to all shop owners.where did you find good help?

wowww
10- bucks an hr...........my @%$% I would not get out of bed for that..

and 20 is pushing it.............

but what are these shop owners wanting??

a good guy will be able to do it all

mecanical...electrical...electroics
organize ....
pull the frame if needed....
fab/sheet metal werk
body werk..
paint if needed

not sure I missed anything

but if a guy can do all that on a big project without errors....

which I can...........

so what would that guy be werth???

as you were saying guysin that shop are still under 20 bucks....wow...

I guess I am glad to be were I am then.....and I do most of this on a biggest scale

 

you are way off. If you have a business you will find you are responsible for the conduct of your employees & if they get into trouble because of drugs you will find yourself involved. Its not a perfect world.

 

Good help is hard to find due to shops not wanting to pay them what they are worth. Not to mention that most have families and need the benefit coverage. Most shops dont even offer it unless the employee pays the brunt of it.

Around here if your not making 25-30 plus dollars an hour you cannot survive with a family and a home.

 

$20 an hour for a great fabricator is a bargain. $.02

 

Fascinating thread, lots of interesting perspectives from business owners and employees, young and old. Lots of wisdom.

I've been a car guy all my life. I have 50 years of accumulated knowledge and skills. I can wrench/ design/ CAD draw/ fab/ weld/ machine/ tin bash/ project manage/ purchase/ deal with people/ whatever needs to be done. I have that "old fashioned" work ethic and pride in workmanship.

I spent over 22 years with a company that designed and manufactured woodworking tools- a brand we all know and most of us own. I wore a lot of hats and carried a lot of responsibility, had fair benefits, made reasonable money and worked with (mostly) great people. Unfortunately the company went under in 2006. Long story...

Looking for a change, I went to work at a respectable hot rod shop. It was a perfect fit. I had the chops for the job, the biz owner is a very knowledgeable and talented guy, and as honest and fair- minded a guy as you'll meet. Never had so much fun at work- for about nine months. At that point I had realized that I was never going to make enough money there to maintain my modest lifestyle. I own a two bedroom, 1100 square foot house, have never bought a new car, have no unrealistic expectations. I have two sons in college. With great regret I accepted another job offer and moved on. I'd love to have stayed there, but couldn't honour my commitments and responsibilities at that income level.

My point is this: Business owners, if you do manage to find good people, find creative ways to keep them. If you can't afford to pay a wage competitive with other jobs in your area, find some other forms of compensation that make it possible and attractive for them to stay with you. Talk to your accountant. Are there ways you can pay an employee indirectly that have advantages for you? A tool allowance? A "performance bonus"? Profit sharing? Travel expenses or company vehicle? A minimal benefit package? How can you put money into a deserving employee's pocket while keeping your cost of employing him to a minimum? Can he set up his own business on paper and work for you as a contractor?

Edit: There's always cash...

 

Highlander has got it !! Everybody wants to come to my shop and build the RACE ENGINES and work on the cool ass cars !! Shit nobody wants to go in the teardown room or the core room !! And holy shit in the summer you can't get a damn sole to go into the Hot-Tank /Jet Wash room !! But you know what I own the damn place and I have to do all of that shit !!! >>>>.

$$$$ And that $20.00 an hour thing Hell I pay that to my guys that scrape undercoating and rust off of the frames !! My point is I'd gladly pay a good wage to a cat that I could count on !!! >>>>.

 

Good help will find a good shop. Good help isn't afraid of hard work, they thrive on it. The only way you will keep good help is for them to know they can count on you. Let one employee down, the rest know about it, and remember it.

 

Treat others how you wish to be treated if you treat them like shit that is what you will get. Iam self employed and sub contract to three companies , good communication and mutual respect is how I operate and it works. Don't get me wrong I have had some real bonehead moments but thats how we humans learn , by mistake and if your talking about it your learning. My two cents worth, Rob.

 

hell...if I was down there I would werk in all the areas of yor shop....

but I am a heavy frame tech/welder/body guy/painter/jack of all

and truck driver and forklift operator...........

we have to do whatevr it takes o get t he jobs done.....

but we are paid well.................

but as they all say good guys are hard to find

 

what a great thread! it always seems that the hamb is topical to my life. a post like this will pop up and i realize that i am not the only one! i have learned in my 2 years as a foreman that good help does not exist. it died along with the aforementioned good waitress or parts guy.
i am 25 and i must admit, my generation (25-35) and younger have no concept of responsibility, or pride in their work, they just expect to get paid for nothing. when i graduated from high school, i wanted to work in a hot rod shop more than anything. i almost went to wyotech after a year at the community college, but after talking to several graduates and race car builders i know, it seemed like a big waste of time for me; i wanted to be a fabricator, not a mechanic. i wanted to learn how to tig weld and do chassis and sheetmetal fabrication, so i got a $9 hour job tig welding aluminum sub frames. that was a rough first couple of days (i had only arc welded at that point, on my cousin's farm), but i managed to get good, so i moved on to another tig welding gig, etc. eight years later i can weld steel, aluminum, chromoly, stainless, magnesium, cast iron, etc. in any compatible welding platform (tig, mig, arc, oxy/ace, submerged arc), and can run almost any machine in a shop from brakes, to rollers, to tube benders, some lathe work, self feeding drill presses, iron workers, plasma cams, etc. but i will never work in a hot rod shop again. i had bad experiences at the three shops i worked at, which motivated me to try to open a shop (which i did in '07 when the market crashed, thankfully we closed almost as soon as we opened and broke even). now i run a fabrication and repair shop on a 15,000 acre farm and have benefits and a salary that i couldn't get in a rod shop. but since i have a seasonal schedule i can still fab parts during the winter in my one car garage/workshop.
i guess the point of my rant is what was said way earlier: unless the pay and benefits are competitive, the talented guys will just bounce around until they open their own shit, or find a better job that is competitive in a different industry and just do it for fun.

 

Like a football draft pick keep your ears and eyes open for fresh tallent.

 

Good thread and it has been a personal battle for me as an employee.....

Hell, I just just wish some of the rods shops here in CO would just give me a chance to prove myself. I am 27, I have been doing paint and body and restoration work for 8 years now, Went to Wyo tech in 2000. Own tons of fab tools. Not to toot my own horn. But I feel I have the old school work ethic I learned from my dad. I Work my ass off, Love to work. Know what good work and strive everyday to produce the best I can, and feel the day you stop learning is the day you die (Have left shops due to lack of quality).
I am willing to start for a very low cost and The custom/ rod shops around here wont even look at me or my resume. The non collision shops that have hired me do some of the worst work I have ever seen and don't stay open very long.

As a good worker/employee with a true passion for this. I am discouraged and don't know what else to do. Can't just keep going in the same shops for year after year and never get taken seriousl.....

 

If possible, change towns.