“It’s been a tough several weeks,” my brother-in-law told me. In his battery and tire business, the longest-serving of ‘his guys’ had quit to go to a better job. It was a loss, but he was glad for the man. He tried to get along with one less person for a while since the busiest season was over. But then it wasn’t, and another employee took two weeks off for a family event. He was really scrambling to keep up.
He decided to hire two part-time people since that would enable him to respond better to the fluctuations in the business. And performance could lead to full-time work.
“But find those people!” he said. “In the last 15 years, 4 area schools have closed due to lack of enrollment, and now that people shortage is being felt all through the labor force. I had very few applications, and I finally settled on two people I considered quite ‘iffy’ for different reasons. One turns out to be slow to catch-on, and he puts every tool down rather than going right on to the next job with it. When we’re busy, I can do tire rotations faster myself than repeatedly showing him. But that’s not the way to train anybody.
“And both of them come with really foul language. Every day I have to remind them that this is a retail operation with customers, and we just don’t use that kind of language here.
“One recent night when I was frustrated, I reflected on the situation. I had done my best to hire good people, and I had prayed to God to send them to me. Then it came to me that He did. These men are the answer to my prayer, and now I have to turn them into a productive, confident addition to ‘my guys’. Perhaps that’s my mission.”