Author Topic: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person  (Read 6813 times)

AMandM

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Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« on: May 27, 2018, 12:58:43 PM »
Hi all, I'm seeking the power of brainstorming here.

My church is helping some refugees. I'm involved with one in particular, who just received permission to work in the US while her case is being processed. The problem is, it's hard to think of a job she can apply for. She has less than a high school education and no formal credentials of any kind.  She barely speaks any English (she's working on it, but it's a slow process), certainly not enough to take any training course, not even enough to receive instructions as a babysitter. She has to rely on public transportation. She's also somewhat intimidated by the US and how different everything is from her home country; despite having prevailed over many hardships to get to where she is now, she seems reluctant to jump into new things.

Back home, she ran her own business, a small store. Once her language skills improve, she would like to work retail, but that's still a ways in the future.

So... while she works on her English, can you help me think of low-skill jobs where communication isn't important?

Thank you!

Hirondelle

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2018, 01:09:58 PM »
Tough one. Glad you're trying your best to help a refugee out, many are having a very hard time.

Some things I could think of that people not speaking the language do in my country:
- Certain types of construction work (mostly man though)
- My mom works at a "laundry factory" that does laundry for a big hotel chain. Lots of immigrants that don't speak the language here.
- Agriculture; picking fruits and other laborous jobs that don't require much education or language skills.
- Production/processing of fish - big factory in my hometown where fish get's cut/cleaned and packaged. Likely there's similar things for other food products if you're not in a coast/rivertown.
- Cleaning lady/housemaid; could clean at someone's home but also offices/a hospital/any large building that needs cleaning is an option.

Mostly those are low-paid jobs that local people aren't very willing to work so they can either hire teens/students or migrant workers.

Zikoris

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2018, 01:10:20 PM »
Sign spinner? You just have to walk around on the sidewalk smiling and holding an advertisement. Sometimes in costume. One Subway in a town I lived in would hire someone to walk circles around the block in a sandwich costume.

Mascot? I have a friend who does that sometimes. Just walks around a shop at a grand opening in some crazy costume, and people take pictures with him - no talking at all.

Busking? Can she sing or make nice music at all? I hear buskers singing in all sorts of languages, ad also doing instrumental stuff. They seem to do pretty well in an area with tourists and/or foot traffic.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2018, 01:22:45 PM »
Is there a charity or organization in your area that assists many people who speak that language? Where I volunteered in HS would hire people who spoke the language of the target community, and they would do things like run the food distribution events, help organize and sort donated goods, etc. Everyone was bilingual to that language, so starting out with very little English wasn't a problem.

Related, are there families from the same country who need a babysitter, nanny, house cleaner, etc? Household services? If the parents/kids share culture and language with her, that would obviously be a more comfortable environment that a lot of options!

Cassie

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2018, 01:26:45 PM »
hotels often employ maids that don't speak English.

PDXTabs

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2018, 01:36:50 PM »
hotels often employ maids that don't speak English.

But I think that they normally work with other maids who speak the same language.

Honestly, this is why refugees from a given country tend to stick to a part of the country with a critical mass of refugees (or immigrants) from the same country or with the same native tongue. The best thing might be to find out where other refugees with the same native tongue are living and help her get setup there (preferably with a non-profit that is good at this).

elliha

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2018, 01:59:04 PM »
Are there any countrymen/women that could employ her? Perhaps a part time job so that she also has time to study English? The situation is kind of hard in this case so she really needs to make sure she learns English as fast as is humanly possible. Try to help her and motivate her with this, this probably the best you can do unless you know someone who can employ her under her current circumstances.

fuzzy math

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #7 on: May 27, 2018, 07:11:36 PM »
Does your city have a city of refuge program?? My city does and it's not even a big place and isn't listed on the organization webpage. Seems important to have someone who does speak the language assist, or get her connected with an organization who can help with English skills.

Frankies Girl

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #8 on: May 27, 2018, 07:15:50 PM »
Can't the church give her a part time job? Since they are familiar with her country of origin/language, they should have someone there that can speak to her to direct how to do simple tasks like sweeping, polishing, sorting, or even child care or food prep (if they have a kitchen operation).

Bicycle_B

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #9 on: May 27, 2018, 10:18:35 PM »
Can she make and sell some kind of portable food that people here would like?

Definitely agree with hotel maid, cleaning contractor jobs, and back of the house restaurant jobs (dishwasher, etc).  A little English still helps, of course.  I know individuals in almost all of these categories, but none who lack English entirely.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2018, 10:21:05 PM by Bicycle_B »

Imma

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #10 on: May 28, 2018, 01:10:11 AM »
Is she a good cook? In my town, several Syrian restaurants have opened over the last year, owned by refugees. Opening her own business is probably not an option right now, but there might be other refugees who have started a business and could employ her.

Is there a mom and pop shop that could take her on? Maybe owned by someone in your church. There is a lot of work in a shop that you don't need to speak English for (sweeping, shelf stacking, cleaning etc) and over time her English will probably improve. If it's a small shop and the owners explain the situation, I'm sure customers would be understanding. Some people learn quicker on the job than in a classroom and this way she can use her existing skills.

Maybe the church itself can give her some jobs? I assume there is always cleaning and maintenance to do, as well as some easy hospitality work like preparing food, tea and coffee.


AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #11 on: May 28, 2018, 01:32:42 AM »
She sounds a bit overwhelmed and in culture shock. Maybe it's not the right time to jump into employment. That's different from having tasks in a relatively familiar environment with people who can communicate with her. Helping out in her own community might be all you can ask of her at the moment.

Roadrunner53

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #12 on: May 28, 2018, 05:07:10 AM »
Can she knit or crochet? If so, she could make afghans, hats, scarves, socks to sell. Etsy (website) is a site for people to sell homemade things. Maybe she could look on the website and see what is offered for sale. She might be interested in making jewelry, rugs, floral arrangements, brownie and cake mixes...all sorts of ideas on Etsy. She could do all this from home and ship to the customer. She would need some help with special customer requests, packaging and shipping until the language issue is resolved.

AMandM

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #13 on: May 28, 2018, 11:50:26 AM »
Many good ideas, thank you!  I will put them all in a list and go over over it with her and help her investigate possibilities. She does want a job.

The church may have a position for her in the fall. It's not a big employer, almost everything is done by volunteers. I am one of the few people who speaks her language, but none of us knows her country.

I'll also look into making contact with others from her country or at least her region. She is taking English classes, but I can also work on ways to get her more practice. Maybe a rotating slate of volunteers from the church.

Thank you all again!

profnot

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #14 on: May 28, 2018, 12:13:21 PM »
Since it is summer, I'm thinking weeding.  Perhaps for a lawn service.  IN fall, rake leaves.  In winter, perhaps clearing sidewalks of snow.

Car wash worker.

Laundry wash and fold at a laundry / dry clean place.

Take a look at CraigsList for your town.  In the lower right corner there is a section called Gigs.  This is where short term gigs not involving personnel agencies are listed.  Jobs for a weekend fair, extra hands for a large catering gig, things like that.

Good on you for helping, IP.  I think it's good for someone's self esteem and feeling of belonging to work at least part time until she gets more language skills and emotional stability.
« Last Edit: May 28, 2018, 12:44:10 PM by profnot »

Bicycle_B

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #15 on: May 28, 2018, 02:15:37 PM »
Fwiw, I have an friend who has been learning English. While taking lessons during part of the day, he works 20 to 40 hours per week cleaning hotels and working in kitchens through a temporary service. The practice in English he gets by working has been helping him learn just as much as the lessons have.  Good luck to new lady.  Her tasks are daunting but doable.

ltt

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #16 on: May 29, 2018, 09:31:17 AM »
We have a daughter (adopted from a developing country) who struggles greatly with the language and has been here several years.  For those that say to learn English as quickly as possible, it is extremely difficult and will be a challenge that she will need to overcome in order to do well here.  There are 3 parts to learning the language---speaking/oral language is first, followed by reading, followed by writing.  That is the order the language is typically learned.  These 3 components, in any efficient manner, will take close to a decade, if not more, to learn, even with an ELL class.  I do highly recommend, if she is close to a public library, to possibly seek out ELL services there.

However, in order to get a job, even a low-skilled position, there are other things that come into play.  An application has to be filled out, background checks done, I-9s, W-4s, etc.  She has to have her paperwork in order showing she is able to work.  If she is unable to speak the language, it's highly unlikely she is able to write the language; therefore, may need assistance from you or someone else in filling out an application and acting as an interpreter to help her get through the interview.


Jobs that come to mind:

Dishwasher
Fast food/basic cooking where she prepares food--fries, burgers, etc.
Cleaning

If she wants to go into retail, she will need to learn our money system and need to have the ability to count change. 


I'm a red panda

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #17 on: May 29, 2018, 09:46:43 AM »
A lot of refugees in this area work in factories, often doing assembly line work- and often overnight.

Others (until they learn English) are cooks or maids. Lawn service is also a good idea.

I used to volunteer as an English tutor at a place that helps refugees, if you'd like to message me, maybe you could get in touch with the employment coordinator there and see if they have ideas?

elliha

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #18 on: May 29, 2018, 11:29:02 AM »
We have a daughter (adopted from a developing country) who struggles greatly with the language and has been here several years.  For those that say to learn English as quickly as possible, it is extremely difficult and will be a challenge that she will need to overcome in order to do well here.  There are 3 parts to learning the language---speaking/oral language is first, followed by reading, followed by writing.  That is the order the language is typically learned.  These 3 components, in any efficient manner, will take close to a decade, if not more, to learn, even with an ELL class.  I do highly recommend, if she is close to a public library, to possibly seek out ELL services there.

However, in order to get a job, even a low-skilled position, there are other things that come into play.  An application has to be filled out, background checks done, I-9s, W-4s, etc.  She has to have her paperwork in order showing she is able to work.  If she is unable to speak the language, it's highly unlikely she is able to write the language; therefore, may need assistance from you or someone else in filling out an application and acting as an interpreter to help her get through the interview.


Jobs that come to mind:

Dishwasher
Fast food/basic cooking where she prepares food--fries, burgers, etc.
Cleaning

If she wants to go into retail, she will need to learn our money system and need to have the ability to count change.

If this woman is able to read and write in her own language she will be able to practice reading and writing from pretty early on in her language development. If she is not, she will benefit from learning this in both languages if possible and her learning of English will be severely slowed down. If she is indeed literate in one language already she is not going to need a decade to learn English well enough to work but she may need that to get to a level that is similar to a native speaker which is another thing. Most people speak English well enough after 1-2 years to have significantly increased their chances of getting a better job than say dish
washer if they take classes and really work to learn the language in their spare time too. I teach people English in Sweden every day, mostly adult learners who range from good second language learners to complete beginners. Most of the beginners are immigrants who have just started with learning Swedish too so many of them learn two languages simultaneously.

Livingthedream55

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #19 on: May 29, 2018, 01:12:00 PM »
If you really want to harness the power of this forum I would suggest you share your location (if you are comfortable doing so) and the language spoken by this immigrant.

Bicycle_B

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #20 on: May 29, 2018, 01:26:07 PM »
I agree that 10 years is a lot longer than most people need to learn English well enough to function.  (Not an expert, but have multiple anecdotes.)

-I have a roommate who started studying English last year.  It's true that he studied full time since then in a professional ESL program, but he has finished 6 of the 7 levels.  He is faster than the normal student in that program, but 2 years to reach some functionality seems non-crazy.
-Meanwhile as a native English speaker, I similarly learned enough Japanese in 4 months to have a halting 2 hour conversation in Japanese with a native Japanese on a plane.
-An acquaintance of mine arrived in US with no papers and terrible English. 15 months later, his English had improved only from terrible to bad, but he had worked as a dishwasher for a year, successfully applied for asylum, and then obtained a govt job as a garbage collector with excellent full time benefits. He did get help in filling out the asylum application.

It's true that none of my examples show true fluency, though the ESL student is getting close.  But 2 years to function seems more likely than 10. Anyway, good luck.

ltt

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #21 on: May 29, 2018, 03:09:59 PM »
We have a daughter (adopted from a developing country) who struggles greatly with the language and has been here several years.  For those that say to learn English as quickly as possible, it is extremely difficult and will be a challenge that she will need to overcome in order to do well here.  There are 3 parts to learning the language---speaking/oral language is first, followed by reading, followed by writing.  That is the order the language is typically learned.  These 3 components, in any efficient manner, will take close to a decade, if not more, to learn, even with an ELL class.  I do highly recommend, if she is close to a public library, to possibly seek out ELL services there.

However, in order to get a job, even a low-skilled position, there are other things that come into play.  An application has to be filled out, background checks done, I-9s, W-4s, etc.  She has to have her paperwork in order showing she is able to work.  If she is unable to speak the language, it's highly unlikely she is able to write the language; therefore, may need assistance from you or someone else in filling out an application and acting as an interpreter to help her get through the interview.


Jobs that come to mind:

Dishwasher
Fast food/basic cooking where she prepares food--fries, burgers, etc.
Cleaning

If she wants to go into retail, she will need to learn our money system and need to have the ability to count change.

If this woman is able to read and write in her own language she will be able to practice reading and writing from pretty early on in her language development. If she is not, she will benefit from learning this in both languages if possible and her learning of English will be severely slowed down. If she is indeed literate in one language already she is not going to need a decade to learn English well enough to work but she may need that to get to a level that is similar to a native speaker which is another thing. Most people speak English well enough after 1-2 years to have significantly increased their chances of getting a better job than say dish
washer if they take classes and really work to learn the language in their spare time too. I teach people English in Sweden every day, mostly adult learners who range from good second language learners to complete beginners. Most of the beginners are immigrants who have just started with learning Swedish too so many of them learn two languages simultaneously.

I'm not getting from the OP's post that she is able to read or write in her native language as OP mentioned she has less than a high school education, which, my guess is she has not mastered the necessary skills in her native language.  If it is a slow process now, she more than likely will not have functional language/conversational English in 1-2 years. 
« Last Edit: May 29, 2018, 03:41:19 PM by ltt »

elliha

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #22 on: May 30, 2018, 02:10:33 AM »
We have a daughter (adopted from a developing country) who struggles greatly with the language and has been here several years.  For those that say to learn English as quickly as possible, it is extremely difficult and will be a challenge that she will need to overcome in order to do well here.  There are 3 parts to learning the language---speaking/oral language is first, followed by reading, followed by writing.  That is the order the language is typically learned.  These 3 components, in any efficient manner, will take close to a decade, if not more, to learn, even with an ELL class.  I do highly recommend, if she is close to a public library, to possibly seek out ELL services there.

However, in order to get a job, even a low-skilled position, there are other things that come into play.  An application has to be filled out, background checks done, I-9s, W-4s, etc.  She has to have her paperwork in order showing she is able to work.  If she is unable to speak the language, it's highly unlikely she is able to write the language; therefore, may need assistance from you or someone else in filling out an application and acting as an interpreter to help her get through the interview.


Jobs that come to mind:

Dishwasher
Fast food/basic cooking where she prepares food--fries, burgers, etc.
Cleaning

If she wants to go into retail, she will need to learn our money system and need to have the ability to count change.

If this woman is able to read and write in her own language she will be able to practice reading and writing from pretty early on in her language development. If she is not, she will benefit from learning this in both languages if possible and her learning of English will be severely slowed down. If she is indeed literate in one language already she is not going to need a decade to learn English well enough to work but she may need that to get to a level that is similar to a native speaker which is another thing. Most people speak English well enough after 1-2 years to have significantly increased their chances of getting a better job than say dish
washer if they take classes and really work to learn the language in their spare time too. I teach people English in Sweden every day, mostly adult learners who range from good second language learners to complete beginners. Most of the beginners are immigrants who have just started with learning Swedish too so many of them learn two languages simultaneously.

I'm not getting from the OP's post that she is able to read or write in her native language as OP mentioned she has less than a high school education, which, my guess is she has not mastered the necessary skills in her native language.  If it is a slow process now, she more than likely will not have functional language/conversational English in 1-2 years.

Less than a high school education sounds to me that it is a high probability that she does know how to read and write but perhaps not that much more. I have plenty of students with 4-6 years of schooling that have done very well but if it is less than that it is often harder and they will have their progress slowed down quite a lot. If they are able to read and write they will still be in a much better position than if they don't.

If she has a very limited school background being able to practice the language by speaking is going to be key to be able to learn it well enough so if that is the case trying to arrange that will be number 1 for success. If it is hard to speak to a very limited speaker a youtube-video about something that is quite visual (say a cooking show) can be a good starting point. Even if she doesn't have words she will probably understand most of what happens. Speak slowly but in real sentences. When you understand what she means do not correct bad grammar or poor pronunciation, only if you do not understand. Instead, feed the right phrase back to her. For example:

- Today I went to the grocery store.
- Grocery store?
- The food store. I bought food.
- Oh, food! What food buy?
- A lot of things but for example tomatoes and chicken.
- Chicken?
- Yes, chicken *imitates a chicken*
- Chicken!!! Tomato good?
- Is tomato good with chicken? Yes, I think so.
- Chicken rice.
- Do you eat chicken with rice?
- Yes!
- I do too sometimes.
- Chicken rice good.

Much more than this is often too much without a break for both of you. Talk about basic things. "I feel tired/happy/sad/angry because..." "I like..." "I saw..." After a couple of sessions ask questions. "What did you do today?" "How do you feel?" etc.

Practice standard phrases like greeting phrases, saying thank you etc as this can be quite different in different languages, for example Swedish has no word for "please" only "thank you" so we tend to not say please and only say thank you towards the end of a conversation which make us often sound a bit rude to English speakers while other languages will have other words that indicate politeness. One student called me aunt because I had children as was the tradition in his culture to use that word for all women with children and who are older than yourself. This is strange to both Swedes and Americans but of course the student was doing what he thought was logical and polite from his perspective just as I did for a long time when I spoke English and probably sounded very demanding and impolite.

Gerard

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #23 on: June 29, 2018, 04:39:33 PM »
Second language acquisition researchers generally distinguish between basic interpersonal communication skills (which take folks an average of 18 months to get) and cognitive academic language proficiency (about 6 years, maybe more). Obviously different kinds of jobs will be available at different levels.

Some good ideas on here already. Finding workplaces with people who speak her language would obviously be awesome.

Sibley

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #24 on: June 30, 2018, 08:13:51 AM »
Not sure the language issue - but trucking is DESPERATE for people. Worth looking into.

AMandM

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person--UPDATE
« Reply #25 on: August 01, 2018, 09:10:13 AM »
Thank you all!

My friend was able to find work braiding hair, at a chair in a shared salon rented by a fellow-speaker of her native language. In the month of prom hairdos, she made enough to pay her own rent, which was exciting for her.

And she also has a job lined up starting with the new school year, as an aide in the church's daycare center.  She is very happy about this for several reasons: she loves kids, she is happy to help the church, and she is hopeful that having English-speaking colleagues will help her English improve. For now it's part-time, so she'll stay on at the braiding on weekends, but it will likely turn into full-time (with benefits! medical insurance!) in the new year. I am taking her to do the paperwork this afternoon (W-2 etc).

Thanks again for all your suggestions!

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #26 on: August 01, 2018, 09:16:01 AM »
What an excellent update! Thank you for coming back and letting us know how it went.

Bicycle_B

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #27 on: August 01, 2018, 10:04:22 AM »
Thanks for updating. Good luck to her!


Warlord1986

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #28 on: August 01, 2018, 10:54:29 AM »
This update made my day. :)

elliha

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #29 on: August 01, 2018, 02:01:23 PM »
Great news!

Mezzie

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #30 on: August 01, 2018, 02:17:08 PM »
This is the best news!

swampwiz

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #31 on: August 01, 2018, 03:36:05 PM »
Not sure the language issue - but trucking is DESPERATE for people. Worth looking into.

Are trucking companies so desperate that they'll take anyone with a clean, regular driver's license?  And pay him by the hour, and not force him into being a contractor where he has to supply his own rig, etc.?

Hirondelle

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #32 on: August 01, 2018, 03:56:37 PM »
That's a great update! Sound like she's doing incredibly well.

AMandM

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #33 on: August 01, 2018, 07:25:02 PM »
Are trucking companies so desperate that they'll take anyone with a clean, regular driver's license?  And pay him by the hour, and not force him into being a contractor where he has to supply his own rig, etc.?

I just got back from a 1500-mile road trip along a trucking route. Every. single. truck. had a sign on the back advertising jobs for drivers.  Then I saw a billboard at a trucking company site: "Drivers wanted, $45-60k." On the one hand, that's a pretty good rate of pay for someone with, say, a high school diploma. On the other hand, it's not much compensation for being on the road all week, away from your family, sedentary, eating road food.

Bicycle_B

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Re: Job ideas for a hard-to-employ person
« Reply #34 on: August 02, 2018, 11:45:25 AM »
A year or two ago I knew a trucker. He was hard to employ because of poor people skills, but he had a commercial license and a couple years of experience.

Due to unspoken reasons, he would not apply to large trucking companies. He only worked for small firms that he found by eye in the course of wandering around the city whenever he was out of work and didn't feel like sitting at home. He ended up working over the road - not cross country routes or consistently long trips, but a lot of overnights and 2 to 3 day trips.

What killed him in terms $/hour was that, as he put it, "an 8 hour day takes 14 hours." He might end up earning $150 for a day's work, which is a bit low but sounds like $750/week or about $38,000/year gross with steady work. He was at the low end because he worked for low end companies, never developed special skills beyond the license, and his resume showed instability. At the beginning of a run, the company loading the freight would often delay work by several hours for their own reasons. At the delivery end, the same thing would often happen. It might not be the companies' fault, just a confluence of several deliveries  where everyone showed up at the same time but couldn't be unloaded simultaneously. Along the way, inspections might have to be done, gas purchased, rest stops taken for legal reasons that didn't overlap with locations convenient for the trip in question. Or because of the vagaries of stitching multiple ad hoc customers into a single trip, the truck owner might cause delays while negotiating with the customer.

I let him tell the details of several typical real life days. He truly did spend 14 hours quite often in a day. So maybe $11 an hour IRL, before accounting for the cost of truck stop food.

Nor did he ever take any suggestions about packing a cooler full of sandwich fixings and other groceries. Everything bad compounded on itself. He might well have netted less than $9 an hour if you compare his cost on the road vs what his cost would have been if he ate grocery food at home.
« Last Edit: August 02, 2018, 11:47:56 AM by Bicycle_B »