Attitude about working in teens. Common or not?

[DanP]

I have done a LOT of work on the wood-pile today, in just a few 1-hour stints. I've decided that I can tough it out even if the humidity gets nasty again. I'll just do the work myself. I have a cord of firewood left to split and pile, and two more loads (2.5 cords total) afterward. Now that the solid tiers are built up, I can just use them as a backstop to throw the wood into a big "haystack" pile. Wood dries better if you have it in a large rounded pile covered with tarps, so the water (rain outside, condensation inside) sheds off quickly.

Yeah, you do a lot of work if you are motivated. Last autumn we did the wood for the mountain lodge where we sleep when we go in the highlands in one day. 4 persons, 2 splitting the logs (we got the wood as 3-5m long trunks:P) and breaking them in manageable size, 2 persons loading the wood into an old wagon and, transporting it to the storage space and make the stack. We emptied 2 bottles of vodka and had so much laugh that we cramped in the snow (was a very early snow that autumn, we didn't expected it).

But you see , as Mark Twain once said, if we would have got payed for it, it would mean that we work, as opposed to just having fun. And then all the fun would be gone and it would have taken days :P

 

[dlgoff]

I have a cord of firewood left to split and pile, and two more loads (2.5 cords total) afterward.

Sorry if I've asked before, but do you have another source of heat for the winter months besides the wood burner?

 

[waht]

Some people are honest workers, while others are dishonest, sometimes lazy, leeches. Restricting attitude about working to teens is only a small of part of the picture. People whether young or old, can have good or bad work ethics.

I recall plenty of whiners at my former jobs. I recall one adult getting hired and fired on the SAME day. Why? because he's not going to do the job. I recall putting up with constant whining, and whining, "I'm not going to to that - then back to texting" - all coming from adults.

 

[turbo]

Sorry if I've asked before, but do you have another source of heat for the winter months besides the wood burner?

I've got an oil furnace, but I hate to use it. I'd rather burn wood. My stove burns very hot and clean and I'm burning carbon that has been sequestered only for the life of the tree.

 

[turbo]

Here is what I finished today, and what I asked the kid to do. Construct basic cross-tied tiers of firewood that can serve as a backstop against which to loose-pile the rest of the wood. Then put down old pallets and throw the rest of the firewood into a nice domed pile (probably 8-9' high). I'll do it myself. I can't rely on an unreliable kid that works at a snail's pace. I can afford him, financially, but the aggravation and the uncertainty involved with scheduling my wood-supplier are insurmountable.

My wood-supplier is my niece's husband, and I don't want to inconvenience him because he treats me well. He delivers 1.25 cords of wood, cut and split in every load, and they are tightly-packed honest loads. If I call him at suppertime, he'll often show up with a load before dark. Hard-working guy!

 

[rootX]

I think culture is changing .. but there are always a lot who would slack off. When I was young, I took some manual jobs (heavy) beyond my abilities but I did them anyway and my employers were always above satisfied with my work.

 

[turbo]

The kid just rode by on his mountain-bike twice in about 15 minutes, looking over here each time. What's his problem? Swing in and ask if he can make some more money. I have a stone-surrounded raised flower-bed garden on my plate, as well as the firewood, and I explained that to the kid in detail. I'll have to tackle that later without him, apparently. I have stockpiled the larger stones and I can place them with my tractor pretty effectively. It would be nice to have another pair of eyes in front of the loader bucket, but if I can't trust the kid to even show up, I need to figure out a better way to do everything by myself.

 

[DanP]

Turbo, the way ppl do such jobs here is usually for a flat fee. A price is negotiated, and then the work gets done very fast. Hourly wages suck.

Ppl in the countryside know very well the average time it takes to do such works. They negotiate a price and expect the work to be done in a reasonable amount of time. Usually no one pulls the kittens tail when working, they just get the work done so they get the pay, and move fast to another job.

So maybe if you hire hands you should do the same.

 

[turbo]

I think culture is changing .. but there are always a lot who would slack off. When I was young, I took some manual jobs (heavy) beyond my abilities but I did them anyway and my employers were always above satisfied with my work.

I took on snow-removal jobs that were too big for me, and I'd hire only my friends that would work their hearts out. Back when $1.25 was minimum wage, it was cool to make $5.00/hr doing stuff that I had to do at home anyway.

 

[rootX]

The kid just rode by on his mountain-bike twice in about 15 minutes, looking over here each time. What's his problem? Swing in and ask if he can make some more money. I have a stone-surrounded raised flower-bed garden on my plate, as well as the firewood, and I explained that to the kid in detail. I'll have to tackle that later without him, apparently. I have stockpiled the larger stones and I can place them with my tractor pretty effectively. It would be nice to have another pair of eyes in front of the loader bucket, but if I can't trust the kid to even show up, I need to figure out a better way to do everything by myself.

New kid or putting simple job ad somewhere ..?

 

[KalamMekhar]

I would like to point out that I remember being nervous about working at neighbors houses. I am not sure what you could do to get him to come over. Maybe he likes working with no one watching him? Although from the sounds of it you aren't.

 

[turbo]

I would like to point out that I remember being nervous about working at neighbors houses. I am not sure what you could do to get him to come over. Maybe he likes working with no one watching him? Although from the sounds of it you aren't.

I never monitored him. When he showed up, I'd note the time, and when he decided to go home, I'd subtract the difference and pay him in cash for the time he spent here. I told him that if he came early or ended late, I would accept his tally of hours worked and pay him based on his statements, with no substantiation. He's gotten a free ride from me, IMO, and that's gone.

 

[KalamMekhar]

I never monitored him. When he showed up, I'd note the time, and when he decided to go home, I'd subtract the difference and pay him in cash for the time he spent here. I told him that if he came early or ended late, I would accept his tally of hours worked and pay him based on his statements, with no substantiation. He's gotten a free ride from me, IMO, and that's gone.

Weird situation. for 7.50$ an hour, that was a darn good paying job. Easy too!

 

[JDStupi]

Out of curiosity, what is the temperature? I realized you said you were in Maine, and I'm in New Jersey and am curious as to how the summer in Maine is, comparatively speaking. Now, I am a teenager, so take my view however you will. From my point of view the most irritating aspect is his laziness and lack of commitment to his word.
I do not necessarily get the obsession with work work work work work, start young work for more and more money and continue to do so until your old, start as young as possible work. I work, and I did work sporadically when I was younger, and I would do snow jobs, leaves etc, but I am in the situation now where I do not want to constantly work because I would rather focus on personal development at this point whilst working just enough to pay for what I need to pay for, get an education and worry about working later. I have my whole life to work, for me it is just I don't buy too many things, and as of now I still live with my parents so the obsession with money is not there, I just pay for CC and car insurance/gas etc.
Now, that said, the majority of kids ARE indeed obsessed with more and more money for more and more things, and so their working should be better. Though I wouldn't want to work a lot, If I agreed to work for something, then I would definatley get the work done in a prompt manner. If I agreed to work for someone, I would feel embarassed if I just sat out there lazing around and doing nothing.
Haha, come to think of it, I can somewhat empathize with you because where I work (A BK at a rest stop haha) they tend to hire a lot of younger teens, freshman/sophomores in high school, 14-16, and they absolutley SUCK at working (Not EVERY one, but a lot).Everything is done at a constipated garbageting pace, and they typically clean half-assed, and disappear for 10^100 "Bathroom Breaks". Well there you go, sorry for my little rant...

 

[turbo]

The heat wave has broken and the humidity has been tolerable for over a week now. We're getting low 80s in mid-day. I have COPD and asthma, so if I can stand to work out there, a healthy teen-ager should have no problem working. A good friend of mine has hunting camp nearby, and he lives near the coast, so he asked me who would be a good person to mow the lawns there throughout the season. I gave him the name of my 70+ year old neighbor. Bob takes care of yardwork, shoveling off roofs, etc for several camps around here. He is retired, but he likes to keep busy and he is very reliable. My friend thanked me very profusely for hooking him up with Bob. He does good work, and when he goes to camp to mow, he checks the doors, windows, outbuildings, etc for signs of break-ins (a common problem for remote camps around here).

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Sounds like he is maybe spoiled and never really had to work for anything.
Maybe if you took the opposite approach, went out there with him, and kept him company while doing what ever other little jobs you have? I'm not sure that you would really want to invest the time at this point but he may just need the right motivation to keep coming back. Money doesn't seem to be it.

 

[Char. Limit]

Just don't make the mistake of thinking that all teenagers are like that. It'd be like us teenagers thinking all adults were a bunch of workaholics, because we saw one person working 70+ hours a week. (I'd love, once I'm out of college, to use a 40-50 hour range, but come on, you need some time for social activities.)

 

[turbo]

Just don't make the mistake of thinking that all teenagers are like that. It'd be like us teenagers thinking all adults were a bunch of workaholics, because we saw one person working 70+ hours a week. (I'd love, once I'm out of college, to use a 40-50 hour range, but come on, you need some time for social activities.)

I don't assume that all teenagers are like that, because I certainly wasn't. I'm afraid that our culture is degrading the work-ethic in our young people, though. We put them in a protective cocoon for most of their (extended) childhood and tell them that if they want to be really successful, they have to stay in school for even more years until they have some advanced degrees to hang on the wall and THEN start a career.

Over 30 years ago, my wife and I rented a run-down 300 acre farm just to have a place to stay that wasn't in any mid-town area. It was rough, and it was cheap, and I had to cut and split over 20 cords of wood/year just to keep from freezing (uninsulated brick house). We made that choice. While we were there (saving money for a house of our own), I helped a close neighbor build a stone house for him and his new bride. I'd get home from work and either start a new mixer of mortar, or take the tractor out to strip more stones off the walls in the woods, and when he got home, we'd try to add another tier to the walls before night fell. Our wives would bring us sandwiches and a few cold beers every night. That was hard work, but we were both used to it.

I wonder if we'll ever see that work-ethic in our young again. I see it in farm families around here, but I fear that's fading.

 

[Chi Meson]

Since I get to see about a hundred teenagers pass by me every year, I thought I'd get this in:

There has always been the full spectrum of laziness vs industrialism among the adolescent, and I don't think the distribution has changed that much. I do think that the options have changed, though, and those kids with a good work ethic are also likely to not be "chumps." That is, when they get the better offer (easier work, more money) they grab it. Very often their parents have located a summer internship, or the like.

I have the "honor" of writing about two dozen letters of recommendation for colleges each year. These are usually for my best Physics students, which usually means the best students in the entire school; I often get copies of their resumes, and they are crammed full of jobs and internships, sometimes starting at the age of 10. I do not recall ever seeing "wood stacking" or anything similar. Coastal Connecticut is very different from inland Maine, for certain, but there might be a similar trend.

Turbo, it seems that this particular teen has the option of not needing to do this work. That along with the option of showing up whenever he wants equals the option of doing this work whenever he needs to. Which equals "never."

How many teens (in total) are nearby you?

 

[Blenton]

I'm afraid that our culture is degrading the work-ethic in our young people, though. We put them in a protective cocoon for most of their (extended) childhood and tell them that if they want to be really successful, they have to stay in school for even more years until they have some advanced degrees to hang on the wall and THEN start a career.

Exactly. I'm 20 and I haven't worked a day in my life. I'm waiting for this damn EE course to finish so I can finally do something since any non qualified part time job would rather hire a much cheaper 15-16 year old than me.

 

[cristo]

Exactly. I'm 20 and I haven't worked a day in my life.

How did you survive during school with no money, or during vacations from college?

 

[KalamMekhar]

How did you survive during school with no money, or during vacations from college?

This.

If I didn't have a job in my teens, I wouldn't nearly have what I have now.

 

[turbo]

To clarify, the kid told me that he wanted to take driver's instruction and that he needed $400 to pay for it. I thought about the stuff that I needed to get done, like stacking firewood, building a stone-bordered raised-bed flower garden for my wife, etc, and told him that I'd hire him. After he had stacked a little bit of my outside firewood inside the shady, well-ventilated shed, he worked a bit on stacking the outside wood-pile, and then stopped showing up, with no phone calls, etc. I'm pretty disappointed with that attitude and the lack of personal responsibility.

There are no other teen-agers around for miles. If I needed the help, I'd hire his older sister, who just graduated and still lives at home, but this summer she's doing filing and secretarial work for a law office that her mother works at.

 

[zomgwtf]

Hmph. While I probably wouldn't enjoy it if I needed money and you offered me this job I would certainly jump at the chance and I would be at your place every day. I'm 21 now but that's beside the point.

I started working when I was 16 at a warehouse, they just needed someone to remove the brush around the fence I got paid $10 an hour. The work was really hard (this was a HUGE brush going along the entire property) but I showed up every day and worked for 8 hours taking an hour break. I've worked 2 fulltime jobs since then and at the same time I wasgoing to high-school and tutoring people. It was brutal, especially in the mornings, but hey I really needed the money. (no point in devulging further info) So I don't think all teens share this lack of work-ethic or responsibility.

The thing that bothers me about thisstory turbo isn't the kids lack of enthusiasm to work for you stacking wood. It's the fact that he agreed to do it and has been blowing you off with excuses. He should either honour his agreementw ith you and complete the job or he should go to your home and talk to you about what's up. You can hardly blame him for not 'wanting' to stack wood but he certainly should man up.

 

[zomgwtf]

As well turbo, after reading more of the thread... I noticed you talked about how back in the day you did hard labour. You would probably be surprised at the amount of teens that would be into doing some hard labour... especially if beer and sandwiches served by beautiful ladies were involved . I certainly know that most of my friends would do this work for free, just to be helping and 'having a good time' of working with people. It would increase a lot of there were money involved.

I don't think you should judge all of teenagedom with a few bad experiences.

 

[turbo]

Hmph. While I probably wouldn't enjoy it if I needed money and you offered me this job I would certainly jump at the chance and I would be at your place every day. I'm 21 now but that's beside the point.

That's part of what puzzles me. We have a really high unemployment rate in this county, and I could hire adults to do this work, with no problem. Instead, I'll do the work myself, and on really humid days when my breathing is impaired, I'll just stay inside and chill. Building flower-beds and stacking wood aren't particularly time-sensitive chores.

I'm just really disappointed in this kid's attitude and lack of responsibility.

As for what something like this would look like on a resume, if I had to choose from several applicants with no relevant work experience, I'd certainly give a lot of extra weight to a resume that included things like summer jobs doing landscaping or lawn-maintenance or (especially) haying and mucking out stalls on a dairy farm. I'd be pretty leery of a new high-school graduate that had never had any summer jobs or after-school jobs.

 

[rhody]

Hmmm,

Not being from your hired hands era, I am not qualified to address his lack of motivation to stacking wood for 7.50 $ an hour. I worked numerous odd jobs, painting, mowing lawns, etc as a kid for extra money. I was never handed anything in life, and did not grow up with "enablers" who took the slack if I didn't contribute when asked to. You mentioned adults who are unemployed in your town who would work for that, how about this then, make a list of things you couldn't do yourself, say a couple of days work of work to make it worthwhile to someone (who is mature/responsible) and spread the word to a few neighbors of the job. I would be willing to be it wouldn't be too long till someone took you up on the offer.

Improvise and adapt, at the end of the day, it always seems to be the strategy that I end up using.

Rhody...

 

[turbo]

Yeah, Rhody, I could get adults to work for minimum wage in cash with no problem, if I needed to get these things done and couldn't do them myself. I can do all the things I need to do, though the weather can slow me down a bit. I hired the kid (or at least tried to) because he told me he needed money for driving lessons. Since I was going through a bad spell (respiratory problems) at the time, I thought it would be a good fit for both of us. Wrong.

 

[Chi Meson]

So this guy approached you first? Sounds like bad manners being the worst problem.

Up to you of course, and this might be the teacher in me talking, but I would call the parents to let them know why the kids services are no longer wanted. They might be interested in addressing some aspect of his conduct. I have found that 95% of contact with parents has had positive results. This ain't school, but it is a "learning experience."

 

[turbo]

Yeah, I was out walking my dog and ran into the kid, and he told me that he needed to earn $400 for driving lessons. I wasn't inclined to make him an offer right them, but when my wife got home, I told her what he said and she said I should hire him as-needed to get some chores done around here. Between tending the garden, weeding, mowing, and indoor chores, I can keep pretty busy, so some extra hands at times could be helpful. I don't know his parents very well, except that they are conservative fundamentalist Christians. Given that, I thought the kid would work out OK, but I was wrong about that.

BTW, he could have earned the entire $400 and more in just a couple of weeks if he had been willing to work. I still have another 2-1/2 cords of firewood to split and stack and a large stockpile of stones to make my wife's flower-bed with. He wouldn't have had to do any serious lifting, because I have a tractor to set the largest stones with. It would have been nice to have somebody on the front side of the loader bucket to let me know when I had the stone properly aligned for dumping.