From Michael in the comments:
Hunger doesn't create motivated people. Hunger doesn't create a willingness to work together. Hunger doesn't suddenly give people skill-sets they never bothered to learn before....When you create an entitled welfare species it's really hard to get them to do anything useful in a group setting.
I worked with Tilman Ellis in the late 1970s.
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| Summer of 1967, Detroit. Riots broke out. Spicy times. |
About a decade earlier, Tilman was the foreman of a roofing crew in Detroit. The year was 1967.
At the start of the work-day, a mob of potential day-laborers assembled at the work-site. If Tilman estimated that the work-ticket for the day required 10 men, Tilman simply pointed at the first ten men who looked fit and jerked his thumb upward, indicating that they were expected to climb the ladders leaning against the building and join the roofing crew.
The average day-laborer in Detroit at that time was the dregs of society. Any employee could get a job in an auto plant if they had a pulse. Those jobs came with benefits and Union wages and Union representation. Even today, roofers are a very rough bunch of people.
Tilman struggled to complete his work-tickets. The men horse-played and loafed. They were like throwing a balloon into the wind. They moved as long as he was behind them pushing.
A few days into the job, Tilman blew his stack. The crew had been on the roof for about 20 minute when two guys close to the edge started playing grab-ass. "YOU! YOU! Get off my roof!"
To Tilman's amazement, the other eight men straightened up and gave him a solid 7 hours of work.
Tilman was a thoughtful man. Men who were fired in the first hour received no pay. All of the positions at the job-site had been filled so they were not going to get paid work for that day. They had no money to go drinking. If they were lucky enough to have a wife, they had to go home and explain to her (somehow she always knew if he had been hired for the day) why he had a job but lost it.
The next day, the first two guys who started to horse-play, Tilman pointed at them and boomed "YOU! YOU! Get off my roof!"
That day was a repeat of the day before. The remaining men buckled down and gave Tilman an honest day's work.
Soon, Tilman always "hired" two extra men in excess of what he thought he needed. Social dynamics, being what they are, always resulted in a couple of volunteer idiots trying to find the boundaries. Tilman accommodated them.
After a week or so, Tilman had eight guys who WANTED to work on his roof. It was orderly and safe and they didn't have to watch their back. They made sure they were standing near Tillman when he was hiring the day's crew. Tilman never had a problem finding a couple of volunteer idiots to pad out the crew.
Summary
The communist concept of the worker "owning" a job can work for most people but there are enough bringers-of-chaos to poison the actual execution.
Even the roughest of crews can be effective when pay-horizons are very short and consequences are swift and decisive.
It is counter-intuitive, but the day-labor model can actually reduce anxiety for some workers. There is no past. You are just a warm body lugging buckets of molten tar, or swinging a mop or shoveling gravel. You get a fresh start tomorrow even if you screw-up today.
Michael's observation "...entitled welfare species it's really hard to get them to do anything useful in a group setting..." is profound and it points to the solution. Nobody is entitled to their job. You have to earn it every day....every hour.
I read the linked substack last night. It kind of resonated with me. I've had poor results with 'career track jobs' but when I was self employed I managed to keep most of my customers happy. I can understand the less anxiety statement about day labor. The typical 'real' job has a lot of backstabbing and office politics that really hinder performance. And there's an incredible amount of friction between the people that do the work that pays the bills and the people that do support work. Especially if that support work isn't really related to or supportive of the core business.
ReplyDeleteSome dregs of society are a dreg because it's impossible to shoehorn an oversize square peg into a tiny round pigeonhole. Everybody fills a purpose, even the guys that get fired. Sometimes they learn quickly and sometimes they get fired a few times before they learn the lesson. Sometimes they stumble through life providing that life lesson to the more observant. It's a dismal track record but it serves a purpose. I wonder how many of Tilman's contemporaries started firing the worst of the worst? Success gets copied ruthlessly...
https://open.substack.com/pub/candidclodhopper/p/on-being-fundamentally-unemployable?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1osbdr
I remember that happening. It got to be a go to thing for a lot of employers large and small. Worked for some not for others. If you have 10 good employees and keep firing 2 to make a point that may not be realistic you will find the remaining 8 getting another job somewhere else. And it gave the labor union organizers a lot of new recruits that normally were not so inclined. A lot of construction companies ended up getting unionized that otherwise would not have. And it also provided a huge amount of new voters for democrats. ---ken
ReplyDelete"Nobody is entitled to their job. You have to earn it every day....every hour." Pretty profound, ERJ. It applies to everyone. I will have to ponder this more.
ReplyDeleteLost my comment.
ReplyDeleteShort version time was 1967.
Education for most of us gave you basic reading ability, writing ability and the socially required summer jobs gave you a work ethic.
You could tell someone to "Get off MY Roof" without concern that someone was going to stab you, shoot you or worse of all have a few shysters after you eager for political points and money for punishing a "Greedy, Intolerant, RICH Businessman".
The current batch of ner do wells living off momma and the dole have COMPARED to 1967 Expected Graduation Educational Skillsets are nearly illiterate and unable to do basic math.
Folks with any sort of pride were ashamed to be "on the Dole"
I remember the recession of the 70's, that's why I sent that fairly well written link about it. When my father was busted up falling off a roof job we got Food Stamps.
Father was too proud to use them, so he sent me a teenager to use them. Colorful coupons looking like Monopoly Money. I disliked hearing the occasional snicker and soft "white trash" comments about it.
Yesterday I saw a Muslim family using their EBT at Walmart to buy two carts of groceries. I saw them loading them into a pretty nice-looking SUV as Dad (I assume) sat in the driver's seat.
Other than being mildly startled to see two adult looking women and a flock of children (women in Habib's, boys looked western dress) at my little towns Walmart, nobody seemed distressed about that shopping on the dole.
It's not shameful UNLIKE 1967.