UPSdude. truer words were never spoken. I railed against HR casting its pearls of employment before immature brats who after the second week, know that they can make nearly as much cash flipping chicken at Boston Market.
The powers at HR took their revenge on me. For nearly 18 months, every new hire in my preload workarea was a single mother.
But then I did the unthinkable....I worked WITH these mothers. If a mom had to get off early because her son called her cell(he missed the bus), if at all possible, I let her go early. If it was her week to carpool, I allowed her to start early. When her daughters were sick, she snuck in and with the help of babysitters and children's Roebitussin, finished before the little terrors were awake.
And I got the numbers, as well as the smartest workers I ever had. These women ,who were always on their feet, knew the importance of saving steps. These people were damned thankful for a job that helped with their son's orthodontics, or with their daughter's flu sniffles.
And they always lifted the boxes correctly, because they knew that the most important package they had to lift was in a crib at grandmom's house.
I always called each "ma'm" and by the end of my time there, if I asked my ladies to lift the building off its foundation and rotate the building 90 degrees-they would have done it. And no other supe, male or female, understood how my ladies were able to shame the other workareas.
Several of the ladies left the workarea. Two because they had earned their associate's degrees.
Two because they became supervisors.
So why does HR continue this love affair with finding19 year old pinks who haven't learned a work ethic yet? I have 3 theories:
1) Universities are still places to meet a lot of people in a small area and time.
2) HR nerds get to be BMOC
3) there is still this foolish idea that students cost less due to lesser healh care costs. While this may be true, the cost of turnover is killing the company. What is the cost now for getting a new hire through the door, train him, and have him work the first 30 days? The price is over two grand per person.
Maybe the one good thing about the lowball starting pay in the new contract is that it will separate out the persons who really need this job from those who couldn't care less.