The younger workforce.

[TomSeller]

Here at James Madison University, they just hired a new football coach at $300,000 per year for a five year contract. Being a state school, I'm paying him with tax dollars.

mark

That's off the bottom of this list. You got a bargain.

NCAAF | Coaches | Salaries | USA TODAY Sports

 

[MossRoad]

I used to hate those courses in which a tape recorder could have gotten a perfect grade.

Bruce

I used to read my school course notes to myself into a tape recorder, then put an earphone in and listen to myself on repeat all night long, very night. OMG was it dull, as I have a monotone voice. :laughing: Anyhow, I'd do that every week and pass the class tests no problem. :thumbsup:

 

[ultrarunner]

I hear you about having a degree. I have two associate degrees in electronics. That's what got me in the door. After that, I have 29 years of on the job training. Without going into great detail, they have literally tens of thousands of dollars invested in me in factory training on heavy machinery, computer software and hardware and management training. I'm the only person in the building that can do every other production person's job, including the managers. However, about 4-5 years ago, corporate took over all I.T. operations(and I.T. is where I landed), and they only hire people with certification. All it matters to them is that those people have great looking resume's. They don't take into account that they have never been at a job longer than three years. All those types of people do is get a job, have their employer pay for certification, then look for another job that pays more. They don't actually do anything but try and implement what they learned in school, without taking into account how it affects 24/7 production. I can't count the number of systems we've started implementing and ended up tearing it out before it was even completed satisfactorily. Its quite frustrating. And.... once you start getting up there in age, and they've been giving you a 25 or 50 cent raise every year, all of a sudden, after 30 years, you're make $10 an hour more than new hires, some bean counter thinks they can hire two kids to replace on old timer (doesn't matter that you do the work of three)... so they give you a unique job title, then eliminate that position in 6 months and quote Sipowizc 10:42

You might be describing the next chapter of my career...

Twenty Five years on the job and we are again being sold and the new group doesn't know what to do with me... as they, the very large parent organization, don't have anyone anywhere that covers the positions I do... I was told by my site manager they are trying to come up with a way to keep me and working on a unique job description for my position.

One thing they do not want me to do is leave before the transition is complete.

It's kind of ironic because last year I asked where things were headed and the comment was "I certainly hope you are not considering leaving... especially since the proposed merger comes with an assortment of big company benefits... like a real retirement program"

The new hires I brought in last year and the year before are very close compensation wise to me... they had to be more competitive at the lower end and froze the top end...

I do know where all the bones are buried in a good way since I'm the only one left that was on the team when the new facility was built from the ground up 20 years ago... this may or may not matter to the new organization... it could very well be something like not being missed until you're gone.

More to come...

 

[MossRoad]

My father warned me about being older and being "promoted" to some crazy, unique job title, and really given nothing new to do, or even less work than before. He said that's when you're on your way out. When he was nearing 65, his company's owner asked him what date he was going to retire. My father said he had no plans to retire. My folks had run into some tough financial times with a previous layoff of my father, medical bills, etc... and he wanted to get back in the black before considering retiring. They told him "Everyone retires here at 65." and tried to force him to retire. He got a lawyer and threatened age discrimination. So they promoted him to a unique job title and eliminated the position 6 months later. Unfortunately for them, they did not realize my father was one of only 2-3 people in the state with a certain certification and an official seal that had to be on all of their products. He let them hire him back as a consultant for $250 per hour with a 4 hour minimum! And he started his own business and had too much work and had to turn people away. In just a couple years he was able to pay off all of his debts and save some money and get set for retirement. :thumbsup:

 

[ultrarunner]

Sounds like a true silver lining...

What was your Dad's certification?

Between my last post and this one I had a call to go in... plumbing issues which I made quick work of since I keep a little of everything in house for just such situations...

Over 100,000 surgeries and never cancelled a single one due to a problem with the facility or equipment...

 

[Garandman]

I would like to know if anyone else had had hiring trouble with the younger generation.

Hire a vet.

 

[mark02tj]

If the slackers don't have the work ethic you just can't make a profit out of them. It's such a shame you can't use the whip any more, to really make 'em learn the meaning of who's boss and what real work means. Boss man sure needs to keep up his living standards up at the big house, yes siree.

Let me guess. You have never put everything you own on the line for your business. That's OK, some of us are Bosses, and some of us are slackers...

There are bosses and there are 'slavedrivers', which are you? And if you think the world is only made up of just two types of people, bosses and slackers, then you have very limited vision.

I'm going to have to agree with Steppenwolfe on this. My guess is that you feel put out if your boss criticizes you or expects some extra effort. And you've probably never had to pay employees out of your own pocket.

If you had a plumber or an electrician or a mechanic do some work for you and they were slow, talkative or otherwise inefficient, wouldn't you question their bill if they were billing you by the hour? That's basically what slacker employees are doing. You also responded to the "buy 2 people" comment, but that's essentially what a business/boss is doing - they're buying your time for an agreed upon amount per hour. If they're not getting some value for that cost, then either you need to step it up or they need to cut you loose. I've worked in factories, as a laborer, for "slave drivers" and also in national accounting firms as an accounting professional. No matter what, I needed to be making a lot more money for "the man" than I was being paid or they couldn't afford to keep me. When you've actually been the one that's responsible for paying people out of your business' checkbook (which is YOUR money), you'll change your snarky tune about keeping the man in the big house.

I got rid of my last employees back in 2003. I had a couple of really good employees, but unfortunately the slackers finally convinced me that it just wasn't worth messing with them any more. I'm making more money and have more free time and have less headaches just managing me.

Back in 2000, I was at the peak of number of employees at 6. I had one woman (who was my age - late 30's at the time) whose kids played soccer. Every Monday morning, after she was done using my company internet to do her home banking, would stand in the confluence of where 3 other offices came together. She'd stand in the doorway and tie up 3 other people with a kick by kick account of her kids' tournaments from the weekend. This could go on for over an hour. I was paying these 4 people $75k (the storyteller), $39k, $45k, $35k which was a raw cost of just under $100 per hour - not counting employer taxes, benefits, etc. which would push that up to closer to $150/hr. Their billing rates ran from $50-100/hr so not only was I paying them for listening to her stupid story, I was deprived of the opportunity for them to make me money. I would have been better off to hand each of them $20 at the beginning of her story and ask them to be productive. But, I guess I'm just a slave driver.

 

[KennyG]

They told him "Everyone retires here at 65." and tried to force him to retire.

That's one of the things I really appreciate about my choice of engineering as a career path. They keep asking me when I'm gong to retire and then try to talk me out of it by offering other opportunities.

 

[newbury]

You might be describing the next chapter of my career...<snip>

One thing they do not want me to do is leave before the transition is complete.

Of course, it reads like they will have to hire three people to cover what you do for the present management.

It's kind of ironic because last year I asked where things were headed and the comment was "I certainly hope you are not considering leaving... especially since the proposed merger comes with an assortment of big company benefits... like a real retirement program"

The new hires I brought in last year and the year before are very close compensation wise to me... they had to be more competitive at the lower end and froze the top end...

I do know where all the bones are buried in a good way since I'm the only one left that was on the team when the new facility was built from the ground up 20 years ago... this may or may not matter to the new organization... it could very well be something like not being missed until you're gone.

More to come...

Have you considered you might have been a selling point for the old management? If you walked away how much would you be making for NOT working?

 

[oldpilgrim]

Back in '64, I tried college and didn't like it. I got my draft notice in '66. I enlisted instead and got into an area where they taught me how to use big computers. Got out and had many companies competing for my skills. I retired as an IT director 40 years later.

I told my kids and grand kids that a good vocational school where you learn a skill is way better than a college where you learn stuff. When I was hiring, the skills the candidates had outweighed the degrees.