women in the work place

[lawnboy82]

hey all. i figured that since this is the most highly trafficked? area i would post on here. i have a guy who works for me on the books. he is from equador. guy really busts his butt to make an honest living for himself. he is now 29 or 30. he is married and has a 4 year old son with his wife. now sometimes i need another guy to come along, or 2 other guys, 3 other guys. whatever. so lately he has been bringing his wife with him. now this is not some 5'5 brown haired 115 lb woman. she is more like 4'6"? give or take. she is about 150 at least i would say. she is 28 now. today we were working digging a trench in the morning. her husband would use the pick to loosen things up and she would shovel right behind him. this woman really works like a dog. she does. i can leave her places to do work and no problems. now one day this past week i think it was i had a customer complain that i left her at a job to drag some brush or something that we had pulled up with a small excavator. she had whatever she needed to do the job. but they complained that i had a woman doing that stuff. keep in mind that this is not my girlfriend or wife, sister, etc. what do you guys think of this though?

[BRL]

Sounds like you've got one of them ignorant type of customers. You may have to educate that customer a little. My wife has worked for me in the past when desparately needed. A friend of hers used to work for our county parks department as a groundskeeper, and occasionally helps me. They didn't do any less physically demanding work than I did on those days. If she can physically handle it, there's no reason not to hire her.

[Lawn DOG]

Good help is hard to find. I would take a hard working women over a muscle bound shade tree magnet any day. If she is getting it done then who cares!

[lawnboy82]

to be honest with you i love having her around. i can trust her to do a good job, and work hard. the only problem though is today what happened. we start work at 9 am and they help me until 5:30 usually. Angel gets 110 a day. Rosa gets 100 a day. they normally work what? 9 - 5:30 is lets say 8 hours? 8 1/4 hours? w/ lunch. well today we started at 9 as always and i wanted to get some stuff done. i had very good customers who i told i would get things done for. well we went and dug the trench in 45 minutes, went to this other job and got done there at 3:30? so we then went to the deli to get a drink real fast. after that we went to a builder / congresswoman that i work for. i went up into the tree at i think 4 pm. at around quarter to 7 rosa starts saying matt need go home. i need to see my baby. blah blah blah. what is working 11 hours in one day gonna hurt if you only do it once every few months. that irked me tonight. they both kept saying need go home. then i had to get all my stuff put together real fast and go home. not a good night. but we did get a lot done.

[geogunn]

lb82--read your post a couple of times.

what was the question? sorry.

GEO

[lawnboy82]

just should i have women doing this kind of work for me?

[Lanelle]

Did it occur to you that maybe Rosa has childcare that ends at a certain time in the evening? I've had to hurry to pick-up children from daycare before closing time many days. If she wants to keep her daycare provider, she has to respect the quitting time. So, if you want to keep her, respect that she is being a responsible parent. A good worker is worth a small inconvenience occasionally. We have several women on the mowing crews and it seems to work fine.

[HOMER]

You were urked at 7:00 pm because they wanted to get home to their kid? When you get kids you'll understand, even if it's one day every month. A woman has many responsibilities, the main one is to be a Mom if she is a Mom.

Priorities?

[lawnboy82]

actually it was at 7:30 that we finished. and we got back here at 8:00 i think? i wound up workin until 9 though. at this rate however with my social life situation i will be gettin married / having kids around maybe 50 or 60 lol

[joshua]

lawnboy i'm in the same boat as you. working about 70 + hours a week right now doesn't look like slowing down.

about women in our work force i say let them if they can handle their own. but the women around here that i have seen have not been able to do so, one company i did see with 2 women and a guy cutting across the street from me only lasted 2 cuttings. the weren't very good. the lawns looked horrible when they left, home owners had to recut them and bag all the lumps.

[GreenQuest Lawn]

I have a woman working for me. Shes just part time right now, 2-3 days a week. I worked at a LC for 7 yrs before starting my own and I have worked with so many "in shape guys" you know the type. "I lift weights, I can bench 280" or whatever then you get them on the lawn for 4 hrs and they are beat, whining and complaining. The girl I have working for me busts her butt. She trims most places, she grabs the big wheel barrel (leaving me the little one) when we do bark. Shes a great addition to my company. To answer your question I am for equality all the way. I never purposly take the hard work cause shes a woman.(plus she would be mad if I did). She does the same as me. I would not hesitate to hire another. Not to mention I find that women are great PR people. She can schmooze with the customers great. I say if she can handle the work then put her to work.

[MLS]

As you can see I don't post alot but have been around for awhile so here goes. Lawnboy, I hope that you did not mean what you said to sound like it did, but if you did then I think that Rosy should quit you and go find an employer who has a little common sense. It was 7pm and a mother wanted to go home to her child? My god you should have fired her on the spot. Everyone knows that it is more important to mow that last yard than it is to take care of a child. How could she be so inconsiderate of your "business".

[Rooster]

Lawnboy,

It sounds like she does the work of a couple of males maybe, don't get her mad, let her go home, so she will return tomarrow!

[Guido]

Its your business, and I understand exactly where your coming from wanting to work into the night, the money's there and you want it, I've been there.

I just want to tell you two things though.

1. Don't do it! Your going to burn your self out, or maybe even get hurt one of these days. Your going to make yourself hate your job! Set a work day and try to stay with it unless its an emergency.

2. Your employees, you have to keep them happy. In today's market, people like you are a dime a dozen, not the other way around like in the past. You say you read all the industry books and trade mags, than you may know that it IS a reality that its almost impossible to find good help in this or any manula labor realated field now a days!

You may not care if you work till 9 at night and you don't have a social life, but I'm sure your employees do!


Work to Live, Don't Live to Work!

Good Luck, hope you see where I'm coming from. Don't mean to down you but I've been in your shoes, and this is one of things I wish I could go back and do over. I missed out on a big part of my childhood / teenage years because all I wanted to do was work like a dummy. Everyone told me too but I didn't listen. But now that I see the light, I think its my duty to pass on the crap to you!

[KD'sLawns]

Lb82, I understand that sometimes you want to work a little later and make more money. But, like has already been stated once you have children you will understand. If she does have daycare for the child, some of those places can be unforgiving if you are late. I know of two daycare centers that charge $5.00 for every 5 minutes you are late to pick your child up. It's in the agreement when you enroll your kid. That adds up quickly. As for having women work for you: I think the idea is great if you get a quality worker, like the one you have. When a customer questions you about leaving her to do hard work, I would just tell them that she would feel offended and discriminated against if she did not get to participate in all aspects of the business. The main reason that I started my business was to be with my wife and children more. The potential for earning a ton of money is there, but I would rather see the exitement in my children eyes when I come home. Thats worth more than any amount of money I can make! Hopefully, you will get to experience this thrill one day. Good Luck.

[kris]

I have had good and bad experiences with both male and female employees... I have a great gal working with me now...changing the subject.... as far as the hours go..I have found that after 10 hours productivity goes way down...either people are tired or just don't want to be there any longer and if someone has a commitment (especially children) I would accommodate them with no hesitation

[smburgess]

The BEST crewleader I've ever had is a woman. She had NO prior experience until she started working for me about six years ago as a crewman. She is the most detailed person I've ever seen, coupled with productivty I wish half my other employees had. Clients would request her for services. She got married last summer and found out she was pregnant about two months ago. I'll have her till the end of May and that's it, it was great to have her while I did. She leaves making $13.00 per hour, with paid vacation, paid holidays, 401K ($1 for $1 match), health and dental, I hope she comes BACK for that stuff, but I'm not holding my breath!

Since I hired her, I am always willing to hire a woman, and have many times, and in all honesty I think percentage-wise I've seen more bad men than women as employees. BEFORE all you owner-operators jump on me, remember your an OWNER-operator, big difference when it's YOUR company -LOL.

[mdb landscaping]

before i started on my own i got my experience working for another guy i knew. his sister ran the operation and there were three other women on the crew. me, the owner and three women. he told me the best workers were the women. since then, she has bought the business and is running it on her own. in response to your question, keep the woman as long as she wants to work. tell your customer thats complaining, tough.

[jaclawn]

Originally posted by lawnboy82
at around quarter to 7 rosa starts saying matt need go home. i need to see my baby. blah blah blah. what is working 11 hours in one day gonna hurt if you only do it once every few months. that irked me tonight. they both kept saying need go home.

To be fair to your employees, (and you need to be fair, good employees are hard to find), you should try your best to be finished with the days work at a set time each day. I realize that this is very difficult, hoewver, I think that it is almost a necessity. Employees have personal lives. They may have loved ones that are expecting to see them at a certian time. They may have things to do that evening.

I would ask nicely if they wanted to stay and work the extra hours, however, I would never make it a requirement.

Now, there are certian cirmcumstances that I could see things differently. If you give them notice, that on XXX day, we have to get XXX job completed, and we need to stay till it is done, then they can plan around it. Snow removal is another situation, you have gotta work till the snow is cleared. Employees should know this beforehand.

[John Allin]

Employees have a life outside the business. If you don't realize it and work with it, someone else is looking for a good hardworking person to put in a good solid 8 hour day.

I was like that once (work everyone till you drop - a "half day" is 12 hours long).... that works when you're small. But once you get to growing, it'll bite you if you don't treat the employees like humans. Our employees are our best asset. In todays market it's been our experience that we have to be abit flexible if we're going to keep them happy. If they are not happy, eventually the customers will be unhappy. That's a prescription for failure.

I'd love to have a hard working woman over a "shade tree magnet" as someone above described. And, we'd go out of our way to keep her happy, if it was possible and within reason.

[65hoss]

I agree with JA.

In response to the original question, you should always take care of your employees first. If a customer doesn't like it based on being female you need to stick up for your employee. Quickest way to lose employees is to stab them in the back.

[yellowpages77]

Lawnboy: ignorant people is what we have in this country by masses> we need to educate customers> we hire everyone> regarding age>sex or color> how sad> i remmember last year> i had a woman working for me for one day> she worked better than me> hahaha i need to married her> she would be the best woman on this planet> one thing thought> not all woman wouold like to work this hard job> best to you> and this is just my personal experience>

[HOMER]

Hmmmmmmmm

I agree Yellowpages77.