[Gen.Blather]

I know a guy who owns a tile business. He pays $10/hour to unskilled labor which is high hereabouts. He can’t keep employees. The largest cause is they get DUI’s and lose their driver’s license. Some won’t show up after he pays them until they run out of money. They are unreliable. Some are functionally illiterate and can’t do simple math. There’s nobody he can just leave on a job alone and expect the job to get done. When he does get somebody good, he teaches them what they need to know and they go off and get a higher paid job. (Can’t blame them. But good workers are hard to find and other companies have deeper pockets than he does.)

I went in to look at my house when it was being built in early ‘95. The crew were smoking joints and drinking malt liquor. I mentioned this to the contractor. He sighed and said, “We fire them when we catch them. But it’s so hard to find help we don’t try too hard to catch them.”

[ClearCase_guy]

Part of the solution there is to end government charity. You either have a job or you starve in an alley. This would cut down on the number of people smoking joints and drinking malt liquor while "working". As it is, we have such safety nets that a lot of people don't work when they work. They hang out. The jobs come, the jobs go. Government checks arrive. It's all good. Who really cares about anything??

If there were no support systems outside of churches, people would behave differently.

[flamberge]

I know a guy who owns a tile business.....But good workers are hard to find and other companies have deeper pockets than he does...

And right there you have the "skills gap".

Of course, if your guy was running a larger company, he might rent a few Congressmen to raise the H1-B quotas and then bring in crews of immigrants through a temp agency. Or he might just hire crews of illegals, like all of his competitors do.

I work regularly with millennial-aged staff. They are conscientious and diligent in their efforts. Many of them are working two jobs - and they are not getting paid very much.

With decent leadership (and sometimes even without decent leadership) they can do very well.

[Chgogal]

BTTT

[Focault's Pendulum]

I know a guy who owns a tile business. He pays $10/hour to unskilled labor which is high hereabouts. He can’t keep employees. The largest cause is they get DUI’s and lose their driver’s license. Some won’t show up after he pays them until they run out of money.

I was in the flooring industry for quite a few years. If we didn't need the installers, we should put them up against the wall and shoot them.

It's true about them running out of money.

[dragnet2]

I know a guy who owns a tile business. He pays $10/hour to unskilled labor which is high hereabouts. He can’t keep employees.

What's he expect? He's paying 1989 wages...

Gezzz