Why class 1s and Amtrak cannot keep employees is not covered but these practices certainly apply to RRs. If employees loose confidence maybe only a complete turnover of top management is the answer?
Preemptive Layoffs and Rescinded Job Offers Destroy a Company From the Inside (msn.com)
EDIT: Appparenty only do or die layoff are acceptable. That was certainly not the situation of these RRs. Unless you call it do or die for the wall stree types?
blue streak 1Why class 1s and Amtrak cannot keep employees is not covered but these practices certainly apply to RRs. If employees loose confidence maybe only a complete turnover of top management is the answer? Preemptive Layoffs and Rescinded Job Offers Destroy a Company From the Inside (msn.com)
Get the BEAN COUNTERS out of top management. They know the price of everything and the value of nothing. PSR is a bean counter strategy in the railroads. Similar bean counter strategies are wrecking other industries all across the country.
Today's management doesn't want to believe they have ANY responsibility to ANY PARTY but the shareholders. They don't feature the continuing operation of their operation has any real value. They don't feature their customers deserve the service the customers are paying for. They don't feature they have ANY RESPONSIBILITY to their employee in being compensated and also having a life to be able to enjoy that compensation.
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Some people also retire or, when jobs are plentiful, find work that pays better or is more to their liking. In a bad economy people will hunker down and accept a lousy job..which is not the case right now.
The ruling class was spoiled by decades of enjoying a buyer's market as the boomers competed with one another for decent jobs.
Now with the boomers heading towards retirement, and the workforce shrinking as a result,...employers now find themselves on the other end of "market forces" that once were in their favor.
Convicted OneThe ruling class was spoiled by decades of enjoying a buyer's market as the boomers competed with one another for decent jobs. Now with the boomers heading towards retirement, and the workforce shrinking as a result,...employers now find themselves on the other end of "market forces" that once were in their favor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHE9vSty9N0
Convicted One The ruling class was spoiled by decades of enjoying a buyer's market as the boomers competed with one another for decent jobs. Now with the boomers heading towards retirement, and the workforce shrinking as a result,...employers now find themselves on the other end of "market forces" that once were in their favor.
Yep! "Chickens home to roost."
This is also a time in which workers ought to care about their pay because it is dropping every minute as inflation eats up its value. Are railroads raising their shipping rates because of inflation raising their cost of fuel, materials, and equipment? Why should employees’ pay be frozen as its value evaporates?
Euclid I have been told that railroaders are not concerned about the pay, but only concerned about the bad working conditions.
Most guys I know that quit the RR took jobs with lower pay.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
Raise the pay too much and the shippers move to trucks..which means the RRs go out of business.
azrailRaise the pay too much and the shippers move to trucks..which means the RRs go out of business.
Like truckers don't want to be paid. Maybe we can do away with transportation companies and just have John Q Public carry around commercial products in the bed of their pick up trucks when doing their daily chores.
Cut the pay and I'm sure the savings will be passed on to the shippers.
...right?
Higher pay may get workers, but working conditions is what's going to keep them here.
zugmann Higher pay may get workers, but working conditions is what's going to keep them here.
Quite true. We had a technician working for us, a good one too, who got his commercial driver's license and became a long-haul trucker. A year later he was back with us and we were glad to have him. The pay was better as a trucker than it was as a copier repair technician but the working conditions sucked.
He was never home, the trucking company bounced him all over the country like a ping-pong ball and finally he had enough.
A recent survey from the bureau of economic research showed that for most worker cohorts (except age 20-29) working from home is more valued than pay increases.
Another factor that crops up is that a lot of younger workers don't seem to realize that if you want to make the big bucks then you will have to put in the time at work to earn them and that sometimes the job has to come first.
CSSHEGEWISCH Another factor that crops up is that a lot of younger workers don't seem to realize that if you want to make the big bucks then you will have to put in the time at work to earn them and that sometimes the job has to come first.
Sometimes there's other things involved. Several years back I was reading a trade publication for the HVAC industry where an employer said his problem with new hires was they wanted to work but they didn't know how to work! They'd never had part-time or summer jobs so he had to start from Square One teaching the basics of being in the workforce.
His attitude was "Hey, you do what you have to do but WHY do I have to do it? Where were their parents, teachers, or anyone else who could have influenced these kids and taught them how the real world operates?"
Disturbing, to say the least.
Euclid The problem of railroads not able to hire enough employees is a problem of the railroads, and there is one simple solution. Raise the pay. I have been told that railroaders are not concerned about the pay, but only concerned about the bad working conditions. So under that theory, raising the pay will not attract new workers. I think it will attract new workers that care about the money and not about the working conditions. But the value of workers is only determined by what they are willing to accept as wages.
Flintlock76 CSSHEGEWISCH Another factor that crops up is that a lot of younger workers don't seem to realize that if you want to make the big bucks then you will have to put in the time at work to earn them and that sometimes the job has to come first. Sometimes there's other things involved. Several years back I was reading a trade publication for the HVAC industry where an employer said his problem with new hires was they wanted to work but they didn't know how to work! They'd never had part-time or summer jobs so he had to start from Square One teaching the basics of being in the workforce. His attitude was "Hey, you do what you have to do but WHY do I have to do it? Where were their parents, teachers, or anyone else who could have influenced these kids and taught them how the real world operates?" Disturbing, to say the least.
Backshop Flintlock76 CSSHEGEWISCH Another factor that crops up is that a lot of younger workers don't seem to realize that if you want to make the big bucks then you will have to put in the time at work to earn them and that sometimes the job has to come first. Sometimes there's other things involved. Several years back I was reading a trade publication for the HVAC industry where an employer said his problem with new hires was they wanted to work but they didn't know how to work! They'd never had part-time or summer jobs so he had to start from Square One teaching the basics of being in the workforce. His attitude was "Hey, you do what you have to do but WHY do I have to do it? Where were their parents, teachers, or anyone else who could have influenced these kids and taught them how the real world operates?" Disturbing, to say the least. Correct. Remember when fast food restaurant were staffed with high school kids? Now it's retirees and people in their 20-30s. Many parents spoil their kids by wanting them to "enjoy" HS and not have an afterschool job.
Correct. Remember when fast food restaurant were staffed with high school kids? Now it's retirees and people in their 20-30s. Many parents spoil their kids by wanting them to "enjoy" HS and not have an afterschool job.
Several years ago I went to the McDonalds in Sebring, FL - not a single employee was under what appeared to be 70.
I didn't have a job in HS because I was involved in scholastic sports - Track, Soccer and Baseball. Tried Football in Freshman & Sophomore year then the famaily transferred to a school district that took football seriously - met Larry Csonka at the Spring meeting - he was 6'2" and 220 as a Junior - I was 5'8" 160; I could see what the epitaph after tackling practice would be.
BackshopCorrect. Remember when fast food restaurant were staffed with high school kids? Now it's retirees and people in their 20-30s. Many parents spoil their kids by wanting them to "enjoy" HS and not have an afterschool job.
Oh, I remember all right! Mom and Dad kicked me out the door and into a part-time job as soon as I turned sixteen. Not only was it a valuable learning experience about being in the workforce but also the value of money. Money you work your butt off to get isn't something you're likely to blow away casually.
Sadly, many of those fast-food workers in their 20's and 30's are the college grads with unsellable degrees, but that's a WHOLE 'nother story. Man, the sad tales I've read...
Most surveys I saw when I was taking various management courses put pay down the list a ways.
Job satisfaction/conditions is much higher on the list. The railroads are going to have to find a way to provide "home every night" (a common advertising point of local trucking companies) and/or regular hours. A twelve hour shift (max HOS) followed by ten hours off makes a 22 hour day. There is a subset of railroaders who like that kind of schedule. Most others, not so much.
This probably means more people - something the PSR bean counters will clearly chafe at.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
An "expensive model collector"
n012944 Euclid I have been told that railroaders are not concerned about the pay, but only concerned about the bad working conditions. Different crafts have different concerns. I have not heard anyone from my craft complain about working conditions. Pay and cost of insurance are the main issues raised.
Cost of Health Insurance or Job Insurance?
BaltACD n012944 Euclid I have been told that railroaders are not concerned about the pay, but only concerned about the bad working conditions. Different crafts have different concerns. I have not heard anyone from my craft complain about working conditions. Pay and cost of insurance are the main issues raised.
I mean I have been told that here on the fourm in one of the other threads related to this topic. I regard it as a very generalized statement.
Euclid If railroads need workers, they must raise the pay. If they raise it high enough, they will get all the workers they need. And they will be paying them what they are worth. Trucking companies will have to raise their driver pay too. These pay raises for truckers and railroaders will have to be paid for by the shipping revenue. If it turns out that railroads cannot hire labor at a low enough cost to make a profit, then they will go out of business. Also, if railroads don’t want to raise their pay high enough to attract labor, they can start improving their working conditions, and couple that with a more modest pay increase in order to attract labor.
Euclid,
You seem to be having a disconnect with Millennials, and Gen Z .. They don't make pay their top priority generally speaking.. They want a balance of a healthy work environment, and personal time. They don't want to work their lives away... It's really that simple. I can't blame them to be honest..
SD60MAC9500You seem to be having a disconnect with Millennials, and Gen Z .. They don't make pay their top priority generally speaking.. They want a balance of a healthy work environment, and personal time. They don't want to work their lives away... It's really that simple. I can't blame them to be honest..
Which just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Those personnel management classes I mentioned were taken in the 1970's...
The railroads are (and have always been) a 24/7 business. How many more Rentzenberger vans are you going to have to hire to have 9-5 jobs? How high do you raise your shipping rates without losing your shippers to pay for van rentals and 9/5 jobs? And if your customer can't get his shipment on time-he goes to another mode who will.
The problem is with the investment funds like Black Rock and The Children's Fund-they need to be restricted into how much of a company they can own.
SD60MAC9500They don't want to work their lives away... It's really that simple. I can't blame them to be honest..
I can't really blame them either. I worked my butt off for 40+ years, so now I play.
I remember my sister-in-law and her husband working for a company back in the 80's who shall remain nameless. Since they were white-collar salaried employees said employer ran them (and others) into the ground with 10, 12, 14 hour workdays. When they got home all they could do was have a quick meal and then collapse into bed. Then the next day it started all over and damn it, it wasn't right. It sure taught me not to think the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. I had the lesson re-enforced at quite a few other places over the years.
I thought all that ended with the "Career-crazed Yuppie 1980's" but apparantly it hasn't, not in some quarters.
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