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Where the F are all the employees and where are they getting their money ?

If you aren't moving to another job every 2-3 years, you aren't getting paid what you are worth. Job hopping provides faster raises than any smoke and mirrors cost of living "calculations". Working a multitude of different jobs makes one more well rounded with exposure to more varieties of equipment.

I've worked in industrial maintenance jobs that had ancient hard wire relay logic and AB SLC-500 PLCs. AB stopped supporting that platform many years ago. Spare parts are on Ebay if you are lucky. If that company laid off any of its 20+ year maintenance employees, they would be worthless in any other modern manufacturing facility because they had no exposure to the latest and greatest tech.

I've never left a job because the work was too hard. It's always bad management that runs the best and brightest off. Those kind of companies are stuck with 20+ year employees simply because they can't find a job anywhere else.

I'm currently working with about a half dozen guys that say they're too old to learn how to use a diagnostic laptop or to learn electrical troubleshooting that involves more than a test light. Half can't even use a test light. It's basically a fucking retirement home on one end of the shop but management caters to them. They have no retirement and will be here until they die. Like you said, they can't go anywhere else because they are too far behind the times.
 
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If you aren't moving to another job every 2-3 years, you aren't getting paid what you are worth. Job hopping provides faster raises than any smoke and mirrors cost of living "calculations". Working a multitude of different jobs makes one more well rounded with exposure to more varieties of equipment.

I've worked in industrial maintenance jobs that had ancient hard wire relay logic and AB SLC-500 PLCs. AB stopped supporting that platform many years ago. Spare parts are on Ebay if you are lucky. If that company laid off any of its 20+ year maintenance employees, they would be worthless in any other modern manufacturing facility because they had no exposure to the latest and greatest tech.

I've never left a job because the work was too hard. It's always bad management that runs the best and brightest off. Those kind of companies are stuck with 20+ year employees simply because they can't find a job anywhere else.
Today there is simply no way out of the "PLC Trap"... Finding an oiler to come out at the end of the shift and lube / change oil / check water in heavy equipment is like looking for a dinosaur. There are thousands of small businesses being held together with duct tape, bailing wire, JB Weld and bungee cords.... Blue tarps over the holes in the roof, rest rooms that look to be 50 years old and a few guy's who have resolved themselves to work until they die.... I've labeled it as the RTF mode - Run To Failure.
This recession will kill off those operations just like COVID killed off all those with pre-existing conditions...
For the Gen X"s it's live in a shoe box in a mega city, spend your day in a cube, ride a bike to work, garage your EV so you can get out of the city on the weekend, no need to have a conventional stove since a microwave will do. Your grocery cart will be filled with boxed or canned foods. Drink from single serve cans or glass containers, water is in a plastic bottle.
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I'm currently working with about a half dozen guys that say they're too old to learn how to use a diagnostic laptop or to learn electrical troubleshooting that involves more than a test light. Half can't even use a test light. It's basically a fucking retirement home on one end of the shop but management caters to them. They have no retirement and will be here until they die. Like you said, they can't go anywhere else because they are too far behind the times.

Folks who can't / won't learn how to use computers and modern technology, at least at the basic functional level are going to eventually find themselves marginalized and at the mercy of others to help them do things. At the rate the world is going, it's going to be very difficult to not understand at least some of computers / modern stuff and get anything done.
 
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It destroys the economy/businesses, offshores jobs and reduces everyone’s standard of living


And not every business faces this.
Airline auto industry all street etc bailouts
Amazon etc big business getting zero tax for 10 years to move to areas etc
Continued destruction and rebuilding of the economy is a feature, not a bug of capitalism. Businesses are supposed to fail. Remember Sears? I call BS on it reducing anyone's standard of living. Capitalism is the greatest system for the allocation of resources that the world has ever known. The world today is more productive and richer than any world before it.

That there is cronyism doesn't change that--that's corrupt government bs. If you thought I'd disagree with you about the cronyism, you were wrong about that. But capitalism sure beats the alternatives.
 
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You know, you don’t have to go to college to build a living.

I will be forever grateful to my high school guidance counselor. He said “You’re probably going to go to jail.”, and didn’t even give me the military recruiter’s number. He saved me so much money.


My buddy I work with time to time is right there. He shows up to jobs and people from highschool are surprised he's never been to jail. Then they about shit when he tells them he's the owner and has a bunch of employees.

His parents helped him until they realized they were enabling. He turned 18 3 weeks after he finished highschool, and his Dad kicked him in the ass. He got to keep his truck, and had to get his own place and work. Now he's making well over 100k/yr in a place where 50k is plenty livable.
 
My buddy I work with time to time is right there. He shows up to jobs and people from highschool are surprised he's never been to jail. Then they about shit when he tells them he's the owner and has a bunch of employees.

His parents helped him until they realized they were enabling. He turned 18 3 weeks after he finished highschool, and his Dad kicked him in the ass. He got to keep his truck, and had to get his own place and work. Now he's making well over 100k/yr in a place where 50k is plenty livable.
Similar story. Had a friend in high school who was into street racing... He was very good at building racers. Got almost enough tickets to send him to the Big House. Tough Love entered the picture, long before it was labeled as Tough Love. In a very short time he had one of the most desirable auto repair shops in town.
 
No matter where you go, recruiting budgets are always bigger than retention budgets.

Funny you say that. The company I'm with now has been teaming up with local colleges and putting on shit with the high school to get kids attention. We have about 1700 employees and the one boss said they had 700 people quit last year and hired 900. We are buying other companies just for the employees as well.

The local union posted statistics trying to get the employees on board to go union. How few people that were vested in the esop company a couple years ago is mind blowing. I think 150 out of 1500 were vested in the esop and 401k as of a couple years ago if that gives you an idea of retention rates.
 
Folks who can't / won't learn how to use computers and modern technology, at least at the basic functional level are going to eventually find themselves marginalized and at the mercy of others to help them do things. At the rate the world is going, it's going to be very difficult to not understand at least some of computers / modern stuff and get anything done.

It's already next to impossible for those that don't understand. Had two guys with a truck in the shop for almost a week on an a/c system on a 2006 international. They threw parts at it and ordered another expensive part after they tried jumping switches on the system. The boss finally asked me to look at it, hooked up my laptop and checked the body module. I found the bad wire in about an hour. The new systems will usually give you a good idea where to start looking if you aren't scared of technology.

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