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Little O/T, hired help rant.

K

kyplowboy

Well-known Member
While spraying tobacco yesterday with my tractor, I talked on the phone with 4 people who were calling to make sure I was going to be topping tobacco this morning. One was going to be here to get started at daylight, the others were going to be here between 7 and 8. We had 1.6" rain last night. I got to the patch a 6:30. Left to come to the house at 9:30 to get some dry clothes and dry my boots out. Not a sign of a one of them. Been a while since I batted 0. Guess the news is right, the economy is fixed, people can knock off a day of work cause they don't want to get their feet wet. Must be nice.

Dave
 
I here ya. I have totally given up on any kind of help, if I do not do it myself then it does not get done.. Leave the debt to our children, so be it, not one of them knows what a true days work is, and to honor their word is non existant.. Dang you got me on a rant now!
 
I have went through 4 people since spring.They complain about not having money but wont work past 5pm and dont dare ask them to work on a weekend.Flat out lazy.
 
We have the same problem down here. Only people we can get to show up are the Mexican workers. Legal or not at least they work. And before anyone says anything the pay is the same.
 
Get used to it.

When we have a position open up in construction we normally have to hire 4 to 6 before we get one that sticks (for a more than month or two). The drug test usually weeds out two or three before they even make to job site.
 
All 10% unemployment means here is 10% of the people arent willing to work at what jobs are available. Gas stations have signs up hiring clerks, those contractors who are working are all short and really its just the home builders who arent busy here, and most of the farms are short help. I've been driving a dump truck some nights on a highway job between hay cuttings. Last night they were short 4 drivers. Trucks just sat.
 
The biggest tobacco farmer around here that still uses all local help is a buddy of mine that has 10 acres. Every on over that hires migrants. I just have 3 acres, if I had any more I would go to migrant help myself. The ones I have worked with are far and above any help you can find local. A mexican has never "taken" a job from any one in western KY, they just step up and do the jobs dead beat locals won't.

Dave
 
Hayman, as Usual you hit it on the Head. Unemployment numbers are very open to interpretation. Alot of Young people Today (and others) don't like hard work. There has always been a difference between "Unemployed" and "Unemployable" and those that just will not do demanding work. We are payin 12 bux an hour to run a wood splitter (heavy lifting with a fork truck) and can't find steady workers. I wonder if FAWTEEN would travel?? (jes a joke 14) LOL!!
 
I've had a bunch of professional people not show, I've waited at the Doctor's for more than an hour.
Did they know you were going to work if you got over an inch of rain?
 
I guess it is just the part of the country. Run this dealership , 16 employees, trucking company 14 currently working and keep about 3 to 4 working on the farm and just don,t have trouble finding GOOD help from $ 10.000 up. Have carpenters, we call them jack legs can at least build a decent barn comming by all time wanting to know when I am going to need some more help.
Truck drivers are a dime a dozen right now have a waiting list of about 30 applicants but I am sure when we get to needing on we might go thru 4 or 5 to get one to come in that will work. Just the part of the country have more workers than jobs
 
Is jack leg same as shade-tree mechanic? If so, I've come to depend on 'em. "Professional" tradesman, if they return call, says yeah your'e on my list, I eventually quit calling and they never show, so was I really on the list? maybe the sh!t list. Last guy did some wiring for me was a corrections officer, after hours.
Untitled URL Link
 
My daughter learned from ME that if you want to get ahead you have to be willing to work harder. She has employers who have learned to take advantage of that, but at least they appreciate her work.

These deadbeats that you are all talking about are reflections of their parents attitudes about not raising their kids the way their were raised. They want the kids to have it easier than they did, but in the end it is the kid who has to hit the street with nothing going for them but their looks.
STEVE
 
About half have started here. I don't get in a hurry any year to set, and really got all mine set latter than planed this year with the rain. I have three or four neighbors I am pretty good friends with. I will go help them a few days for nothing and check out their help. Any locals they have that are worth anything, I will hit them up around the water jug about helping me when they get done with the neigbor. I always have two settings about two weeks apart, can't count on help and I can't get over all of it at one time topping and that way I don't have to be in a big hurry cutting. With my night job, it don't take getting rained out too many days to have a real mess. My first setting was hit with the last shot of MH the 13th so I should start around mid Sept.

Dave
 
Pretty bad when folks would rather walk to the mail box once a month than work for $12. The public job I had up until 4 and a half years ago paid $12, and some of the guys were always milking the clock to get 60+ hours a week, saying they could not make it on 40 hours. I always told them they needed to find some cheaper habits or start ****ing for fun and not have to pay all that support.

Dave
 
Its unreal here. I have a real problem walking on uneven terrain fencing with my legs. Trying to hire somebody for 10.00 to walk it, staple it up, and drive iron posts. Work at their own pace.

Thats one reason I took on the driving job at night, figure I can drive and have a CDL so might as well do something. We didnt run tonight because of the storms and Im going to cut hay again when the weather lifts but it kills me to see these empty trucks. Plus, even though they know I'm only here as a temp when there isnt hay to do, I still feel bad about them being short. Pays decent, drivers get scale, plus a shift bonus, plus overtime. Some of the day drivers could be making 30.00 an hour at night by pulling a short double (up to what DOT will allow), or a full double (some of the gravel trucks never get on the road). Not one taker, and one of them just got locked up for back child support and one guy that is always trying to bum cigarettes told the foreman that his wife says she would rather have a man at home at night than a paycheck. Grrrrr, now Im on a rant.
 
I remember watching the History channel one day about the building of Hoover Dam during the depression. Don't remember the number but maybe well over a 1,000 men working. When a reporter asked the man in charge how many men worked for him, he responded..."about half of them"! And this was when men begged for jobs.
 
(quoted from post at 14:19:16 08/19/09) In my part of the world 12 bucks an hour will only get you teenagers.
Click to expand...

Crap, I should've held out for more money. I got $7 to $10 an hour in the mid 2000s, if I had gotten up to $12 an hour I'd have thought I was in hog heaven. Of course, I always finished my work and showed up on time everyday. Money must not be that big of a problem for most people, considering how little effort they put into working these days. I feel sad, most of my generation is a bunch of lazy bums.
 
Years ago Grandpa raised quite a bit of tobacco here in northwest Ohio. Did all the work himself, when he had the big amount was before I was here but still raised some in his later years. Now the thing, he would not touch the stalk if it was wet so if it would have caused dammage as he said how do you get away with working in it if it was wet as it would be with that rain? Could it be that those people though like Grandpa? Would think that it would be like baling hay after that rain, would have to wait for it to dry.
 
Thats a new one on me. I have started at daylight and topped all day long, never noticed any damage dut to stalks being wet. I will say that if you have to go back and sucker it later, while the leaves are wet is the only time to do it if the tobacco has any size about it. You can when the leaves are wet with dew you can slide past them with out breaking any off.

This is dark tobacco. Burley or others may be differnet.

Dave
 
Drug testing is a problem. I am on the Civil Service Commission for the Sheriff's Dept. here, and drug testing weeds out a lot of them. One time, had 10 applicants who made it through all the testing up to the drug test- handed everybody a bottle, they all walked toward the bathroom, and only 3 came back- the other 7 just kept on walking.
 

When I was a kid, there was a guy that did tobacco. They had about 8 foster kids and took on more in summer. Guess he was having trouble finding help too :roll:
 
There is a guy here who has a daughter my age (31). When her and I were in high school he had all kinds of high school kids wanting to help. She got married and did not hang out in the tobacco patch any more the help dried up. He has said for years he would like to take in a 16 year old good looking foster kid about 2 months a year. I always tell him that if he calls and ask for only good look'n teenage girls he will end up in jail.

Dave
 
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