What is wrong with middle aged people?

[thepumpguysc]

I took a job 100 miles away from home.. " a little" out of my element..
1st day I walked thru the gate.. there were about 5 A. Americans sitting at a picnic table drinking coffee..
I walked by & said, "Mornin boys".. & headed into the building..
Before the door shut I heard, " Who the F*** is HE callin "BOY"??!!!
THATS how my first day went..
I guess I should have said, "Gentleman"..??
Somebodys ALWAYS lookin for a fight.. no matter where you go.. Theres ALWAYS "one"..

 

[plowhog]

As an employer, I came to believe the two biggest problems between management and employees was a) communication, and b) entitlement mentality. I believe examples of both problems are on display here.

Many posters complain of being "shown the door immediately upon termination." It seems that is a degrading or humiliating move by an employer. Let me describe the other side:

I started my company with just me alone, and no training on how to run a business. So, I was a naive and inexperienced employer. After a while, I felt I had some experience at hiring and firing-- although in my company it was very rare to ever fire anyone. Our industry was so competitive you could benefit even if it was a "bad oar" rowing the boat. Firing was ... rare.

One of the managers needed to terminate an especially problematic sales person. I felt sorry for this person, who had a drinking problem but also a family at home. I told the manager who would be firing him to give a month's severance pay, delay his termination date for a month, and let him continue to come to the office "just like a regular employee" so he could look for another job. After all, it's easier to get a job while you have a job, right?

That was a disaster. He would come to work when he wanted, and leave when he wanted. That started to affect morale of others-- they were working full shifts, working extra hard partly to pick up the slack from what he was not doing, but watching him draw full pay, come and goes as he wanted, and to slack off. His phone calls "looking for a job" consisted of calling friends to talk about things "down memory lane," while also loudly explaining he needed to leave a POS company because the company was failing, the management was not doing anything to turn it around, he was a visionary to see where it was headed, and he needed to jump ship to save his own skin before the whole ship sank.

When his supervisor brought him in to ask him to tone it down, he spent the entire session staring at her breasts and then made a comment about them. She terminated him on the spot for insubordination-- upon which he replied "you can't do that." He told her since he had a paper from us saying he could stay up to 30 days, that was an "employment contract." Aaaahhh.

I went to my labor attorney ($300 per hour) for advice-- she told me I caused the whole thing by feeling sorry for him and not escorting him immediately off the property when he was fired. My female employee said she felt sexually harassed and was not comfortable with him being at the office at all. But he insisted on enforcing the "employment contract." It was a mess. And only after he was gone did I learn he was using his company credit card for extravagant lunches with friends as part of "job seeking."

My attorney called the employee at home that night and asked what it would take to bring things to an end. He made an outrageous demand for a lump sum settlement amount. My attorney called me and I did not react well. She said "pay it and move on," or don't pay it and maybe face even more expensive consequences from your decision. I paid it. And anyone terminated thereafter was immediately shown the door.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I used to paint houses when I was in college. We had all kinds! And I do mean all kinds. I've seen guys sign on and want an advance at lunch break. Many on welfare, would work a few weeks in the Summer (I assume secretly for a little bit of beer money) and quit for the Winter. I've seen middle aged men who couldn't drive or identify a particular car (been in prison for a loooong time) and couldn't remember the lie they told the next day. I've seen guys who never came back to work the next day because they were in prison for robbery.

My boss, thank goodness, was the consummate professional. He could paint a refrigerator and make it look like it was made from Oak, including the knots, and could color match from scratch any color in any ugly wall paper.

 

[Ford850]

My son started a job at a fabrication shop. He loved it, and would say one of the higher managers would occasionally say things like "We like how you're working out so we hope we can keep you". My wife and I thought they were talking about possibly laying him off when business slowed. After many months of the same type of conversations ("we hope we can keep you"), my son heard more of the story. Over the previous year they had hired several guys for this same position. Each time, the new employees came to work late, occasionally didn't up, or in one case just stopped coming to work after working there for weeks. It's shocking to learn this is our future, but maybe it's always been this way and I was too busy working hard to notice it.

 

[orezok]

About 40 years ago I worked for a large real estate developer in San Diego. They were large enough to occupy a 10 story building and part of another downtown. I was a Vice President at the time. Business was going south because they were double dealing on real estate. They would buy a property then sell it back to the original owner at an inflated price and book the profits to inflate the stock. They would then partner with the original owner to build the project which would eventually lose money. Both the CEO and President went to jail.

But the real story is that as they started to go down there were 2 or 3 rounds of significant layoffs. One day the President called a company meeting to tell everybody that the layoffs were complete. As we walked out of the meeting, the Pres told the Exec VP, a very good friend of mine to lay off the entire accounting department?

That was the chuckle of the day. I was one of the last to go before they closed.

 

[Dftodd]

PC (politically correct) is for people that don't have balls enough to say what they are thinking. A whole generation of ball less people.

My sweet lovely wife who never speaks bad about anyone looked at me the other night after seeing some ridiculous story on the news about someone's feelings being hurt. Said she would like to talk to that boys mother and congratulate her for raising such a pu@@@

Wouldn't have been so bad, but I had just taking a big bite of food, which then got launched when I started choking with laughter

 

[dragoneggs]

My sweet lovely wife who never speaks bad about anyone looked at me the other night after seeing some ridiculous story on the news about someone's feelings being hurt. Said she would like to talk to that boys mother and congratulate her for raising such a pu@@@

Wouldn't have been so bad, but I had just taking a big bite of food, which then got launched when I started choking with laughter

My wife is much the same as well as her sisters. They are all so sweet and never will say anything bad about others. But! In the last few years, my wife is starting to voice her opinions and it is causing a stir with most of her 7 sisters and 2 brothers all born within 14 years of each other. She is number 7 of 8 sisters.

I am proud of her for finally not holding back but there has been a couple of times at a family dinner where I have to put my hand on my forehead after a comment.

 

[Budweiser John]

Interesting thread. After reading all 47 posts and now being retired,
Thank God i’m Out of the rat race.

B. John

 

[YLee Kioti]

Interesting thread. After reading all 47 posts and now being retired,
Thank God i’m Out of the rat race.

B. John

2nd that!... :drink:

 

[Richard]

Who takes a job for one day and then leaves via text?

I sort of did once.

I don't recall if I was 17 or maybe 18... but I was driving town the road, about 30 minutes from my home. Saw a help wanted sign in the front of a machine shop. Being somewhat mechanically inclined, that caught my attention so I stopped.... spoke with the owner.... and was told to report to work the next day which happened to be a Friday.

I show up and of course, I was starting at the bottom of the pile verses on the CNC machines, that's certainly fair. I get that.

So spent the bulk of the first day being shown the ropes and some of the products they produced.... got a chance to machine some kind of widget.

Got numerous metal splinters in my otherwise young, soft, unworked hands.....

Over the weekend of pulling various splinters out of my hands, I realized that wasn't my right path so, Monday, I simply didn't show up.

Never got a paycheck for that (full) day's work either but I figured that was a fair tradeoff since I never went back.

For years after, I always felt "guilty" (to use a strong word) driving by there, as though they'd see me coming down the road and all come racing out to yell at me or something... (or even remember who I am!!)


Even today, if I were to drive by that location, I look to see if they're still there (I don't think they are)

So that 'stunt' left a long lasting impact on me.