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Friend wanting job in my machine shop

klemchuk

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 30, 2004
Location
Surrey, B. C.
How do you guys handle the situation where a friend with absolutely no experience doing any kind of metal work loses his job and hit you up for one? The guy I'm talking about has been a chef and an accountant for all his working life. I couldn't think of any way to let him down easy so just said I wasn't busy enough to warrant another employee. I realize it caused some hard feelings and made me feel bad.
 
maybe offer lower wage office work for him first- if you have it. He has training in multi-tasking and paper work, so if you need certs sorted, material and bits ordered, prints printed, coolant counted, and all those little things that suck time from high wage employees then maybe it will be ok. part time, no full time, no high wage.
Inventory drops, sweep floor, stack pallets, mow the front yard... details stack up that part time non floor staff can do.

the part time loose schedule will help with the expectations on both ends.
 
I do exactly what you did. How could there be hard feelings if you don't have enough work to keep someone else busy?
 
While I admire your loyalty to your friend, it's not your fault that he has no experience in a machine shop environment. As others have said, if you can offer him some sort of entry-level position, that MAY be better than nothing. He CANNOT expect you to simply GIVE him a job when he has NO experience in the profession.
 
Cant blame him for asking, likely he may ask a number of friends.
If you don't have an opening for his skills just be honest and tell him that.

Qt: "I wasn't busy enough to warrant another employee." Seems the right answer
 
If you were honest with him, and you don't have any work for him, the fact
he is now mad at you shows you what kind of friendship you had.
YouTube
 
You can make friends with who you work but I would never hire a friend for a position in my company
The few times friends and I have done a job together rarely goes without drama
If you friend was injured in your shop because of inexperience would his lawyer be sensitive to your relationship in filing a suit$$$$$$$
 
The fact that he put you in an uncomfortable situation isn't what friends do. Think how bad you would feel if you had to fire him!
Friends don't use friendships that way. Sorry to say but he's not being a good friend. IMHO
 
If you needed a job would he have hired you as Sous-Chef?

That's really not a fair analogy lol.
He wouldn't hire his friend as foreman. ;)


OP:
You never know, maybe your friend thought long and hard and expelled all other options before coming to you?
I know personally that asking a friend for a job that I have zero experience in would be my last resort.
 
If you take him on how long would it be before you start a new post.....

An ex friend of mine.....

Offered a part time job to a long time friend to give me some help around my place and he said "I don't work for friends since I'm basically lazy, so they will fire me and then I lose the job and lose them as a friend".

His honesty is probably why he has been a friend for so long!

Steve
 
Depends if you can separate friendship from work, and for how long? Would you still be friends if he ends up loosing you money? And of course we all want to be optimistic, but it's a risk every owner/manager makes with EVERY employee that comes on staff. What do you do when it doesn't work out?

Similar to running a family business. For all our good intentions, there are times when a family member/co-worker really biffs something up, and you have to leave it in the shop when you go home at night. Nepotism at it's core is about letting the business suffer in favor of personal feelings and relations. That said, part of the "magic" of a family business is being able to give those relationships a chance to learn and grow (sometimes through negative outcomes) so that in the end, your rock-solid family relationships mirror your rock-solid employment. But it will always be a "church and state" type separation.
 
OP:
You never know, maybe your friend thought long and hard and expelled all other options before coming to you?
I know personally that asking a friend for a job that I have zero experience in would be my last resort.

This could be very true. It all depends on the friend. I have a couple that if they asked me for a job, I would bring them on for button pushing, stock cutting because I know they would try their hardest to not disappoint. But most others I would tell them we don't have the work or the work we do have needs a skilled person.
 
The range of responses here are quite interesting and people seem pretty quick to jump to conclusions about the guy. Him asking you for a job suggests nothing negative about how he feels about your trade. Maybe he's just interested in what you do, sees you are happy, and is ready for a change and willing to learn. People often change careers. There is also nothing saying he isn't a smart, talented guy, certainly that he can't boil water or count money.

He is your friend and only you know him, know why he lost his job, etc.

That being said, you have no obligation to help out your friend in this manner if it doesn't suite your business needs or doesn't feel right, especially if he has zero experience. You don't need to feel bad and he definitely shouldn't have hard feelings about it. He put you in a bit of a tough spot and if he's making it even worse after you responded that is poor form on his part.
 








 
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