Just some of the things I had to put up with after they got the job.
Show up late everyday if they show up at all.
Show up on the job in satin pajamas and slippers.
Take their pants off on the job and run around in their sisters lime green shorts because it was hot.
Claim I was a racist because I wouldn’t let them sleep on the job.
Said sweating on the job “dat be slabery”.
Intentionally break tools and equipment.
Intentionally hurt themselves so they don’t have to work.
Claim they were hurt when they weren’t.
Demand that I address them as Mister.
Pretend to pass out on the job.
Go to the can and not come back for over an hour.
Demand 15 minute break every hour.
Refuse to get their hands dirty.
Demanded they be the one running the crew on their first day of work.
Once upon a time a guy would come to me asking for a job.
“You got tools?” I would ask him and then ask where he worked or inquire a few personal details of him. I would put him to work and if he worked out he would have a job. If he was dishonest, lazy, or incompetent I would hand him his pay and let him go.
Nowadays the lawyers and the bureaucrats have devised a process so complicated that they have given it a name: “onboarding”. It can take weeks to fully implement and once started, almost impossible to cancel. You had better be damned positive about the guy working out BEFORE you launch the process because (to all intents and purposes) you are stuck with him.
Those who have been down this road a time or two (and bear the scars to prove it) become very deliberate in the hiring process. Why stick your neck out or take a chance when the chances are that you’ll be burdened with a slacker until HE decides to sever the relationship?
And then they wonder why those selfsame guys that you described show up at your door and are turned away.