Reporter writing about labor shortages

[rawhide]

what place did you work for? i probably hauled into there

[Husker-J]

I'm going to go against the grain here, and comend Kay.

Based on what I read, they had a job opening.

Person A applied, with little to no experience, but willing to try their best.

Kay accepted person A, offering them the job.

Person B, who was an experienced worker, heard Kay paid better, and applied.

Kay says thanks, I'll keep your number, but I already offered the job to person A, and I will honor the commitment.

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but it seems to me, that Kay was honoring an oral contract that she had made with person A, and was true to her word, even though it appeared as though person B would have made her job easier or made her more money.   However, I have to commend Kay, for following through on what she said she would do.   If anything ever happens, and I have to find an outside job, I hope I can find an employer who puts honesty and integrity above ease and profit.

On a side note, Kay is doing her part to alleviate the labor shortage, in training a new hire.   Taking a worker from someone else doesn't alleviate the shortage, it just makes it someone else's problem.

[Husker-J]

One could argue that Kay was hiring a 'hamburger flipper', as he didn't have experience working in the hog barns.

What she is doing, is giving someone training, so that they can do a new line of work, and better themselves for the future, instead of making the training of an unexperienced employee someone else's problem, or just moving the labor shortage to another farm.   You will not gain trained workers, by only hiring pre-trained workers, and never training new ones.   Some of the best workers I know of, started off with zero experience.

[Husker-J]

I know an older guy, who has had hired help for longer than I have been alive (quite a bit longer) and this came up.   I asked him his thoughts about 'taking' someone else's hired man.   He commented, that in his experience, those people that will quit somewhere else at a moment's notice, if you dangle a bigger paycheck/bonus in front of them, are the same people that will leave you just as harvest is starting, when someone else dangles an even bigger bonus in front of them.

He said his best worker, has been there 20+ years, was a 'new hire' with no previous experience, has a good work ethic, and is completely honest.   When he gets better offers, he comes to the boss, says I got an offer for X dollars more, what do you think?   They have always worked out something they could both live with.  
He then commented that over the long term, 40+ years of having hired men, the better ones, were not the ones he 'stole' from someone else.  

[kraft-t]

Of course one honors their contract written or verbal.

But if one wants a quality employee, that is what one shops for. If you hire an untrained person or someone the lacks experience, you get what you pay for and you shouldn't be surprised if the don't measure up.

If you look at the business world, they try to hire capable people to fill the niche they have. Yes and most times the hiree already has a job and business has to offer a package that will entice the employee to take the position in their firm. You folks act like it is a some dishonorable act to hire someone with an existing job. It's done all the time in the real business world.

If I hire your hired hand I am not committing a grevious sin. I am offering an hand up on the ladder of success. That is the way america works. That people raise their standard of living for themselves and their family. Other wise an existing job means you are stuck in a low paying job with little chance of advancement.

[Husker-J]

How are the unemployment numbers ever going to go down, if no one hires the unemployed?

Also, nothing was said about not hiring floor sweepers, or burger flippers.  It was about taking your neighbor's hired man, which I belive is completely different than hiring a burger flipper.

[kraft-t]

So now hiring an employee that has an existing job is a criminal act. Stealing! And what should be the penalty for that crime?

I have a difficult time understanding that logic when thousands of people in america get better offers and accept them.

I wonder in meridith publishing hires unemployed people or whether they hire people with training and experience. I suspect that most businesses hire people that have existing jobs and they don't think they are guilty of a criminal act!

[kraft-t]

And how is it different. I suppose if the landlord that comes to you to rent his nice 320 acres that you will refuse because you like the existing tenant and you don't think he should be changing tenants.

Like one land owner said to me. I am changing tenants. Do you want to farm my land or not? I don't think I stole anything from the tenant. I accepted the opportunity that arose.

[clayton58]

IMO there is a difference if I go to the neighbor trying to rent his land when he has a tenant with whom he is satidfied, vs. the neighboe coming to me and saying, Im changing tenants, are you interested.  Same with whether the neighbors employee approaches me, or I approach him.  No one is saying the floor sweeper can't look for a better job.  No one is saying the neighbors employee can't seek a different employer, even to do the same kinfd of work.  No one says I can or cannot hire the neighbors employee, or rent his land. Each one makes his/her own decisions, based on ones values and ethics.

[Kay/NC]

Thank you. I do not feel that adhering to my code of ethics makes me ignorant or incapable of running a business, as has been stated here by others.