Shared by the Paulick report
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Oh man. As a budding horse professional who burned out by my mid-twenties, I have so many thoughts on this.
I was employed in both the H/J and racing industries, with a bit of eventing, dressage, and sport horse breeding peppered in. My burnout certainly was not from lack fo variety.
Iâm going to start with this quote from the article.
âIn my opinion, the five-day work week will not be an option that they can ignore for much longer, but itâs a culture shift. I tell them: âThe way youâve done it is not working, so we need to think outside the box.â Weâve had some great progressive farms, and when it works for them other farms will try it, but itâs not been an easy sell.â
Why in 2021 is the concept of a 5 day work week still have to be a culture shift in the horse world? I seriously cannot think of another profession where a 6 day (or 7) work week is standard and expected. Yes, we all know animals need care every day. Yet if places like hospitals (and if you want to argue about profitability then substitute that with vet hospitals) can find ways to give people consecutive days off, so can the horse industry.
This quote from employers infuriated me:
âObviously weâve had some pushback discussion with some farms,â Mays said. âSeveral people said, âWell, if the employees arenât passionate about wanting to work in this industry, then they need to go somewhere else.â Well, they are.
I love the idea of offering some sort of educational incentive like a CDL.
Something I donât understand, especially in racing, is why farms donât consider an employee stock option. This is already informally done in some barns, so why not just put it in writing? Bonuses are great and all, but instead of a bonus bestowed upon the employees by a magnanimous feudal lord, er, I mean âboss,â it would be motivating if an employee could gain increasing stock in the organization through longevity and performance. Because unfortunately, there arenât always a lot of pathways to improving oneâs status in the horse world. Exceptional wealth. Exceptional talent. Thats about it. The talent can be developed with experience, but thatâs a gamble that less people are willing to take in todayâs world. Yet if you knew that in say, 5 years, you would have stock and voice in the organization, you may be willing to stick it out.
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Good article. The cost of turnover is huge. If you can structure a job so retention is a key focus, it pays for itself. It may mean treating people as employees and not independent contractors, so that means withholding taxes, paying employer taxes, and getting workerâs comp insurance. It means paying a living wage and having reasonable expectations on hours worked. If you canât afford to do that then there is something wrong with your business model or you should be prepared to do the work yourself. I know that is harsh, but expecting others to support poor business planning is not tenable.
I just looked at the local help wanted ads for barn help. Everyone wants someone to work a few hours a day at most at very specific times and as an independent contractor. The wages are poor. I guess being around horses is a reward in and of itself. Tell that to your landlord, grocery store, or cell phone company.
One thing that Covid changed is that people are not going to accept low wages, no benefits, and marginal work settings any longer. It is time to wake up and smell the coffee.
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I just hit an ad that I really ought to have copied for posterity. The gist of it was: we want someone to work 7 days a week, part time, but both morning and evening and unspecified other times as needed for deliveries/vet/farrier, independent contractor, hourly wage was minimum. Would do all chores on farm.
Insanity and poor business practices!
It is an insult to feudal lordsâŠbut people really are looking for serfs.
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I have a friend who I just saw posted a stable job available, 2 1/2 hours a day, $70 per day. No takers so far, advert has been open for a week already. Even with past employees exclaiming publicly that they wished they could take the job again. Hard times to find employees. Glad I donât need any.
the next thread will be They Raised My Board by 150% (or more)
There is a recent thread about wanting to increase board from $300 which was met with Oh my God they will just move to another place.
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How many days a week? And what time of the day do those hours fall into? And how far is the barn from where most of the worker pool would likely be commuting?
Those are the sort of issues that make jobs unattractive to prospective employees. An adult canât live on $70 a day. So theyâll need another job (or two). Horse jobs often donât synch up with other jobs â e.g. morning hours overlap into a 9-5. You see it all the time with service industry jobs. A lot of people donât realize that a huge part of why there are so many unfilled jobs is that, while you would need 2 or 3 such jobs to live, companies refuse to hire anyone with less than 100% open availability. Mickey Dâs is not going to coordinate your shifts to accommodate your other job at Wally World.
@clanter, that fits into the bad business model that Ironwood was talking about. Covid has really served to expose the places with poor business models. I donât like seeing small businesses fail. But being on the financial/risk management side of things, itâs sure been interesting watching establishments finally fold.
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