GORDON LIGHTFOOT | Culture
FINE BALANCE
42 year old team leader Bryce Jamieson has struck a fine balance when it comes to employing people at an Auckland based recycling plant.
Bryce now has a team of eight staff, where four of them are very difficult to motivate and the other four do most of the work each day. He believes the latter four are likely looking elsewhere for employment however, largely due to the punishingly repetitive nature of sorting rubbish on a conveyor belt.
“It’s definitely a balancing act. I’ve got four good workers who turn up each day and get on with it, plus four more that each have a 50-50 chance of not showing up at all,” explained Bryce during a scheduled smoko.
“Amazing isn’t it? We’ve got four guys who pick up all the slack when the others are hungover or not even there, but on the flipside, these ones are highly likely to hand in their notice at any moment because of how shit this job is.”
Bryce says that he has temporary staff pick up days as well to fill the gaps, but they’re often even more useless than his employees.
“Never a dull moment hahaha, never know what you’re going to get when your recruitment company sends you a completely random human being on a Monday morning,” joked the team leader, attempting to use humour to cover up his sustained stress levels. “You often wonder how long out of prison they are!
“But then one day you get a superstar who puts his head down, follows instructions and gets the job done. And you know what happens to him? He fucks off as soon as something better comes along, and who could blame him.”
Bryce is currently applying for jobs in other similar team leader roles around Auckland.
More to come.
