Given the size of TBP’s readership, it seems certain that a there are several hundred members who will be seeking new employment at any given time. The intention here is to provide a bit of insight into what employers are looking for in employees, in hope that that information will assist the members to land interviews, successfully negotiate the interview, and hold the job through the crucial first few months.
As an employer, I hire employees for one reason and one reason only – to help the company make money. I believe this to be a universal truth for all employers. I understand a great many people find this truth to be distasteful, and that some greater relationship, such as mutual loyalty, should exist between employer and employee. To them I say this: what you believe matters not – this is the way it is. Live with it, or do not. If you choose to not live with it, your lives will be harder and it will impinge upon a fruitful search for employment. So in your search for work, keep foremost in your minds at all times this thought – how can I show prospective/current employers that I will help them make money?
The Application
I do not wish to dwell on this area, but will only try to provide some generic advice on what I look for when sifting through job applications.
– I look for a cover letter specific to me and my organization, and do not wish to see a form letter.
– I look for a resume that is appropriate to the position. In other words, I do not want to see a five page resume when the person is applying for a machine operator’s position. Limit the resume to no more than two pages no matter what position is being applied for. Also, get it professionally done, no typos, and printed on quality paper (I recommend something other than plain white so that it stands out).
– I do not want to see that the person has job-hopped. If you have, try to devise a means of obscuring and/or explaining this. I also do not want to see a huge list, or any list, of personal interests. It will not be a positive, and will possibly be a negative if it leaves me with the idea that you partake in dangerous activities or so many activities that they may interfere in your work.
– I want to see what skills you have, and I want to know what you have accomplished. What you were responsible for is of lesser interest to me. A lot of people are responsible for many things, but accomplish little.
– I want to see that you can help me make money.
The Interview
Following is what I want in an employee, and these are the things that the applicant needs to address during the interview:
– I want an employee that comes to work. This is the single most important thing. I repeat, this is the single most important thing. Everything else runs a distant second. You need to get the fact that you will come to work into your application. In 40 years of work I have missed the following days of work: 5 days with pneumonia, 3 days with hernia surgery, 1 day with shoulder surgery, 1 day with a temperature of 104, 2 days with food poisoning. I have no time for people that miss lots of work – especially if they miss lots of single days. Miss a week with pneumonia or surgery – fine. Miss ten days a year one day at a time? Take that crap somewhere else. Some people think that this is harsh. I do not care – not one single whit. Come to work, or get lost. My company averages less than 1.5% absenteeism, and always has. That is three days per year per person, and includes long-term illnesses. As a result, I am able to very accurately plan and schedule my business, which helps me make money and compete in a world market. (There is that thing again – money.)
If a new employee misses a day of work in the first month, I raise an eyebrow and keep an eye on what is going on. If they miss 2 days the first month, it is unlikely they will maintain their employment.
– I am not recruiting for superstars. Superstars are too rare to recruit for. I am recruiting for hard-working individuals that come to work, bring a varied skill-set, and are willing to learn. I do not want to hear that a person can do everything – it is almost always bullshit. I do not want to hear that they are quick learners. Everyone says they are a quick learner. No one is ever a quick learner. I want someone who says they will come to work every day and who says that they are willing to learn and that they will keep at it no matter how long it takes. Funny enough, it is these folks that turn into superstars. People that apply and try to sell themselves as superstars invariably overstate their cases. Sometimes they fool me, and I put these folks in jobs where I find out that they are in fact not qualified. That costs me money. That is a bad thing.
– I do not want job hoppers. If I see that a person has held 5 jobs in the last ten years, they need to explain this in detail, and to convince me that this is not going to continue. This may be hard to do. But the best way would include an explanation that they were young, immature, and have reached a point in their lives that they understand the need to be stable. I spend a lot of time and money training and recruiting new employees. I do not want to see that money wasted.
– I want employees that treat the job and business like it is their own. That is to say, they do not waste money or resources, they treat equipment with care, they produce a quality product every time, etc. I want employees that do not waste time. Every minute an employee wastes cost me approximately $1. Really. Say I have 130 employees and they all waste 10 minutes a day (I am sure it is far, far more than that) that is $1300 dollars per day wasted. Or about $300,000 per year wasted. Of my money. I can stroke out just thinking about it. So I want to hear that potential employees will not waste time, and that they will care for the business as though it is their own. So in an interview say exactly that – “I will not waste time and I will take care of your business just like it is my own”. See how fast you get hired.
– I want employees that fix their own problems. I do not want employees that bring me a never ending stream of problems they have identified. Most issues are not rocket science, and the employee can fix the problem themselves. And I do not want employees coming to me every time they have fixed a problem to crow about it. Blow your own horn, but do it infrequently. I am not blind – I can see. Let your prospective employer know you are this type person. It saves them money.
– I do not want anyone that is a pain in the ass. I want people who treat others with respect. I do not want people who are complaining all the time. I have enough trouble running a business, and do not want to be a babysitter too. It wastes my time and costs me money.
– There are two areas that every employee has absolute authority over –safety and quality. Employees are empowered to shut down any operation that is unsafe or which is spitting out bad quality. I want employees that understand that this is the case – that they are not helping me if they allow unsafe practices to continue or allow bad product to get out the door. Bad quality costs me money, as do any injuries – and injuries can even get me in severe legal trouble. I want people to keep me out of trouble.
– In interviews, I am always concerned if the applicant focuses too much on working hours/vacation days/sick leave provisions/etc. Perhaps it is all reasonable to ask, but it worries me nevertheless.
This list isn’t comprehensive, but it covers the basics. As is evident, it all comes down to money – helping the employer make it and save it. Applicants that show that they are focused on this will be successful. It will overcome a vast array of other deficiencies. For instance, I employ several ex-cons, people with learning disabilities or poor educational skills, ex-drug addicts, etc. etc. etc. For the most part, I do not care about that stuff – I care about whether they help me make money. In many cases I take a chance on people if I think they can help me make money. When I take a chance, I know that the odds are that I will not be successful – for instance, drug addicts relapse. But then again all new hires are something of a crap-shoot.
Here are some examples of how applicant have shot themselves in the foot, and lost the opportunity of a job, or have lost the job themselves:
– In an interview, the applicant told me that they couldn’t work past 3 on Friday, as he played golf then. He was stunned when I showed him the door immediately.
– A receptionist called in sick with a migraine on her first day of work. I advised her there would be no second day. She couldn’t understand it.
– A young man missed 3 days in the first month of work. When I spoke to him about it, he asked me what my problem was as “it is only 3 days in a whole month”. I showed him the door on the spot. The young man’s father showed up to threaten me for mistreating his 23 year old son. That didn’t go well.
– A painter with “10 years’ experience” baked 2 high value spray guns in 2 days. Baking the gun cooks the paint inside the gun and destroys it. Adios, amigo.
– A new hire clocked out without notifying anyone at 9 and came back at 1:30. When asked what that was about he said he had things to do. See you later.
– A new hire was leaping off the top of a dumpster onto his ass inside the dumpster “to compact it”. Do not pass go on the way out.
– A new hire emptied the trash out of his car (lunch bags/ashtray/newspapers/etc.) onto the ground in the employee parking lot. He thought that was fine. I didn’t.
– A new hire started a fire in an employee restroom as a joke. I laughed and laughed.
So, in summary, job applicants need to keep in mind exactly what the employer wants, and needs to convince the employer that he/she will deliver the goods. The employer wants someone to help make him/her money, and who will not be a pain in the ass. It really is that simple.
I hope that this is some help to those looking for new employment. I also hope that those many members with great experience can add and augment to this post. I know that many believe that the world should be a kinder, gentler place. Perhaps that is correct. But it doesn’t help today’s job applicant, who must live in the current reality.
LLPOH, fine article and good comments. I will use some of your suggestions as I am
unemployed now. Best wishes.
I have gushed a bit about the joys of working at ADOT&PF, but what llpoh said and SSS echoed is true there-sometimes. I was lucky as hell to be hired by a manager with that philosophy-he did not micro-manage, but he was available when I needed advice or assistance. I kept him in the loop, and he let me do my thing. When I had good but controversial ideas, he backed me up, up the food chain, rather than telling me to follow convention-resulting in successful, cost-effective (relatively speaking) projects.
During the 4 years I worked for him, I observed how the other managers interacted with their staff, and made mental notes of who I could work for, and who I was not cut out for. Some folks need a micro-manager, I guess, but most do better with just enough guidance and enough liberty to get their jobs done in their most efficient style.
SSS – it absolutely works best. And what’s more – people learn and develop.
Many thanks.
AKA – you see the way it works. Congrats.
“but not the auto worker of the golden age 1960s. and certainly not the operator in LLPOH’s factory of today. yeah, it sucks compared to that auto worker. but it ain’t wage slavery.”-Howie
In the words of Winston Churchill, “Madam, we have already established what you arc. Now we’re just quibbling about the price. …” How much money do you live on now Howie, working your 3 day week? Not to mention like me unmarried with no kids.
According to the Inflation Calculator http://www.westegg.com/inflation/:
What cost $40000 in 2010 would cost $5495.96 in 1960. So OK, Income $5496.
Now, average price of a home in 1960: $16,500
Convert to 2010 average price of a home should be
What cost $16500 in 1960 would cost $120088.18 in 2010
Average price of a home in 2010 actually was 271,600
http://www.money-zine.com/Financial-Planning/Buying-a-Home/Average-Home-Prices-2010/
So, as you can see, the wage slave making $40K who in 1960 could actually afford to house himself and his family in a house about triple his adjusted salary of $5496 by 2010 has now become unable to afford such a thing. Lets not even get into how much more this person has to pay now than in 1960 for gas to get to work.
Sorry Howie, you lose. A $40K job is wage slavery in 2010 dollars. By the time someone making this income gets through all the typical monthly bills, they have NADA left if they have a family. Even for a single guy, you have to live cheap. Some areas of the country are better than others for this, NYC of course is not one of them which is why I long ago abandoned that Big Shity and took my Journeyman Trades elsewhere.
To be out of the trap of Wage Slavery, you generally have to be making at least $70K or so. However, such pay does not exist for clerical workers or janitors unless they work for you know who, Da Goobermint. The private sector does not pay these wages, it pays the minimum the market will bear before the people simply can no longer afford to live without going into debt, and in fact has failed to do that over the last decade at least.
RE
One more thing Howie:
“that is like saying if you have horses, their food and shelter are ‘wages’”
Yes Howie, the food and shelter for the horse ARE its wages. Its the absolute minimum you can pay the horse to keep working for you. And BTW, if you want to feed and shelter a horse in anything but a rural community, it costs more than you pay the typical Wage Slave. LOL.
Far as people from 3rd World economies considering our Wage Slaves to be Heaven on Earth goes, sure that’s true because these folks have reached the point where they are having food riots. So your argument here is that people are not Wage Slaves until they are reduced to 3rd World poverty?
You’re still a wage slave Howie, becuase of the costs of living in such a society. If all you make is JUST enough to cover the basic bills of food, clothing and shelter in your society, you are a wage slave. You cannot sink any lower than this and still maintain a job in the society. If you are homeless and your clothes are old and worn you can’t get a job. You fall off the cliff at this point.
Small Bizmen would like to reduce these wages still further in order to remain “competitive” and stay in biz, but our economic structure won’t support that at the moment. The housing is too expensive, so is the fuel the people need to get to work. The model is collapsing and will continue to collapse. That is all she wrote.
RE
Thanks llpoh! I’m actually in the process of applying for new jobs. I’m ready to be moved up to a position with greater responsibility and pay in my field but there aren’t any slots left at my current company. Rather than wait around and hope for someone to leave I have decided to give myself a promotion. My resume is 2 pages, with the first being my relevant experience (along with $s generated) in my field and the second a brief blurb about my military experience. I’m hoping to get some interviews in the near future. I’ll be sure to apply some of this knowledge! Thanks bro!
What does a wage slave look like? Let’s see here… Perfect example being – myselfs.
Just tossing numbers around. I make let’s say ~38k a year. So 3000 a month. 1600 bi-weekly more or less.
A brief perusal of my pay stub says…
1600
– 120 fed income tax
– 67 ss tax
– 23 medicare tax
– 47 OH state income tax
– 40 columbus income tax
– 20 dental (me and wife)
– 175 insurance (me wife and 8 mo old son)
________
1108
So monthly, it comes out to… 2200 or so, post-shaving my asshole.
So theoretically, let’s say…
2200
-800/m rent
-200/m utilities&internets
-90/m on two cell phones
-100/m on medical shit (type I diabetes, yay… without insurance im FUCKKKKED)
-200/m on gas to/from work
This leaves about 800 bucks a month for food, and everything else. Saving for my kid’s college? Retirement? Buying a house (ha, right)… This monthly budget is assuming nothing unforeseen happens, in which I have to shell out some dough, just as RE says…
Been here over a year. 65 hours a week. 3 mm in annualized sales. 28% yoy increase in sales.
As Jet from Cowboy Bebop says: “All that work and no reward.”
Now, this being a free market, I could take my shit and go elsewhere… However, I got this job after applying for 100 other jobs, and getting ONE interview, for which there were 150 applicants…
I dunno, working for my company is the opposite of a union. But where else is there to go? At least I make barely enough to survive. That’s good enough this day and age. I could be unemployed AND have a boatload of student loans. I avoid debt like the plague. But it IS a form of fucking slavery, Howie. It seems doctors are not so in touch with the every day worker bee. Nobody is cracking a whip on my ass, but being one step away from bankruptcy/destitution doesn’t sound very free, either.
Long story short – time to put my wife to work, and let some negligent assholes take care of my kid in a diseasepool? The amount daycare would cost is pretty much the same my wife would make working ANYWAYS… Sounds lose lose to me.
Not trying to be a jerk, Jig, but it’s pretty common to not make a lot of money when you’re in your early 20s. If you and your wife both worked and saved for another ten years before having kids, you could have made this a lot easier on yourselves.
Haha Jo, yes, but my wife… Well, let’s just say she wasn’t a “believer” in the “ABORT” button. No matter how much I explained the money situation to her, she wanted our son no matter what. Oh wells. At least he’s great. I just keep telling myself I’m investing in my son’s development by not sending him to daycare. I know you didn’t mean to offend, and I’m not offended at all by what you just said. I thought like you… Having kids at my age – 27 – is akin to a debt slave death sentence. But depending on the woman, pregnancy waits for no man.
So here’s the question for small business owners, then. How much do you make, versus what you pay your employees?
I once worked a job processing benefit payments. My company charged people 150 dollars as a fee to allow them to borrow their own vested 401ks. We tacked on 1% over prime for their loans to themselves. I processed like 100 of these things a day in college. So excluding the amortization of the loans with the interest, I made my company… 15k per day, for 8 dollars an hour. Now, I understand, yes, I’m not the guy who used risked his own money to start the company, to build the network with companies allowing their employees to borrow from themselves, and I also didn’t pay for our office, equipment, various overhead, etc. I was a monkey who did monkey work, just processing incoming benefit requests. It was a small company, but damn, the guy who owned it must have made a shitton of cash off of my monkey ass.
The market could bear 8 dollars an hour, and I could afford 20 hours per week, so what the hell.
He who has the money, makes the rules. He who owns the business, owns the employees. LLPOH sounds like a pretty decent boss. The employees he fired sound seriously underwhelming. Hire a monkey, fire a monkey. A monkey that can work autonomously to accomplish directives sounds sweet, especially when you can pay them 1/3-1/2 of what your micromanaging jerkwad competitors pay.
Did I mention I’m a monkey? And that 65 hours per week involves no OT? Base salaries here are set no matter the hours, so like a mother monkey, I get milked – a lot.
…Upon rereading my last post, and this one, I guess I sound a little like a whiny entitled bitch. I’m just… I dunno… frustrated? I’ve been applying to other places… But really, the economy is DEAD. I seriously can’t find anything else.
RE, for the life of me I can’t understand why a woman won’t live with you. Such charm, such grace….
EF
Jig
I understand how you feel. My wife talks about having kids all the time. It must just be a typical female thing. You sound like a sharp dude so I’m sure good things will come your way in regard to the job situation. Good luck on your job search! Our economy sucks and will suck for a long time. We just have to learn how to adjust and figure out where the opportunities will be. Easier said then done….
What everyone needs to ponder is where will the future be for job growth in America? What industries and what types of positions will have the best opportunities?
jmarz:
See recent Wired magazine article “the smartest jobs in America.” All your questions will be answered.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/19-06
Glad you didn’t take offense, Jig. Anyway, it won’t be like this forever. When your son is old enough to start kindergarten, your wife can get at least a part-time job somewhere. Then, assuming you keep your costs of living the same, you will have another paycheck to set aside for something like a retirement account, house, whatever. If you are going to have kids, there are benefits to having them young, too.
Between you and jmarz, I am stopping to appreciate the fact that as a woman, having kids will never be up to anyone else, and I’m thankful for that.
Jigs:
It will get better if you keep appying (read Stuck’s posts way up top and build a “What I can do” presentation… you’re racking up experience…
When the kid gets to 1st grade put that woman to work. She can move boxes at UPS for a benefit package better than Congress’.
My girlfriend’s your age, just graduated and is having troubles too. Her bio-clock’s ticking…
Get better at pulling out. If she whines about it, point to the kid and shrug.
CR, whaddya mean, ‘just graduated’ and her bio-clock’s ticking? Just graduated from what?
Watch out for this “bio-clock” stuff. I’m 41 and am quite confident that even if I ever HAD a bio-clock, it came without the batteries included. (I never did want kids so I just found a sweety who felt the same way.)
If a 22-year-old is saying her “bio-clock” is ticking, it makes me suspicious that she really just wants an excuse to not get a job. Not saying this is the case here, but damn. I know entry-level jobs suck and didn’t enjoy the ones I had in my 20s, but to have a baby just to avoid it? That seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
College, PJ! Math degree and looking for a risk analysis job. She’s 28. I thought Jigs was 27. Anyway, her sisters are popping out kids and she gets all estrogenized every visit. She doesn’t want kids but her clock’s ticking… her head says no, her hormones say otherwise.
I told her if she gets a jobshe can be my sugar-mama while I finish up college THEN we bless the world with our superior genes…. she agrees. No less, I pull out.
At any rate, I showed her this article and asked questions on her behalf.
And Jigs isn’t a slave, he’s just starting out. He’ll do fine, he’s a go-getter, not a shitbag.
PJ: She has a job, always has… waiting tables at a swank restaurant. Great money, believe it or not, just not her passion: Mathematics.
The very fact you folks are discussing that it is necessary for a family to forgo reproduction until their 30s so the wife can pursue a full time job demonstrates all these people are slaves. In 1960, you could marry a girl out of High School and have your first child before she was 20.
It is also untrue that most of these wage slaves are only in such low paid jobs in their 20s. I will bet most of LLPOHs Slaves are into their 30s and 40s on the floor of his shop. This is the perpetual condition of these slaves as they are exploited by their Overseers.
The current goal of the petty Capitalists is to remove all worker protections such as minimum wage and Unions to deepen the slavery of the Working Class, essentially turning the FSofA into a 3rd World Nation.
For more in depth coverage, visit
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/reverseengineering/
RE
RE the one trick pony keeps dropping turds on TBP. How surprising. Here is what I see on every RE post:
Blah, blah, blah capitalist pig, blah, blah, blah, end of the world, blah, blah, blah, please come to my lame site, blah, blah, blah.
How pathetic and boring, blah blah, blah.
Aren’t we all lucky that RE can’t procreate by jerking off to pictures on the internet in his hermit cabin?
RE, for the life of me I can’t understand why a woman won’t live with you. Such charm, such grace….~ef
Napa extra thick Chili Con Carne and Sam Adams beer is a relationship killer in and of itself.
The very fact you folks are discussing that it is necessary for a family to forgo reproduction until their 30s so the wife can pursue a full time job demonstrates all these people are slaves. ~RE
Okay, why would a slave want to re-produce?
RE, you are being so melodramatic. Waiting until you are in your 30s to have kids doesn’t mean you are a “slave,” it just means you are sensible about family planning when it comes to finances. If you get married at 22 but you both work full-time and don’t have kids until you are 32, you can pay off all your debts, accumulate savings, and/or make a giant down-payment on a house. Then if the wife wants to quit working for five years after having the baby, there are few bills, the mortgage is small, and there are savings available. This just makes the whole thing less stressful, but people don’t HAVE to do it that way. Jig is struggling right now, but he will do fine and loves his kid more than anything on earth.
And how many women WANT to have kids before they are 20? CR’s girlfriend is 28 and already has a math degree, for crying out loud. She can pretty much write her own ticket with that kind of marketability, and that’s not a bad thing to have in your back pocket regardless of when you have kids.
As to people who go through their entire lives never making more than $40K a year, actually I think that is most people. Isn’t the salary of the average worker around $25K? Supply and demand, I’m afraid. The competition for jobs that don’t require degrees or years of technical training is quite fierce. There is a huge supply of people who want those jobs and that drives the price down.
Aren’t we all lucky that RE can’t procreate by jerking off to pictures on the internet in his hermit cabin? -JimQ
Its a good thing humans need 46 and not 23 chromosomes.
E doesn’t realize that I could support a child but don’t care for that horrible nose and stench they make.
But Colma someone put up with your noise and stench =)
KB: Those poor poor fools.
Yes, parents are fools, how do I know?
I am one.
Sorry PJ, the Cockroaches have crawled out from behind the refrigerator to enforce Party Discipline. further discussion to topic can be found at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/reverseengineering/
RE
RE as a communist shouldnt you have party discipline?
Kill Bill says:
Aren’t we all lucky that RE can’t procreate by jerking off to pictures on the internet in his hermit cabin? -JimQ
Its a good thing humans need 46 and not 23 chromosomes.
How many do cats have? I see a definite kitty fetish with RE.
EF
I’m with Pirate Jo on this one. It just makes sense to have your kids when you are a bit more financially secure and more emotionally mature. Geez, humans live to like, 80 years or something, so what’s the rush to have kids in your 20’s? Also, for the first time in human history we can actually control our fertility and bring kids into the world on a more ordered basis. To me, that’s what “family planning” really means.
I was 32 yo when I had my daughter and 35 when I had my son because that was when I was getting out of fellowship and my first husband had started his law practice. We were poor as church mice for several years, but I don’t recall being unhappy about that. Just being with the kids was enough then and it is enough now.
And who says you have to have a lot of money to raise kids or be happy? That is what underlines a lot of the comments in this thread.
My parents were two public school teachers, living in the Socialist Utopia of Southern California, paying almost 50% of their income in one tax or another. My Mom did not go back to work until my younger brother cleared the first grade. We were not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but we had family camping trips every school holiday, even if it was camping out the back of a ’57 Chevy, in a tent. We had great times as a family, and it didn’t involve four star hotels, sheesh, we thought Motel 6 was high cotton!
It isn’t STUFF that makes you happy, you just become a slave to your stuff, either to get it or keep it. It is your FAMILY and your FRIENDS that is important, and has true and lasting value.
You can rub a big pile of money on your body all night long and it ain’t gonna hug you back.
RE – give it a fucking rest.
Admin – you were right. I was wrong. I thought he would show a bit of respect. This article was meant to help some folks.
I assure you, llpoh, this article has helped people.
Jigger – you sound like a fine young man. PJ and Hope and Colma et al have covered the issue well. Having kids early in today’s world is a recipe for serious financial pain. In your case it cut potential earnings in half and increased expenses. However I am sure you wouldn’t trade places with the childless. Keep the faith – you will get thru.
RE – by the way, fuck you. I object to being called a slave master. Really, give it a fucking break. I told everyone what my employees earn. They are all ages. But their background is reasonably consistent in one area – they are unskilled and poorly educated. I give them a chance to make a decent living. The will never own the place or be senior management. A lot of them cannot write. But I treat them with respect, I give them a lot of autonomy, I see they are left in peace. I compete in a world market which does not allow for wages of 100k per year to be paid to unskilled and poorly educated workers. Do me a fovor and go shit somewhere else for a while.
Hope, yep, I have those memories of camping, too. It helped for when I was an adult and started doing cycle touring, carrying my own gear. (I carry a heavier tent because it keeps the water out, but had to drop some weight and use one of those icky camping towels.) The family photo album contains pictures of the family sitting around a campfire eating Dinty Moore stew because we didn’t catch any fish that day. My dad was pissed.
It makes sense to me that two people wanting kids would wait until they had their student loans paid off, no credit card debt, and some savings. I just wouldn’t want to worry about money all the time. As to buying a house or renting, that depends on where you live, but if you are working at a job you hate and feel trapped because the rent or mortgage eats up a big chunk of your income, I wouldn’t like that. In fact, that’s why I paid off my home and I don’t even have kids.
It’s so silly for people to think they are entitled to everything they want, any time they want it. Reality means you might have to wait on some things. I’m not a big fan of delaying ALL gratification, I like my gratification right now just as much as the next person, but please. It doesn’t make us slaves just because we have to work for some things.
Hey llpoh, I’m not sure where your company is located. If you ever need an accountant, financial analyst, or business analyst on a contract basis and don’t mind shelling out for my cheap (Motel 6) travel expenses, I’d love to come work for you for a while.
There has been a little management gem dropped here by SSS and myself that has received little attention. In my opinion it is the best management advise that can be given. I will write a short story on it soon.
The essence is that managers who give goals rather than tasks are much more successful than those that give tasks. I cannot overstate how valuable this is. Putting it to use requires skill – you need to lead the horses to water without them knowing they are being led. When the horses buy in that it is their plans and decisions they are implementing, boy do they pull hard. And they enjoy doing it. And please, no cracks about me rhinking my employees are farm animals. It is simply a play on the old saying. I can offer a lot of tips on how to manage this way, and I can assure you it works. The method does infuriate young managers who expect to be handed solutions. I do not hand out solutions as that would make me a task giver and not a goal giver.
PJ – high praise indeed and I will keep it in mind! I have two concerns tho –
– you may run out and start popping out kids as your biological alarm sounds, leaving me in the lurch
– Muck might seek me out and beat crap out of me – he wants you (and Hope) BAD and he is the jealous type I am sure, and he wouldn’t be able to bear any other TBPer actually getting to meet you
Really high praise. Thanks.
Admin – by the way, I consider TBP’s greatest honor is when an article is resurrected from The Valley of Doom. Thanks so much!
@PJ: If you can talk llpoh into a contract job, go for it. He’s in the hot part of Arizona so save any contract offers until this winter… You have my permission!
@llpoh: You’re going to get me in trouble yet, dammit. I’m still 30 inside, 55 for the brain and the body is just sucking wind. But I can still dream!
MA
Llpoh: I recalled your comment on some thread about taking a brick to the nuts before having kids… less pain.
Chuckling. Wincing.
@jigger: This country’s standard of living was cut more than in two years ago. Now it take both husband and wife (or girlfriend/boyfriend) working to barely (and loosing ground) maintain the standard of living enjoyed by yours truly working with Mom at home 40 years ago.
Since 1971 – when we went of the last tiny bit of monetary discipline left thanks to Tricky Fucky Dickie Nixon defaulting on our foreign debts (by closing the international gold window), there has been no end to the printing of money, expanding credit without end and kicking cans, small and large down the road with no intention of ever paying the actual debt back.
Hence the general standard of living went into the tank and to keep up the flow, momma had to go to work, like it or not. From there, the family structure fell apart and we are now up shit creek without an outboard or an oar or a paddle as things deteriorate month after month, year after year until enough people fall off the end of the economy to stand up and say, “NO MORE!”
It will not be pretty when it happens, but happen it will. Good luck..
MA
Muck – you should be ok unless Mrs. Muck gets wind of things.
Colma – far less pain. And of much shorter duration, too. Once you have one of the little darliings you won’t trade them for anything tho.
Muck – I can always count on you to cheer me up. Thanks.
LLPOH
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Great article. Got a hell of a lot of good responses in the comments too. Its Mrs. Punks Birthday today so I just dropped in for a quick….
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RE
Your comments about employees being slaves is pure horseshit. I’ll try to think of a nicer way to say it and drop in on your yahoo group later tonight or tomorrow.
CV51 – I am definitely one of those considering walking away. For the reasons stated. It is hard enough to stay competetive without all the regs they keep piling on. I hate being a tax collector for all manner of public agencies. I hate the shear volume of tax I see sucked from me, my company and my employees. I hate payroll tax with a purple passion – talk about theft. As people will have noted, I get incandescent when new taxes are proposed. I pay enormous tax all up – and I even have to collect it for the bsstards. They – the royal they – do all possible to make my life hell.
The biggest incentive I have to remain in business is not that I still am able to make a profit. It is that I employ a lot of people. And if I shut the doors to make my life easier then these folks are out of work, with very poor prospects of recovering their current situation. So I keep assuming the heartache and risk. But I am deeply frustrated. Deeply.
And I have to be a ruthless bastard to keep my business alive. I would love to be kind and gentle. It is difficult to have to fire someone – most folks cannot do it. I have to – I have no choice or I will go broke. I have to fight suppliers and customers on a daily basis. I have to deal with employees that have an inflated sense of entitlement. I have to bend over for evey inspector that comes knocking. I have to adjust to an endless and ever changing regulatory system.
Yes I consider walking away.
Punk – nice to see you!
And selling the business is not much of an option. Who in their right minds wants to by a manufacturing business these days? And the fact is that my partner and I are the major capital of the business. Without extremely high skill and multi-skilled people in charge, the business would collapse in a hurry.
People really need to press for changes that are positive for small business or eventually there will be none left.
llpoh: My heart is as pure as the freshly driven snow (Arghhh). I love these ladies for their intellect, brains and ability to understand what 99% of others don’t..
Always glad to make you smile..
MA
llpoh: PS: Mrs. Muck and I have been sweethearts for 56 years and married for 54. She is currently re-reading Atlas Shrugged, never wears curlers to bed and snuggles like 18 again!
That should tell you where my loyalty rests!
But I have 20/20 vision (thanks to new plastic corneas) so I keep looking and enjoying!
Keep smiling.
MA
Reverse Engineer is an Illuminati Pig Man who, after claiming to be filthy rich and seeing no one worthy of philanthropy, insults those who enable anyone to earn a living.