Hiring Older Employees
Written 1n 2012 but still applies today
Someone told me recently an interesting story about a particular company hiring policy. This gentleman started a new job driving a truck for pickup and deliveries covering a very large territory. His new company has a fleet of 12 trucks with a garage for repairs and a small office staff. This company apparently has been in business for many years in fact the General Manager has been with the company since High School. After a week on the job, this gentleman got to meet most of the staff, other drivers and was a driver’s assistant to learn the ropes and routes. His opinion was the company was well managed, caring to employees, open to questions and suggestions, trucks were very well maintained ( clean inside and out ), all staff ( office and truck drivers ) were known on a first name basis, nice uniforms, etc. Everything looked perfect except for one thing so he decided to ask the General Manager about his observation. He asked him why all employees including new hires were over 40 years old. The reply he received was: “ We do not hire younger people anymore. They are slow, often late or absent, no sense of urgency, poor customer relations, always want overtime, no loyalty, no pride in their work and most of all, they spend most of their time on a cell phone. We have given opportunities to younger people and even hired some as a driver’s assistant but none rose to the occasion. In fact some drivers wanted to do their routes alone rather than babysit these kids.”
Is this not a shame? Opportunities exist but the younger generation do not accept responsibility. I have a client who refuses to consider local hires because of the lack of reliability and is now considering importing immigrants to do his work.
