I have been thinking about this all day and I really would like honest input from other people. What is your work ethic like? How hard are you willing to work to put food on your table? Would you ever quit a paying job because "I am worth $xx and hour not the $xx you are paying me"
I started working when I was 13 on my grandfathers construction sites. For the most part I just cleaned up the site and moved materials from point A to point b. Up until 15 this was only during the first few weeks of summer so I could make enough $$ to go to a theme park or buy some new video games. When I turned 15, I would work 3 days a week after school and during that time he taught me how to lay out and dig the footers for foundations. The work consisted of me hand digging a lot of ditches, making sure things were on grade and the layout followed the dimensions on the blueprints. The whole time he would ride me harder than anyone else on the job site. I use to go home every night mad at him for making me work harder than everyone else. Over the years he continued to work me harder and hold me accountable for more than any other employee he had. I was always resentful for that, when he taught me to lay brick he held me to a standard above his own, while guys who had been working for him for years laid way below his standard for me.
When I went to college I would come home every other weekend and most of those Saturdays were spent on one of his job sites working, even if I was the only person there. A few weeks before he passed away, he was real weak from the lung cancer covering most of his lungs. He pulled me down to his wheel chair and told me that he wanted me to finish college and get a job where I did not have to bust my ass to put food on the table, but that I should never be afraid or ashamed to work hard if I needed to. That sentence is the reason I started my photography company. It is also the reason I went back into construction this year partnering up with my uncle.
I look back now and realize that he rode me so hard not because he thought I did everything wrong, but because he wanted to instill a very strong work ethic in me. It was not enough for him to teach me how to work, He wanted me to take pride in my work and to know what an honest days work was. That is the reason I spend 50-60 hours a week in the company and then come home and spend another 20-30 here at TBCS.
Even though I am at the top of the company, I still get out to the job site and work my ass off a few times a week. There are still a few guys there who I worked with in my teens and who worked for my grandfather for 20 years. They have woke up and busted ass every morning for the last 30 years or so. They are the type of guys who never complain, are always willing to teach and maybe even learn something new. On the other hand I have some mid - late 20s and 30s guys who are hard workers too. They may complain a little more than the older guys but they for the most part work hard.
Now I will get to the reason for this post.
A couple months back I hired 2 guys, both of whom were in their early 20s. Actually now that I think about it, one of them was 19. They both complained about everything. From how hot it was, to how heavy the materials are, and even how everyone worked too hard. Well both of them wound up quitting after a week or 2. So I hired another guy. James was 21 and would work hard for the first 2 days of the week and slack off the rest. After a short talk he wound up picking the pace up for the rest of the week. That lasted about 3 weeks. Then one of my regular laborers had a Dr appointment, so I went to the job to take up the slack. I worked at a normal to me pace and don't really consider it "busting ass". That day I worked circles around James. I literally tended 3 masons on my own (including stocking materials) to his 1. He wound up quitting a few weeks later because the work was "too hard" for him.
A month or so later I hired 2 guys from a temp service. Both worked hard for the first week or so and then they took a nose dive. IIRC both were in their early 20s. One of them wound up leaving for a permanent position at a carpet factory. The other stayed a few weeks and left. So I went back to the temp service. We really only needed one guy. They sent a guy over. He was in his late 20s. I was spending a lot of time in the office so I never really got to know him very well. On a Friday, I went to the job site with about 2 hours left in the day. We needed some mortar mix so I phoned our supplier and ordered 20 bags. It showed up right as everyone was knocking off. I didnt want to unload it all by myself so I offered the new guy $25 cash to stay for 10 extra minutes and help me unload it. He quickly declined and went on a mini rant about how I was asking too much of him and how we work way too fast. He quit right there. I make a decent living and even I would have stayed back for 10 min and unloaded 10 bags of mix for $25. So after he left I went over and began unloading the mix off the truck. The 50+ year old driver came out said "lazy S.O.B's like that make me sick" and helped me unload the bags. I tipped him $25.
I lucked out a few weeks later and hired an old friend who was down on his luck and wanted a fresh start in life. He has been with us ever since and at the pace he is working, he may move from laborer to apprentice by the new year.
This brings me to this week. We have been building a home, for the last month and a half. My uncle has half our guys working out of town and I have lost 2 guys in the last 3 months due to failing random drug testing. As a result I have been having to spend more and more time on the job site and less time working on my other duties. So Monday I had a guy call and ask if I had any entry level positions open. I told him to come in and bring a resume. Tim's education stopped at the HS level and had several years of retail experience but not any construction experience. He seemed eager to learn and came off as willing to work, so I hired him. That same day I called and had Man Power send over a temp, I requested someone with day labor experience. On Tuesday they sent me a 22yo named Ruben. I went to the job site and introduced them, and gave them their duties. They both were to work side by side with Jack my oldest laborer (been doing it for 16 years) and told them to do what ever my foreman told them to do.
This is where I should mention that I pay all my new labor help $10/hour and if they make it to the 6 month mark I will give them a $.50 raise. Well Ruben lasted all of 1 day and quit yesterday after lunch. He apparently got pissed because my foreman told him to put his cell in his car because he would not stop texting and talking on it. Well today Tim showed up at the office around 3pm and asked me for a raise.... Yes he had been there 2 days and was already asking for a raise. I asked him why he needed the raise, hoping he would say something like he cant feed his kids or his bills are overwhelming him. If he would have said that, I might have considered it. His reply was "I really want to save up for Burning Man next year".... So I asked him why he thought he deserved a raise. His reasoning was that he "is worth more than $10 an hour" and "he is an asset to our company". No shocker here but I declined his request for a raise. 99% of my decision was because he has been with us for only 2 days. When I declined the raise he gave me the finger and said "eff you, I can find more work" and then quit.
So What I want to know, does everyone under the age of 25 think that hard work is beneath them? Do they feel entitled to get paid more just because "they deserve it" with no valid reasoning to back it up? Do you look for a job, just so you can get a paycheck every 2 weeks? Is taking pride in your work, and earning the respect of your coworkers really that passe?
Wow that was long. I needed to get it off my chest though. Thanks for reading.