Business slowing down? Jayco layoffs

[KillerIsMe]

Practically every job these days that's going to lead anywhere needs a degree of some sort.

I live in a rural area. Nobody around here is educated beyond high school, some not even that. They tend to marry young (really young), have kids young, and virtually everyone is poor. Guy down the road works a little bit for "him over there", whatever that means. Other guys do some landscaping, some snow plowing, anything for a few bucks. Nobody has health care - they get sick they tough it out or they go the charity care route. It's a cycle of rural poverty that's been repeated generation after generation since probably the mid-70's, and the thing is there's no end in sight for the kids coming up. The kid across the road, 13 years old, wants to grow up to be a model, or else do what his dad does (laborer). Kid's sister - 15 - wants to be rich when she gets out of high school. Not making fun of them, they just have no concept of anything else.

So who's better off or worse off - kid living with his parents because he can't afford to move out because he can't get a good enough job to cover his debt, or the kid lives up in a trailer in the back field because his job doesn't pay enough to do anything else? That was my rant: give both kids access to low cost education/job training (the same thing) so they're not in a hole before they even turn 23. Surely a country with a 4 trillion dollar budget can afford to educate our young folks.

[Grumpy]

Intersting article on YAHOO.

Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon said the one skillset that's becoming harder to find is the ability to write.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/g...151104203.html

[wags999]

What is becoming difficult to find, is employees that show up. I have worked for 9 years, part time seasonally after I retired. I worked at Costco for 4 seasons. In my department I was getting 40 hours while permanent part timers were getting 24 hours. When they said that's not fair, I merely pointed out not a week goes by that you don't call in because, your sick, your wife is sick, your dog is sick, the car won't start. Literally some were out every week, even to the point of being laid off for a week due to excess absences. I told them why I got more hours, because I SHOW UP, and when called I come in...the bar is so low if you just show up your a super start. It's like that everywhere, young kids have poor work ethics.



And to the point you need a college degree, I have 4 kids, 3 with degrees and one who has no degree. The one with no degree makes more than all 3 of the other kids, in Tech, for a major company. Degrees don't make you smart, they make you educated. Sadly the vast majority of students don't work in the discipline they studied. As stated above, some companies mandate a degree, makes no difference what it's in. Also since the Government took over most tuition programs, making unlimited funds available, colleges have had zero incentive to hold costs down. Tuition has risen many times faster than any other area, including healthcare. Students get a degree in "left handed puppetry" with a debt of $100,000 or more. Parents along with the schools need to accept the responsibility for allowing kids to go into debt they can never repay.



And trades can make well over $100,000. "Adults" need to stop telling kids they HAVE to have a college degree, not everyone needs, is capable of, or should go to college. Today a college degree means little...it's just a sheepskin to get you in the door. As we have seen with the current scandal of parents paying to get their kids in certain schools, the degree means nothing. That is why my son can make what he does, without a degree....it's what you know not what a piece of paper said you did.

[THE MEEKER]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Intersting article on YAHOO.

Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon said the one skillset that's becoming harder to find is the ability to write.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/g...151104203.html

Kind of off topic, but the one thing that drives me nuts with millennials is their use of the word "like" in their speech patterns.

"Sara said that I was like, rude to her. And I was like, I don't think so, like I try to be nice to everyone. But some of my other friends are like, agreeing with her. And I'm like, what's up with that?"

It actually hurts to hear them talk sometimes.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by wags999

And to the point you need a college degree, I have 4 kids, 3 with degrees and one who has no degree. The one with no degree makes more than all 3 of the other kids, in Tech, for a major company. Degrees don't make you smart, they make you educated. Sadly the vast majority of students don't work in the discipline they studied. As stated above, some companies mandate a degree, makes no difference what it's in. Also since the Government took over most tuition programs, making unlimited funds available, colleges have had zero incentive to hold costs down. Tuition has risen many times faster than any other area, including healthcare. Students get a degree in "left handed puppetry" with a debt of $100,000 or more. Parents along with the schools need to accept the responsibility for allowing kids to go into debt they can never repay.
And trades can make well over $100,000. "Adults" need to stop telling kids they HAVE to have a college degree, not everyone needs, is capable of, or should go to college. Today a college degree means little...it's just a sheepskin to get you in the door. As we have seen with the current scandal of parents paying to get their kids in certain schools, the degree means nothing. That is why my son can make what he does, without a degree....it's what you know not what a piece of paper said you did.

Spot on..

[RPR]

At one time in England I believe you took a test after high school. Score over set number you went to college. Below certain number you went to trade school.

[KillerIsMe]

Degree doesn't make you the smartest punter in the joint. Doesn't make you the highest paid either. It gives you flexibility. That's the advantage.

[Midnightmoon]

Originally Posted by KillerIsMe

Degree doesn't make you the smartest punter in the joint. Doesn't make you the highest paid either. It gives you flexibility. That's the advantage.

Agreed. Where I work, you need a degree to be hired and they require a masters within 5 years.

Smartest punter..........some can't even find the ball.....lol.

[KillerIsMe]

The manufacturing jobs, the jobs at the railroad - they aren't coming back. Despite what is being said. You have to roll with the changes.

[Lake Huron]

wags999,

Don't even get me going on this one!

Everything you pointed out, I see times 10 around here.

I was the one with the 2.3 high school GPA and was told I would never amount to anything. In just over 5 years I'll have my 30 in and be retirement eligible. Yet, I've managed to pull down over $100k/yr for the last 11 years in a row. While these now degree holders that were putting me down back in the day, MAY be making $100k but they're still paying on that GREAT degree, cant afford the house they are living in that the other degree holding bean counters at the bank they got their mortgage from said they could.

Where I work, the "new" guys are all GenX and Millennials. Their boss comes in and says to his crew of 25 that there are 13 jobs. 12 can go home excused unpaid IF THEY WANT. THEY ARE NOT BEING FORCED. If the boss wasn't blocking the door, all 25 would be running out because they hav a pack of smokes in their pocket that they cant afford, an overpriced gas station Monster Energy drink in their hand and a game controller waiting at home for them with some Jerry Springer trash playing on the tv. Then they wonder how their $800/mo rent is gonna get paid when their 2 week paycheck shows up and they only bring home $500.

I'd better stop now before I really lose it.

[klinner28]

Originally Posted by KillerIsMe

The manufacturing jobs, the jobs at the railroad - they aren't coming back. Despite what is being said. You have to roll with the changes.

My wife and I are Penn Staters... she works at the main campus.

[Trippy1313]

Originally Posted by Midnightmoon

I can't find it right at the moment, but I read an article last year at one point that talked about how the millennials we really diving in to the RV market. I wonder if they are still purchasing at a record pace.

I am unfortunately grouped in with "millennials." ('86 kid).

I absolutely do not regret buying our first, and now our second house (sold first to buy this one). Best in the world to have an owned home for my kids to grow up in.

And we are also buying an RV. I grew up loving camping, its something that my 4 year old always talks about wanting to do. I want my 3 girls to enjoy things that I love as well.

I wish I could show you the excitement my 4 and 2 year olds have looking at "camping trailers." Makes me so happy. And they love Mariners Baseball.

[BuckleUp]

Originally Posted by 87Yugo

Maybe they will put more effort of putting quality back into the rigs.

This......exactly!

[WeRJuliian]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

It seems many don't want to be responsible for anything.

I think it may be the case that people don't want to commit to major capital purchases -other tban essentials like housing- until they see what the economy's going to do. These are Troubled Times.

[rarobo]

Way to go Trippy 1313 love your story, gives me hope that enough of y’all are around to keep things going..... my kids will sit around and talk about what a great time they had when we camped when they were young, yet who takes the grandkids? You guessed it ...us... keep up the good work it WLL pay off someday

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by wags999

Degrees don't make you smart, they make you educated. Sadly the vast majority of students don't work in the discipline they studied. As stated above, some companies mandate a degree, makes no difference what it's in.

There is a little more to it than that. I have hired, fired and promoted many individuals in my corporate management career. I could probably write a best-selling book on some of the resumes that I had received. My HR person and I would sit down weekly and would have a stack of “You have to read these gems!”. Needless to say, not a single one of those individuals were employed by me (or the company). There was one individual that would automatically FAX a canned resume, copied from the internet, each week to the same numbers. HR called the person and asked that they stop spamming us. The person was also asked how many companies were on his fax list… over 100. The interesting thing was that the resumes were getting worse and worse as the years went on. Most applicants did not even write their cover letters, if they even created one, addressing their skills for the job position.

Did it matter what 4-year degree the job applicant had? Not really! Why would I hire a college graduate over a non-college graduate? There were a few basic reasons as to why. First, with each college class taken you received a class syllabus, you knew from that point forward what your objectives were and if you wanted to get a passing grade, well you needed to complete all the syllabus requirements. Applying themselves, class after class. I firmly believed that when I give you the assignments with the deadlines you have the basics to make those deadlines. The college graduate, in their 4 years, was required to prepare a lot of reports and do a lot of writing in a set amount of time. An asset for required corporate reports.

I did not have to look over 100’s of resumes to try and figure out if the person applying had any of these basic qualities. More than half my list of applicants was eliminated. Granted, there were more than likely a lot of good candidates that were overlooked.

Did I have non-college employees working for me? Yes, and there were OUTSTANDING ones, but the amount of management/employee interaction was a lot higher in the beginning. With the constant staff cuts, we could not afford to take that additional time. So, did using the above criteria actually work to my/company advantage. Well, out of the 5 districts, mine was always number 1. The other districts did not use our requirements.

One last item. If the applicant finished their college degree at night while working full time, they were on a step higher than the regular 4-year graduate when it came to selection time. Did the above requirements always work? Absolutely not, but the odds were in our favor.

I am sure that there will be those that disagree with the logic my group used in hiring, but this is what worked for us.

Don

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