having trouble understanding people

as the title says.... a gym in my area can't keep clean up people for some reason... the owner and managers are great people... the pay is free membership and $ 9 / hr... I realize it doesn't sound like much but it is cash keep on drawing that unemployment , work out , (the cleaning is a pretty good workout in and of itself) , walk out with cash... what's the downside ?

oh ya the usual killer is when the prospective "employee" finds out they'll have to keep the locker rooms and bathrooms clean...

I know what you mean, a neighbor of mine just lost his house. His comment regarding employment "I will not work for less than $20 per hour"

So now he bums a bed at my MIL's house because she won't let him be homeless, sits around drinking and watching TV all day.

Lazy good for nothing E36 M3

Looking back, I'm glad I grew up with nothing. Cleaning toilets, washing floors, shovelling horse E36 M3... I've done it all. Of course I lost a bit of sleep when I was laid off from my 20-year job - those benefits and union wages are easy to get used to. But I'd have no problem forking up horse poo again for $8 hour to buy groceries. It will help offset the hours spent on my butt in front of the computer, freelancing.

aussiesmg wrote: So now he bums a bed at my MIL's house because she won't let him be homeless, sits around drinking and watching TV all day. Lazy good for nothing E36 M3

Her heart's in the right place, but she (and like-minded people) should realize that they are doing more harm than good. I've decided that "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime" just might be the greatest quote ever.

JeepinMatt wrote:

aussiesmg wrote: So now he bums a bed at my MIL's house because she won't let him be homeless, sits around drinking and watching TV all day. Lazy good for nothing E36 M3

I've decided that "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime" just might be the greatest quote ever.

problem is that some people, give them a fish and they keep wanting your fish until you starve too.

Let them want, don't be an enabler.

Apexcarver wrote: problem is that some people, give them a fish and they keep wanting your fish until you starve too.

Exactly. That's an argument for teaching them to fish if you're feeling generous. Or an argument to not let someone else's irresponsibility ruin you and stop giving them fish if they aren't willing to learn.

I'm thinking of moving from Memphis to XXXXX, Fl. (protecting the name of the "guilty?) and on my last trip down there I saw an ad at the gym I was visiting offering the same deal....I was actually pretty tempted to apply. Hey, no one says you have to work there for ever....just stay long enough to get in shape and get a good reference.

Can you clean the Ladies locker room during bussiness hours ?

footinmouth wrote: Can you clean the Ladies locker room during bussiness hours ?

yes...

Apexcarver wrote:

JeepinMatt wrote:

aussiesmg wrote: So now he bums a bed at my MIL's house because she won't let him be homeless, sits around drinking and watching TV all day. Lazy good for nothing E36 M3

I've decided that "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime" just might be the greatest quote ever.

problem is that some people, give them a fish and they keep wanting your fish until you starve too.

When my siblings and I used to say "I want add trivial childhood item here", we were typically given a canned response. My mom used to say "people in hell want ice water, but no ones gonna go there and give it to them", and my dad said "put your want in 1 hand, and sh_t in the other, and see which one fills up first". We learned pretty quick that if you want something, youre gonna have to make it happen yourself, handouts are not the way.

While I can understand the "won't work for less than $X" attitude, there comes a time when you have to throw that overboard.

I've been involved in hiring decisions at quite a few places I worked at and one potential problem that comes up over and over again is that a new hire's compensation is based on how much they earned in their last job. No ifs, buts, whatevers, that's what BigCos rulebook says and HR will make your life miserable if you don't stick to that.

If you factor that in when someone's lost their job, takes an "emergency" job and then gets an offer for what they'd normally do, only not at $25/h but at $11/h because that's what the corporate manual says, they just got screwed for a large part of their lives due to the time it takes to claw back on the income they missed out on if they'd been hired at their regular rate.

That's not a theoretical exercise btw - my last consulting contract got cancelled shortly before it got renewed (company-wide policy) and I had to find something in a hurry. Around this time last year, there was pretty much no work for my sort of skillset in the UK. I got another contract, but had to take a 33% paycut. This contract just ended and if I were to take another one here in the UK, most companies would offer me the same rate or potentially even less, and it would take 5+ years if not longer to get back where I started out at.

I'm not whining about this, I'm just pointing out that for a lot of people, this situation would be utterly catastrophic from a personal finance point of view.

That said, I'd still rather work as a cleaner at a gym than have to depend on other people's largesse.

Lesley wrote: Let them want, don't be an enabler.

Quote of the year

Seriously, My uncle wouldn't accept a $50K a year job because he used to making 100K. I, as a certified weldor had to go back to the dishroom in my thirties. I didn't like it, but it got me by. Really made me appreciate the next "real" work that came along. That's pride F-ing with you.

i worked at a juvenile detention facility. got laid off. stumbled into a job at a hospital. got trained as a phlebotomist. i work less and actually make more money. the benefits are better i actually like the job. and i unfortunately had a minor stroke but knew the people who took care of me and knew that i was in good hands. so it kinda works out. my job was safe and the hospital i work at held my position. and made sure i was able to do my job and if i wasnt they were going to help me find another position in the hospital...

Lesley wrote: Let them want, don't be an enabler.

like my dad used to say, "want in one hand and E36 M3 in the other. see which one fills up first."

meaning: unless you want nothing but E36 M3, better DIY.

edit: i suck at reading full threads before replying. 4cylinderfury beat me to it. his dad was also a wise man.

let them be greedy.. more jobs for those that are willing to work for less.

I am still doing the same job I have done for the lasat 21 years.. but this past year saw my income drop by half...

From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/02/AR2010040201452_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010040201605

Millennials accused of lax work ethic say it's not all about 9-to-5 Millennials: Not so hard at work -- and proud of it As millennials in the workforce encounter Generation X and baby boomers, a cultural clash is emerging: Millennials do not consider "work ethic" a top characteristic of their age group. By Ian Shapira Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, April 3, 2010 Jared Rogalia, 25, a Hertz rental car manager-trainee in Alexandria, is as cranky as someone twice his age when he complains about his generation's work ethic. Here's how Rogalia characterizes his age group: "The first is, really spoiled and lazy. The second is, we're free-spirited. And the third is, they'd rather be poorer and have free time than have a lot of money." The millennial generation -- about 50 million people between ages 18 and 29 -- is the only age group in the nation that doesn't cite work ethic as one of its "principal claims to distinctiveness," according to a new Pew Research Center study, "Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change." The Washington-based nonprofit group found that young adults and their elders agree: Baby boomers and Generation Xers have better work ethics and moral values than those in their 20s. In a survey of about 1,200 people of all ages, millennials chose other traits to define themselves: 24 percent said "technology use," 11 percent went with "music/pop culture," 7 percent chose "liberal/tolerant" and 6 percent said "smarter." Only 5 percent noted their generation's "work ethic" -- the same portion as who chose "clothes." Among older generations, at least twice as many people cited work ethic as a badge of their age group's identity: 17 percent of boomers, 11 percent of Gen Xers and 10 percent of those 65 and older. The older three generations also take pride in their strong values or morals and in being "respectful," terms that hardly any millennials in the survey used. "Millennials may be a self-confident generation," the study concluded, "but they display little appetite for claims of moral superiority." Some young adults -- much like Generation Xers who found themselves labeled as slackers in the 1990s -- believe such generalizations are nonsense. Maya Enista, 26, chief executive at Mobilize.org, a District-based advocacy group for young adults, said the term "work ethic" is misleading. "It's not about being at a desk from 9 to 5. I work part of every hour I am awake." Enista said her fellow 20-somethings' constant connection to technology keeps them at least as tethered to their jobs as older workers are. "It's a given that we work hard, because the reality is that millennials are the most educated and most in debt." But other young people in the Washington area -- and their older managers -- can be their generation's harshest critics. At Potomac Pizza in Chevy Chase, Omar Haleem, 22, an assistant manager, said he likes being with his colleagues but is often put in the awkward position of haranguing those who are his own age. "I have to call out their faults and make it real obvious that they're not doing their job," he said. "If they're standing there watching TV, I say, 'Okay . . . you don't want to work as many shifts?' They leave food on the line that's ready to be delivered to tables or put in bags. They'll order food in the middle of a dinner rush and enjoy their slice and not answer phones, which is really annoying. And they talk on the phone to their friends outside." Rea Pyle, 34, Potomac Pizza's owner, said many younger workers do not accept that it takes long, concerted effort to build a career. "They've been blessed with parents and grandparents laying the foundation to give them a better life," he said. "But that hunger is not really in them. But the desire for success is. They want to make money" but don't want to put in the required hours or effort, he added. In the high-salary realm of management consulting firms, which hire hundreds of young adults annually, the youngest employees are far more likely to request the flexibility to work from home or during off-hours, executives say. Nicole Furst, 38, a senior executive at Accenture in Reston, said the younger generation at her firm has little interest in putting in long hours simply because that's what previous generations did. "They make it clear that it's not a pattern they would adopt," she said. "They look at all the Generation Xers and say, 'I don't want to put in all those hours when I am at that point.' " Furst said younger workers' emphasis on a better balance among work, family and friends even at the start of a career is "admirable. You sit here, and say, 'That makes sense.' " The influx of a bulge of workers into the economy, especially at a time of starkly higher unemployment, has spawned an industry of pollsters, authors and consultants seeking to explain the young generation. The titles of books about millennials appear to reveal a certain condescension from older generations: "The Dumbest Generation" and "The Trophy Kids Grow Up." Even more-neutral studies focus on the generation's supposedly weak work ethic. In a book due out this month, "The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace" (Harper Business), authors Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman report on a survey they conducted last year showing that almost nothing bothers older workers as much as having colleagues who put in fewer hours, while millennials seem wholly unperturbed by that reality of the workplace. Jennifer Miller, 44, director of talent acquisition at Sibley Memorial Hospital in the District, said younger nurse recruits in job interviews frequently make demands about when they can and can't work. "The younger candidates start talking about how their shifts need to fit into a predetermined schedule, rather than working around whatever the hospital needs," she said. "They say, 'I can't work evenings.' I was schooled in you don't put up roadblocks at all in an interview." Some young Sibley nurses crave more responsibility and grander titles without putting in the years of grunt work that previous generations saw as the gateway to advancement, Miller said. "We had a new grad [last fall], she finished a master's degree and she wanted to be a nurse manager. But she had no nurse managing experience. I wouldn't have made the assumption that the mere fact I had finished this new degree meant that my employer would find me a new job." At Hertz in Alexandria, Rogalia said his peers at work are sometimes easily distracted. "We've had to take disciplinary actions," he said. "We had a new hire who was watching video on his iPhone with his headphones on, and the customers were kind of looking around to see what this kid was doing. He was laughing. He stopped showing up after a while." Rogalia, who wakes at 5 a.m. for work and does not get home until about 8 p.m., said it was only recently that he felt he had a decent work ethic. After graduating from college in 2007, he lived at home in New York with his parents. "Life was great, but I didn't feel good about myself," he said. "I was lazy. I was working two part-time jobs. I think the older generations do have a better work ethic. My parents pampered me and gave me anything I asked for." One busy Friday night at Potomac Pizza, Haleem evaluated his younger colleagues, all in their early 20s and still in college: Ryan Mooney, a sophomore at Montgomery College; Bill Lustig, an American University senior; and Chris Healing, a Catholic University senior. "Mooney's always in the back room at the computer, trying to win online betting," Haleem said. "Bill, he's always getting yelled at by his girlfriend. Everyone will tell you that she's a great girl. She keeps tabs on him. Let's keep it at that. Chris is always texting with his girlfriend." They all seemed busy enough, except Mooney, who was looking to skip out for a break at a nearby bar. "Why can't I just leave?" he asked nobody in particular as he clutched a piece of paper with predictions on that evening's college basketball games. Lustig, hungry for tips, overheard Mooney and shot back, "You can leave, if you want -- more tables for me."

that is the best article i have read in a long time.

seems lack of intestinal fortitude be the strong work ethic older managers.... fire their buts, hire new, fire them, continue.... sooner or later you find a keeper. they're out there. you just have to look for them

That is an excellent article. I feel that I exemplify it from both sides: During the school year I'll procrastinate with the best of them. But I put in for all the games possible to ref, and in the summer I am up 6 days a week before 6AM to get to the golf course to caddy. At one point last summer I worked 42 days in a row. Didn't have much of a life, but maybe at the end of this upcoming summer I'll have [my own] car [instead of borrowing dads].

Article summed up: "Kids these days. They're not like we were". Probably could have been published in 1910.

I am so mother-berkelying unemployed, I would gladly clean locker rooms. I've repaired septic systems, so I am immune to "the nasty."

Don't get me started on my sister and her boyfriend and my other friends...

The funny thing about millenials is.. We are not catering the work place to them, especially in the corporate world. Don't want to work? No problem, Plenty of folks from other countries who came to america for schooling who will take your place.

Keith wrote: Article summed up: "Kids these days. They're not like we were". Probably could have been published in 1910.

That's exactly what I thought while reading it. Could have been published in 1910, then every 10 years after that.