Taking the Good With the Bad

Jennifer Zurko

With the current state of world events and, especially with the state of our government, you may be finding it hard to think of something positive. So let’s try that, shall we?

The economy seems to be getting better, albeit getting better slowly. The stock market has been closing with record highs. The housing market seems to be waking up from its slumber. And the unemployment rate is at its lowest percentage since the start of the recession.

Now the not-so-good parts: Although there seems to be fewer people claiming unemployment, wages for those that are employed aren’t moving in the same direction, if at all. And the unemployment rate doesn’t count the people who have settled for part-time jobs while they’ve been looking for more permanent work—some have been doing it for years.

But things do seem to be looking up.

I was talking with my neighbor the other day. He owns a construction company that handles snow removal in the winter. In 2008, he said, there were no jobs to be done. It was radio silence. Now, he can barely keep up with the jobs that are coming in, so he’s growing his business, which means he’s been hiring more people. This includes hiring an office assistant to answer phones and help with payroll.

He said, “You wouldn’t believe the people that have come in to interview,” specifically talking about the young girls who came in wearing pajama pants. He knows it’s not a typical office job and he seems to be a pretty laid-back guy, but come on. You can’t be bothered to put on a pair of jeans?

As I was doing research for our 19th annual Wage & Benefit Survey, I read that there are jobs available out there, but because there have been so many unemployed people for so long, the pool of candidates is made up of very few sharks and a lot of guppies.

And that’s what I saw in this year’s survey numbers. The good news is that you’re hiring again—the largest percentage since 2008—but it’s getting harder to find good people. When I was talking to a bunch of growers for the article on interviewing advice, a couple said that sometimes it just comes down to whether the person appears to be relatively sane or not. (Does wearing pajama pants to an interview count?)

But let’s take the good with the bad—for all of the dozens of pajama-clad people walking through your office, you’re sure to find a few that will become valued, reliable members of your team.

P.S. If you just dove right in to the GrowerTalks side and haven’t turned over to Green Profit, make sure you do. There’s some interesting stuff going on over there …