Update on the new job search....

[Aslan]

If ya want to move to Iowa and work for $16/hr...I know a center that is complaining they just can't find good help.

[Phonetek]

If ya want to move to Iowa and work for $16/hr...I know a center that is complaining they just can't find good help.

Now if I had that offer 6-8 months ago I probably would have gave that some serious consideration. Probably taken them up on it...there would be no way now to convince wifey to move anywhere but TN where her mother is going. Honestly, 16/hr to start isn't all that bad an offer but where I'm going it's somewhat better plus some good perks. I don't know what position they are offering to hire someone for that 16/hr if that's management or a lesser position. If it's lesser then that's pretty damn good money for a bowling center and they SHOULD be able to find some quality people for it.

Where I'm currently at we have a high turnover rate as do many bowling centers simply because they don't pay enough. The other reason is a majority of the help tends to be young teens which for the most part are jobs not many adults are going to want. How many adults are going to want to come in for the sole purpose of working birthday parties as a "party assistant"? They come in, work a part or two for minimum wage. They deal with a hoard of screaming kids for a couple hours and go on their way. Now that said, they do make some killer tips if they are good at it. I've seen plenty where they make a couple to a few hundred bucks tip just for 2 hours and barely did anything. On the same token I've seen them work their butts off for that same two hours and get stiffed.

The bad thing with the young teens is it's either their first job or summer job. They have school to contend with so getting the hours out of them you need them for is difficult. At that age they don't yet have a "work ethic" which makes them lazy, undependable and sometimes belligerent. It's hard to motivate them, get them to not call off and keep them off their freaking cell phones! Most of all, they know that can quit tomorrow and go to McDonald's and make $10 when they are getting paid minimum wage with us. In reality you'll only find one out of 20 teens that are going to work out and stick around for a few years, at least until they go to college. It would be extremely rare for one to stay to transition to higher titles post the 21 age.

With adults we've hired I come to find that first they don't like the pay and usually complain about tips. They always start out saying "I'm always available" then after a month or so "Oh I can't work Saturdays". Then it's "Well, now I can't work nights" or the worst ones "I can ONLY work weekends" which is usually because they know tips suck during the week and they want to only work the days when they know they are good. Bottom line is with adults it always boils down to money and really the money IS NOT enough for a family to get by on. If they aren't single adults with no kids, you really aren't going to survive or live well with what a bowling center currently offers.

From a proprietors perspective given the current state of bowling, how can they really afford to pay competitive rates? It's a double edged sword. You pay crap you get crappy people but pay your bills. You pay well and get better people and you're in the red unless they are willing to go above and beyond to bring in clientele. See I'm an odd case. If you look back in my posts before I got this job, I simply NEEDED a job. To save you the search Aslan because you weren't around when I joined... I was a career telephone technician and field operations manager. It was a high paying job for a long time. Technology advanced, I didn't and my skill set turned to being outdated. Now someone with my skills is getting paid 14/hr. using a personal vehicle, tools, phone and also constantly working out of state. Not a chance would I think of doing that. If you work the numbers I'd be making less than minimum wage factoring in vehicle wear and tear and other expensive in addition to never being home with my wife and kids. The tax write off's aren't enough to make it worth wild missing out on my kids childhood.

So I had to do something. Wife was ready to make me go to Walmart, McDonalds or work on the docs of some warehouse all what I personally consider to be "suck jobs". My pride wouldn't allow me to do that. That's when the bowling center came to mind. Why not? I love bowling, I did some pinchasing as a youth so it sounded like a good idea. It took going to 3 different centers before I got into this one. Since I wasn't going to be able to do what I always knew being a telecom technician I decided I should do something that was at least fun for crap money vs. a suck job. Obviously I made the right decision. If I didn't enjoy what I do and have the fun I have I simply wouldn't do it for the money I make here in IL.

It wasn't until recently I found that we aren't going to make it here if I stay where I'm at. With the state taxes going sky high, gas prices doing the same and the area we live costing so much there is NO WAY to stay. Even if where I'm at gave me a significant increase it wouldn't be enough. They'd have to pay way more than they'd be willing for me to stay. Even if I found a place that's affordable it would be much too far away from work to make the commute worth wild. Going down south is the only answer. I don't need what I would to stay here and the cost of living is much less. As it turns out I will be making significantly more than I make now and be paying less to live there so for me it's win win. Factor in that I get to continue to do what I love with more room for growth then it's win x4.

I had to work hard, have a work ethic, care about my work & customers and have the drive to pull it though. I don't want to toot my own horn but I don't think you're realistically going to find too many adults out there that are going it to do at a bowling center like I did? Let along struggle through the length of time I have in order to do it? Not from the employees and applicants I have seen. My wife has hated the fact that I took this job because of the pay but because she has seen how happy I have been since I've worked here she would never make me quit doing it. Which brings us all the way back around to your original statement of "they just can't find good help". As I said, I'm an odd case and FOR ME it's working out but it's not for everyone. I'm 48 yrs old, I'm too old to start over with a "new" career and frankly don't have the drive and interest to go and do it. However, I do have the drive to take my current career to the next level and be the best at it as I can be. Not only for myself but now for my family.

One day, my goal is to own a bowling center. An obvious financial impossibility on my own. Can I RUN a bowling center? ABSOLUTELY NO FREAKIN DOUBT, HANDS DOWN YES! Will it happen? I'd like to believe that it will, provided I meet the right people and they are convinced enough for the initial investment I could pull it off. Time will tell on that one. I was close once already with the one in Florida, unfortunately it turned out to be a lemon. Those people are not people I'm deleting from my contacts list. Who knows, maybe it could still happen with them only in TN instead? Time will tell.

So there you have it Aslan, an "Aslan length reply" just for you. I took the liberty since I am the OP. Ironically for one of your rare ONE sentence comments. How does it feel? LMAO =) Just teasing, hopefully it was worth the read.

[J Daisy]

Now if I had that offer 6-8 months ago I probably would have gave that some serious consideration. Probably taken them up on it...there would be no way now to convince wifey to move anywhere but TN where her mother is going. Honestly, 16/hr to start isn't all that bad an offer but where I'm going it's somewhat better plus some good perks. I don't know what position they are offering to hire someone for that 16/hr if that's management or a lesser position. If it's lesser then that's pretty damn good money for a bowling center and they SHOULD be able to find some quality people for it.

Where I'm currently at we have a high turnover rate as do many bowling centers simply because they don't pay enough. The other reason is a majority of the help tends to be young teens which for the most part are jobs not many adults are going to want. How many adults are going to want to come in for the sole purpose of working birthday parties as a "party assistant"? They come in, work a part or two for minimum wage. They deal with a hoard of screaming kids for a couple hours and go on their way. Now that said, they do make some killer tips if they are good at it. I've seen plenty where they make a couple to a few hundred bucks tip just for 2 hours and barely did anything. On the same token I've seen them work their butts off for that same two hours and get stiffed.

The bad thing with the young teens is it's either their first job or summer job. They have school to contend with so getting the hours out of them you need them for is difficult. At that age they don't yet have a "work ethic" which makes them lazy, undependable and sometimes belligerent. It's hard to motivate them, get them to not call off and keep them off their freaking cell phones! Most of all, they know that can quit tomorrow and go to McDonald's and make $10 when they are getting paid minimum wage with us. In reality you'll only find one out of 20 teens that are going to work out and stick around for a few years, at least until they go to college. It would be extremely rare for one to stay to transition to higher titles post the 21 age.

With adults we've hired I come to find that first they don't like the pay and usually complain about tips. They always start out saying "I'm always available" then after a month or so "Oh I can't work Saturdays". Then it's "Well, now I can't work nights" or the worst ones "I can ONLY work weekends" which is usually because they know tips suck during the week and they want to only work the days when they know they are good. Bottom line is with adults it always boils down to money and really the money IS NOT enough for a family to get by on. If they aren't single adults with no kids, you really aren't going to survive or live well with what a bowling center currently offers.

From a proprietors perspective given the current state of bowling, how can they really afford to pay competitive rates? It's a double edged sword. You pay crap you get crappy people but pay your bills. You pay well and get better people and you're in the red unless they are willing to go above and beyond to bring in clientele. See I'm an odd case. If you look back in my posts before I got this job, I simply NEEDED a job. To save you the search Aslan because you weren't around when I joined... I was a career telephone technician and field operations manager. It was a high paying job for a long time. Technology advanced, I didn't and my skill set turned to being outdated. Now someone with my skills is getting paid 14/hr. using a personal vehicle, tools, phone and also constantly working out of state. Not a chance would I think of doing that. If you work the numbers I'd be making less than minimum wage factoring in vehicle wear and tear and other expensive in addition to never being home with my wife and kids. The tax write off's aren't enough to make it worth wild missing out on my kids childhood.

So I had to do something. Wife was ready to make me go to Walmart, McDonalds or work on the docs of some warehouse all what I personally consider to be "suck jobs". My pride wouldn't allow me to do that. That's when the bowling center came to mind. Why not? I love bowling, I did some pinchasing as a youth so it sounded like a good idea. It took going to 3 different centers before I got into this one. Since I wasn't going to be able to do what I always knew being a telecom technician I decided I should do something that was at least fun for crap money vs. a suck job. Obviously I made the right decision. If I didn't enjoy what I do and have the fun I have I simply wouldn't do it for the money I make here in IL.

It wasn't until recently I found that we aren't going to make it here if I stay where I'm at. With the state taxes going sky high, gas prices doing the same and the area we live costing so much there is NO WAY to stay. Even if where I'm at gave me a significant increase it wouldn't be enough. They'd have to pay way more than they'd be willing for me to stay. Even if I found a place that's affordable it would be much too far away from work to make the commute worth wild. Going down south is the only answer. I don't need what I would to stay here and the cost of living is much less. As it turns out I will be making significantly more than I make now and be paying less to live there so for me it's win win. Factor in that I get to continue to do what I love with more room for growth then it's win x4.

I had to work hard, have a work ethic, care about my work & customers and have the drive to pull it though. I don't want to toot my own horn but I don't think you're realistically going to find too many adults out there that are going it to do at a bowling center like I did? Let along struggle through the length of time I have in order to do it? Not from the employees and applicants I have seen. My wife has hated the fact that I took this job because of the pay but because she has seen how happy I have been since I've worked here she would never make me quit doing it. Which brings us all the way back around to your original statement of "they just can't find good help". As I said, I'm an odd case and FOR ME it's working out but it's not for everyone. I'm 48 yrs old, I'm too old to start over with a "new" career and frankly don't have the drive and interest to go and do it. However, I do have the drive to take my current career to the next level and be the best at it as I can be. Not only for myself but now for my family.

One day, my goal is to own a bowling center. An obvious financial impossibility on my own. Can I RUN a bowling center? ABSOLUTELY NO FREAKIN DOUBT, HANDS DOWN YES! Will it happen? I'd like to believe that it will, provided I meet the right people and they are convinced enough for the initial investment I could pull it off. Time will tell on that one. I was close once already with the one in Florida, unfortunately it turned out to be a lemon. Those people are not people I'm deleting from my contacts list. Who knows, maybe it could still happen with them only in TN instead? Time will tell.

So there you have it Aslan, an "Aslan length reply" just for you. I took the liberty since I am the OP. Ironically for one of your rare ONE sentence comments. How does it feel? LMAO =) Just teasing, hopefully it was worth the read.

Wow. Generally speaking, people publish books like this. IS there a word limit? If there was, I think you would have found it by now, haha.

Seriously, have you considered writing a memoir or biography? You write well.

[Phonetek]

No I haven't. You're not the first person to ask even on this forum. I only write well because I've been doing chat and forums since the late 80's. I've also been a mod on some forums and was a creator and Admin of several Facebook groups. None of which I do now. By NOT writing well it was very easy to offend people by accident so I learned to be clear and concise to avoid damage control. I also learned to slow down and not be in a hurry to click "Send" and reread it first. Making sure what I said is taken the way I intended it to. I'm just well disciplined and don't like to sound like an idiot and certainly don't want to accidentally offend people. On purpose is another story.

I like to think I'm equally as good vocally.

I do have a friend who I live chat with frequently. When I reply with replies of great length he takes great pleasure in responding by saying things like "K" or "Ya". He knows it makes my skin crawl. LOL In order to keep this "G" rated I'll forego mentioning what my responses are but I'm sure you can imagine.

[Aslan]

I only write well because I've been doing chat and forums since the late 80's.

They had chat and forums in the 80s...before there was internet and home computers???

IS there a word limit?

There used to be.

Maybe after Iceman left they figured they didn't need it anymore.

[Phonetek]

They had chat and forums in the 80s...before there was internet and home computers???

LOL No chat as we know it now until things like Compuserve and AOL and some others which was early 90's. "Forums" back then in the 80's were actually on what we called BBS's (Bulletin Board Services) and you needed dial up access to them and you needed the phone number to do so. I'd call them forums using the term loosely. Also, yes there were "home computers" in the 80's. They were large, slow and expensive. I had my first real home computer in 1988 which was a Macintosh and I still have it and it still works today. It better for $13,000. So short answer, yes these things existed but were far less common.

[Phonetek]

I am a little disturbed that out of that entire post that the only comment is about the forums in the 80's and character limits LOL What do I have to do to get you talking?

[J Anderson]

I am a little disturbed that out of that entire post that the only comment is about the forums in the 80's and character limits LOL What do I have to do to get you talking?

When the post is that long can there be anything left to say?

Seriously, no matter where you go you’re likely to run into the same situation. 20 years ago a friend of ours who ran his own business repeated a conversation he had with another friend who ran a small retail business. The gist of it was anyone willing to work for what his friend could afford to pay was either too stupid to run the cash register, or robbed him blind if not constantly supervised.

I also hear a lot of grumbling from the staff at one of the local centers. The owner has spent a fair amount of money in the past few years, mostly necessary like replacing the scoring consoles that would lock up and if you called the desk for help some one would come over and give the console a sharp rap to get it working again, or remodeling the bar so it doesn’t look like you’ve time warped back to 1969. I know that in the fall we’re going to find the lineage has gone up another 50 cents. I hope at least some of it goes in the employee’s pockets.

[J Daisy]

When the post is that long can there be anything left to say?

Seriously, no matter where you go you’re likely to run into the same situation. 20 years ago a friend of ours who ran his own business repeated a conversation he had with another friend who ran a small retail business. The gist of it was anyone willing to work for what his friend could afford to pay was either too stupid to run the cash register, or robbed him blind if not constantly supervised.

I also hear a lot of grumbling from the staff at one of the local centers. The owner has spent a fair amount of money in the past few years, mostly necessary like replacing the scoring consoles that would lock up and if you called the desk for help some one would come over and give the console a sharp rap to get it working again, or remodeling the bar so it doesn’t look like you’ve time warped back to 1969. I know that in the fall we’re going to find the lineage has gone up another 50 cents. I hope at least some of it goes in the employee’s pockets.

Wait... Time warped back to the sixties? Yeah man, I'm in, sign me up. Fifties would be better, but I'll settle for the sixties. It's better than the here and now, at least for an old soul like me.

And Phonetek, apparently all you need to do to get people talking is ask them what you need to do to get people talking.

[Phonetek]

When the post is that long can there be anything left to say?

Seriously, no matter where you go you’re likely to run into the same situation. 20 years ago a friend of ours who ran his own business repeated a conversation he had with another friend who ran a small retail business. The gist of it was anyone willing to work for what his friend could afford to pay was either too stupid to run the cash register, or robbed him blind if not constantly supervised.

I also hear a lot of grumbling from the staff at one of the local centers. The owner has spent a fair amount of money in the past few years, mostly necessary like replacing the scoring consoles that would lock up and if you called the desk for help some one would come over and give the console a sharp rap to get it working again, or remodeling the bar so it doesn’t look like you’ve time warped back to 1969. I know that in the fall we’re going to find the lineage has gone up another 50 cents. I hope at least some of it goes in the employee’s pockets.

You were still able to come up with something to say. LOL I agree 100% J, like I said it's a catch 22 for the owners. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's the day and age we live in and there isn't much you can do about it. Nothing wrong with starting everyone out paying low BUT if they do turn out to be good which can be determined quite quick you have to open up the pockets to give them what they deserve to keep them around.