A Little Rant on Today's Generation of Kids and Their (lack of) Work Ethic

[comingdown]

For sure. My first job was shit, and probably illegal. I was 14 working from 6am to 5:30 because I rode with my brother. It was an industrial truck manufacturing plant. I swept, organized steel, cut chain links apart, mowed tge awful lawn on a slope and cut my head with the razor wire. I was and am a hard worker. After one day I had all his projects done and I just kept sweeping and sweeping. I got my first paycheck for $400 and thought I died and went to heaven. I was also always working for my dad, no official pay but I had money as needed. At 12 I could prep and install commercial storefront doors. I’m glad I had an example that taught me to work hard and not give up. At 16 when I could drive I’d do his after hours emergency board ups and I could keep the board up money and he’d fix the glass later on. But because of this higher education was never on my radar. I knew I was gonna be blue collar and embraced it fully and did nothing but screw around school.

My wife was the opposite. She had a full academic scholarship, graduated with almost her associates and had her degree in under 3 years and then got a master’s degree. We make the same money almost but she works way less and not nearly as physically demanding although plenty mentally.

I mean, I can’t imagine the future when everyone is a college educated influencer. I’ll be charging $1000/hr to come do basic stuff for them. It sounds crazy but that’s where this world is headed.

 

[Coco]

I just wonder how many times coco had to stop typing and chase e teenagers off his lawn. 😂

Well, it took me this long to get through the whole thread, so take it as you will haha. (it couldn't possibly be because I have been in the shop almost every day of the week- but still).

Got another guy starting Monday, wish us luck!

 

[spaggyroe]

I'll be forthcoming, I hear more about these employment woes than I realize as an employer. I'm very fortunate in that regard. I've got over a dozen employees on the payroll @ Cruiser Outfitters

Just wanted to compliment your staff and the culture you’ve created Kurt. Every time I’ve been in Cruiser Outfitters, your guys have bent over backwards to help me out. I appreciate their attitude and service.

 

[glockman]

I mean, I can’t imagine the future when everyone is a college educated influencer. I’ll be charging $1000/hr to come do basic stuff for them. It sounds crazy but that’s where this world is headed.

This is so true and it makes me smile. Mostly because it eases any anxiety I have about the idiots on the coasts taking over our country. At some point the blue collar people who actually run the world will just sit on their hands and bring everything to a halt.

 

[nnnnnate]

So I have a coworker from Taiwan. He came over in his teens. Apparently his family had some money and influence over there. His dad stayed in Taiwan and his mom and brother moved here. I don't know the whole story and I don't really want to but he says that if you have money in Taiwan you don't do basic stuff. You pay someone to do it for you. Like the basic easy stuff that we're ridiculing. Changing light bulbs and whatnot.

The amount of dumb stuff he says makes me believe that it's true. I guess there's got to be a way to fact check that but I hadn't thought anything of it until now.

 

[N-Smooth]

You don’t even have to go to Taiwan for that. You should’ve heard my wife’s coworkers from Cali when they found out we don’t have a gardener. They were shocked! They’re not even what I’d consider wealthy.

 

[Stephen]

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C'Mon guys, you don't hire lightbulb changers? What are you even doing with your lives?

 

[DAA]

You don’t even have to go to Taiwan for that. You should’ve heard my wife’s coworkers from Cali when they found out we don’t have a gardener. They were shocked! They’re not even what I’d consider wealthy.

If they are shocked at not having a gardener, I consider them wealthy. Then again, they're Californios, maybe they are just really accustomed to exploiting immigrants. While simultaneously virtue signaling their compassion for immigrants? Californios are just weird.

- DAA

 

[jackjoh]

Right, there’s definitely some truth to people wanting to skip the fixer upper and go right to their dream house. That is definitely a problem. But to me, that house I bought for 88k I couldn’t buy today for 350k. Wages are higher than 2013, but not really keeping the same pace as home prices. I grew up in San Diego and knew if I wanted to ever buy a house it had to be elsewhere. I simply couldn’t afford to buy anything there. Still can’t and wouldn’t want to. I’m the youngest of nine kids and was raised in a 3 bed 1.5 bath house until I was about 4, and my parents remodeled our house. My grandparents bought houses for cheap, it was unfinished and my grandpa built his own cabinets, did all his own work as he could afford it. He also invested all his money in stocks, bonds and real estate and lived like a pauper. Like unwilling to fix his root filled plumbing because he couldn’t imagine spending the money, and he was at this time a multi-multi millionaire. Like 200 houses and units in San Diego wealthy. So money was no issue, it was a depression mentality that was holding him back. To me, what’s the point of being that wealthy if you can’t even enjoy indoor plumbing? BTW me and my dad eventually tore everything apart and fixed everything and remodeled the bathroom for my grandma in her wheelchair. He could t believe how nice it was once we were finished and gave me and my dad a blank check literally and told us to fill in whatever we wanted. My dad has been successful as a union worker and a small business owner, and he’s now retired. My mom wanted a motor home to travel and they bought one, paid cash. And my dad hates it be a it cost him money. He can’t just enjoy time with his wife and retirement because he’s still worried about money and he doesn’t have to. So while there’s plenty to learn from our pst generations, they could learn some from our generation as well. I like the saying if you can’t be happy without money you won’t be happy with it. But it does kill me when people are buying a house and instantly gutting it and throwing thousands into a remodel instead of just enjoying home ownership and slowly improving stuff as you go. That’s what I do. Just keep a never ending pile of a couple thousand half finished projects going. 😂

My granddaughter Married a police officer who built the house to live in. Then they got married.

 

[comingdown]

If they are shocked at not having a gardener, I consider them wealthy. Then again, they're Californios, maybe they are just really accustomed to exploiting immigrants. While simultaneously virtue signaling their compassion for immigrants? Californios are just weird.

- DAA

We grew up on two acres of golf course like lawn, and my dad had 8 gardeners, well 5 technically. There’s 5 boys and 3 girls in my family. And it was in San Diego. A girl I grew up with her dad played pro football and she was so shocked when she applied for college aid why she didn’t get any. Way too many people are way too out of touch with reality.

 

[jeeper]

I’m going to throw out an opposite issue, the tire store ‘screw the customer’ ethics.
I used to bust tires at big-o early 2000’s. We repaired all kids of flat tires. Had patches with big plugs that would fix big holes.

Now, if you’ve plugged a tire for temporary repair, store won’t fix it.
Now if the hole is anything larger than a small nail, store won’t fix it.
Now the ‘side wall’ of a tire has become anything but the middle 2 inches of a tread pattern. Anything within a couple inches of the shoulder store won’t repair.
Today, store won’t repair a trailer tire because it’s 10 years old. Not even for a spare.

I was plugging bias ply tires from the 70’s when I was a buster.

Not only will they just want to sell a new tire instead of fix one, you have to wait for 15 minutes in the lobby for service.

Don’t even get me started on finding motorcycle parts in stock locally.

Store fronts are crying about people buying from the internet, but drive us there because of their poor service and lack of supplies.

/rant off.

 

[Stephen]

I’m going to throw out an opposite issue, the tire store ‘screw the customer’ ethics.
I used to bust tires at big-o early 2000’s. We repaired all kids of flat tires. Had patches with big plugs that would fix big holes.

Now, if you’ve plugged a tire for temporary repair, store won’t fix it.
Now if the hole is anything larger than a small nail, store won’t fix it.
Now the ‘side wall’ of a tire has become anything but the middle 2 inches of a tread pattern. Anything within a couple inches of the shoulder store won’t repair.
Today, store won’t repair a trailer tire because it’s 10 years old. Not even for a spare.

I was plugging bias ply tires from the 70’s when I was a buster.

Not only will they just want to sell a new tire instead of fix one, you have to wait for 15 minutes in the lobby for service.

Don’t even get me started on finding motorcycle parts in stock locally.

Store fronts are crying about people buying from the internet, but drive us there because of their poor service and lack of supplies.

/rant off.

Buy this and everyone on RME will just come to you to break down and repair tires :

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[jeeper]

Buy this and everyone on RME will just come to you to break down and repair tires :

Hunter Auto34 tire machine

$12,500.00 Hunter Auto34 tire machine for sale in Centerville, UT on KSL Classifieds. View a wide selection of Machinery and other great items on KSL Classifieds.

classifieds.ksl.com

YOU buy it, I will store it, RME can use it.

 

[Stephen]

YOU buy it, I will store it, RME can use it.

Meh, that seems like a lot of work...

 

[comingdown]

I’m going to throw out an opposite issue, the tire store ‘screw the customer’ ethics.
I used to bust tires at big-o early 2000’s. We repaired all kids of flat tires. Had patches with big plugs that would fix big holes.

Now, if you’ve plugged a tire for temporary repair, store won’t fix it.
Now if the hole is anything larger than a small nail, store won’t fix it.
Now the ‘side wall’ of a tire has become anything but the middle 2 inches of a tread pattern. Anything within a couple inches of the shoulder store won’t repair.
Today, store won’t repair a trailer tire because it’s 10 years old. Not even for a spare.

I was plugging bias ply tires from the 70’s when I was a buster.

Not only will they just want to sell a new tire instead of fix one, you have to wait for 15 minutes in the lobby for service.

Don’t even get me started on finding motorcycle parts in stock locally.

Store fronts are crying about people buying from the internet, but drive us there because of their poor service and lack of supplies.

/rant off.

For sure general corporate greed has driven a lot of people from the work place feeling like no matter what they do it is never noticed or rewarded, and I don’t mean the annual pizza party as the reward.

 

[TRD270]

I’m going to throw out an opposite issue, the tire store ‘screw the customer’ ethics.
I used to bust tires at big-o early 2000’s. We repaired all kids of flat tires. Had patches with big plugs that would fix big holes.

Now, if you’ve plugged a tire for temporary repair, store won’t fix it.
Now if the hole is anything larger than a small nail, store won’t fix it.
Now the ‘side wall’ of a tire has become anything but the middle 2 inches of a tread pattern. Anything within a couple inches of the shoulder store won’t repair.
Today, store won’t repair a trailer tire because it’s 10 years old. Not even for a spare.

I was plugging bias ply tires from the 70’s when I was a buster.

Not only will they just want to sell a new tire instead of fix one, you have to wait for 15 minutes in the lobby for service.

Don’t even get me started on finding motorcycle parts in stock locally.

Store fronts are crying about people buying from the internet, but drive us there because of their poor service and lack of supplies.

/rant off.

So not sure if you’re specifically talking about Big O now. But, I know a “management group” has been buying up a bunch of them. I know when they bought the Sandy store virtually every employee walked out within months. They bought the cottonwood heights store where several of my friends work. Most have left or transferred to other stores not operated by this group. The management is 100% over charging, recommending repairs that aren’t needed and just bending people over at a store that used to take care of its customers. On top of that cut everyone’s wages and hours and can’t seem to figure out why everyone is leaving.

 

[jeeper]

So not sure if you’re specifically talking about Big O now. But, I know a “management group” has been buying up a bunch of them. I know when they bought the Sandy store virtually every employee walked out within months. They bought the cottonwood heights store where several of my friends work. Most have left or transferred to other stores not operated by this group. The management is 100% over charging, recommending repairs that aren’t needed and just bending people over at a store that used to take care of its customers. On top of that cut everyone’s wages and hours and can’t seem to figure out why everyone is leaving.

Not big-O specifically. All tire stores. This rant was Discount tire oriented.

It was that sandy big-o I worked at.. I still recommend them often.. and just recently heard about the buy out. I haven't been since and didn't know the full situation. I was hoping nothing would change Are Derek / Jared still in charge?

 

[zmotorsports]

For sure general corporate greed has driven a lot of people from the work place feeling like no matter what they do it is never noticed or rewarded, and I don’t mean the annual pizza party as the reward.

Personally, I look at it as I am "rewarded" twice a month when I get paid. After that me and company are square and it starts over. I don't need, nor want, the pizza party or phony thank you's. Just leave me alone and let me do my job is all I ask.

I know I am the outlier though. People want to be "rewarded" with the extras because they think they are going above and beyond when in all actuality, some don't even do the bare minimum these days.

 

[RockChucker]

@jeeper I understand the rant....but my assumption from most of those irks is that the lawyers and protecting the bottom line made it happen. The tire store doesn't want to own the liability of fixing a tire anywhere near questionable and then get sued later IF the tire fails and a bus full of nuns is taken out. Even if the repair doesn't fail and the tire does, they'd still be implicated.

 

[jeeper]

@jeeper I understand the rant....but my assumption from most of those irks is that the lawyers and protecting the bottom line made it happen. The tire store doesn't want to own the liability of fixing a tire anywhere near questionable and then get sued later IF the tire fails and a bus full of nuns is taken out. Even if the repair doesn't fail and the tire does, they'd still be implicated.

I totally get it, and believe the same.

But when I can't count on the shop to fix my tire, I fix it myself. Which means I don't need them at all. So now I buy my tires online, pay less, and don't wait in line at a store. Fine by me.. and really more convenient, but the local store doesn't get the business. Then I'm told I'm the cause of the issue.
It's not like my money is going to change the fate of the store.. but it's principle I guess.