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I wanted to write a quick post about employment and how many companies or businesses are struggling to find workers or people that want to work. I know that the pandemic did many of us wrong, besides people losing jobs, many businesses had to close down. Now, we had some hart felt stories about businesses keeping on their employees and paying them out of their pocket, with some help from their communities, which is amazing – people coming together. Since we have gradually opened, with still some uncertainty, businesses are struggling to find workers, when they do, it seems a lot of them simply leave after a short time. Now, a perfect example of this phenomenon is my wife and her business. She runs a daycare; she employs one person. Before the pandemic, when she had to look for a new daycare assistant, she would simply place an ad and within hours she would have an abundance of applicants. About a month ago her current employee told her that she will be moving back east around November 1st, so my wife must find a new assistant. She placed her first ad about a month ago and barely got any applicants. The funny thing is that the few applicants she received made demands, like what hours they wanted to work, and how much they should get paid, and my wife was taken back by this because in her ad it specifically states the hours and wage – let me tell you she pays way-over the minimum wage.
The job is not hard at all, just a summary; you play or interact with the kids, she has tons of activities, you must change diapers, but don’t worry my wife has a schedule/routine, you never have to guess (of course you can also smell it, right). You help with lunches, snacks, and keep the areas clean where the kids are at. You get an hour lunch and a second hour to casually clean or disaffect toys, things, nothing heavy or out of the ordinary to do. The thing is she has struggled with employees and only a few have actually turned out to be good workers, but the rest, just like the current one, are always on their phone (She did stop that), sitting down on the ground not interacting with anyone, literally has lied about changing diapers, very negative attitude. The good thing is that my wife has been running her daycare for just over 25 years and is on top of everything; she is one of the best in her area – not to brag. I mean she literally has a waiting list of families looking to place their kid with her. One of the very first kids she had, has already graduated from college and is living a beautiful life. The kid invited my wife to both her high school graduation and college graduation because they consider her a second mom – the connection is amazing, they still keep in touch. My wife believes that she will impact each kid because they are with her 9 to 10 hours a day Monday through Friday, so she believes in making sure they get a positive, healthy, nurturing, and independent environment – she builds characters, not babies.
Back to my employee issue, you see she is not the only one, many parents from the daycare have told her that they are struggling to find candidates for the companies they work at. Also, you can see it in the news, restaurants are struggling to find employees, so it is an all-around issue. I mean, why is it so hard to find workers, and workers that don’t expect the moon and stars for whatever reason, these new applicants out there are just mind-blowing on what they demand or expect – not saying everyone is this way. Now, I know that the whole extra unemployment money was a major cause because people were getting more money from unemployment than from their regular jobs. It was hard to convenience people to go back to work when they don’t have to and they could just stay home and let the money come in. Of course, the Eviction Notice thing from the cities that allowed many renters to stay in their home, while not having to pay rent and not getting evicted. Imagine, no rent, no driving to work, no working, but still getting money and more than you did when you did worked, who wouldn’t want to stay at home. But isn’t that extra money all gone, and things are kind of returning to normal, for the most part. So, the past two months and with multiple ads, she has not found someone. Now, just today she did receive a few more applicants, so maybe one of these will work out.
Thanks for stopping by, I leave you with this thought, “As a business owner, it can be tough to find the right workers, but when you do, make sure you treat them well.”