Where did all the people go?

[wrat]

Doing some work for a helicopter firm right now.

Owned by Textron by any chance ?

Uh, no. That particular helicopter factory I've done work for several times, but there's a number of helicopter firms that operate small fleets that require some of my engineering/legal/bureaucratic background. I prefer the smaller companies, anyway. Done work for Textron's airplane subsidies as well. I don't say "never again" but I tend to feel that way.

For years, we'd giggle about "may you live in interesting times" way back when headlines read of a blue dress. Today, we're seeing what 'interesting times' are starting to look like. It's gonna get a lot more so.

Unfortunately, there's only one reason a business shuts down. One cause. Management. I didn't say bad or poor management - though that's by far the most common - just Management not making the proper decisions, foreseen or not.

Today's company cannot possibly express out loud the kind of help they want without fear of lawsuit. Just because it made the last few generations prosper doesn't mean it can be spoken today. They can't express anything they wanna shy away from for the same reasons. In fact, most HR departments, for reasons that cannot be speculated, are headed and staffed by women which result in bias and sway in directions the Boardroom often does not want. Seen it many times and only corrected a time or two.

Increasing numbers of young men are MGTOW (look it up). They have no desire to support a family. They have no desire to get married. Why? You have only yourselves to blame. They've seen what happens. They marry a girl and she divorces him and takes his kids and half his stuff. So they don't play that game. Without that goal and plan, why would they care if their career was anything but easy? Companies got away with exploitative conditions for years because of family responsibilities. Those days are changing and not for the good.

Today's Manager (and Exec) must learn some real organizational jiu-jitsu to survive. Instead, many are caught like deer in headlights with a blank stare. I recommended to one company, that was dying from retirees, to hire mid-level replacements, not youngsters, but 1) pay them 40% more and 2) change their job description to include training two people half their age. They looked at me like i had three heads. No idea how to think like that.

If you're in the middle of it, Heaven help you. It's gonna be frantic and frustrating. If you're out of it - or can just pick and choose (like me) - then you're in for some entertaining times.

 

[Janderso]

Several years back there was all the uproar about a $15/hr minimum wage. As a result, many of the employers at the lower end of the wage scale started increasing their starting salary. Most are paying close to, if not more than $15.hr.

If you can make $15/hr flipping burgers while listening to your favorite playlist on your earbuds or jawing with your fellow workers, why would you want to take a job where you might actually have to break a sweat or have a modicum of responsibility to answer to for $15 or even $20?

Employers will fill their vacancies if they raise the hourly wage high enough to make it irresistible to workers. Then of course, the wage/salary increases will have to ripple up the hierarchy. As a result, the cost of goods will increase as well and all of a sudden, that $15/hr is not a living wage again. There is a name for this; inflation.

Unfortunately, all of us who are living on fixed incomes with savings that we ser aside years ago will have found that our buying power has decreased in inverse proportion.

RJ,
Your insight is spot on.
I believe you understand the subject matter very well.

 

[Provincial]

For those of you that are happy with your Cost Of Living pension increases:

When you get a COLA pension increase, it is based on the official inflation rate (which is fudged to make it much smaller than the real rate of inflation) for the prior year. This means that you have suffered paying the higher prices for a year without getting a boost. Each year inflation goes up, you fall that much further behind. You will never make that back, except in cases where overall costs (not just certain sectors, like tech) go down, and very few of us have experienced that, and even then, it was for a short period of time.

Pensioners must remember that the politicians respond to those they need the votes from, and if you are no longer in that group, you can expect to go to the back of the line. Once enough of the Boomers die off, the remaining ones will be in the financial crosshairs. The younger generations that have to pay taxes to support the pensions will get to pick how you will be treated.

BTW, I'm a Boomer, and I am not expecting my benefits to hold up much longer. Inflation is the hidden knife cutting retirement benefits, and it is "non-confrontational" in that the politicians don't have to go on record as supporting benefit cuts. I have made other plans.

 

[Provincial]

Uh, no. That particular helicopter factory I've done work for several times, but there's a number of helicopter firms that operate small fleets that require some of my engineering/legal/bureaucratic background. I prefer the smaller companies, anyway. Done work for Textron's airplane subsidies as well. I don't say "never again" but I tend to feel that way.

For years, we'd giggle about "may you live in interesting times" way back when headlines read of a blue dress. Today, we're seeing what 'interesting times' are starting to look like. It's gonna get a lot more so.

Unfortunately, there's only one reason a business shuts down. One cause. Management. I didn't say bad or poor management - though that's by far the most common - just Management not making the proper decisions, foreseen or not.

Today's company cannot possibly express out loud the kind of help they want without fear of lawsuit. Just because it made the last few generations prosper doesn't mean it can be spoken today. They can't express anything they wanna shy away from for the same reasons. In fact, most HR departments, for reasons that cannot be speculated, are headed and staffed by women which result in bias and sway in directions the Boardroom often does not want. Seen it many times and only corrected a time or two.

Increasing numbers of young men are MGTOW (look it up). They have no desire to support a family. They have no desire to get married. Why? You have only yourselves to blame. They've seen what happens. They marry a girl and she divorces him and takes his kids and half his stuff. So they don't play that game. Without that goal and plan, why would they care if their career was anything but easy? Companies got away with exploitative conditions for years because of family responsibilities. Those days are changing and not for the good.

Today's Manager (and Exec) must learn some real organizational jiu-jitsu to survive. Instead, many are caught like deer in headlights with a blank stare. I recommended to one company, that was dying from retirees, to hire mid-level replacements, not youngsters, but 1) pay them 40% more and 2) change their job description to include training two people half their age. They looked at me like i had three heads. No idea how to think like that.

If you're in the middle of it, Heaven help you. It's gonna be frantic and frustrating. If you're out of it - or can just pick and choose (like me) - then you're in for some entertaining times.

Right on! Management is not coping with the situation.

The public sector is several orders of magnitude worse! Not only do they have to deal with these problems, but they are completely incapable of dealing with them because of ingrained social "goals" that limit choice in both management and hiring. I can't go into detail without being controversial, but I have first-hand experience, and it is only going to get worse - and fast!

RJ's post is just a peek into the darkness.

 

[Provincial]

I "retired" over ten years ago. Since then I have been working my rear off managing land that my wife and I accumulated. It is our safety net for our "Golden Years" and will be more reliable than IRA's, pensions, and 401k's. Neither of us show up as either employed or unemployed. Our businesses do make money.

 

[ddickey]

So i saw this the other day on FB . Big ad . 4 years ago , the mechanics didn't make this much . I had to dig it up . So an operator can still make $100 K a year with no experience .

Packaging Machine Operator Aberdeen, MD Hiring Event 7/12 (Aberdeen, Maryland) | Frito-Lay

**Registered Hiring Event Candidates Preferred**<br><br> The Packaging Machine Operator is responsible for setting up and operating assigned packaging machines and...

www.fritolayemployment.com

$28/hr is not $100k.

 

[savarin]

I retired 11 years ago, the last 8 years of my job had the most abysmaly incompetent managers I have ever had the misfortune to work under.
That place is virtually empty now, only part time teachers who cant teach and luckily hardly any students to suffer under them.
Training is something that seems to have gone out the window. Australia is always recruiting overseas (where I came in) but the pandemic shut all that down.
I dont see it changing anytime soon.

 

[mmcmdl]

$28/hr is not $100k.

With OT and 2X they could make well over 100K per year . You can work as many hours as you please ! 12 hr. Saturdays and 16 hr. Sundays were the norm at Unilever . Anyone walking thru the door was making over 100K and you were FORCED to do it ! I did it for 15 years .

Straight 8 hrs a day / night . 40 + 12 sat ( OT )+ 16 sun ( 2X ) = 68hrs x $28=$99,000 per year . Work a little OT during the week also puts you well over $100K . These are people who can walk in off the street with no knowledge .

 

[ddickey]

That's the way it used to be here and some techs ruined it nowadays for us.
No ot.
But you can't include ot into a yearly wage. Because I may work more than the other guy.
If you do work OT like that what's wrong with making 100K which is nothing nowadays. Especially where you live.

 

[mmcmdl]

I have to agree . But for someone young and willing to work it's not bad . These plants run 24/7 365 days a year . The lines never go down . It was cheaper for the company to pay OT and 2X for good people than to hire more people and bennys . Like I said , I worked 7 nights a week for 15 years , and grew to love it . Never missed a family event either .