Cannot find skilled employees - ideas and anyone want to move to AZ?

$21/hr?

I pay my box truck driver $25/hr to deliver materials to our job sites.

My unskilled, green as can be grunt starts at $22/hr and I think its way too low.

The Tacobell around the corner has a banner outside advertising $19/hr to start.

Anyone who has any type of specific industry certification or skillsets in 2022/2023 should be $30/hr at a minimum.

 

Hence my desire to shift back into self-employment in precisely 23 months if all goes as planned (plans change a lot these days).

 

I had a discussion with the mgr of chik-fil-a

nice older lady.

I asked how she finds such good people to work...the staff is outstanding.

She said:

we have them do 3 interviews on 3 different days.

the ones that show on day 3 are hired.

she said 75% don't make the 2nd interview.

this was a couple years ago...I imagine it's much worse now.

 

This isn’t nearly that black and white. Unemployment is nearing all time lows, so the adage that “people just don’t want to work” is inaccurate.

What did happen was that during a good portion of the pandemic, a lot of people were either off work or working from home for an extended period of time. Whether they were paid by their job or the government to do so, they saw a huge decrease in expenses. It costs a lot of money for people to actually go to work. My wife worked from home for over a year during this. Just the fuel savings alone were significant.
Fuel and childcare expenses are enormous, not to mention a lot of smaller miscellaneous costs that go into making that trip every day. I believe a lot of people realized for the first time just how much of what they made got eaten up just by them actually going to work. Just about everyone who worked from home or went on unemployment effectively got a raise during this period. Did a lot of people milk that unemployment longer than necessary? Sure, but look at it from their point of view:

For the most part, these guys aren’t people with careers where they’d planned to stay for a long time, or people who would lose ground by not going back immediately. They for the most part worked where both the job and the employees were easily replaceable. A cashier at one store can pretty much go get that same job at will with no negative consequences.

What you end up with is people netting more money not to work. They can also have their kids at home instead of dropping them off with strangers. Their childcare, fuel and vehicle maintenance costs are reduced to next to nothing. A lot of them probably don’t have reliable vehicles, so they tended to have more frequent repairs needed.
Like it or not, I can’t honestly blame someone in that situation for riding that as long as possible, knowing they can easily go back to the same job once that ends.
This entire thing has just changed everyone’s outlook. People realized that they weren’t ultimately realizing a whole lot of net gain by going to these jobs for what they were being paid. I know how that feels.
I’ve had times in my life where I was effectively working just to work. I had a couple of years in my life where literally everything I made went to childcare and a vehicle payment. I don’t go to work, I don’t have to pay for childcare, and wouldn’t necessarily need the vehicle. I was actually in a place that grew into a real career so I was better off struggling through it. Had I been in their situation I’d have been working for nothing but to say I had a job.

All that to say that what happened was the dynamic changed. It’s not that people aren’t willing to work. It’s that they are no longer willing to work for just enough to survive. Once businesses started actively seeking employees again, they’d lost the power they once had.
It’s a seller’s market now. Companies have to compete for employees now, which means they have to pay more. The days of someone being willing to stay at a job making garbage pay are gone. Not to mention all those expenses have gone through the roof in the same amount of time.

As for the student loan thing you referenced, while I do agree that adults are accountable for their decisions, it is also nowhere near as black and white as that’s made out to be. I’ll save that for my next long winded diatribe though.

 

“Nobody wants to work anymore” wasn’t true in the 1800’s and it isn’t true today.

I’m sorry I just hate this phrase, I get that it’s fun to say but it’s not even close to reality.

 

Every generation is predisposed to needing to feel superior to the next.

 

My company does the same for salaried positions, including a PCI test to make sure they arent nuts. Questions like "do you like playing with fire" type of thing lol

 

Unemployment has never accounted for people who just stopped looking for work or ones that actually dont want to work anymore. Or the under the table people. I think its a significant enough number to consider.

 

I just wanted to repost here that I work full time as a data center engineer with a huge life/work balance and get paid over twice the listed amount.

I also just took a part-time job to work only the hours I want, at an off-road shop for $20 an hour with a raise after two weeks. And I don't have any shop experience... So $21 is stupid low in today's world for a tech position for someone with experience

 

20 bucks an hour for a side gig plus discounts for upgrades on the truck sounds awesome.

 

A few years ago the fed govt came out with guidelines on how much porn was acceptable to view at work. I have heard of fed employees that could crap on their supervisors desk and not get fired. Look at the teachers in some larger cities. They pay them to sit in a "rubber room" all day if they are on leave or under investigation.

 

Unemployment numbers can tell whatever story one wishes. But they certainly don't account for the sheer number of open positions everywhere you look. Labor force participation rates are still not what they were pre-pandemic, especially considering the additional population of people who aged into the workforce over the last couple of years. I'm just curious where all these better jobs came from. I agree that forced shutdowns made a lot of people rearrange their priorities when it comes to their careers. And many left for better situations. But if everyone is employed, then why are there so many open positions that can't find hardly any interest at all, let alone qualified interest? This was not a problem before the pandemic nearly to the extent that it is now.

 

Our oldest has the misfortune of having his name spelled Rion instead of the more common Ryan. In reference to Orion. He wasn't getting replys to resumes and someone suggested it was the spelling of his first name. He then sent resumes from R. Patrick and he started getting replies. Go figure.

 

I think it makes sense to some degree. If an HR person is going to call you and they dont know how to say your name, they may not want to start the call feeling stupid or risk offending you these days lol. Or you could always go the racist reasoning route and say that R. Patrick sounds "whiter" than Rion Patrick.

 

maybe that company should pay their server a living wage so customers do not have to subsidize their shit pay, zero benefits and random hours with tips.
The Restaurant industry is the worst for abusing their employees and it amazes me when they complain that “no one wants to work”. No, you run a trash business that only survives at the expense of your employees.

 

<stirring the pot>

most folks are paid commensurate to the value they produce in a free market.

if you are not, it is not the market's fault , it's your fault for getting paid poorly. find a better job or create a business.


Gov employees are paid differently, as they do not produce a product that is freely consumed & traded by the free market.

 

As a millennial in the workplace - this is 100% why. Companies no longer invest in their employees (lol pensions), so why should employees invest in them? Companies would now rather poach already trained employees and have them generating revenue ASAP. Because of this, companies just throw a larger hook (more pay) out to reel in talent. Given the huge number of job openings due to Covid & especially the WFH opportunities now available, this hook has started growing at an exponential rate.

When I left my first job, all of the older guys with 30+ years at the job were wondering why nobody in my peer group would stay there for more than 3-5 years - I'd simply reply, "what's your pension at?". And they'd either get it or not. Killing the company provided pension killed employee loyalty, and that was just the beginning of a long line of 'cuts' that were made to increase the bottom line at the price of the employed. These are all just symptoms of an out-of-control capitalistic system where short term gains are prioritized over long term sustainability. It will definitely get worse before it gets better.

 

You make some very valid points. He is often called Ree-on. Pronounced with a long E instead of a long I.

 

I hear you. I'm 10 years in and my seniority still sucks. It was actually way better 5 years ago, ironically. I don't know too much about your Union, they took the offer though, correct? My Union is still holding out, so we'll see what happens. I don't expect more than the 24% money wise, and I'm okay with that, but I don't want our healthcare uncapped, that's for sure. Plus, there is lots of new TE&Y rules they want. And they are not good. It's sad, because the railroad used to be a great, proud, premier blue collar career. It certainly isn't that anymore. And, I personally love the job (RCO), but can't stand the industry and company.

 

This didn't start with the Millennial generation (ha! Something we can't blame on you! lol ), but it has always boggled my mind that companies would rather throw big money at new hires from outside of the organization rather than promote from within and give tenured staff the same compensation increase. The only way to get a good raise and/or promotion too often involves moving from one company to another. And further, removing pensions did erode employee loyalty, but so does the fact most companies have no loyalty at all to even their best employees. Respect and loyalty is a two way street.

 

I have always thought that pensions were the largest weapon of mass destruction.

they handcuff employees & make them indentured servants.

and the days of pensions are long gone.

maximize your 401k.
maximize your skills
to
maximize your earnings.

nobody is coming to save you.

 

[QUOTE="nobodyintexas, post: 2911659, member: 48303”]

maximize your 401k.
maximize your skills
to
maximize your earnings.

nobody is coming to save you.[/QUOTE]

This may be my favorite comment I have ever read on here. #THETRUTH

 

Job hopping has been really the only way to get salary increases in IT for quite a while now. I feel fortunate that the startup I worked for was acquired during the pandemic and my now current employer more than doubled my salary last year to try and keep me around, as I'm the only one left that knows how to manage the startup's systems. We've been trying to grow the team but the primary software product we use is pretty niche and it's hard to find people with experience or desire to learn how to use it even with starting salaries in the $30-40/hr range.

My buddy has been trying to get me to go work with him at a Fortune 500 company as they're constantly looking for people for his department but I'm not sure I want that stress in my life. The money would be really good though, about 50% more than what I make now, so it's tempting.

 

I don't disagree and am taking steps to fund our future as noted, but there is a large portion of our population that would benefit greatly from a structured pension environment (set it and forget it), even if only offered in certain low to mid skill sectors. They wouldn't live nor retire like a king, but could keep them off of government programs and from becoming homeless.

There are a lot of good people out there who, from no fault of their own, simply do not have the mental capacity to grow into skilled positions, let alone understand investing for themselves. But they are good employees, show up every day, and do their best. Pensions would greatly help people in such positions, assuming companies could restrain themselves from finding ways to screw them out of their pension dollars right before retirement.

 

Labor force participation rates are about a point lower than they were in Feb 2020. A lot of people who were at or near retirement age just left the workforce at the time. I’d also venture to guess that quite a few people who weren’t the primary earners in the household decided it wasn’t worth it to go back to work for the reasons I mentioned above.

Regardless, just throwing out a blanket statement that nobody wants to work anymore is oversimplification at best. More accurately, it’s just lazy thinking that makes people feel validated. This is honestly the case in quite a bit of discussions like this.

To the OP’s question - that kind of money can be had at Buc-Cees. 20 bucks and hour means you work 5 hours to fill a Tundra up.

 

I could see that being a big part of it: mass pandemic-induced retirement when those people would have kept working for a few more years at least.

 

I don't disagree, but isn't that the point of pensions? Companies likely wouldn't have issues with staffing if they were able to retain employees through their career. Currently, they're just trying (and struggling) to fill a bucket with holes in it - new employee hires on; old employee leaves. The company likely saves money (even paying the new hire more) by not having to increase their greater pay bands, but the brain drain/loss of experience/increased responsibilities is so real (and ultimately unsustainable imo).

Love them or hate them, pensions did have a pretty high dollar amount that was non-transferrable (unlike a 401k match), so they gave a great benefit to the company in helping to retain talent. Back then, someone being offered slightly more would have to take the loss of their pension into the calculation. Now, they're one foot out the door as soon as they see the salary increase.

 

Anyone know of a good Resume company? I am too freaking old to play these new games with a resume. Very weird how things have changed. I am ready to retire and looking consult from home but looking at the new resumes into our company I thought WTF happened to the basic resume that gets ignored in todays world

 

Our company is dumping money into new hires that are not comfortable with everyone working from home. Really?!?!? I waited 16 years to get to work from home and I will NOT ago back

 

This has always been my issue with the "well find a better job if you want more pay" some people like their jobs, why should they not get to build a life from that.

I'm not saying that we should be paying everyone bazillions of dollars but if you're perfectly content being a janitor or an admin assistant or a retail worker you shouldn't have to move up to afford basic necessities.

These are the jobs that Unions are great for they're looked down upon by a lot of people but businesses need them.