Quality of Workers

[northside lurker]

The owner of the company I work for is very committed to exposing students to the architectural profession.

Most of the time, students (7th graders to sophomores) just come in to observe for a morning or afternoon through a mentorship program at their school.  But we have had a few students from various local technical schools--who expressed an interest in architecture--come in to work in the office for a few weeks, or a few days a week over several weeks. (these may have been paid positions)  Of these, I remember two students who were problematic.

The first student spent much of his time sleeping at his desk.  The other spent most of his time surfing the web, and was caught once at a website related to firearms.  Both were given the opportunity to look through our reference materials, look at drawings we had done, observe how an architectural offices works, etc.  But, both did nothing when they didn't have a specific task given to them.  When they were told exactly what to do, they did OK, though.

[Mary]

Yes. In one of my former postions it was very hard to find young employees (under 25 with no degrees) to show up and do what they were being paid for. Another issue with the younger workers is that many expect to be paid much more then they should be.

We have many very smart young people in the valley. But we have even more who still believe that they should be paid high wages for little education. We have a family member who is very very smart but won't go to school and is working manual labor because school is to much work.

At YSU the only thing you hear from graduating seniors is how fast they are leaving. These are the young people we need to keep in the valley. When I graduate in May I am not leaving. However if i can not either A) find a job that can support my family or B) start a business we will have to leave next year when my other half graduates.

[jay]

Several business owners have told me that it is very difficult to find young people who are responsible employees.   Has anyone experienced similar problems when employing our youth?