You would think that when the fountain of free covid money dried up, people would have to work again but it’s gotten even worse. On any given day I’m probably averaging a 25% call out/no show rate. I’ve got people that have missed more work since Jan 1 than I have in over 30 years. We’re good to people at the store level and corporate has been good to us all. If the labor market ever flips back to where it’s hard to get a job, these people are screwed.

It’s rampant, there’s no question. I dread having to put a job ad online, for all the tire kickers.

At a certain point, we have to quit blaming COVID and start placing the blame on the hundreds of thousands of shitty Gen X and Millennial parents who didn't prepare their progeny to be in the work force.

My buddy and his wife were small business owners for 25ish years. She was full-time manager and he was more the maintenance guy as he had a full-time career (i.e. my coworker) prior to his 2020 retirement. They were overjoyed to have sold the business at the end of 2023 as the labor market work ethic had made it miserable the last 3.5 to 4 years. No shows, last minute callouts, only willing to be scheduled a goldilocks work schedule, when they did actually show up tried to be on their damn phone the entire time, etc. made it so one of them was there practically every minute that the 7 day a week business was open. There was also multiple instances of employees showing up 20 to 30 minutes late and if they said anything the employee would quit on the spot.

Happened 10 years ago.. Had a co-worker who had trouble of getting to work on time... Shop owners made arrangements for him to get a apartment next door to the shop.. His apartment door was approx 100yards to the shop time clock.... He still had trouble of being on time.. Even with other employees going and knocking on his door he still had problems of being on time ....... So the shop fired him and he still wanted to know why he was fired............................... drill sgt.

My wife and I were having this same discussion last night . She was a Manager at Lowe's . She had a girl called in one morning . It was raining hard and the girl told her that her mother didn't want her driving in bad weather . This girl was 20 yrs old ...
I told my wife that at least she called . Most of them wouldn't even do that .

In the past 10 days, I’ve fired three people that couldn’t be bothered to show up and a 4th is on deck if he doesn’t come in tomorrow.

I don’t understand how these people survive. My guess would be living off the government because our government can’t limit government programs. I’m all for government programs, but I think there should be limitations. I don’t think able-bodied twenty something year olds should be able to leach off the government for their entire life because they are too lazy to get a job, or maybe 2 jobs… whatever it takes to be an adult.

quote:

Originally posted by Kskelton:
I don’t understand how these people survive. My guess would be living off the government because our government can’t limit government programs. I’m all for government programs, but I think there should be limitations. I don’t think able-bodied twenty something year olds should be able to leach off the government for their entire life because they are too lazy to get a job, or maybe 2 jobs… whatever it takes to be an adult.

As long as those people vote " correctly " , the government will support them .

quote:

Originally posted by drill sgt:
Happened 10 years ago.. Had a co-worker who had trouble of getting to work on time... Shop owners made arrangements for him to get a apartment next door to the shop.. His apartment door was approx 100yards to the shop time clock.... He still had trouble of being on time.. Even with other employees going and knocking on his door he still had problems of being on time ....... So the shop fired him and he still wanted to know why he was fired............................... drill sgt.

I have to laugh because that was me in the Navy. We were in dry dock for several months. Muster was at 7 AM and the day ends at 3 PM. I, along with others who always go out drinking, were always late. They moved muster earlier to 6:30. Guess who was still late. After muster, we would go down to one of the shaft alley decks and sleep until noon when we'd wake up for lunch. Then wait until liberty call to go out to town.

I remember this deacades later when I would wake up at 4:30 AM to leave the house and miss the 35 mile commute hours which would have made the trip 2 hours one way. I worked routinely until 7 PM to 10 PM at night, catching naps in my car in the parking lot. Karma.

These days I'm not seeing the normal level of drive and tenacity I used to see as normal. I especially see this lack of drive in the younger crowd now coming online. These same people back then were hard charging, hyper productive, and accomplished. I don't see that level of drive across the board like I used to. It's a different world for sure. I don't get it.

Fired another one today. Now I’m the bad guy for firing a pregnant woman. Nevermind the fact that she wasn’t reporting her absences to Sedgwick in the time allowed or that I let three such violations accrue instead of pouncing on the first one (already on a final notice due to attendance before the pregnancy).

Covid opened the door to people working from home. And opened a lot of peoples eyes to the fact that companies don't give a shit about there employees.

And in stimulus and government welfare. And a shortage of workers and you have a a society that allows call outs, no shows and slackers. I work in governments and they get paid the same as everyone that show up on time and goes the ectra mile!!!

Fired a guy in April…after months of record keeping. Hired in October, missed 3 days of work between start date and 30 Dec—called out in advance because life happens: car broken into, pipes freezing in his apartment, car accident. No big deal.

Between 1 Jan and 15 March, called out 13 times, plus he “planned” telework about twice as much (didn’t tell anyone). Because the entire team was busy doing their jobs, he was tasked with an independent task with another office. Come mid-March, I asked for an update (lots of moving parts with other gov agencies, so progress was measured in weeks, not days)—found out he made zero progress and zero follow up since December.

Now he’s on a PIP with specific actions and timelines—all reasonable and agreed upon by this guy (we even added an extra couple of days due to factors he wasn’t tracking). Long story short—blows every timeline and action. HR does a check in with him, and suddenly he wants to renegotiate his PIP and compensation.

HR director laughs and says “no”. I’m looking at the guy like he’s crazy. He’s terminated on the spot, and we collect his badging and work IDs and escort him off the customers property.

Dude had the easiest schedule and 8-5 work environment, and was being adjudicated for a higher clearance and blew it.