This week I was scheduled to have a new hire employee start Monday and a temp on Tuesday bringing me 4 people short of the manpower projected to be needed for the project I’m working.
Monday morning myself and my leadman show up at 7am. New hire was instructed to be there at 7 as well. No call, no show. He calls me at 11 and says he is on site. Verbal warning issued. New hire finishes the day out but needs a kick in the ass do do anything and has nothing resembling work ethic.
Tuesday morning. Temp meets me at the hotel at 6:30 get to site at 7. New hire arrived in time with seconds to spare. New hire moves at the speed of smell. No matter what coaching or encouragement I give him me is slow and lazy. The temp however is a godsend. Work ethic like you read about, wants to learn, always looking for the next task.
Wednesday morning. Me and temp and leadman arrive on time, no new hire. I call and wake him up. Written warning. Temp continues being a star model employee. New hire is a slug
Thursday morning. Me the temp and the leadman show up. No new hire. He calls me at 9am 2 hours late and is told to stay at the hotel he wasn’t working and could sit and think about it, second written warning
Friday morning. Everybody shows up on time. New hire is a slug, temp is kicking ass and taking names.

Weekly lessons learned.
Some people are lazy, unmotivated and don’t care. Others try.
Don’t assume temp workers are going to be the lazy ones. If it was up to me and this kid had a vehicle I would recommend hiring him in a second (anyone in the Portland Maine area looking for a guy around the end of September let me know and I’ll point him your way)
Lessons taught this week
Desire to learn and work ethic are rewarded. My temp learned how to shoot and tool caulk, make and use epoxy mortar, and how to read blueprints. He also was invited to join my leadman and myself for steak and beer after work due to his work ethic.
Sleeping through your alarm gets you sent home for the day and written up. I would rather work a man short than deal with a person who can’t be bothered to get the hell out of bed.

Even a man short the temp and my lead man stepped up and we managed to get 7 days work done in 4. They earned their beer and steak this week.

A good field commander would pull his sidearm, shoot the lazy new hire, and promote the temp to Sergeant on the afternoon of the second day.

Damn, I miss the old days...

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
A good field commander would pull his sidearm, shoot the lazy new hire, and promote the temp to Sergeant.

Damn, I miss the old days...

or just liquid nails his shoes to the hotel floor. not saying i have ever done that, yet it is pretty funny.

I'm sure you've got specific guidelines to follow, but if I was in your place the new hire would have been the new fire on Wednesday.

quote:

Originally posted by bobtheelf:
I'm sure you've got specific guidelines to follow, but if I was in your place the new hire would have been the new fire on Wednesday.

If it wasn’t a corporate run construction company he would have been gone Day one. However the documentation is in place to fire him after one more incident.
The temp will be my acting leadman this upcoming week as my actual leadman is on vacation. I will always reward success and effort and punish lazy.

I’ll tell you what’s worse than having lazy employees - working for a company that tolerates them. My employer let’s the hard workers take up slack for the lazy people. The lazy people get by with being lazy and nobody seems to care. I’m not talking about minimum wage positions either, I’m talking about guys making $40 an hour. It really takes some egregious violations or something safety related to get terminated.

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
I’ll tell you what’s worse than having lazy employees- working for a company that tolerates them.

This in spades. I'm held to a higher standard because they can't hold my coworkers to any standard.

OP Sounds like a good Boss for noticing.

Price's square root law: 50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work.

quote:

Originally posted by whanson_wi:
Price's square root law: 50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work.

My ex- told me 90% of the clerical/admin work at the Philadelphia Public Library was done by 10% of the staff. Some staff would literally sit at their desks reading magazines all day, unfireable.

It is nearly impossible to find a decent apprentice tradesperson, even at $1,000/week. When a big job comes in for me, an insured licensed individual I hire is not steady enough for three straight days. At $80/hr. Always some crap or drama.

The next big one is scheduled with no outside labor. Me, a contract backhoe I've known for 24 or 25 years, the GC, and the GC's son.

its every bit as hard to find good employers as it is to find good employee's

quote:

Originally posted by Woodman:
It is nearly impossible to find a decent apprentice tradesperson, even at $1,000/week. When a big job comes in for me, an insured licensed individual I hire is not steady enough for three straight days. At $80/hr. Always some crap or drama.

What happened to the rate for construction trades in the Philadelphia area? I haven't lived there for a long time, but I've been hearing from various sources the cost of trades (plumbing, electrical, drywall, HVAC, etc.) has gone through the roof in the past few years. When my Dad was dealing with reconstructing his business, I called quite a few companies for estimates, various trades. Most never showed up, and the ones that did didn't keep appointments. The few which wrote estimates did not seem to care whether they got the job or not.

Is there a shortage, or is there some sort of a construction boom?

In the long passed days of my youth, I have been both those guys -- on different jobs. One of those jobs worked out well, one didn't. My point being that a good work attitude brings at least as much reward to the employee as it does to the employer. Kudos to those that get it.

Ultimately it is the managements responsibility to correct and optimize the situation.
If you are just another hardworking coworker who pulls your fair share or greater all you can do is "complain" (constructively and tactfully of course).
If you are responsible for the workers you have no right to complain but to "fix" the problem or suffer the consequences whatever they may be.
What do you need to do to fix it? > Figure it out!
Two distinct perspectives, if you are a crybaby manager then you are in the wrong position.
YMMV

Yep, I've seen it both ways. Flat out lazy employees on one hand, and piss poor management on the other.

Here's a perfect quote:

"A bad manager can take good staff and destroy it, causing the best employees to flee and the remainder to lose all motivation."

My last job was a prime example; five of the best people (including myself) left in just over 10 months due to poor management. HR didn't give a shit and there was no change in sight.

Interestingly, I have a relative who lives in his mother's basement and plays online games all day. He is 23. Has been fired from every job he has ever had. Even Target fired him. To get fired from target you must be a real sloth. Last month I was asked to let him help with finishing a basement project for another relative. I reluctantly agreed.

What a mistake! He did what was asked of him, but only to the minimum and then he would sit and wait for someone to realize he was missing and come to find him. Give him another task and he would do it from a seated position and a slowly as he possibly could. I asked him to sweep the floor. I can sweep the floor in a basement like that in about 30 mins. It took him hours. He's a slug not because he doesn't know any better but because his plan is to wear down my patience so I stop asking him to work. Then he can go back to online gaming.

Frankly, I don't now what good he could possibly be to society. He is purely a consumer of assets while producing nothing. Imagine what he'll be at 33. I understand online gaming can be an addiction. Combined with the fact that he was never asked to work at home other than what it took to graduate from high school and you have a sloth with no motivation. Glad he's no one of my boys.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
Interestingly, I have a relative who lives in his mother's basement and plays online games all day. He is 23. Has been fired from every job he has ever had. Even Target fired him. To get fired from target you must be a real sloth. Last month I was asked to let him help with finishing a basement project for another relative. I reluctantly agreed.

What a mistake! He did what was asked of him, but only to the minimum and then he would sit and wait for someone to realize he was missing and come to find him. Give him another task and he would do it from a seated position and a slowly as he possibly could. I asked him to sweep the floor. I can sweep the floor in a basement like that in about 30 mins. It took him hours. He's a slug not because he doesn't know any better but because his plan is to wear down my patience so I stop asking him to work. Then he can go back to online gaming.

Frankly, I don't now what good he could possibly be to society. He is purely a consumer of assets while producing nothing. Imagine what he'll be at 33. I understand online gaming can be an addiction. Combined with the fact that he was never asked to work at home other than what it took to graduate from high school and you have a sloth with no motivation. Glad he's no one of my boys.

If they keep enabling him he will never change. He doesn’t work since he doesn’t have to.

Interesting.

Here, new hires are automatically on 90 days of probation. First day late - you're fired. It must be really frustrating having to give so many warnings to a brand new employee - that's ridiculous!

quote:

Originally posted by Woodman:
... At $80/hr. ...

What Is the job that is paying $80/hr? And do I have to move?

Done a fair share of hiring/contracting for software engineering projects. In my area, in today's market (negative unemployment rate), you have to take lazy fucks at a very good pay rate ($70/hr) and extremely talented folks an extremely good pay rate ($150 plus/hr) . I don't have a problem paying for the real talent (they're worth it) but I do have a problem paying for a lazy, zero talent, "full stack" developer just out of a "code camp". The worthless fucks are driving me crazy.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Ultimately it is the managements responsibility to correct and optimize the situation.
If you are just another hardworking coworker who pulls your fair share or greater all you can do is "complain" (constructively and tactfully of course).
If you are responsible for the workers you have no right to complain but to "fix" the problem or suffer the consequences whatever they may be.
What do you need to do to fix it? > Figure it out!
Two distinct perspectives, if you are a crybaby manager then you are in the wrong position.
YMMV

While I am the foreman on site, hiring, firing, and suspensions are not anywhere close to my scope of responsibility. I inform my superintendent of an issue, he brings it to HR, and they make the decision.
I would like to see this kid succeed, I don’t want anyone to fail. He has the ability to start a strong career in front of him. His uncle works in a different division than I do and is reported to be a great asset
When I look back when I was 23 I was more interested in chasing women than working, but I always showed up to work on time and did as I was asked. Right now the plan is to bring him aside Monday morning and have a friendly motivational talk and hope that gets somewhere