ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Too Big Too Fast (be careful there paid enemies)

One thing I will add here is the amount of talented people out there.

The labor pool in my area is small pickings.

The "best" guys, meaning loyal, hard working and those that take pride in workmanship that I have found are the guys/gals with with small families, 26+ yrs old. They seem to be more responsible.

The flip side are the single ones, 18-26. And the ones coming straight out of tech schools. I don't know why the instructors there constantly tell them they will make $45K if they graduate, but reality hits them real fast. The single younger folks seem to never make it on time, and the first thing they want to do when they do make it to work is wonder when "break time" is.

The biggest peave I have is the young mentality of "you pay me more and I'll do more".

I tell them, you show me what you can do, and I'll gladly give you what you are worth.

I worked 8 years for an EC with views similar to Northstars. For the first few years I was the only empoyee of a small mostly residential company. Busted my butt helping him to establish a good customer base and reputation as a good EC. And later with plenty of work he was able to hire 3 other guys, He got very lucky with these guys , they were clean ,well spoken,came to work eveyday on time and did whatever it took to get the job done. Installations were neat and professional, customers were happy with our work, our work passed inspections.( I'm sure any local AHJs here seen our work) Then I watched as he slowly sabotaged his own company with his mouth. when he came to the job site,you had to wait and see if you were talking to the good boss or the bad boss before you said anything to him. he was almost like a spoiled little brat that wasnt getting his way for some reason. He would even start arguments with the customers. later I found out he stopped taking his meds for his bipolar,so I guess that had a lot to do with it. One by one we left,now he has one guy that use to be a helper as a lead man and a drunk as a helper. good luck. what a waste of 8 years.
PS look at your own faults before you blame others

Northstar is mostly correct. I've gone through approx 200 employees in the eight years I've been in operation. I can count one one hand the amount of men who can perform what they listed on thier resume. Most do not even understand what the work they wrote down, it is something they remember from coffee break conversations.

As a note that 200 includes crewing up for projects. I always keep the good one from the project if there is room. I always pay top wages which makes me feel OK if someone is not cutting it.
Rob

As an employee of an electrical contractor, I will stick up for all the employees here. Most good electrical contractors, (other than one man operations) would be nothing without their employees, they might as well just pack it in without them. If you treat employees well, pay them well, train them well, they will reward you with quality work, if you don't treat them well, there's no incentive for them to work hard for you.