I was interviewing with a local manufacturer on Monday and the process was going well. I had already had the basic screening phone call with HR and now I was sitting down with HR director & COO of the company with whom I would report to as part of the role.
Quick background for me without giving too much personal information. I have worked in the fast food industry, retail, heavy and light manufacturing for commercial and government companies, Telecoms and mobile companies. I currently work for a fortune 250 company but with the conditions of the market I wanted to see what I could get elsewhere since my current company decided that the reality of inflation was only impacting the company boards pocket and not the rest of its 20k+ employees. Our latest raise was not even half of the increase in cost of living so honestly I felt I was slapped in the face for seeing our annual increase at less than 3% yet I know our profits for the company hit an all time high the last several years.
Back to the interview:
As I said everything was going great till I had asked about the current conditions impacting the company from an operating environment. I could tell from the facial recognition that I had asked a question that hit close to home. Begin the boilerplate statement about conditions of the business and supply chain impacts across the globe. Then the COO talks about how the company weathered Covid and got back to doing what they do well and manufacturing was booming. Behold, the company not only turned a profit but it was their second highest profit ever.
That was the happy side of the conversation. After the financial bit was reviewed they both in turn talked the difficulties with the labor market and the rising costs of hiring and healthcare. I honestly thought it was going to stop there but then the COO said these words “nobody wants to work anymore.” But wait it gets better, he then tried to support the conditional argument by saying that the government is still paying out for people to stay home. I looked at our time and said out of professional courtesy that I did not want to take up anymore of their time since we were at the end of time slot. We said our professional goodbyes and walked out of that building knowing that I will never be back regardless of what they offered me.
By the way, on my way out of the building parking lot I noticed something drastic. The front parking lot where the office staff park the lowest priced car is about 45-55k with a high end of about 120-130k for the tesla x.
I looked at the side parking lot where the manufacturing staff park and the newest car there was 8 years old and even that truck had seen much better days.
Ps. The Tesla still had the temp tag on it.
Sorry for the length.