Looking for a decent employee

Old cats have been saying "kids today" since the dawn of time. "Kids today"s an easy target cuz they've got no money or power, and y'all are expecting em to fuck up anyways.
 
fuzzsniffvoyage said:
I have thrived on doing shit work very few are willing to do. I've been working since I was 12. Selling news papers, I had a Saturday night delivery route, and then sell on the corner of Gravois & Loughborough. On Sunday morning I'd get up and hock the local rag on the corner of Kingshighway & Gravois. I'd make about $20-$30 per weekend. This would have been around 1981-82.

Leaves and snow were money falling from the sky. I'd pick up dog shit for my aunt. I'd do what ever it took to have my own money and not be such a leech on my parents. They had a hard enough time.
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Your personal anecdote is irrelevant. Maybe you missed the part where I said that times, and kids, are different now. Wearing a coon-skin hat with a slingshot in your pocket while you delivered papers on your bike doesn't translate to today's youth. Kids today can make more money than you ever did by selling useless junk on ebay.
 
Greg_L said:
Your personal anecdote is irrelevant. Maybe you missed the part where I said that times, and kids, are different now. Wearing a coon-skin hat with a slingshot in your pocket while you delivered papers on your bike doesn't translate to today's youth. Kids today can make more money than you ever did by selling useless junk on ebay.
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I never wore a coon-skin hat, and my mom took my sling shot away for shooting my brother with it.

Kids are different, I don't get it. Is that a sign I'm getting old?

eBay is a tough business, I try to sell useless junk there all the time, hardly worth my time.

Anybody looking for any sports cards?
 
Greg_L said:
I don't know when you did that gear humping, but 20 years ago, 400 a week was pretty good money for a single guy. It's not anymore. Some of you seem to want to apply an outdated mindset to today's youth and culture. We live in an era of fast paced technology. Kids today do mostly suck, but they naturally have a wildly different view of the world than most of us older folks have. Have you talked to any teenagers lately? They are incapable of basic communication. They are vague, vapid, vacant, and totally lack basic fundamental levels of common sense. But they are quick as shit when it comes to modern ideas and technology. Not wanting to be a ditch digger isn't usually a sign of laziness. Really, who the fuck wants to do hard manual labor for little pay? Neighborhood kids don't go door to door looking to cut grass anymore. That's not entirely a lack of work ethic. That's not wanting to do shitty work. No one wants to do shit work.
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1st I was married with 3 cars and a mortgage, point I was making is you want something bad enough you work for it. Have you been in a store lately and had the change machine break and the clerk had to actually count your change back to you? :D
 
Atkron205 said:
1st I was married with 3 cars and a mortgage, point I was making is you want something bad enough you work for it. Have you been in a store lately and had the change machine break and the clerk had to actually count your change back to you? :D
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Yeah kids are dumb when it comes to things that we feel are common basic parts of life. Making change, face-to-face human interaction, driving cars. They suck at all of that. Hell, kids can't even talk on a phone. They can text, IM, skype, face chat, whatever. But they can't just talk on a fucking phone. But they excel in technological areas that confound and stupify older generations. It's not that kids don't want to work, they just don't want to work the way we did. Just like they don't want to dress like we did or listen to the music we listen to. They don't want to shovel shit for minimum wage when they don't actually have to.
 
mjbphotos said:
The lazy and unexperienced can work at McD's or stocking grocery shelves for $10 an hour
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All you said was true...the big difference is an experienced burger flipper can maybe weasel his way up into management after 10 years or open his own stand and go broke..

If you learn a trade i.e. Plumbing, electrical, heating and air, masonry / tile and stone...you can go just about anywhere in the world and be working or hang a shingle up and start your own company and survive.

I'd compare being an apprentice / helper in a trade as a way of earning an AA in that trade...College isn't for everyone and now days a AA, even a BA doesn't assure anything in the job market.
 
TAE said:
All you said was true...the big difference is an experienced burger flipper can maybe weasel his way up into management after 10 years or open his own stand and go broke..

If you learn a trade i.e. Plumbing, electrical, heating and air, masonry / tile and stone...you can go just about anywhere in the world and be working or hang a shingle up and start your own company and survive.

I'd compare being an apprentice / helper in a trade as a way of earning an AA in that trade...College isn't for everyone and now days a AA, even a BA doesn't assure anything in the job market.
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Not really

None of the above are trades that are going to get you visas to work, and chances are homegrown tradesmen charge less or are being undercut by tradesmen from more economically challenged countries as is.
 
TAE said:
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I got a kick out of this. When I was a kid, my dad used to call me Maynard G. Krebs.

I actually turned out to be one of the harder working people you'll find, even though I don't have a job now.

My question to Jimmy would be, do you think your kids would be willing to take on that job? And I don't mean that you should hire one of your kids, if you even have any that would be old enough. What I mean is, everybody bitches about how lazy and entitled kids are these days, but how did they get that way? Couldn't possibly be from from parents who taught them to be that way, could it? And by 'taught' I mean that every time a kid whines until you give in, you have just 'taught' them how to get what they want. We teach people how to treat us. If undesirable behavior on their part does not produce the results that they desire, they will abandon that behavior in search of another technique.

To paraphrase the good Dr. (Phil), if what you're doing isn't working for you, you need to change what you're doing.
 
One thing I wonder, Jimmy, is if you yourself could go back to being 19, knowing what you do now...with all the options of being that age open to you, would you still pursue bathroom remodeling?
 
fat_fleet said:
One thing I wonder, Jimmy, is if you yourself could go back to being 19, knowing what you do now...with all the options of being that age open to you, would you still pursue bathroom remodeling?
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Maybe. I was busy trying to be a rock star and construction was the trade all the musicians I knew were doing.

I still enjoy setting tile/bathroom remodels. Every job is different. I could never work in an office that wasn't my studio.

I do wish I would have spent more time building a business than just doing it to make a living. It does seem harder these days to find others that wish to do well at a trade.
 
notCardio said:
I got a kick out of this. When I was a kid, my dad used to call me Maynard G. Krebs.

I actually turned out to be one of the harder working people you'll find, even though I don't have a job now.

My question to Jimmy would be, do you think your kids would be willing to take on that job? And I don't mean that you should hire one of your kids, if you even have any that would be old enough. What I mean is, everybody bitches about how lazy and entitled kids are these days, but how did they get that way? Couldn't possibly be from from parents who taught them to be that way, could it? And by 'taught' I mean that every time a kid whines until you give in, you have just 'taught' them how to get what they want. We teach people how to treat us. If undesirable behavior on their part does not produce the results that they desire, they will abandon that behavior in search of another technique.

To paraphrase the good Dr. (Phil), if what you're doing isn't working for you, you need to change what you're doing.
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Actually, my boy Matthew was leaning the trade at 20 with me and was looking to take on the business. He was doing great! That ended abruptly when he was killed in a car accident at 22...
 
jimmys69 said:
Maybe. I was busy trying to be a rock star and construction was the trade all the musicians I knew were doing.

I still enjoy setting tile/bathroom remodels. Every job is different. I could never work in an office that wasn't my studio.

I do wish I would have spent more time building a business than just doing it to make a living. It does seem harder these days to find others that wish to do well at a trade.
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I could use a new bathroom.... feel like a holiday in Australia? :)
 
Sorry to hear about your son. He may have very well followed in your footsteps. OTOH, working for your old man in a family business often comes with it's own trials and tribulations.
 
fuzzsniffvoyage,

Pardon me if we've discusseed this before, my memory, unfortunately, IS what it used to be. At least that's the way I remember it.

I find it difficult to believe that you live in the Armpit of Indiana, when I currently live there.
 
Same story on how I got into the trade.... just doing tile till I "made it" ;) ...though I grew up with my Pops doing Hardwood flooring...I was hand cutting in the layouts and running the edge sanding machine at 8, by the time I was 12 wall to wall carpet displaced many a hardwood floor man including Pops...fast forward 10 years ....my wife's Dad knew a tile setter who needed a helper and paid $100 a day CASH MONEY...1978 Hell yeah! The rest is misery...

Nah it was hard work but I am grateful I had the career..... made a lot of great friends, learned a lot of other trades and made a lot of families happy...Don't miss the mud set tear outs AT ALL! I do miss the satisfaction of making a shit hole look awesome and the smiles on the faces of my customers...running into me 10 years later and thanking me for an awesome job.. Don't get that much in sales.

Bogus about your son Jimmy ...had no idea.... really tragic loss. One of my helpers that went on to do his own thing has his son working with him...pretty cool.

I just have daughters but I did teach my son in law how to do tile...He's done a few tubs on the side with Hardi backer...
 
TAE said:
Same story on how I got into the trade.... just doing tile till I "made it" ;) ...though I grew up with my Pops doing Hardwood flooring...I was hand cutting in the layouts and running the edge sanding machine at 8, by the time I was 12 wall to wall carpet displaced many a hardwood floor man including Pops...fast forward 10 years ....my wife's Dad knew a tile setter who needed a helper and paid $100 a day CASH MONEY...1978 Hell yeah! The rest is misery...

Nah it was hard work but I am grateful I had the career..... made a lot of great friends, learned a lot of other trades and made a lot of families happy...Don't miss the mud set tear outs AT ALL! I do miss the satisfaction of making a shit hole look awesome and the smiles on the faces of my customers...running into me 10 years later and thanking me for an awesome job.. Don't get that much in sales.

Bogus about your son Jimmy ...had no idea.... really tragic loss. One of my helpers that went on to do his own thing has his son working with him...pretty cool.

I just have daughters but I did teach my son in law how to do tile...He's done a few tubs on the side with Hardi backer...
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I must say that is one of the great satisfactions of my trade. Seeing the look on clients faces when their vision is completed. Not many other trades get you hugs and tips as well as good pay. I get them almost every project.

Just last week I squeezed in a very small fireplace surround. Bid it at $400. Took 3 hours. She tipped me $200 and said she wished all contractors were like me. Then the hug. :)
 
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