Interesting workforce phenomena

I think a possible solution would be to pay based on a piece work schedule or to put in place penalties for not having projects or segments of projects done by X time, providing that the time line is realistic.

I have been pretty immune to this as my guys are paid on a per SF basis and are not paid until after the client agrees project is complete. So it is in their best interest to work as fast and accurately as they can in order to get paid. This is good because it adds to our reputation and garners more business.

One thing I am seeing from some of my clients (and one is the biggest jackwagons to do this) are the changing of the standards / deliverables. If we balk or demand more time or money a few remind us that they can get one of our competitors to finish the job.

So I get it on both ends.

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Originally Posted by HES

One thing I am seeing from some of my clients (and one is the biggest jackwagons to do this) are the changing of the standards / deliverables. If we balk or demand more time or money a few remind us that they can get one of our competitors to finish the job.

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Of course the answer to that might be to let him do that. See if the competitor can do the same quality in the same time. If he can, you have a problem, if not, you may cut this sort of nonsense off at the pass.

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Originally Posted by rob_s

...One such is something we've seen in the construction business for years, and that is a lack of productivity at the worker level leading to better perceived job security.

In the construction business on jobsites this has historically manifested in a couple of ways. One example was the pipefitter that goofed off all week so he would have to come in with his crew on weekends and get 1.5x time to do the work he should have had done by Friday...

Another, which was a problem for me, was the electrician who knew that his company didn't have a job to send him to next, which meant that his paycheck was dependent on the job he was on. It was, therefore, in his personal best interests to NOT get anything done. He needed to do as little work as he possibly could to appear to be making forward progress... Anyone else see this?

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These are the same things I used to notice in the powerplant construction business as well, from 01' - 09'. The apathetic, piece of shit entitlement union ****s who work in that business are the laziest fat bastards I've ever met!

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Originally Posted by jklaughrey

I have a friend who works in manufacturing who was told by his boss to stop working so efficiently and concise because it was making others look bad. He was told to "milk the clock" more or he would be terminated because the other employees were senior in their time working at the company and it would be detrimental to him to "show them up".
WTF, strong work ethic used to get you a raise, now it gets you fired!

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Often found in the public sector as well.

I own and manage a heavy utilities construction company. I'm experiencing this now and I don't see a productive way to deal with the problem.

If you fire the slackers on your labor force, skilled or unskilled, three months from the end of a 16 mo. project, who do you replace them with? There's only one answer, labor that will quickly realize there is only three months left in the project and you're back in the same situation.

Subs are even a worse case. You fire your sub because they're slacking. What company is going to want to step in and finish a project three months from the end and finishing the work behind another sub. I'll tell you. The company that will charge you 2 to 3 times what the work is actually worth. This is not unrealistic nor in most cases unfair. Coming behind another contractor is a major pain in the ass and rarely worth the money for most people.

This economy has been killing my company for the last 18 months. There is no work to bid and what little there is, they'll be a contractor on the bid list that will bid it at cost just to hang on another few months. The slacking is just helping us bleed out faster. I don't know what to do about it.

Tougher times I have not seen in 30 years.

I know that there are some good people and companies out there that wouldn't do the things that I described above. However, I think I'd have better luck winning the lottery than having one walk through my door.


Scoby

All I know is I'm working twice as hard for half as much money.

What we clearly need is a FFL "union." Then I can get paid to not sell guns.

:D

well the rest of the world now knows what its like in Hawaii where this is common

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Originally Posted by chadbag

Of course the answer to that might be to let him do that. See if the competitor can do the same quality in the same time. If he can, you have a problem, if not, you may cut this sort of nonsense off at the pass.

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One would normally think. Alas I am in a very niche market and there are only about 4 of us that are considered to be major players in the nation. So the competition is cut throat and income is so tight for all of us that none of us is willing to take that chance. Yeah they have us by the balls and they know it.

I am naive to contracting jobs, construction etc., but is it not possible to tie up a contractor's reimbursement for the job to timeliness of its completion?

It is not exactly apples to apples, but certain things I do have well-defined time limits; missing those can lead to a number of undesirable circumstances, plus, there are some other aspects involved. Naturally, we rarely miss our times and we're certainly can't even think of procrastinating.

I work at an hourly job in the auto industry. I constantly get crap for working at capacity because I am "costing us(coworkers) money" or some such crap by not dragging out a 45ish hour work week to 60 hours.

Ethically speaking I refuse to not work to my ability as I see it as stealing from my employer to whom I have a duty to be both honest and productive. As an hourly employee I am paid BY THE HOUR and as such I can only assume that if I can do x work in x hours than I should do 2x work in 2x hours. To do 1x work in 2x hours would be stealing unless I was only being paid for 1x work.

Also worth noting is that as an employee(non-union) who does work at my capacity I have absolutely no problem find extra work to get more hours. Supervisors are more than willing to give me work to fill in for someone who is on leave when they know that I will not negatively effect their work area. Employees who through no fault of their own are stuck in 80+ hour jobs are also more receptive to someone filling in who does not stretch out a job making them have even less time with their families.

As always it is the same people complaining about not getting enough hours who are generally worthless and would not be able to find extra work because noone is willing to put 1 person on a 10 person assembly line who will add 2 hours to everyones job just so he can be lazy and get paid.