Snowflake millennials with zero work ethic

[OldTaff]

Booked tomorrow as a day off - had to get it authorised last week - fishing session all planned out.

We’ve been flat out in work for months, not helped by a succession of agency workers bottling out after a few weeks each leaving us almost permanently one man down.

I know the what we do (animal feeds warehousing, manufacture & distribution) is a full on crappy, dirty, physically hard job but there are 9 of us in the team all between late forties and late fifties, the pay is decent and we are left alone to get on with it.

We have gone through 8 agency workers in 18 months all of whom were mid twenties and none of whom could hack it.

Three weeks ago one of the team called in sick as he’d fallen off his mountain bike and smashed his collar bone (impressing the new girlfriend - 52 and should know better) but we can cope one down it just means we are pushing on to take up the slack.

Latest agency worker phoned in this morning to say he’d seen the doc last night who has signed him of for 2 weeks with “emotional distress” caused by work.

FFS

Immediately after the call my day off gets binned busy the site manager as us not “essential” and we can’t go to 3 down.


I am very very unhappy

 

[Godber]

Gutted for you Taff, hope you get out for a fishing fix soon mate

 

[RedRidingHood]

High employee turnovers are usually the result of structural problems within the company

I work with agency workers, and have done at two companies and from my experience they’re just used and abused. Cannon fodder that get the worst jobs and dropped the second anything goes wrong. They get a bad rep but I don’t blame them for bailing out off half the time.

Not saying it’s the same with your company but experience has led me to be sceptical in regards to complaints in regards to agency workers.

 

[rd115]

Got my most recent job by going through the agency first.

Luckily I was one of the better agency workers and soon got a contract direct with the company.

 

[adriang]

High employee turnovers are usually the result of structural problems within the company

I work with agency workers, and have done at two companies and from my experience they’re just used and abused. Cannon fodder that get the worst jobs and dropped the second anything goes wrong. They get a bad rep but I don’t blame them for bailing out off half the time.

Not saying it’s the same with your company but experience has led me to be sceptical in regards to complaints in regards to agency workers.

Agree.. agency workers are often viewed as sacrificial. They are offered no loyalty, which in turn will mean they have no loyalty.

 

[carphauler]

It's nothing new, when I worked in a steel factory making lockers in my early 20s we would have trainees come in, do 2 days then disappear.

 

[OldTaff]

High employee turnovers are usually the result of structural problems within the company

I work with agency workers, and have done at two companies and from my experience they’re just used and abused. Cannon fodder that get the worst jobs and dropped the second anything goes wrong. They get a bad rep but I don’t blame them for bailing out off half the time.

Not saying it’s the same with your company but experience has led me to be sceptical in regards to complaints in regards to agency workers.

The company is really good with agency workers and always take them on after 3 months if they are up for it - every one goes through a counterbalance forklift truck licence in the first month and reach truck within the first 6 months.

We are getting shed loads through that just don’t want to do the work because it’s humping 20kg & 25kg bags of feed around all day onto and off pallets as well as loading/unloading wagons in all weathers.

 

[pies]

Im guessing as as hes agency hes not getting paid?

 

[FadingLikeDecay]

How the can your Site Manager cancel your already approved annual leave? Someone else calling in sick isn't your problem, the company should be prepared for such situations. What's stopping him from have a recruiting agency providing him with a list of short-notice candidates long in advance?
Is he actually working as well or is his backside welded to a chair?

Actions like that are more likely to cause committed workers (like you) to feel resentment and eventually end up going elsewhere which really will leave him in the .

 

[kevin o connor]

Loyalty should work both ways. At the end of the day with most companies you are simply a number. A mate of mine who worked his butt off for his employer doing jobs that most wouldn't in all weathers. One day he was called into the office to be told he was being laid off. He got really upset and said to the boss, "This is the way you treat me after everything I have done for you over the years !! The boss simply said, " You got paid didn't you ? "

 

[MrBen]

That’s total as has been said above its approved, would they cancel your leave if you had a foreign holiday booked, I doubt it.

 

[OldTaff]

Im guessing as as hes agency hes not getting paid?

Not sure if agencies have to provide sick pay these days.

 

[OldTaff]

How the can your Site Manager cancel your already approved annual leave? Someone else calling in sick isn't your problem, the company should be prepared for such situations. What's stopping him from have a recruiting agency providing him with a list of short-notice candidates long in advance?
Is he actually working as well or is his backside welded to a chair?

Actions like that are more likely to cause committed workers (like you) to feel resentment and eventually end up going elsewhere which really will leave him in the .

It’s been done before - if you aren’t on booked “going away” hols then the company can cancel, in our T&C’s

 

[Trent_Fisher]

It’s been done before - if you aren’t on booked “going away” hols then the company can cancel, in our T&C’s

Maybe that’s why the turnover of staff is so high? Doesn’t sound like a great place to work to me.

 

[Cobweb]

Bummer - hope you get bankside soon.

 

[OldTaff]

Maybe that’s why the turnover of staff is so high? Doesn’t sound like a great place to work to me.

Oddly it’s not a high staff turnover business - in the 14yrs I’ve worked for them a grand total of 8 from the original people have left the mill and warehouse and over half of those were through retirement.

The issue is with the replacements and their replacements who are much younger and just cant/won’t do the degree of physical work us old timers do.

It sounds rubbish treatment but I know that my manager will make sure I get the time back and then some when we aren’t stretched to snapping point.

 

[62tucker]

I worked for a company with 6,000 staff. But each zone had around 30 staff.
Only 1 was allowed off at a time.
You could be 2nd off but that could be cancelled for whatever reason they wanted. Like taff says.
Keeping the company going is the bosses priority.
And it’s all agreed with the union.

 

[ginger]

You can't do too much for a good employer but you can never do enough for a bad one. I have had both and speak from experience.

 

[Wrongfoot]

Booked tomorrow as a day off - had to get it authorised last week - fishing session all planned out.
[...]
Immediately after the call my day off gets binned busy the site manager as us not “essential” and we can’t go to 3 down.
I am very very unhappy

Some similar thoughts to those above.

A major point of choosing agency work is that you get to choose whether to keep coming, and what hours you can commit to. That's the flip side to the contract employer being able to drop you at a moments notice.
You say you find it hard with direct pay (no agency cut) and full employee rights, but choose to stay. Maybe the agency workers on less money, no rights are quite reasonably choosing differently.

My experience of millennials is that they'll work as hard as kids ever did, perhaps even harder if they feel their job is worthwhile, but they won't put up with a s**t deal and have no loyalty to an employer as a default state. They expect an employer to earn that loyalty.
Also it sounds as though the problem is managements short-termist attitude to resourcing and recruitment. You might be mistakenly choosing a millennial scapegoat. After all why do millennial agency workers owe you a day off? They're not your employer. Know your enemy...

PS. I hope you get out fishing soon.
PPS. You should negotiate for an extra days paid leave etc. as you're bailing the business out. Know your value.

 

[MrBen]

It’s been done before - if you aren’t on booked “going away” hols then the company can cancel, in our T&C’s

I’m sorry but that stinks. I got given a contact once and was just told to sign it, but told them no I wanted to read it first, there was a piece in it I didn’t agree with, so crossed that section out and gave it back to them, and told them that’s what I would agree to, they had been struggling to get someone so they had no choice to meet me at that. Is not easy but sometimes you need to value yourself more, i I know it’s difficult with mortgages and commitments.