They don't make 'em like they used to

Ok, so now that I turned the big 6-0 last week, here's may latest rant:

"They don't make 'em like they used to"

I'm speaking in terms of human beings, mainly young folks.
Know this will open a can of whoop ass for some, but have experienced lots lately with unmotivated
peeps in this category.
To be fair, I have come across a paltry "sprinkling" of motivated peeps, however they seem to be few and far between.
Seems the older folks are the ones pounding it out while many 1/3 their age want it all, but don't want to do shit to get there. Hats off to the "sprinklings" making it happen. Guess I sound like grumpy old fart, lol.

Hoping ur kids are productive and you'll support this rant. Curious what the future holds for the workforce.

Old people have been complaining about the work ethic of young people ever since Socrates complained about the younger generation that included Plato:

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

Worry about your own life. The kids are alright.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

Worry about your own life. The kids are alright.

Sounds like a Who song...The kids are alright..nice

"They don't make 'em like they used to"

I agree that this has alway been true.  I am way different than my parents too.  Every year the world changes and someone born 20 years after you is going to have different experience.

My partner is taking a course on working with millennials.  We both have a hard time understanding and communicating with our youngest employees.

We hired a young man at 22 with two years of college.  We paid him what we thought was a good salary and gave him two raises that almost doubled his salary in two years.  He worked hard and we had two decent years and gave him what we considered to be good bonuses (not in any way assured in our company) each year. Last year his bonus was the highest in the company.

He got another job offer with a salary that was a lot higher.  We had been planning to move him up anyway so we offered to change his job description, essentially creating a new position. We offered an addition week of vacation and matched the salary offer he had. Also as I have said before we have a solid health insurance benefit.

He went to the other company because he felt there was no real path forward at our company. He also said that he thought we would just hold onto him long enough to find a replacement and then fire him.  He's now commuting an hour instead of 10 minutes and he is probably wearing a suit.

I don't understand his thinking, I'm sure he doesn't understand mine either.

Harvey wrote

He's now commuting an hour instead of 10 minutes and he is probably wearing a suit.

I don't understand his thinking, I'm sure he doesn't understand mine either.

Next thing you know he'll come limping back to you begging for the job he jumped ship from. The wearing a suit part is bad enough, let alone the one hour commute which I imagine sucks.

I am confident we won't see him again.

Man, don't know if I want to get into this and I'm not a millennial, but am friends with many who are and strongly identify as such.

A lot of them feel like they got the shaft from the baby boomer's era of excess and greed and now they have to suffer.  This creates a lot of animosity between them and that generation.

I really don't have an opinion either way.

My opinion is there simply are too many people on this planet

We try to treat our employees well.  I guess it is hard to tell whether or not I am greedy and have hurt the younger generation. It certainly wasn't my intent.

I also wasn't saying I don't like anyone, just don't always understand.

Scotty... to Mars?

ScottyJack wrote

My opinion is there simply are too many people on this planet

This is my opinion as well.

But I also have the opinion that we should just legalize weed and maybe everyone will get stoned and STFU.

Harvey wrote

We try to treat our employees well.  I guess it is hard to tell whether or not I am greedy and have hurt the younger generation. It certainly wasn't my intent.

I also wasn't saying I don't like anyone, just don't always understand.

Scotty... to Mars?

I'm sure you do.  I don't really side one way or the other.  I just know the whining from my younger friends.

I also don't know you as well, but from what I gather you own two houses?  I think it's that kind of stuff that pisses them off and the fact that many are deeply in debt with student loans even after many years out of college.

Both my houses combined add up to 1300 square feet. I like the smaller one best.

I always tried to keep my debt low.  My parents did help me a lot paying for college.

As a carpentry foreman in the city,it can take between 7 and 15 tries to get an apprentice that works or doesn't quit after a few days. It just seems to me they don't wanna work hard. I'am not the
hardest man to work for. I've had to mellow quit a bit. I need some of these kids to make it ,so they can help pay my pension, so it's in my interest to teach.  I probably sound like our farthers and our farthers farthers.
That's my two cents.

Harvey wrote

Both my houses combined add up to 1300 square feet. I like the smaller one best. I always tried to keep my debt low. My parents did help me a lot paying for college.

I'm not judging you, bro. I'm just sayin' how 'tis.

FWIW I plan on buying a second house in the Saranac area in the next couple years. I plan to sell this one and build a van or RV in a few more after that. That way I can live in the mountains and travel during black fly and mud season ;)

Ahahaha! Maybe this will help explain things:

Thehof wrote

As a carpentry foreman in the city,it can take between 7 and 15 tries to get an apprentice that works or doesn't quit after a few days. It just seems to me they don't wanna work hard.

You need to hire some Mexicans.  A developer from Houston once told me the Texas construction economy would collapse without Mexicans. He definitely wasn't a "build the wall" kind of guy.

mm

I blame the breakdown of the family unit and the assault on good men. Never appologize for being a man.

Cunningstunts wrote

ScottyJack wrote

My opinion is there simply are too many people on this planet

This is my opinion as well.

But I also have the opinion that we should just legalize weed and maybe everyone will get stoned and STFU.

I agree.  Precisely why I don't have kids.  With the weed thing... I think you need to take it a step further...trying to prevent people from doing the drugs they wish to do, is monumental waste of tax dollars.  Over the past 50 years, we've proven this theory by wasting over a Trillion dollars while ruining countless numbers of lives (the vast majority of them African).  Legalize everything and use the tax revenue, and resources currently deployed for law enforcement and punishment to construct an effective public infrastructure for addiction recovery.    

I live in WA state... I smoke lots of weed.

Lots of people smoke lots of weed in my community.... I can tell you from personal experience, it doesn't keep people quiet... it just makes many of them lazy, fat, and chronically hungry.  

   

You need to hire some Mexicans.  A developer from Houston once told me the Texas construction economy would collapse without Mexicans. He definitely wasn't a "build the wall" kind of guy.

Didn't want to  touch this with a ten foot pole, but we have had many legal Mexicans work our projects here in NJ and have to say....99% of them work their asses off and don't bitch all day long. Can be hot as hell, cold as ice.. No problemo,, they just keep on keeping on.
I have spoken to many contractors local to my Jersey area and up in the ADKs... What I'm hearing is unanimous...it's becoming a great challenge to get help. Experienced good help is even harder to find. It has become a major problem for many.
I feel many young folks would be better of going to trade school, avoiding graduating from a 4 year college 180k in debt, and getting on with their lives. Colleges and Universities are taking advantage of those perhaps on an undefined path going in. 180k is a high price to pay for drinking beer and passing out face down in a pile of shit on the seat of a Portasan, aka Johnny on the Spot. Send your kid to WVU to give them the best shot at acting this out, as my son witnessed this first hand in Morgantown. Two of my sons who graduated from 4 year colleges are engaged in work not requiring a degree, however the third is actually utilizing his degree. I'm constantly hearing horror stories from those who's kids graduated with a degree, in massive debt, and working at the local pizza joint making shit $$. I couldn't imagine graduating in huge debt and starting a working career deep in the hole financially. Bottom line IMHO..it's a combo of being in the right place at the right time and highly dependent on who one knows, unless of course one graduates as a highly functional premadona, which IMHO is limited to a small population of most graduating classes these days. This is based on my speculation and I may be off the mark...I'm just spitting this out and taking a shot with this claim. It's also interesting how some highly intelligent folks are just not "wired" to function in a classroom environment. Know lots of folks like this and also a number of graduates PhD brainiacs who can just about tie their shoes, lol.

Harvey wrote

Both my houses combined add up to 1300 square feet.

While in Placid, my wife and I inhabit a 320 sq ft apartment... Cozy little love shack...we love the place... Has everything we need. Not really sure if I could live full time in it though. I drag a lot of stuff around with me and when we load it up with skis, boots, etc, there's not much space left to move around. Looking forward to loading it back up in a few weeks. Thinking snow already!

nepa wrote

Cunningstunts wrote

ScottyJack wrote

My opinion is there simply are too many people on this planet

This is my opinion as well.

But I also have the opinion that we should just legalize weed and maybe everyone will get stoned and STFU.

I agree.  Precisely why I don't have kids.  With the weed thing... I think you need to take it a step further...trying to prevent people from doing the drugs they wish to do, is monumental waste of tax dollars.  Over the past 50 years, we've proven this theory by wasting over a Trillion dollars while ruining countless numbers of lives (the vast majority of them African).  Legalize everything and use the tax revenue, and resources currently deployed for law enforcement and punishment to construct an effective public infrastructure for addiction recovery.    

I live in WA state... I smoke lots of weed.

Lots of people smoke lots of weed in my community.... I can tell you from personal experience, it doesn't keep people quiet... it just makes many of them lazy, fat, and chronically hungry.

Yeah, I was j/k.  My stoner buds are the most politically outspoken people I know.  Especially with Spanky McBoneSpurs in office.

I agree with everything you say though.  The war on drugs is a monumental failure and waste of money.

I don't smoke much anymore myself, but if NY were to legalize, I  probably would on occasion.  I'm too old to deal with that black market BS these days.