Its a good time to find a better job and work for better people. Go get an apprentice job in the trades and work your way up. Trade jobs are hard work. I am sure you put in a good days work but really your job working at lowes is not what I would consider hard work. Good benefits, maybe some other stuff but its not a lifetime job. You do not have a future there.

This is a great reply AndrewM! I worked my career with Dow Chemical, half in the skilled trades (welder & fabricator) and as a non-degreed Welding Engineer. Half my career was union and the last half salary(nonunion). Makes no difference, slackers are slackers regardless of union or nonunion. Turds sink to the bottom and the cream will float to the top and both are noticed by others be it workmates or supervisors.

What crew or supervisor wants a welder who holds-up his crew of fitters making only 4-2” xray welds a day when in the next shanty over or fab area over there is a welder and his crew making 24-2” xray welds a day (as an example). The fitters working with the slackard are complaining to the boss and the other crew is heralding their welder. Who stays on he job?

You as a paid employee have to rise above the slackards and develop a work ethic that is solid and unbendable regardless of the pressures and negative influences around you. You have to learn to protect yourself with self-imposed blinders. Is this hard to do? Sure it is but who are you working for, not just your employer, he signs your paycheck, you’re really working for your family! That’s who should be influencing your work ethic not the slackards!

If there was one thing I really valued during my career and that was my reputation. Workmates recognized it and so did supervisors, heck, everybody recognized reputations, good ones and very bad ones. When we’re putting in our hours making a living how would a person want to be thought of? A slackard that also can’t perform or has difficulty performing to the minimum expectations of the job or an employee that constantly exceeds those requirements? Who wants to work with the slackard and who wants the slackard on their job?

Slackards will always be there but you have to rise above them and refuse to be influenced by them. If for some reason the supervisor gives you the harder jobs/projects to do it’s usually because he trusts you to do the job and meet or exceed the job requirements. He’s not asking you to do something that is impossible to do, he’s asking you to do a job because he trusts you and doesn’t trust the slackard and the job has to be done! When the going gets tough, the tough get going!

There’s a lot more I could say but I’m liable to get boring or repeat myself too much if I do.

Most young people don't have my work ethic. I like to start in slow and then taper off.

Find a way to publicly reward the good ones and rub it in the faces of the slackers.

Yeah I try to. Only reason I'm still hear is my barge job fell though due to my medication. But my boss cam to me and offed to put me in an actual management position so I got that going for me.

Yeah Lowe's is a temp thing right now, been looking around but other then Walmart and Sanderson fans not much around locally. Did trade work most of my life so what I consider hard work and most of the kids they give me consider hard work are two different things like you said. Worked with cattl tractors fencing and other farm stuff since I was like six worked under the table as a carpenters helper running six to six alot of days from 14-17 during the summer ,four semesters of welding in college along with six years of being in the guard makes this job really cush to me for the pay. Help people find stuff unload a truck move pallets and boom $12.50hr. Closest welding place is like $7.50 an hour most construction crew are bit better. But according to the VA my lower back is messed up enough . There is a saw mill up the road about 30min that's apparently better I'm looking at. Hopefully I can get my head straight in the next year or so and get off my meds and try off shot work again.So idk. Boss man is talking about moving me up to a department manager and that would be a pretty good pay raise but still looking for better options

I’m a merchant marine (crude oil tankers) so I understand how that can be frustrating. The USCG can grant medical waivers for many conditions and medications. I don’t know what your situation is but if you still want that barge job you might look into getting a waiver if possible. PM me if you need more information.

Really puts the emphasis on doing the hard work of hiring well. Employees that are underperforming and allowed to continue create some real work place issues.

Bryce

You need to understand management's goals might not be your goals. If they aren't doing anything about slackers, you won't be able to do anything about it either. Accept what you can't change.

You will never motivate someone who has no motivation. They only solution is to fire them. If management won't do that, the slacker is just going to stay a slacker. Nothing you can do about it.

Find out what management wants you to do. Most larger work places have a progressive discipline policy. Each infraction moves you up on the discipline ladder until you make it all the way to getting fired. If that's the case, document, document, document, and follow the progressive discipline policy. For example, it might be verbal warning, written warning, suspension, termination. Each workplace is different.

Right now, management might be happy just to have a body even if they only get half the work they should be getting. Finding anyone to work is hard right now. Maybe they have accepted that they're going to have slackers on staff until the economy changes - hopefully soon. If so, stop pestering them about the under achiever. They know already and they're going to grin and bare it until things change.

If you're not in a position to supervise this person, let it go. You'll become a pain in the back side to management if you keep nagging them about your coworker. You might end up being the one terminated if they get tired of being constantly reminded.

Donovan, you should start your own business doing something you enjoy. You have lots of valuable skills and a good work ethic. You get a great deal of satisfaction from completing the tasks you set yourself to accomplish. Look for a need in your community and start a business to address it.

Keith

What are you now?

I believe the best way to get a job is to stop in with a resume in hand. Land Surveyors are very busy right now with the hot real estate market and an entry level position should start out in the mid to upper teens. People who are confident and aggressively pursue work stand out to prospective employers.

Have you worked with him? How would you know? I have never read on here I person admit he may not be the cat's meow when it comes to being the hardest worker and the most competent. You think mediocre or lazy people come on the internut and brag about it? Everybody is the hardest worker and the other guy is a slacker. Read between the lines.

You got me. I am not the world's hardest worker and my competency is questionable at best.

How do you drive a car that doesn't run

The question managers and supervisors have ask themselves since the dawn of time! That’s why mangers and supervisors are accused of getting paid “the big bucks” for doing nothing! LOL The ones that figure out how lessen the impact of the slackers on the crew yet are able to keep moral up on the productive employees and satisfy his bosses requirements are scarcer than hens teeth and probably worth more than they’re getting paid!

Another thing to be aware of Wolfdog91 is that slackers are recruiters. The more fellow employees they can get to join them as slackers the better they like it because the more slackers there are the easier they blend in and figure there is strength in numbers. These are the employees that start work late, last to leave the lunchroom after breaks and lunch, maybe even wait for the supervisor to prod them a little, etc. They’re also the ones who are bothered by other employee’s amount of work they do. “Hey Seldom, you’re making too many welds and making us look bad, back of a few eh!” You’ed be surprised how many of the crew will back off, because doesn’t everybody want to be a part of the whole?

Dirt, have you watched any of Donovan's numerous videos or seen any of his picture laden posts of the trapping equipment and other equipment he has built? I would say they are great evidence of his work ethic. He puts lots of hard and creative work into the projects he has shared. A lazy or shiftless person would not do that.

Keith

^^^ x 100

Don't try to be a boss. This isn't the military. Leaders in the private sector need to influence and motivate. Its not something that comes quickly.

Take ownership of their failings.