Hiring a JW or not? (page 3)

fairchild

Most JWs I knew had a very poor work ethic. They are notorious for cutting corners.

LOL, you'll love this one. Up until a few years ago, I was partner in a restaurant and was responsible for the hiring and such. I hired an elder's daughter, knowing that she had not lasted more than three months at any place she had worked before (which is never a good sign). She came to me, asking for a job, saying that she had quit her previous job because they made fun of the fact that she was a JW. I felt bad for her and hired her. She worked for 4 days and didn't show up for her fifth shift. I called her house, but the answering machine was on. The next day she called me and told me how sorry she was, but she had so much JW related work to do that she didn't think she would be able to work for me anymore. About a month later I found out she had told her dad that she had lost her job because I had stopped putting her on the schedule and she didn't understand why.

freedom96

Sounds to me like this place is prime for a lawsuit for the working conditions. For this young witness to work there would ever more confirm in his mind how horrible "the world" is.

fairchild

Sounds to me like this place is prime for a lawsuit

I've been in the restaurant business for quite a few years now, and the place I am currently working at is by no means the worst, au contraire. It is pretty well known that the restaurant business is not for the thin skinned. I would never, ever apologize the bad language, the drinking or the drugs, but I can tell you that working in a fast moving kitchen is extremely stressful. I have seen many cooks "flip out" in the middle of a dinner rush, throwing stuff all over the place, yelling and screaming. I have seen grown men completely breaking down and crying like kids. It does come with the job. 90 out of a hundred cooks I know drink way too much, I'd say that at least 70 out of a hundred do some kind of drugs. Actually, I'd have to think long and hard to come up with a cook's name who doesn't smoke marijuana. (other than myself and a few I know who are on probation). And all cooks I know (sadly, including myself) use plenty of foul language. Unless someone has cooked in a large, fast kitchen, it is impossible to realize the kind of stress it brings. Something always goes wrong, one works in 90 to 100 degree temperatures, there is the stress of getting all the tickets out in a timely manner, the stress of doing 22 things at once without losing track of what you are doing, the stress of the waitresses yelling for their food, there is the stress of long shifts (when you stand in this kind of heat, an 8 hour shift is called a "double", and trust me, exhaustion sets in after about 6 hours)... getting a weekend or a holiday off is often out of the question..it really is not an easy job. Then the turnover of employees in every restaurant is usually huge, so you always have people in training, people who are expected to pull their weight, but they pull the other cooks down instead. At the place where I currently work, they have recently decided to give people a two week's "trial" period for the very reason that people often don't know what they are getting themselves into. "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen", this saying has a lot of truth, and I'm not taking about the heat coming from the ovens, the fryers or the charbroilers. Should a survey be done on the working circumstances of kitchen workers, there would be reasons for lawsuits in just about every restaurant. All things considered, where I work, the owners are extremely generous when it comes to paying. On top of that, they also make it a habit of giving the long term workers a dollar an hour raise, twice a year. We get paid time and a half for overtime and receive a very generous bonus at the end of the year. They are understanding when people are ill, and schedules will be re-arranged when someone gets sick or burnt out. When I just started working there, two years ago, I had worked exactly two weeks, and became very ill. I was out sick for 6 weeks and thought for sure I would lose my job. Not only was I able to keep my job, but the owners called me at regular times to inquire about my health and to see if there was anything they could do for me. The atmosphere at work stands or falls with whomever is working on a given day or night. It happens to be so that the last people hired were jerks to say the least, but at the end of the season (October 15th), many will be laid off. Wintertime is easy, but it is always a problem in summertime. Always, always... I have never known it to be different. I don't think such can be avoided in a restaurant this size. Again, compared to other restaurants where I have worked, I think that the working conditions are not all that bad as long as one can move past the bad language and the fact that just about everyone has an alcohol or a drug problem. What concerns me is a young JW walking into a situation like that. Although drugs are not being done on the job, people do talk about drugs, talk about their parties, about their drinking.. but I don't think such makes a workplace prone to a lawsuit. For an employer, it is hard to control the words coming out of an employee's mouth.

Scully

they have recently decided to give people a two week's "trial" period for the very reason that people often don't know what they are getting themselves into.

I was just going to suggest something like this for the young man you were asking about. At least this way, you both have a graceful way to bow out at the end of the trial period; no harm, no foul.

talesin

does come with the job. 90 out of a hundred cooks I know drink way too much, I'd say that at least 70 out of a hundred do some kind of drugs. Actually, I'd have to think long and hard to come up with a cook's name who doesn't smoke marijuana.

L - O - L !

Too true. I was talking to a young guy last week; he is about 20, and trying to decide what to take at the community college. He loves to cook, smokes dope, and doesn't like alcohol at all. I told him that if he was interested in cooking as a profession, he could virtually write his own ticket, as most cooks are drunks and unreliability is the standard (at least in my experience).

tal

Leolaia

Just curious, are these guys so wild that I might think twice eating there?

(I had a friend who worked at the kitchen of the Waldorf Astoria in the 1970s, and he told the wildest stories of the outrageous and utterly disgusting goings-on behind the scenes. It would make a hilarious movie if the story were ever filmed.)

rebel8

It is the candidate's choice to accept the job and then to keep it once he realizes the working conditions. I can't imagine why an employer would need to make moral decisions for a potential employee. He's not their papa.

Re the language, your employer should really take a hard look at his failure to appropriately manage his employees. That is SO ridiculous, and it is also putting him at risk for sexual harassment lawsuits. Any employer has the legal right to control what people do and say in his workplace. He cannot prevent them from saying inappropriate things, but he can (and should) fire them if they do. This is a good example of a really bad manager.

fairchild

Just curious, are these guys so wild that I might think twice eating there?

LMAO. It's not *that* kind of wild. Anyone doing something unacceptable to the customer's food on purpose would be fired on the spot. We've all heard the horror stories and seen the hidden camera clips on TV, but such cases are extreme. However, we do apply the "three second rule", just like every other restaurant does. It's not nice, but it is a common thing to do in restaurants. Leolaila, I'd love to hear those stories some time.

Re the language, your employer should really take a hard look at his failure to appropriately manage his employees.

It are the managers who manage the employees. We hardly ever see the employers. They do administration and such. As for the language, I know for a fact that if a restaurant owner would forbid his or her employees to swear, they wouldn't have a single person left to work for them. It is just the way it is, it's part of the business and swearing, to many, is a way to relieve some of the stress as I explained in the above post. It's not something to be approved of, but it also is not something that can be avoided, imho.

Descender

Wow, reading this reminds me of the four years I worked in the restaurant industry. The majority of everyone cussed like sailors, did drugs, and drank on a daily and nightly basis. People wouldn't call in sick, they just wouldn't show up. So the hungover people that did come in had to cover the other person's shifts. Stress and yelling were common place and every few nights someone would just walk out in the middle of their shift. Of course that's probably every restaurant.

I think it'd be good for him, a real eye opener for him.

undercover

What would be the reason for not hiring this person? His religious affliation? Illegal. Lack of experience? Legal. Not a good fit? Legal. Rumor has it he doesn't party or get wild? Not recommended. You're hiring an employee not a partymate.

If he's qualified in every other way, you can't not hire him because of his religion. That's not even to be considered. Like someone said earlier, you're not his mom, he'll have to learn how the real world works eventually. If he's the best applicant for the position, I say hire him. If he can't handle the environment, let him quit.

And like someone else said, sounds like this company is ripe for a lawsuit. If you have to consider how prudish someone might be in whether you hire them or not, your company may have some workplace condition issues that needs to be addressed. Sooner or later, you'll end up hiring someone who will see that there is money to be made by setting up a company as loose as this one. You won't have to worry about a JW doing that, they'll quit before subjecting themselves to that environment. But watch out for some other over zealous fundie you might hire.

Hiring a JW or not?

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