Good Help Is Even Harder to Find

There is an old saying, “Good help is hard to find.” It seems to be more true than ever. Gamka is a small company and that means good employees are critical. Everyone is pretty much a key player, whether a driver, mechanic, sales person or in office administration. Even in larger organizations, the drive to reduce costs by cutting personnel to the bone has taken place since 2008, going beyond cutting the fat to carving off the muscle. But the time inevitably comes when you have to reach out and hire new people. We offer decent pay and some benefits that have become scarcer then hens teeth in the work place. Just a piece of cake, we thought. Well, recruiting has been a challenge!  What sort of luck have you been having? We used Craig’s List, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development website at    www.jobs4jersey.com, the Veteran’s Bureau, recruiters, employment agencies, Help Wanted newspaper ads, even signs on our front lawn. By the way, the signs brought in the most applicants in person. We also received a number of resumes through the Jobs4Jersey link. The problem has been that, overall, the applicants have been mediocre and in many cases did not even respond to messages that we would like to speak with them further. Some people just shot-gunned their resume everywhere. If my advertisement said Mechanic, their desired career path would say Hairdresser or some such.

After all of the years hearing about the lack of jobs in the media, how workers were forced to take part time positions because employers did not want to provide health insurance, the migration of positions to China and India, and the shortage of Americans to take work, I would have expected that there would have been able bodies clamoring for employment.

Not so, in my experience. Is it because the American workforce has gone on disability? Reduced their standard of living? Given up? Living with Mom and Dad? Gotten accustomed to getting paid by the government not to work?

Back in the day, in the days of yore when I was just a kid, being on welfare was considered somewhat shameful if you were able-bodied. My parents never had to get on the dole but had it happened they would have dug ditches or waited tables to get off ASAP. It seems that nowadays far too many people are comfortable with living off the brow sweat of others and scheme for ways to make it happen. And they seem to have succeeded. There are more people getting entitlements than there are wage earners.

My world is upside down, topsy-turvey. This is not a better place. What I hold dear – the work ethic, a respect for life, marriage vows, tithing, the Golden Rule… all seems to have fallen from grace.

Or, once again, have I lost the big picture?

Merry Christmas!

  Ye Olde Editor

PS: We still have some openings to fill and good sales people and good mechanics are really hard to find because we would like to employ people who want to work AND know what they are doing. It is a tough combination. Know anyone?

PPS: I am writing this after Halloween and before Thanksgiving. Have you noticed that the stores have gone from ghosties, goblins and things that go bump in the night to Santa and his reindeer, Trick or Treating to presents under the tree? What happened to Turkey Day? Am I out of step?