There still are some good jobs out there, increasingly rare and they are never advertised, no need to, and those who have them sensibly keep them quiet, recruitment is usually by recommendation but such places are also open to walk ins if the applicant sells themselves properly, phoning up, emailing and looking through the job ads or jobcentre will rarely secure such a job.
The problem comes when people who have good jobs fail to appreciate them, look after them and protect them, if something is good the sensible person treats it well and does their level best to ensure they look after with a view to it lasting for ever.
It doesn’t take long here to compile a short list of people you’d consider employing and those you’d have already consigned to the bin.
Lorry driving in many ways hasn’t really changed all that much in the 38 years i’ve been at it, the best paid and conditioned jobs have always been well (not militantly) unionised, usually involve some sort of shift pattern including weekends and bank hols and early starts or late finishes, and the more skilled or specialised (or expensive when you get it wrong) the job the better the pay, not always but thats usually how it works.
A big problem in our industry is ■■■■ poor transport management, the old school who came up through the ranks and knew the other side of the job have all but disappeared, this new breed don’t know good staff from bad staff, and fail miserably to maintain good common sense discipline where needed, sometimes end up bullying or putting on good staff who do things right and leave the aggressive and/or lazy troublemakers to do their own parasitic thing.
You can have a good workforce, but you only need a tiny minority of half wit troublemakers and they can poison the entire barrel, i’m sure we all know those whom if you paid 'em a grand a week to lie in bed would still moan about it, they are no use to man or beast.
Just one thing about unions, a good steward wears two hats, one he wears to do his prime task of looking after the members interests.
But the good steward should also be preapared to put his NCO’s hat on too, the one he wears to keep discipline and stop idiots ruining the job for everyone.
A company that treats its employees well deserves to make a profit and stay in business, its in everyone’s interests, so when the usual suspects take the ■■■■ throwing sickies and shirking and cause costly damage then the good steward nips it in the bud, a good company and its good workers cannot afford to carry wastes of space any more.
