Author Topic: Todays Workforce (Read 727 times)

Reschke · « **Reply #15 on:** April 21, 2006, 08:50:32 AM »

Thank goodness for the company I work for now. In the last 6 years we have had tremendous growth and are just now getting to the point of needing to upgrade our cutting and welding areas. The money was allocated last year and the machines have been ordered (all US owned and US built equipment even though we are a German owned company) and once they are all here we will begin the expansion process.

Our owner understands the needs of helping keep manufacturing strong in this nation because he grew up and watched his fathers pipe shop get rebuilt after WW2 with US built equipment. He is even looking for US steel pipe suppliers to ship material to Germany and is thinking of building a heat treating facility here in Alabama to help us with our growing business.

eagl · « **Reply #16 on:** April 21, 2006, 08:55:16 AM »

Part of the equation is leadership... An intangible quality that distinguishes a "manager", someone who monitors and shepards an existing physical process, and a "leader", one who motivates and guides people to accomplish things they would otherwise not want or be capable of doing.

WWII brought leaders out of the woodwork. There is a reason why that is the "greatest generation"... The leaders of that generation learned their true capabilities in the hottest cruicble imaginable. Nowadays, a crisis is defined as having a worker who insists on wearing an earring against company policy. Is it any wonder why the current generation of young workers appears to be adrift?

There is no one cause, but true leadership is one answer... In fact, it is the only solution to the particularly modern malaise that seems to be affecting our young workforce. They have not faced true hardship, and without true leadership they will not rise to their full potential.

True leaders, ones who do not chase polls or engage in fruitless popularity contests, are rare today. The military tries to screen for and breed leaders of this type, but even when deliberately sought after and encouraged, they remain rare. When we find ourselves trying to legislate a behavioral status quo instead of relying on institutional pride to guide behavior, we find ourselves pushing the proverbial rope, trying to lead from behind with a whip.

Lead from the front, by example. One strong leader is worth a thousand regulations, policies, propaganda posters.

lazs2 · « **Reply #17 on:** April 21, 2006, 09:04:22 AM »

To me... a manager should be asking the people below him what he can get for them to help them do a better job not blame them for his failures.

lazs

Reschke · « **Reply #18 on:** April 21, 2006, 09:08:01 AM »

I forgot to add that those who whine and b**** as new employees or even the ones we have had for a while tend to get bounced out the door fairly quickly. Our attitude is you come to work to get the job done at whatever the cost but family and health is always first for everyone here. There are opportunities to move up within our company and I moved from the shop into sales and still spend about a week a month working in the shop helping to pull orders and get them prepared for shipping. It keeps me focused and helps me to remember the entire process and how long it takes an order to go from my hands through the shop and out the door. I learned that from one of those men that eagl talked about...my grandfather. Things are a little different here in Alabama in that most people here want to work for a living and will gladly do so to help their families. Sure there is that infectious attitude described above in the younger workers but it usually gets worked out of them or they don't get a job after they get fired.

Kaw1000 · « **Reply #19 on:** April 21, 2006, 09:22:15 AM »

The resone the work force stinks in the car business is that the owners and managment screw the sales people so bad...no wonder Young guys in this business get a bitter taste in there mouth and have the bad attitudes they do.....In this business if you make too much money they change your pay plan.......or fire you and find a person that can do it cheaper!!

T0J0 · « **Reply #20 on:** April 21, 2006, 09:25:45 AM »

I have managed staffs since the 80's of various sizes ranging from 5 employees to 120 and I can add a few choice observations to the picture maybe.

In SW florida in the 80's unemployment rate was 10%+, a job ad in the paper would bring in 250 resumes a week. People actually had to try and do a good job because they knew that several thousand people wanted thier current job.

In the mid 90's unemployment rate dropped finally below 10%, a job ad in the paper only brought in 25 resumes, employees could act up, less people wanted thier jobs...Employees started coming in late everyday, calling out sick once a month, and calling a lawyer everytime they felt threatened or misunderstood.

Year 2000: Unemployment rate is nationally 4.7-4.9% a job ad in the paper would bring in 3 resumes all asking for 100K a year-none with any experience, all wearing shorts and flipflops at the interview. The ones who were hired drank on the job, smoked joints on break on the roof and occasionally left a crack pipe on the bathroom sink by mistake. Management offered bonuses to those who werent late everyday, no bonuses were given out though...

2001: All hell breaks out...An employment ad produces 2000 resumes an hour some from as far away as "Aritria Africa... Dr Magumba" arrive.... Productivity based on Sales is at a company all time high...Surprise..

2006: Shorts and flipflops rule the interview again.... Everyone is lieing on thier resume, all want 100K salaries and oak desks.... Management tired of the crap outsources to russia/Kiev.... Productivety based on sales volume is at an all time high...who cares what the russians wear, they never complain, dont threaten us with lawyers and projects are as behind as they were when we didn't outsource but cost 40% less...
I got a huge bonus for being creative and making the company an extra million or more.... I sent the russians a case of vodka for the fun of it...they send me porn emails now, lifes good...

TJ

Ripsnort · « **Reply #21 on:** April 21, 2006, 10:13:56 AM »

Welcome to the "Entitlement" generation of union workers, Hajo. Its why we're losing so much to overseas (Attitude, pay scales, union greed) Hows the bimmer running? Got it out of storage for the summer yet?

Sandman · « **Reply #22 on:** April 21, 2006, 10:20:00 AM »

Unions aren't the reason why we're losing so much overseas. It's greed. Simple as that. IIRC, the number of union employees is something like 8% of the workforce.

john9001 · « **Reply #23 on:** April 21, 2006, 11:19:14 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Kaw1000
..In this business if you make too much money they change your pay plan.......or fire you and find a person that can do it cheaper!!

lol, i was in the car biz for 40 yrs, and that happens all the time, happened to me, i made too much money so they "adjusted" my pay plan.

the bean counters expect you to work at 110-120 % of the flat rate, if you are under the number they think you are slaking if you are over they think the pay plan is wrong, so you have to work at the numbers they expect and everyone is happy.

ChickenHawk · « **Reply #24 on:** April 21, 2006, 12:11:08 PM »

There is no doubt that the American workplace had gone down hill considerably in the last couple decades. The two biggest reasons I have seen are this:

First is exactly what Pei brought up. I can't speak for the steel industry but I have worked in a lot of other fields and the biggest reason there is no company loyalty is because the company doesn't care about it’s employees anymore. It's all about cutting costs, at the employee's expense, just to make a profit for the stock holders for the coming quarter. Every year we see more and more benefits get taken away, companies paying less and less for health care or dropping it altogether, laying people off in droves and just a general attitude of employees being little paws to move or sacrifice for personal gain. The CEO's and board members are in the company just long enough to suck out what they can before they move on to the next victim. I used to have pride in the company I worked for until they outsourced my entire department to another company, who promptly got bought out. We lost most of our benefits, healthcare costs have doubled and they fired half the staff. I'm still here but somewhere the pride fell by the wayside.

The second is the new generation entering the work force. They have no respect for authority. They have grown up in schools where they know they can pretty much do what they want in the classroom and the teacher can't do a thing about it. Most of them would benefit greatly from a good spanking with the board of education. Mom and dad both work and they have too much unsupervised free time. College isn't any better. They live in some pseudo-reality where everyone is born entitled to the best life can give them for no effort on their part and if they don't get there perceived due, they'll just sue for it. They have yet to learn that real education begins when you leave collage.

I watch clueless dolts enter the workplace, watch friends get fired because of company greed, see on the news that a CEO gets 1.6 billion dollars for being in the right place at the right time and it all just makes me sad.

LePaul · « **Reply #25 on:** April 21, 2006, 06:41:59 PM »

Interesting article about General Motors and the UAW....while chatting about Unions.

Where Would General Motors Be Without the United Automobile Workers Union?

In sum, without the UAW, General Motors would not be faced with extinction. Instead, it would almost certainly be a vastly larger, far more prosperous company, producing more and better motor vehicles than ever before, at far lower costs of production and prices than it does today, and providing employment to hundreds of thousands more workers than it does today.

Few things are more obvious than that the role of the UAW in relation to General Motors has been that of a swarm of bloodsucking leeches, a swarm that will not stop until its prey exists no more.

Hajo · « **Reply #26 on:** April 21, 2006, 06:48:50 PM »

Ripsnort! Hiyas my friend! How are you and the family doing?

Yep....the Bimmer is out of the garage and top down weather here already.

My sweet little Z3 will be 6 years old next month and has a whooping 12,600 miles on it lol.

I do hope when time allows I'll see you in the hostile skies of Aces High in the near future.