My new senior assistant

[nutxo]

Senior citizen assistant

A department in my company closed and since I haven't had an assistant in way to long. The company placed him with me. I have no issue with age and have learned that older workers tend to much more meticulous which is important in my line of work. But this dude is old. Like 70 old.

I'm resigned to working with the guy otherwise he will be sent to somewhere to do manual labor and he can do things that free me up to other work. Right?

He interrupts me while I'm explaining work to tell me has once had 46 cats. Sometimes when I tell him what his task is his face goes blank. I want to snap my fingers in front his face but I keep talking until he interrupts me to tell me has 2 64 falcon rancheros or complain everything is made in China.

Today is his 4th day with me..

Today I was dropping some things off and left him a few hours of work while I was gone. On my way back my phone starts ringing. It's illegal to even hold you cellphone while you're driving here so I ignored it. Then it started ringing again and I looked and it was him so I sent a " I'm driving and cant talk " message. He called again and I l pulled over and answered.

.Him: " Hey I didn't want to bug you but this bell keeps ringing I think its the doorbell" ( It's a secure area and we have a doorbell that sounds like a fire alarm and it has " Doorbell" painted under the bell in 8 inch red letters)

Me: " Yeah, That's the doorbell man"

Him: " What should I do?"

Me " Answer the door please"

Him " Okay , hold on......................................................................There's no one there"

Me " Okay,,..... ( fuck) I'll be back in a while...."

I can make this work. I know I can make it work but fuck me.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Is his name Larry

 

[nutxo]

Is his name Larry

LOl, No. You have one too?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

LOl, No. You have one too?

haha no, Larry seems like a pretty common old guy name (no offence Larry, I know there's one here)

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I was stunned to find out that there was a non-manager working in my company that has been in the company for +50 years. What kind of life choices does one need to make to want to work for the same company for a half-century? Seriously, how can one's home life be so bad that they need to get up every morning and truck into the office as a non-manager and conclude it is better than home? And as I type this I know of one manager that is actually a director and that person is coming up on their 50th year in the company. These are what we call 'lifers' but is their only reason for living to work for the man? Why bother funding retirement if you die on the job when you are in your seventies!?!

 

[lxskllr]

Some people don't know what to do with themselves without work. It's also a social outlet. I /kinda/ get it. I like interacting with my boss, and since it's work, there's a clear demarcation. I show up. do stuff, interact, then go home and do what I want. One reason I've stayed at my relatively low paying job, is I get opportunities to do stuff that isn't my job, and that makes it fun. Hack together fixes for a skid loader, IT, roofing, chainsaw work... Plus I pretty much have free reign.

Maybe those old timers like their niche. I used to work with an old guy that thrived doing boring repetitious work. He made some amazing documentation referencing the jobs we've done, making everything discoverable, and easy to cross reference. Took a long time doing tedious work, but it was cool to have. Then a lot of it got lost in a server crash :^S

edit:
All of which is to say, I could see being old and still wanting to work, but I wouldn't want to do it full time. Do the stuff I want, make a couple bucks, then go home.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I was stunned to find out that there was a non-manager working in my company that has been in the company for +50 years. What kind of life choices does one need to make to want to work for the same company for a half-century? Seriously, how can one's home life be so bad that they need to get up every morning and truck into the office as a non-manager and conclude it is better than home? And as I type this I know of one manager that is actually a director and that person is coming up on their 50th year in the company. These are what we call 'lifers' but is their only reason for living to work for the man? Why bother funding retirement if you die on the job when you are in your seventies!?!

Some of us chose our jobs because it's what we love doing and want to do it as long as possible. I always shook my head over those who picked a job based on the paycheck.

 

[nutxo]

I was stunned to find out that there was a non-manager working in my company that has been in the company for +50 years. What kind of life choices does one need to make to want to work for the same company for a half-century? Seriously, how can one's home life be so bad that they need to get up every morning and truck into the office as a non-manager and conclude it is better than home? And as I type this I know of one manager that is actually a director and that person is coming up on their 50th year in the company. These are what we call 'lifers' but is their only reason for living to work for the man? Why bother funding retirement if you die on the job when you are in your seventies!?!

There was a guy that retired last year. He started in 77 and never made it above minumum wage.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Some of us chose our jobs because it's what we love doing and want to do it as long as possible. I always shook my head over those who picked a job based on the paycheck.

I agree with this 100%. But working for the bloody phone company in a craft job isn't possably a dream job for anyone other than someone looking for a paycheck.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I agree with this 100%. But working for the bloody phone company in a craft job isn't possably a dream job for anyone other than someone looking for a paycheck.

Dreams come in all different sizes.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

It would be interesting to conduct some research/interviews for a book about folks that work for the man for so long. Honestly, I've not really had any opportunity to ask one of them why. And after double-checking this afternoon, I realize I know someone that has been in the company 37 years, but I have not spoken to them in a decade.

 

[nutxo]

Holy shit!!!!!!!

Today I took him to start on his cert. I was Doin my refresher for one day and then he stays there for 4 more days. We went to break and the instructor ( He's been doing my certs and refreshes for years) calls me aside and asked me how old this guy is. I told him I had no idea, gotta be like 70.

After break the instructor asks everyone to introduce themselves and talk about what they do. When his turn comes he talks for a few minutes and the instructor asked him how old he was. Fifty mother fucking nine. I don't know if he was lying or what but I saw a lot of people eyes get really big and others got all squinty. Next week make I make copies of his certification cards I'm checking his birth date. If he's 59 then I'm gonna start taking much better care of myself.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I was stunned to find out that there was a non-manager working in my company that has been in the company for +50 years. What kind of life choices does one need to make to want to work for the same company for a half-century? Seriously, how can one's home life be so bad that they need to get up every morning and truck into the office as a non-manager and conclude it is better than home? And as I type this I know of one manager that is actually a director and that person is coming up on their 50th year in the company. These are what we call 'lifers' but is their only reason for living to work for the man? Why bother funding retirement if you die on the job when you are in your seventies!?!

I doubt he chose to work there because he liked it more than home but rather because it was a job that paid the bills. Not everyone likes to be a job hopper. I'm the same way I will stay with my company for as long as I can. I have some accumulated seniority (which means perks like more vacation weeks etc), pension, and I know the grass is never greener on the other side, so no point in trying to jump ship only to start everything over and go back to 2 weeks of vacation etc. Non management jobs are also less stressful - if you are not in management and your job is stressful then it's a reason to jump ship. Heck even management. No job is worth sacrificing your mental health.

Ironicly, I work for the phone company too. lol. If you get a non customer facing job it's rather cushy tbh. There's not a lot of jobs here that pay $30+ an hour unless you want to work in the mines.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I wasn't talking about people striving to get to their pension (partial or full), but people 20 years beyond that goal. These folks were at full pension 20 years ago and could have collected SS almost a decade ago. If you need to work your non-dream job into your seventies then you probably made more than one mistake along the way.

 

[dabuddha]

I doubt he chose to work there because he liked it more than home but rather because it was a job that paid the bills. Not everyone likes to be a job hopper. I'm the same way I will stay with my company for as long as I can. I have some accumulated seniority (which means perks like more vacation weeks etc), pension, and I know the grass is never greener on the other side, so no point in trying to jump ship only to start everything over and go back to 2 weeks of vacation etc. Non management jobs are also less stressful - if you are not in management and your job is stressful then it's a reason to jump ship. Heck even management. No job is worth sacrificing your mental health.

Ironicly, I work for the phone company too. lol. If you get a non customer facing job it's rather cushy tbh. There's not a lot of jobs here that pay $30+ an hour unless you want to work in the mines.

Yep some people have different priorities in life. For me, my family comes before my job so if my job lets me spend more time with my family, I'll stick with it. I could go pursue a better higher paying job but then it'd take time away from my kids.

 

[clamum]

LOL that guy sounds awesome. Probably kinda squirrely though. I worked with a squirrely older (maybe around 60-65?) guy at an industrial tools distributor while in high school/college. He was really nice but pretty helpless.

 

[zinfamous]

Holy shit!!!!!!!

Today I took him to start on his cert. I was Doin my refresher for one day and then he stays there for 4 more days. We went to break and the instructor ( He's been doing my certs and refreshes for years) calls me aside and asked me how old this guy is. I told him I had no idea, gotta be like 70.

After break the instructor asks everyone to introduce themselves and talk about what they do. When his turn comes he talks for a few minutes and the instructor asked him how old he was. Fifty mother fucking nine. I don't know if he was lying or what but I saw a lot of people eyes get really big and others got all squinty. Next week make I make copies of his certification cards I'm checking his birth date. If he's 59 then I'm gonna start taking much better care of myself.

He probably didn't let anyone know about the 10 year-long meth addiction that he recently kicked.

 

[Captante]

I work with several guys that are 70 or so years old and most of them are fairly sharp. Sounds to me like your assistant is either suffering from mild dementia or he could be an idiot... hard to say without speaking to him.

One thing I will say is its tough to find anyone with a brain to hire right now.

 

[Thebobo]

He should of kicked you in the nuts and claimed you hit him first because you don't like older people. Maybe its you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYETHsxAv8c

 

[Mayne]

Every job is important...don't begrudge him because he is older. I hate that mentality.

 

[nutxo]

Every job is important...don't begrudge him because he is older. I hate that mentality.

Not really sure if you're talking to me. I could have said no his first day and sent him on his way but didnt .

I plan on pushing him and seeing what he can learn. I don't care if he's fast. His work just has to be perfect.

 

[Mayne]

I heard it takes 10000 hours to laarn a job

 

[Mayne]

learn that is...lol i think my keyboards is turning redneck

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I work with several guys that are 70 or so years old and most of them are fairly sharp. Sounds to me like your assistant is either suffering from mild dementia or he could be an idiot... hard to say without speaking to him.

One thing I will say is its tough to find anyone with a brain to hire right now.

Hmm, my employer is slowly replacing Americans with foreign-sourced workers. They accept the hit in quality for a large drop in cost and simply ignore the cost of FCC fines. How they do this is beyond me. New American hires must be something that HR is finding amazing these days, though.

 

[DigDog]

He should of kicked you in the nuts and claimed you hit him first because you don't like older people. Maybe its you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYETHsxAv8c

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