...........................

 

[Jumper]

Common now, he is a tree "surgen" at 18.

 

[Grizzly]

Dude are you actually 18 and saying this to me. By my calculation I was running saws before you were born. I grew up in Lumby, B.C. Canada my grandfather was one of the founding fathers. Ya Lumby sounds like lumber all my time growing up three mills in town and two just out of town 5,000 people living in the town. I don't mow lawns I cut and climb trees. I rigged for a highlead while you were graduating from elementary school if you actually did. From checking your profile and reading some of your posts I'm not all that sure.

I'm not claiming to be more than I am. I have alot to learn about trees and total tree care but at least if I take my one employee out for a drink (my mother-in-law) I'm allowed in the bar.

Do you read what you write?

You may have be beat by your age and experience behind a chainsaw or in a lumber mill, but I have over come more obstacles at 18 as a tree surgeon then what my fellow class mates that I GRADUATED from HIGH SCHOOL could even think of. I had to grow up early to make my company work at the same pace or even faster than my competition in town.

On top of that, I just got two calls to nock down 6 large trees each. That ought to cover this month.

 

[OTG BOSTON]

Hey Grizz,

this:deadhorse: means you're beating a dead horse, not beat it out of 'em.

the ironic part is you're ACTUALLY beating the horse. Please let this thread die, it has lived a long useless life

 

[Grizzly]

ok.
With the dead horse it resembles some of my customers when it came time to pay whats owed.

 

[treebogan]

Fair enough

I belive there is a fair bit of truth in all of the example given about generation X.I've worked in France,Germany,England,Canada,New Zealand and now here in the States.I belive if you have lazy,slack,demotivated help it's the bosses fault firstly and not really a reflection of the local labour pool.Up here in Alaska there are well paying jobs a-plenty,right now you can go pull insulation off the pipeline for twenty odd bucks per hour,why drag brush for ten when a beer costs $6 with tip?If your boss has a structured reward system for extra effort,a "carrot" that the guys get to bite once in a while and crew leaders that buy lunch every now and again for the boys and can hand that recipet to the boss for reimbursement you create and enviroment where the staff feel part of the "family" you get less breakage,more knowledge sharing and a culture of trust.As we all know who wants someone untrust worthy on the Porta wrap.

 

[buff]

If you believe that the quality of job applicants in America is the fault of the boss, they you have never been a boss. Supervisors who do hiring can not teach people to read and write, add and subtract. Nor can they get employees out of bed in the morning. Any one who has worked all of their life can tell you that they never had a supervisor wonder about the source of their motivation, if they have any motivation or if he could get some from the supervisor.

 

[ddhlakebound]

If you believe that the quality of job applicants in America is the fault of the boss, they you have never been a boss. Supervisors who do hiring can not teach people to read and write, add and subtract. Nor can they get employees out of bed in the morning. Any one who has worked all of their life can tell you that they never had a supervisor wonder about the source of their motivation, if they have any motivation or if he could get some from the supervisor.

Ive hired, trained, scheduled, managed, and sometimes even fired crews of 25 - 30 people for ongoing lengths of time.

If I had someone on my staff who could not read or write, or do simple math......It was my fault, I hired them.

If I had crew that wouldnt get out of bed to come to work........It was my fault, I hired them.

If the person doing the hiring isn't capable of making judgement decisions which turn out to be accurate, maybe someone else should be doing the hiring.......

Ive worked all my life, and I've had plenty of supervisors "wonder about the source of my motivation"

As a supervisor, I've discussed many times "motivations" with my crew. People have to be trained, molded, and managed to get the employee you want. But if you don't start with quality stock, no amount of training, molding, and managing will get you the employee you want.

There are plenty of quality employees around....of all ages.....knowing how to tell the good from the bad is the crux.

 

[Grizzly]

Ive hired, trained, scheduled, managed, and sometimes even fired crews of 25 - 30 people for ongoing lengths of time.

If I had someone on my staff who could not read or write, or do simple math......It was my fault, I hired them.

If I had crew that wouldnt get out of bed to come to work........It was my fault, I hired them.

If the person doing the hiring isn't capable of making judgement decisions which turn out to be accurate, maybe someone else should be doing the hiring.......

Ive worked all my life, and I've had plenty of supervisors "wonder about the source of my motivation"

As a supervisor, I've discussed many times "motivations" with my crew. People have to be trained, molded, and managed to get the employee you want. But if you don't start with quality stock, no amount of training, molding, and managing will get you the employee you want.

There are plenty of quality employees around....of all ages.....knowing how to tell the good from the bad is the crux.

that is so true. Hell I've had to fire people on their first day because they were just sitting arround. It sure wasn't a matter or glorification, but yet I finally got to the point were they were milking the profit out of the job. I have bills that are going to get paid before some lazzy mofo is getting paid.

 

[buff]

Where is this land of plenty of good quality labor? None of us live there.

 

[ddhlakebound]

Its really more of a mindset or optimistic outlook than it is a location.

If you believe you can find honest, reliable, hardworking help, you are right.

If you believe that all the potential employees out there are unintelligent, lazy, and unmotivated, you are right.

Sure, everyone will have to filter through some "chaff", but good people can be found. No one is ever going to be perfect in how they make judgement decisions re: applicants.

Most times, good people know they are what employers are looking for. If they are not treated with respect, and compensated fairly for their efforts, they will keep looking until they find a good employer. Or until they are the employer.

It is my contention that employers who continually claim that there is no good help to be found really dont want to put out the dollars and/or effort to find and cultivate quality help.

 

[jonseredbred]

If I had someone on my staff who could not read or write, or do simple math......It was my fault, I hired them.



QUOTE]

[/B]That is a dangerous statement, not for nothing but some of the best tree guys and employee's I have ever met fell into this category. This "group" is the easiest to motivate, as they are in tune with the fact they need to work for a living to survive in this world. If you cant motivate this "group" maybe you should re think you management principles. I cant believe you would post such a statement, you sure missed the mark.

 

[ddhlakebound]

That is a dangerous statement, not for nothing but some of the best tree guys and employee's I have ever met fell into this category. This "group" is the easiest to motivate, as they are in tune with the fact they need to work for a living to survive in this world. If you cant motivate this "group" maybe you should re think you management principles. I cant believe you would post such a statement, you sure missed the mark.

How is this a dangerous statement?

Any employer who fails to screen their applicant to the point that the employer is unaware if the candidate is capable of reading and writing, or doing simple math is simply muddling through, looking for fresh meat to do the labor.

If you have guys who are great workers, but can't read a work order without the foreman to tell them what to do, can your company produce without the foreman?
How do the illiterates do at following written maintenance instructions?
When you are training them, do you read all written material to them, or do they just initial it and go on?

I'm sure there are some great treeworkers out there who had little or no schooling. But if I'm looking for new employees to hire and train, basic skills are a quick/easy starting point to see how capable they are of learning.

For the most part, anyone who is hungry is the easiest person to motivate, the job field doesn't really matter.

I've never had a problem motivating people. Its rather easy to keep a happy, productive, motivated crew. But it does take respect and good leadership.

If you think I missed the mark, maybe you're looking at the wrong mark.

 

[Jumper]

I have worked with a few people over the years, both in the tree biz and out, who I suspected could not read.

It came to a head one day at company #1 when three of us set out to start a large condo job, all the contract climber wanted to do was climb (OK fine) leaving Dan and myself on the ground. Dan could not read the work order to tell Mark where to go next/what to do etc (he was senior to me in terms of time with the company). Mind you by his own admission he was pretty well screwed by excess use of coke, and smoked dope daily on the job. I often wonder what became of him, as he really was not a nasty person, just need to get his life in order.