How short are you?

That's the $hits of it, lots of companys/plants managers are just 'numbers' guys/gals. They have no idea what really goes on out on the floor/field, all they see is the #'s. They figure if this guy with years of experience (that actually knows wtf is going on) quits, they can just replace him/her with someone (for less money) with zero experience and think everything will just keep going/running the same. In their mind its, "well we have a body at 'x' position working 'x' amount of hours so we're still gonna be getting 'x' amount done..

Instead of taking care of/paying the experienced workers, they want to throw 'signing bonuses' and other gimmicks to try and get new people there. When word of mouth (from the people that work their already) is the best hiring incentive there is. imo

 

My situation is a bit different. 4 companies bought out 4 years ago by 1 German company moved into a new state of the art 250,000 sq ft headquarters. My first day was the first day the new HQ was open. It was a great time to start because of this. We're still figuring out how all the companies work together ( company interdynamics), but we're figuring out out. We're hiring, and able to hire people because we apparently pay enough across the entire company. We have a gym on site and we get free training from professional trainers. I'm taking advantage of the free trainer and the gym. We are also going to have an on site medical clinic that can even fill prescriptions. Everyone starts with 19 paid days off a year ( vacation and sick days to use however needed) as well as more paid holidays than most companies. My company's 401k,company match, free paid life insurance, short term and long term disability insurance, and just a really good workplace environment/ culture are all major pluses. I got an ex coworker ( another Buyer) to leave his old employer and join me at my work, and I also just got a friend to leave a shipping job at a different company to join us as well. Pay raises for both of them, and the one in shipping is going to save driving 100 miles a week and 100 minutes less driving a week as well. There's referral bonuses to for me. Our company has great benefits, and pays above average. I could make a little more by driving to Milwaukee, but I've BTDT and am DONE with that. 4 mile commute now never leaving my 12000 person town.

But getting to the main question of this thread, we need people. Especially in Production and Shipping. We have a big backlog of fully completed pumps that need to get shipped that we just can't get out on a daily basis due to lack of manpower.

There's supply chain issues as well, but when the units are ready to ship and we can't do it, that's nuts.

 

Teachers, at least all the ones I know of, are off from early June until end of August. Nearly all professions don't get that recharge time. Yes, other professions get vacation time that teachers don't really get aside from when school is out for Christmas/ easter thanksgiving breaks.

 

Teachers have their own special circumstances, and it has to be stressful. I'm a Buyer, and I can tell you that stress is pretty much inherently part of the job. Some companies are much much better at not letting it get to be as stressful as it can be. "Leaving it at work" is another one that I abide by. Being in procurement is tough even when there are few/ no supply chain issues, but it's a very trying time right now. I'll leave it at that.

Now speaking of employee appreciation, our company is having an employee appreciation day tomorrow. Pizza and free raffles. I'm looking forward to pizza at work.

 

You got it good Horkn . Fill up on pizza and then hit the gym

 

Sounds like a great place to work. It isn’t surprising that it’s a European based company. They figured out happy employees are productive employees. If only the go-go-go American companies would get the hint. Instead they’ll just keep beating the everyone’s lazy drum til there arms go numb

 

Hmm, must have something to do with being German.
I started the interlock gig with a Canadian company. Average pay and time off etc. 2 years in and they pull out of PA. A German company took ownership of the shop (I was hired as the only tech). Started out with competitive pay, 21 days vaca, 4 personal days and 11 paid holidays! Benefits were very good yadda yadda. FF another 2 years and the pandemic hit the industry hard, Drager sold the interlock division and it all went away. Back to 2 weeks off and average everything else and owned by an investment group. I'll ride the wave till it crashes because I like what I do.

 

Pumping water is big business. If anything out will only get bigger. I like what I do too. You have to of you want to last, especially in this profession. The average career span of Buyers is only 8 yrs, probably mostly due to the cut throat nature of the job and the demands put on them. The nice thing about the days off here is that everyone starts at the minimum 19 days off, even entry level workers in the shop floor. Negotiation helps a bit of you're in that line of work, but even if you start at 19 days, more days accrue quicker than any other company I've worked for.

I have returned for another German company's US HQ, and they were cheap on pay, raises, earned accrued time off, initial time off, and had a bad culture mostly because and the top level people were Germans brought in on a 5 yr or so rotating schedule. There was no opportunity to advance because all the top brass could only be German from the world HQ. So it's not all German companies.

 

We've always been short staffed but it got much worse in three phases over the last year.
First, last spring we found out about some changes coming that would cut positions. Admin said layoffs wouldn't be necessary. Lots of junior people found themselves a new job and quit instead of chancing a layoff.
Second, the poke became mandatory for us in October and another wave of people left.
Third, in spite of the mandate mentioned above, the virus still became a huge issue at work November thru February. That meant lots of temporary positions being created to deal with it, while at the same time lots of staff were going out for testing positive. Overtime went through the roof. Another wave of people got sick of all the OT and found other employment.
Some positions did get cut, the virus stuff has mostly gone away, and we're still understaffed.

 

Sounds like they (your company) got what they had coming..

 

I'm contemplating a jump out of my job. 9 person department minus the manager & assistant manager. In the last 2 months for various reasons 3 have quit. We are running short, I'm filling in in other departments when they have even less personnel on my off days. Even though I can do this, no help comes from other departments and only from managers when I blow my stack and say stuff that should get me a think about it unpaid day off but they can't afford one less person. Raise time comes and since it's a company that doesn't care it is a flat raise across the board wether you step up and help out or not. If it weren't for me being a dirty poor piece of trash that needs to hold things together, pay bills and with my wife's health not allowing her to work and deteriorating, I really need to be sure to maintain benefits and even if I would find something I'd like better it will not be an option if it is for a dime less. I got a tip on a potential job but it won't be opening for a few months. If it opens it will pay the same but have fully paid family health and that probably be the clincher. Looked at the turn over and most people that are there stay to retirement and I in 20 years of living in the area have not heard the watch out for that place stories that are common with most jobs. It would also get me out of life in a concrete sarcophagus and working outside for 60% of the year and I am definitely a outside can work on my own kind of person. So hopefully it works out.

 

I work for the state. I won't turn this into a political post, but I'll say our governor doesn't have any friends in our agency once you look below people in the highest positions.

 

My wife and another nurse went to a walmart in the big city recently. My wife came home and told me that a self checkout checker (whatever they do?), said there will be no checkers in the normal aisles anymore. Supposedly this will be the Walton's policy for the surrounding bigger towns also. I can't imagine rolling up to the computer scanners with four hundred dollars worth of junk, but I wouldn't personally have the patience for it. Not a fan of Walmart, but we don't have smaller shops. They have a powerful grip on the market for household stuff.

 

Small business owner, fully staffed. Pay isn’t the best but decent for the area. Lots of rewards for staff. Monthly staff meeting are usually catered, quarterly bonuses, gave a ~5% pay raise to all employees last week, staff can nominate coworkers for weekly drawing for choice of gift card, paid continuing education, Big Christmas party for all employees and spouses we usually go to nicest restaurant in the area. Lots of other perks, still trying to figure out how to offer insurance and keep costs competitive and business profitable!

I tell all who interview I’m slow to hire and quick to fire, I don’t tolerate drama in the work place.

The manufacturers in town have a monthly get together, I heard for January there was over 1000 open jobs in a town of 15,000.

No one is unemployed unless they are unemployable or don’t want to work!

 

Agree!!

 

I can see both sides. I've always had a job so I could support my family. My wife does also work full time. I can see why people are refusing to work for peanut wages though.

Check out this cost of living chart from 1971. You could work 2.5 years and buy a NEW house. Work 4 months and buy a NEW vehicle.

Its so depressing now its disgusting. People are realizing there's no getting ahead only falling behind. So instead of traditional jobs, they're looking for alternative ways to make money and reduce their bills.



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I lost my third in command and a few jail staff to a pharmaceutical company that makes the Pfizer vaccine. We got to a place where we thought about changing to twelve hour shifts.
plus getting people interested in working in a jail in the first place is a challenge. Fortunately, the pay is at a professional level.

I think a lot of folks are retiring earlier than normal. There was a YouTube video I watched about when to draw social security. The majority of people who committed were nurses, saying they were exhausted, and planned to leave.