bflynn
Final Approach
Of the four businesses I've owned, most of the jobs I've hired have been "entry level". Back in the day, it was newspaper distribution, and hundreds of adult delivery drivers. For the last 13 years, it's been housekeepers and desk staff at our aviation themed hotels.
Every summer, we bring over two or three foreign workers. These are college kids from all over the world, who compete to come to the U.S. to work. They are often grad students.
They pay their own way to get here. We provide them with a job that pays $9/hour. They pay for their own housing. They arrive at the start of the peak season (June) and go home at the end of the peak season (September).
Why would a grad student from Russia want to work as a housekeeper on an island in the Gulf of Mexico? Because it's GOLD on their resumes. To say "Worked in the United States" opens doors that nothing else can -- even if it was just swamping out toilets.
In the last five years we have had Mongolians, Russians, Poles, and Chinese. The Poles have been far and away the best employees we've ever had, followed closely by the Russians. They easily do TWICE the work of our American employees, show up for work on time, sober (!), and never, ever, EVER call in sick.
After working all day for us, they all take second jobs in one of the restaurants, busing tables or washing dishes. They are incredible, working machines, with a work ethic that would make my dad proud.
Training? We show these kids how we want the rooms to look, and BAM! -- they've got it, perfectly, every time, from that point on. We can train American workers for days, weeks -- sometimes forever -- and never get that level of consistency.
Why? Because they just don't care. No one ever expected them to care, from grade school until today.
Frankly, it's embarrassing to socialize with the foreign kids. When they're all together in large groups (as happens here -- there are hundreds, maybe thousands of these kids here every summer) they openly make fun of their American co-workers. And who can blame them? I find myself making excuses for Americans and their laziness.
The entry level jobs are here -- but no one wants to do them. Except for the grad students who will PAY THEIR WAY FROM HALF WAY AROUND THE WORLD.
Just an idle question - isn't it a requirement that you show you've received no qualified applicants for a position before you're allowed to hire a foreign worker? How do you do that in your case?
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