Update on machinist trainee

That's actually a pretty tough question.

My business *depends* on the UPS driver and even more so on the FedEx driver. I appreciate it when they come around at 7PM in the dark a couple of days before Christmas rather than knocking off and going home to their family. They are a damn sight more important than the clowns that drive the little white and blue Jeeps....

If they doesn't do their job, I'm outa business.

Not that I couldn't name a few employees that are not worth $28/hr.

They do need to be reliable, have initiative and care about the job. When you have to deal with a bad courier firm you know about it. And if UPS want to retain their drivers, rather than having their workforce dominated by young people, they're going to have to pay them a decent wage so they can support a family. These guys also amass knowledge of all the difficult-to-find locations in their area, so keeping them improves the service.

Chris

Checks? Geez, I've been on direct deposit for the past decade. Even my expense "checks" are direct deposit.

Pete C.

If I heard that at an interview I'd get up and walk out the door laughing my ass off. If it was sprung on my at a later point I'd get up and walk out the door laughing my ass off.

No job is worth that kind of BS regardless of pay and I've left far better jobs like the part time one that paid me $24/hr to sit at a desk and surf the 'net all day on Saturdays waiting for the phone to ring. I could only take that boredom for so long (friggin' Maytag repair man syndrome) and finally told them they needed to find some actual work to keep me busy or find someone else.

Pete C.

Even with a wife and a new baby on the way? Been there, done that, I'd be on time, at least until I could get something else lined up.

what does full time employment pay in your neck of the woods?

I would also get something lined up first.

i

I don't have any dependents other than my cat and don't plan to have any dependents any time soon, if ever.

Pete's law: "Don't buy anything that is expensive and high maintenance, that you'll only get to use occasionally, when you can rent a better one, for less money, when you'll actually get to use it and not have to deal with any maintenance"

Applies to tools, women and just about everything else.

Pete C.

Again, no job is worth that kind of BS. If they don't want to do business in the real world where shit happens and people are late or out, then I have no interest in doing anything to help support them and working for them for any length of time would be doing that. I bet they don't have the same absurd attitude with their machines, expecting them to never break down and throwing them out if they do.

Pete C.

You are entitled to that opinion. I probably would have agreed with you when I was young and single and I can afford to agree with you now that my kid is grown and the house is nearly paid for. But back when signing the mortage was fresh in my mind and I had a squawling

1 year old and a nervous wife, I did what I had to do, which included putting up with some BS. And I know that my family is better off because I did.

That's a good one !

I just love those employers that bitch that your 5 minutes late, must be on some conceded power trip if you asked me. I'm typically their best employee and do twice as much and break less so they can kiss my ass on crap like being late. Those are usually the ones that will give you quarter raises and never go beyond a certain amount hoping you will quit so they can get another sucker in there for a year or two before they realize they are being taken also. Not implying anything to the OP.

BTW, I know a real bi-polar bear and they couldn't keep a job to save their life. Get a great job and within the first week they need a day off, next week it's two until they loose the job.

Yep, very concise and to the point...

i

It is becoming self leveling, thanks to the vast majority of jobs being exported to other countries. That's one of the *benefits* of unearned wages. You do recall the closing of many manufacturing plants, I'm sure. Your job goes south because it can be accomplished elsewhere for a more reasonable price. Lucky for some folks, their job can't be exported, but then corporations aren't yet finished coming up with creative ways to cut costs, are they?

From that I gather you'd like me to believe that such a business seeks those that will accept the highest of wages, secure in the knowledge that when you spend enough money, you get the best employees? Why don't they start paying a quarter million bucks a year, then they can attract people like Shrub? Sorry, Jim, I don't buy it. Sounds more like union propaganda than anything.

Unless workers come to terms with being paid a reasonable wage, things as we know them will collapse, it's only a matter of when. When us common folks that make little or no money (retired) can't afford to pay their wages, we quit using their services. The well dries up. I already refuse to pay for soft drinks at eating establishments. I'm not really interested in buying a 15 cent drink for a paltry sum of $1.25 (or more). I drink water, and my pocket and body are all the better for the decision. No, I don't miss it, and I do it even if the soft drink is included in my order. I've learned to like it. Interestingly, instead of adding a few cents to the register for time spent by the server, they now get nothing. The beginning of the well drying up.

The problem with paying a "living wage" regardless of qualifications is that young people coming up that have no drive won't lift a finger to better themselves, trusting gov to provide. Somehow we have to break that cycle----to encourage young people to become self reliant. Paying them what, to them, may appear to be a fairly large amount of money hourly isn't helping. I can see a kid thinking "hey, if I don't get an education or learn a trade, I'll be stuck in that damned $3/hr. job the rest of my life". Maybe I'm wrong, but it worked for me. I don't know anyone that was any lazier than I was as a kid, yet I had the drive to learn a trade. I knew for sure I didn't want to wash dishes in a cafe for the rest of my life (which is how I paid for my little 109 Craftsman lathe). No way you'd have convinced me I should have gone to college, though. My hat's off to those that have.

Harold

And what good has it done you? You received roughly the value of minimum wage, but paid more. Clearly, paying money for unearned effort doesn't work. Never has, never will. Regardless of how much you pay, they'll always hope for more, even when they don't improve their performance. It's the way people are.

Why do we have to have illegal immigrants harvesting our crops? I get the idea that it's because you can't get our own citizens to do the work----they can get the same reward for doing nothing (welfare or unemployment pay)-----which frees them up to smoke dope and watch TV. NO one should be rewarded for doing nothing. No one.

Don't misunderstand, Eric. I think you did something very good-----particularly the pay. I started in the trade, in the missile industry, for $1.50/hr. Your $14 is far better, at least I think it is, even considering inflation. I think the point I'm trying to make is that you could have offered $50/hr, you wouldn't have received any better from this individual. People have been programmed to expect rewards for no effort. As I've said, we have had too much for too long in this country. Your generation and mine have never known hardships-------which is my point, and has been right along. Until we, as a nation, fall to our knees in hard times, I'm not convinced it will get any better. I hope I can live long enough to see myself proved right, or wrong.

Harold

I agree the free-market should dictate wages. But if that's the case now, as you mention above, then why do we need a minimum wage?

If companies have to pay things like $28.00/hr to hire a package delivery guy because the free market dictates it, then, in today's America, no one who isn't a druggie, a loyal idiot or a genius with an attitude problem shoud be unemployed.

Unless of course, they have no skills and no motivation to get skills because can get a bigger check from an entitlement program than they can while they're working to gain a skill.

I could be wrong, that's just the way I see it.

Tillman

Well said!

Tillman

The cost of employment to an employer in the US is pay + 30%. That would put the average worker at Delphi at an hourly rate of $50.00/hour.

Now, it could be that Delphi's cost of employment was higher than 30%, say, if they had to deal with unions.

Tillman

Happens a lot more often than most people realize, especially in consulting practices.

Tillman

That actually should say "The AVERAGE cost of employment...

Tillman