Staff woes, getting ready to chuck it all in

[Scott95]

3 minutes ago, aspenarb said:

Scott you need a shit filter, they are called managers. You really dont  need to be taking on board all this crap and worrying yourself. Pass the stress on.

 

Bob

Not big enough to have a manager really although I totally get what you are saying.  I was discussing this the other night in the pub actually.  The guy I was talking to is reasonably successful and says the magic number is 1 manager per 10 members of staff.  I unfortunately don't have 10 staff, and finding another wage for someone purely to manage the guys I do have isn't feasible.  Unless I totally let go and turned my attention towards another revenue stream

[westphalian]

34 minutes ago, aspenarb said:

Scott you need a shit filter, they are called managers. You really dont  need to be taking on board all this crap and worrying yourself. Pass the stress on.

 

Bob

but then you need a good manager. i have had 4 in 25 yrs, only one was great, one off on sick all the effing time with stress and the other two coasting, so i do back pedal a little, it's not just the younger generation unfortunately. (mind the great manager was someone i took on aged 50. he said he would only stay for 5 years and fank thuck he stayed 10)

[felixthelogchopper]

1 hour ago, Steve Bullman said:

Absolutely it does.  Even to the most productive members of staff

It's that very reason that I like subbying. You're not in any one place long enough to get caught up in the politics.

 

[aspenarb]

6 minutes ago, westphalian said:

but then you need a good manager. i have had 4 in 25 yrs, only one was great, one off on sick all the effing time with stress and the other two coasting, so i do back pedal a little, it's not just the younger generation unfortunately. (mind the great manager was someone i took on aged 50. he said he would only stay for 5 years and fank thuck he stayed 10)

I recently spent an afternoon with mine while pricing some clearance work and the poor sod must have taken fifty phone calls, his phone is non stop.  All sorts of shit thrown at him from,  calls for appointments, where is my quote, when can you start, blokes on the phone with queries, cancellations, others chomping at the bit to start early, TO`s  ,bint in the office asking dopy questions and on... To think I used to do all that and work

 

Bob

[benedmonds]

4 hours ago, Rough Hewn said:

The arb world is full of firms who will charge top money for jobs and pay their staff the scraps.

Is it really..? I don't see that..

IMO Most firms have to pay low wages because the market won't support higher rates.

I believe this is due to many tree firms undervaluing the industry and being willing to work for low rates..

I admit to being guilty of this myself.. Last year I lost a big client (approx 25-30% of my work) and consequently needed to find a lot more private work.. When you have 10 guys expecting a salary  you need to have work or let people go..

Letting people go is not a simple thing to do or something I ever want to do..  

As an employer you care about your staff, you invest in them, they trust you and it is difficult and expensive to replace good ones....

 

IME the more staff you have the more stressful it becomes ... Maybe there is a size where you don't know the guys enough to give a toss about them and have contracts and a bank balance that means you never have to worry about having enough in the bank to pay the wage bill at the end of the month... 

[benedmonds]

18 minutes ago, aspenarb said:

I recently spent an afternoon with mine while pricing some clearance work and the poor sod must have taken fifty phone calls, his phone is non stop.  All sorts of shit thrown at him from,  calls for appointments, where is my quote, when can you start, blokes on the phone with queries, cancellations, others chomping at the bit to start early, TO`s  ,bint in the office asking dopy questions and on... To think I used to do all that and work

 

Sounds like my life.... Tell me there is a small possibility where you get to a position where the business basically runs itself and I can just do the bits that I enjoy......

[westphalian]

Is it really..? I don't see that..
IMO Most firms have to pay low wages because the market won't support higher rates.
I believe this is due to many tree firms undervaluing the industry and being willing to work for low rates..
I admit to being guilty of this myself.. Last year I lost a big client (approx 25-30% of my work) and consequently needed to find a lot more private work.. When you have 10 guys expecting a salary  you need to have work or let people go..
Letting people go is not a simple thing to do or something I ever want to do..  
As an employer you care about your staff, you invest in them, they trust you and it is difficult and expensive to replace good ones....
 
IME the more staff you have the more stressful it becomes ... Maybe there is a size where you don't know the guys enough to give a toss about them and have contracts and a bank balance that means you never have to worry about having enough in the bank to pay the wage bill at the end of the month... 

A few weeks ago one employee was moaning about maternity pay and justified it by saying the business is flush cos one of my partners had just bought a new car. He actually downsized to a second hand mini due to downturn in profits!

[Squaredy]

3 hours ago, dent said:

Why are these threads always bashing the young people 

Actually I don't think this thread is bashing young people.  It is bashing people who cannot or will not work hard and are only interested in what they can get.  Yes we all want to earn more and get home early sometimes and have an easy life, but a lot of people now just expect the easy life will be handed to them on a plate.  Something has changed over the last few decades.

 

And as another poster said, the foreign workers are cashing in.  Fruit farmers in the UK are almost totally dependent on foreign workers.  They simply cannot get British nationals to do the work.

[oldwoodcutter]

Absolutely it does.  Even to the most productive members of staff

But on the other side of the coin, I had a very slow raker and dragger who was permanently in bottom gear, a guy in his late 40s but funnily enough fit and strong and something of a comedian .
When I set on a second labourer (who worked like a trojan and had a first class work ethic) this indeed spurred on the first guy to levels of productivity hitherto unseen, and they both worked their nuts off until leaving a year later, both for personal, but very different reasons.

[Baldbloke]

I've been in this game now for 15 years and am now making serious consideration to packing it all in and starting a new business.  I love this job, pretty much everything about it but there has been one constant throughout the entire time running my business that has given me the same issues.  STAFF!

 

I like to think i'm a reasonable easy going boss.  I never rant and rave, I pay my staff well, let them have early days most weeks, and regularly buy them lunch or a pint after work.  Despite that they come and go.  Most of the time they are asked to leave as they simply are not up to the job despite coming out of colleges with all the tickets and thinking they know the job.  They could learn it for sure but it seems no one has the desire to really be the best they can these days and simply want an easy life.  I am thinking a lot of this is due to the training courses not giving a realistic expectation of what the job truly entails.  I think it should all go back to where it began with the old YTS schemes, with trainees working on £30 a week but getting hands on training as they go.  Everyone on those schemes got a true taste of what the job was and also knew that if they performed, not only would they get their tickets but would come out of it with a job for life.  Fast forward to now where everyone completes a 1 or 2 year course and automatically assumes they have earned a job for life.  Why were these schemes abolished?

 

As I said, I am literally on the verge of packing it all in.  Just can't handle the stress anymore and despite what I do its pretty obvious that its something thats out of my control.  I know i'm not the only one as I see the same companies repeatedly posting on here and elsewhere for staff.  I feel their pain!

 

Despite saying earlier I never rant and rave, I guess thats more or less what i'm doing as I don't believe there is an answer out there to solve this problem!

 

£18.60 a week for me at 16[emoji3]