how greedy are they??? wage fixing?

[Brianslawn]

whats a fair market annual salary for a receptionists? $15k, $20k, $30k, $40k? main duty is answering phone and scheduling. im offering one of the higher numbers listed for starting pay, but some of these women act like that is an insult. almost like they all conspired to not work for less than $60k. what do other companies on here pay their receptionists? i'm ready to ask noel to send one of the guys' wife with them. :dizzy:

[tinman]

whats a fair market annual salary for a receptionists? $15k, $20k, $30k, $40k? main duty is answering phone and scheduling. im offering one of the higher numbers listed for starting pay, but some of these women act like that is an insult. almost like they all conspired to not work for less than $60k. what do other companies on here pay their receptionists? i'm ready to ask noel to send one of the guys' wife with them. :dizzy:
What's up Brian,

How bout a virtual assistant? They are pretty cheap now & flexible. Check Craigslist.com

[promower]

A real receptionist/secretary can be pricey. I've seen ads in the paper with starting wages $15-$18 an hour. You might be trying to fill the position with someone who is actually overqualified with skills that wouldnt really fall into the day to day duties of a secretary working at a landscape company. I would advertise the opening as willing to train no experience necessary, you should get more interest from people not demanding such a high wage.

[Brianslawn]

in paper i listed only receptionists, send resume. got lots of replies. lots of recent college grads, but everyone wants to start out at the top and not prove their worth it, first.

[Sin City Lawn Care]

If they graduated from college, they have already proved some of their worth.

Intelligence, Work Ethic, etc, etc. Not 40-60k a year, unless they have a Masters Degree in clerical work!

You need an 18-22 Year old with no ambitions/skills who is willing to learn and grow as the company does.

If they have 10-100 years of experience and/or a college degree, move on.

[HOOLIE]

Geez...60k in Arkansas is probably like 100k+ in the DC area...good money to answer the phones.

I'd stick with the idea of a college age girl as an entry-level job into the working world.

Question: If she is Ms. Lawnsite material, will you pay extra??? :laugh:

[Brianslawn]

Geez...60k in Arkansas is probably like 100k+ in the DC area...good money to answer the phones.

I'd stick with the idea of a college age girl as an entry-level job into the working world.

Question: If she is Ms. Lawnsite material, will you pay extra??? :laugh:


absolutely, and there will be lots of pictures posted on here!

sfl... still waitin on more pics of your girl! :laugh:

[crzymow]

If they graduated from college, they have already proved some of their worth.

Intelligence, Work Ethic, etc, etc. Not 40-60k a year, unless they have a Masters Degree in clerical work!

You need an 18-22 Year old with no ambitions/skills who is willing to learn and grow as the company does.

If they have 10-100 years of experience and/or a college degree, move on.
I wouldn't necessarily agree they have proved anything accept they graduated college. College and real world are 2 different things, and I've seen a lot of dumb, unmotivated people graduate college. And just like everyone out of college they think they should start off making big bucks.

[Brianslawn]

its even better. most are only community college graduates!

[AintNoFun]

my mother runs my office, she gets $650 a week, plus a few other perks like cell phone, gas card, etc.. i understand its family, but i don't think its worth more than $500 for a girl to answer phones.

[JimLewis]

I've got two great "office managers".They job-share. One works on the days or hours that the other one is gone. So then someone is always here to answer phones and do the office work from 9:00 or 10:00 to 5:00 every day. They answer the phones, make appointments for me, our irrigation tech. and our maintenance manager, do the books (Quickbooks), handle the mail, etc.

I pay $10.00 per hour, no benefits. Wasn't hard at all to find people to come work for that wage. In fact, both of them came to me, asking if I had any office work they could help me with.

You just need to look in the right places. Find people who really don't need a full time job that badly. Or like I did, find two people who just want to make some part-time income but don't want to work full time. And then schedule each of them for 20 hours per week.

[topsites]

in paper i listed only receptionists, send resume. got lots of replies. lots of recent college grads, but everyone wants to start out at the top and not prove their worth it, first.

Well that's normal, dime a dozen they come, dime a dozen they leave.
It's the same process as with estimates, I give 10 estimates for every job I get, most want something for nothing...
Same thing, really.

Thus I would expect:

To hire one good employee, you need to set up interviews with at least 10 of them (12 is a good number also, 15-20 doesn't hurt).
A few won't show for the interview.
Interview all the rest, same as estimating, ask questions / give answers, take mental notes, it is a process.
Tell the ones who make it through to show up 8am (or whatever your starting time is) Monday morning.
A percent won't show up Monday, the rest you assign various duties to.
A few may leave right then, some may not come back after lunch break.
You may, in addition, have to tell one or two yourself that it's no go.
As for the rest, by end of Monday, you should have your one employee.
If not, come Tuesday some won't come back.
See how that works.

[Brianslawn]

just interviewed one right now. well kinda. she shows up 15 minutes late just as im getting ready to leave thinking shes another no show. she didnt let me do an interview, insteady right off the bat she asked how much did it pay. i told her based on the ammount of work load she could handle and how good she was. she said she would not work for less than $12 an hour and she didnt want to have to work a year before she qualified for paid health and life.

needless to say the conversation didnt continue much after that. what i didnt tell her (cause of her attitude) the position pays $30k year.

i think i did find someone though. an old guy from near my home town in iowa. he'll be more of a winner than these women around here.

[brucec32]

There is govn't complied data on mean/median salaries for different jobs. Receptionist would be easy to find.

You can also check your local want-ads and see what is being offered.

But ultimately it is a supply/demand equation. And don't forget that often you get what you pay for. A real great employee at $40K will put more in your pocket at the end of the year than a slacker at $25K.

This is the first person your prospects deal with. Many times I am so put off by the idiot who answers the phone at some places I just say goodbye and call the next number. I figure if they can't get that done right they can't handle anything more complex.

My wife has $35K employees working for her that she can't fire and says she'd gladly trade them 2 for 1 for $50K people, and get more work done. there is a point at which smart, hard working people will not take a job. That point varies from market to market.