looking back i made this mistake although i would probably do it again.
I had a roofing crew for 8 years with the same guys, I ran a carpentry crew at the same time.
Well anyway i kept the guys busy and scheduled the work so as not to hire new roofers and run out of work for my guys, At times i could have hired some good roofers but wanted to keep my “core” group.
What happened was they got used to doing only what they wanted to do and guys grumbled if asked to do anything different even though i was trying to “make” work.
I did let the biz run me and skipped vacations as i had customers and crews to take care of.
In the end i was rewarded with the guys bailing out with no notice and i did not have other guys standing by tested and ready to go..
Everythings fair in love and war and everyones free to go but they all left without paying there “loans”.
I felt helping them i deserved a bit of a notice untill i could find more help.
O well
Replies
i always assume that people will act in their own best interest
so.. wether it's employees or customers.... if i want them to stick around it's got to be in their own best interests..
and it ain't no good unless what they want is also in my best interests
that's a smart way to look at it.
Clean burning natural gas is the energy independence future of America.
Employees are employees for a reason.
They dont consider the role of the manager nor do they care.
As a manager, it is your job to lead, coach, praise and provide critisisms (constructive and boundary setting criticisisms as necessary).
They owe you nothing.
You were a good man to support and take care of them and that is the person you are. You wont change, and your attributes about caring and helping people has probably provided you with some great opportunities over the years.
With that said, it would behoove you to manage the business more aggressively and trade up till you have a great crew that wants to work every day for you until they dont, then start the process all over again.
(by the way, I take too good care of my decent employee but he does some stuff that pays off in dividends at times. I could learn to be a little more cold and direct.
It's not easy sometimes
"In the end i was rewarded with the guys bailing out with no notice..."
No, in the end you are rewarded with friends and family who love and admire you for being a stand-up guy regardless of how other people behave, and with your own intact sense of self. You take a few more hits walking point, but the view is way better, right?
Well said.
I second that 'well said' !
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ~~ Eric Hoffer
I'm bailing out of this thread while my head is still swelled.
LOL you OWN this thread now!!!!
You and i have similar issues right now, bobby. I have a friend i've poured money and time into bec her husband has Alzheimer's, but she let me down last year when i took a fall and badly needed assistance. We used to be close, but after that happened i reconsidered my worth to her and decided to take my checkbook out of the equation; it turned out it had played more of a role than i suspected. I may never get my $15K back, but i'm still cordial bec her husband's dying, she's been very good to him, and that pretty much trumps everything. I returned from my vacation to learn from mutual friends that she'd fallen on HER stairs last Tuesday. I can't say i didn't feel a wee bit of Schadenfreude, but i picked up the phone anyway to offer assistance as soon as i learned about it. I didn't do it for her; i did it for me. I'm both selfish and stubborn like that.
i'm sure it's been said before, and probably more eloquently, but you're all right
happy valentine's day
Thanky, darlin'! Happy VD to you, too!
"Happy VD to you, too!"Well now, I guess that's enough to change how one thinks of Valentine's Day. :)BruceT
I've got Gabe in my head from another thread so i wanted to spread the joy!
if you know on the front end....... no good deed goes........ unpunished
then you are never surprised.... you do what you do..not because it's any law..but because it's the right thing to do
the road you leave behind you is the road you might have to go back down
p
<the road you leave behind you is the road you might have to go back down>>I'll be taking that little nugget of wisdom out into the world with me today.Thank you. <G>
I'll third that one
Almost brings tears to my eyes. Oh, no that was the sting from the first swig of vodka
In all sincerity, that was quite profound and well written.
Being the person we are and proud to do the right thing regardless of those around us makes us the people who keep things going.
I can fully understand where you are coming from. As work has slowed down in our area I have had to let go of a few guys on my crew. But not before putting myself in a bad position by providing work out of my own pocket til I nearly ran dry. I thought I was taking care of them and if things came down to letting them go, then feelings would not be as hurt and we could part on good terms. Unfortunately this was not the case. I too was left with some unpaid "loans" and disgruntled words. But as I look back on everything, I would still have done exactly what I did in each of their cases. I can lay my head down to sleep at night and not have any regrets. I believe I need to do what I can to take care of my crew, but I have now learned some wise lessons that I will not soon forget. Just do the right thing and leave it in God's hands.
What do you expect....remember...they are ROOFERS for gawds sake!
Very timely topic for me bobby, as I will be hiring someone part time in a week or so-and then we will be full time in a little over a month.
I know you have mentioned this before--------partly i think the situation was because they were roofers---and partly because they were employees.
( BTW- mike mentioned that he expects everyone to act in their own self interest--- but he is dealing with carpenters-- and in my limmited experience most roofes won't think longer than 2-3 days in advance, tops---so they really CAN'T or WON't think in their own self interest)
part of the employee thing--- is that once they are hired-- to a certain extent they feel they "OWN" the job---and they expect it to be there as long as they want it---while simultaneously being free to leave at a moments notice.
Seriously?---- jim allen taught me a very valuable lesson about this time last year with regaurds to hiring and managing employees--- and I gotta say the advise was un-imagineably helpfull to me.
Basicly--- behave from the premise that people don't change--- If you want a foreman- hire a foreman- if you want a roofer-hire a roofer- if you want a laborer-- hire a laborer----- don't EXPECT that you can hire a roofer and turn him into a foreman. NOW, I allow for the possibility--- but I don't expect it. My wife says my problem is- that I always try to "save" people-------and I have really been working on damping down that impulse.
also- BTW----- there is no telling when the things you did for those guys might bear fruit in the future.------ the guy i worked for in my mid 20's was a putz-- very old school enviornmentally---and certainley some of the stuff he did was illegal, HOWEVER-- now at age 46 I realize I learned a HUGE amount working for him and that he treated me extremely fairly relative to who I was and what abilities i had at the time. He might have been a jerk---- but I don't think he was as big a jerk as I thought at the time.
so---- now I will try to give a couple guys some opportunities-- while insisting that they earn their keep while they are with me-----and long term it is up to them if they take advantage of the opportunities that are presented---- that's all I can do
Best wishes,
stephen
Well put Stephen.
Yes, well said, Stephen.I learned every bit of that the hard way, too.
"My wife says my problem is- that I always try to "save" people"
Lol...I think "Saveism" is a condition that many of us have been inflicted with. I was cured long ago but still get the occasional flareup. The book really opened my eyes to it but those lessons are hard to remember LOL!