Posted on 09/03/2007 11:07:38 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Try reading my post again.
I haven't met many gamers with a work ethic, they are too busy playing games. Even fewer who can actually fabricate or repair something.
The vast majority of college students I meet (especially engineers) are gamers. Most of the games today require quite a bit of tweaking to run well on a PC .
He better be a REAL slacker before I would fire an older worker. If he had medical or family problems I give them a wide birth but would consider past performance. But..........one thing for sure, a company is there to manufacture a product and schedules have to be met. Without product, nobody would have a job.
They already buy all their stuff from us. My company works on contracts from those countries including UK, and Singapore.
I can't work for directly for a foreign company with a US Security Clearance, I'll go to jail.
I know a guy who does touch up on surface mount for a military contractor.
Makes really good money for someone with no degree.
I wouldn't want to do it. But I'm a degreed engineer. Don't need to.
Have you tried hiring mechanics away from the local auto dealer?
They're amazingly underpaid for what they know. Most are just beat down by the system. Give them an path out and many will jump. You'll have to match their pay to start (which will likely be more then they are worth at first). Watch out for the lame ones.
I don’t have any illegal aliens working for me. As far as I know, none have applied. I did have some young men of Puerto Rican descent (all from one family — father is in Iraq — hired them as a favor to him becaue he is a good worker whom I expect to come back when his tour of duty is done) working for me and they caused so much trouble that I finally had to let them all go.
They threatened other workers, mis-used tools, suffered costly accidents, didn’t come to work on time (or at all) and generally caused havoc around the plant. They tried to cause a strike one time when the Mexicans in town were striking about 1 1/2 years ago.
I told them to knock it off. They weren’t illegals. The last time I looked, Puerto Rico was a part of the US. I was glad to see them go. They would take off early on Fridays, get drunk over the weekend, and not show up on Mondays.
So they get unwritten preferential treatment? No wonder you don't have much luck retaining younger workers. Sounds like a crappy place to work for the younger guys.
Do you see that guys my age (40) are treated differently now than you were treated when you were 40?
Boo hoo!
I hope your family goes homeless.
As a computer guy, I can do no more than consider myself even with a company at the end of each day. There is no loyalty in this business.
Surface mount blew my mind when it first came out. Hell, I started designing when IC’s came in a T05 can. Don’t know if anyone knows what a T05 can is any more. Fun days though.
I’d love to give a younger worker a chance — as long as he/she shows up and takes an interest in his/her job.
That brings back memories - I worked for PNB in the early 80s on a team designing and writing the software to run the MAC system - We ran it on Tandem computers.
The SVP in charge was pissed one year because the uptime of the network was only 98% that year.
I don’t need a full time mechanic — just someone with mechanical aptitude and the willingness to do more than one thing. We pay pretty well, actually.
You don't really have a choice, they aren't making any more older workers....
Pull the garbage disposal out of the sink and replace it with a newer model. Adjust the garage door to operate more quietly. Install a new toilet. Teach him how to hang a door. Replace the screen in a window, then the back door. Teach him how to solder, then weld, then use a cutting torch.
If anything breaks in the house, ask him to select all the tools needed to repair it as if he was driving across town to fix it at somebodies elses house.
Teach him to change the oil in the lawnmower, the car, the truck, the boat. Teach him how to replace all the air filters in the vehicles. Change the heater/airconditioner air filter. Teach him how to wash a window. Yes, there is right and wrong ways of doing everything. Glass from the top down. Painted walls, you wash from the bottom up. Painted doors, you wash from the bottom up.
Buy a bag of mortar and build a brick seat in the backyard. Replace the corner posts in your backyard fence. Explain why they are longer, set in concrete, treated for carpenter ants and termites beforehand.
Teach him how to sharpen a circular saw blade with a handfile. Teach him to sharpen the blade on the lawnmower. Teach him to put a new end on a heavy guage extension cord.
Spend just four hours a week repairing and replacing things in the home. In a year, he'll be confident and know how to earn a dollar anywhere. You would be surprised at what a neighbor will pay to have him install a new garbage disposal or wash the walls in the garage.
All of these skills are money makers. Big money savers, over the course of a lifetime, if you have to hire someone else to do it for you.
Hey........there’s all kinds of unwritten rules in this world. Just like there’s all kind of reasons I could find to fire someone. Some of which would blow your mind and aren’t written down. Preferential treatment? Do you actually believe that this doesn’t happen in any industry? It’s part of life. I never said I couldn’t retain younger workers. My retention rate was amazing.
You sound like my business partner - 17 years as a research and test engineer with Bell Labs, and an audio engineer and ham to boot.
I dunno... Mexicans work pretty cheap.
Hey........there’s all kinds of unwritten rules in this world. Just like there’s all kind of reasons I could find to fire someone. Some of which would blow your mind and aren’t written down. Preferential treatment? Do you actually believe that this doesn’t happen in any industry? It’s part of life. I never said I couldn’t retain younger workers. My retention rate was amazing.
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