Just thoughts on a few posts........

[pam]

  I'm gonna give my honest opinion here folks In my life I have never had any reason to fear failing a drug test but it still pisses me off to HAVE to take one. I don't even buy cold medicine anymore for the very reason it is automatically assumed you COULD be a scum-bag meth cook because you buy some cotton-pickin tylenol cold medicine. I've taken many drug tests for jobs and it is STILL embarrassing to me. I realize it is policy and safety issues but it still is.

i've known more than a few people who had hard times and ended up either gettin state help or unemployment or whatever and think that would have made them go hungry instead of gettin help just from the sheer embarrassment of havin to take a drug test on TOP of the embarrassment of havin to ask for help in the FIRST place.

Every person who has to ask for help is not a scuzbag, sometimes they are your neighbors or your friends or your family. I asked for food stamps before when I got laid off last year and had one box of macaroni left. They gave me 32 dollars.

Besides that I thought you had to do community service or somthin if you didn't have a job to get assisstance...that's the law in Missouri anyway. So they have to work one way or the other here. OR go to job trainin or GED classes.

I get mad about people who just set on their asses when there is absolutely nothin wrong with em too. I too started workin when I was little bitty. I have ALSO had hard times..very hard times and don't lump everybody who has to have a little help in one lump.
I don't know what the answer to all the lazy people is.....I can't count the number of young guys who started workin for us that weren't worth a S*&^. I'm a 49 year old woman and I' worked the butts off em and 9 times out of ten they never came back. They have no work ethic.....They want to come work for 20 minutes and take a two hour break......smoke a pack of cigarettes, and take 8 or even better 10 hours for a job that should take 2.
  So what IS the answer? How are they gonna learn to work if nobody gives em an example and whos gonna give em an example if their dad took off and moms on welfare INSTEAD of workin..the only person with money in their neighborhood is the local drug-dealer who is more than willin to use em to make HIM money......and they can make more money standin around dealin for an hour than I ever made in a week workin my ASS off?
  How do you convince that kid that it's better to WORK for a little bit of money?
How can you give them an example when they think you are stupid for workin when somebody will give it to you?

   There is hope tho. I have worked with 20- 25 year old guys who worked like they should and worked this ol broads ass off! So there are people out there who ARE settin examples...somewhere.
  You want to reduce welfare....but you don't want kids and old people goin hungry either...unless you just think screw em it's every critter for him or herself y'know. I don't like payin taxes to support some of the lazy heifers I know of settin on their butts havin kids but I don't want those hungry kids on my conscience either. That's why I don't holler about it hardly ever, 2 reasons actually. I BEEN that broke before and I DON'T want to think about innocent babies goin hungry cause their parents are worthless.

  So what IS the answer?

[Tobina+1]

Pam; I've been ruminating on your post...
Yes, it is quite embarrassing to take a drug test.  I had to take one my first job out of college; for a corporate company in KC.  Not that the drug test was bad, but the clinic they sent me to (in the hood of KC) was horrible!  BUT, I think that fact that companies require drug tests (and continued random ones), makes me feel better that "maybe" it discourages people from taking drugs, and that the people that do won't be working around me (and jepordizing my life/work/productivity).

Before they made Sudafed products "behind the counter" purchases, I always was embarrassed to go to Batson's and buy them.  I was new in town, worked from home, and used Sudafed for my allergies and nasal congestion 2 pills, 2x a day.  So I'd buy them by the 2-3 box-full at a time!  I just knew Julie figured I was a meth-head!    

I'm also torn about foodstamps/welfare.  Yes, I'm glad there is a program out there to help people who find themselves in bad situations (like it sounds you were last year  ), but I've also seen people abuse the system, too.  I've also known people who would rather rely on family and break their parents than admit they need help and get on welfare.  A single woman with 4 mouths to feed needs to swallow her pride and get on welfare... if nothing else so that her parents don't go broke supporting her!
I do also think that there should be some sort of limits on the program... maybe drug testing... maybe community service programs...I don't know what the answer is.  I just have a hard time thinking about those people who do NOTHING but wait on their handouts... while I work many hours a week at a job, and then also doing things around the community... and paying my taxes to support these programs.  I'd rather pay someone to come spray weeds or hoe my garden than just "giving" them money.  And I'm not one to tell someone how many kids they can have, either.  But it is frustrating knowing that the only reason they're doing it is for more handouts!

As far as the guys you work with who ARE doing a good job... let them know it!  People are so concerned these days with stroking their own ego, that they forget that compliments are GOOD.  Especially to people who maybe aren't used to hearing them.  It's almost like the "pay it forward" concept... maybe those guys will go home and compliment their wife or kids... who will respect them better and maybe learn from them the power of hard work and compliments.  My opinion (and experience) is that it's easy to be negative in a negative environment, but it's HARD to be negative in a positive one!

So, and answer to your question... I don't have the answer either!

[Warph]

Here's my two-cents worth on the latter part of your post.

There is a difference between working hard and working long hours and that difference can be measured (to some extent) by productivity differences.  The US employee is far more productive than employees in developing countries and thus can command a higher wage.  Furthermore, working longer hours may have a deliterious effect on employee productivity and increase accidents and mistakes.  I would rather have employees that work at peak efficiency all the time they are on the job than employees who are inefficiently using their time. 

Three things I used with employees:

Reward great work with flexible scheduling.  One of the ways to make employees happiest is to be flexible on scheduling.  If it is possible for an employee to work from home one day or come in earlier to be able to leave earlier, these are really great reward options.  For a business where this type of schedule isn't possible, another option, such as allowing employees to work four 10-hour days and take a three-day weekend on a rotating basis, may work better.  .

Say "Thank You" to keep the employees happy.  Believe it or not, a simple thank you can mean more to an employee than money.  The key to thanking employees is to be specific and timely.  Don't just come up to someone three weeks or three months after he has done something and say something along the lines of "Keep up the good work."  Instead, go to the employee as soon as possible and say, "Petunia, thanks for your hard work on the Acme Company project yesterday."  Your employee will know that you truly do appreciate him/her because you mentioned a specific instance where he/she was helpful.

Offer small rewards.  It may be impossible to give your employees an all-expense-paid cruise, but a 10-dollar gift certificate to a local discount store as a thanks for a good job or a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant on their birthday is probably within your reach. Even small rewards can make a big difference to employees, because for most people, the thought really is what counts. Year-end bonuses are also always a great way to improve morale, even if they aren't very big.

Okay.... that being said, there is something to the observation that the American work ethic isn't what it used to be. 

When someone fails to put in an honest day's pay, that person really doesn't deserve the corresponding honest day's wage.  That's when someone needs to look at management and have them put an end to lazy employees if they cannot be motivated. 

Much has been made of the idea that the United States is falling behind global competitors: Manufacturing jobs are disappearing, there is more of a focus on academics in Asian schools and now, according to a United Nations report, we, the United States, also don't work very hard.  The U.N. might finally have something right.

Fortune's Geoff Colvin writes that only 18% of American workers put in more than 48 hours per week, which is better than the Netherlands, Norway and Japan.  But workers in developing countries are, predictably, putting in a lot more hours.  In South Korea and Peru, 50% work more than 48 hours.  Meanwhile, Americans have more leisure time than ever.  Colvin writes that "researchers figure we're getting about 117 hours of leisure per week (including sleep), vs. 110 hours in 1965.  That's more than 360 additional idle hours per year.  We are a couch-potato nation."

What's very disappointing is that, with all that free-time, Americans aren't really improving themselves.  People are fatter than ever before.  Also, few people read frequently which really pisses me off because I'm a avid reader.  Are we devoting an extra 360 hours per year to eating junk food and watching reality television?  If so, can that really be called a quality of life improvement?  Hell no!  Look, I'm retired and outside of playing a little golf I find plenty of time to do volunteer work a couple of times a week to keep me busy and my mind active.

But maybe there is some silver-lining here.  With many Americans suffering with large debt-loads and subprime loans and unemployment and credit card debt, this study may point to the answer: People should just work harder.

[greatguns]

I was drug tested in order to get my job and am randomly tested because the Feds say I have to.  I have no problem with it at all nor do I have a problem with being randomly acohol tested either.

[pam]

   You guys all had good answers, thanks. 
Tobina, I truly understand the purpose of drug-testing but i've also been around the block a few times and have seen people pass em who I knew for a fact shouldn't have Where there is a will there is a way.

Warph, we are no longer the owners of our own business, workers comp premiums, material costs etc. ate us up. i do always tell the guys who work good job, the ones who don't don't last. I went to work for a guy who was doin the same thing we were doin. We work construction......framing, siding, built vinyl fence and porch rails, even did a little roofin and sheetrock. Until I got laid off I was leavin the house at 5:30 and gettin home at 5 or 6 and then doin my chores, cookin, cleanin and laundry. My husband is a millwright and had 164 hours on his last check, he gets paid every two weeks. I have never had any complaints about my quality of work workin those long hours. I never expected anybody to do anything I wasn't doin either. That's the way it used to be when we were growin up...EVERYbody worked like that, now it seems like hardly anybody does.

Greatguns I don't have a problem with it either other than it irritates me to have to prove I'm not doin drugs lol, just a peeve of mine.