Another employee lost to meth!

[The Counterfeiter]

For the second time in two years, we have had an experienced employee in his 40's, who was making $50K a year, go beserk in the shop due to becoming addicted to meth. Both of these guys had serious problems with domestic violence and we had worked very hard with their probation officers to help.
I guess I'm just venting, but it's very hard when you see a skilled person throw away a job this good and put his life in the toilet. We can't find anyone who wants to be paid to be trained to work hard with the potential of making over $60K a year. It's sad that young workers think they can make big bucks without working hard. Thanks for listening - I'm just F$$$$$ frustrated!

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

Jim,
I feel your pain to some extent. Buzzz, Paul and I have been teaching religious instruction in the Lewis and Eagle Point prison near Gila Bend on Sunday nights for years. It's a shame to see such talented, capable individuals who have lost everything over substance abuse. They are deeply desirous to change their lives but they are scared to death that they will not have the capacity to ward off the temptations that these awful drugs pose.
I was shocked to hear the statistics during our State mandated orientation prior to beginning this Church calling. 80% of those incarcerated in North America had a drug problem prior to committing crimes. That's intolerable in my eyes.
The calling is a very rewarding one because there is a true and valid remorse for their transgressions and an honest desire to have what we have. Their biggest fear is that drugs will continue to prevent their potential progress. Not having been exposed to them, I thank God daily for freedom from their grasp. I can't comprehend what kind of grip it has on the addicted.

I'm so very sorry about your friend.

 

[Rollout96]

Well... Vent away Jim. I understand in that here in Oakland it is so hard to find employees who want to work. There is NOTHING hard here as jobs go but people are just SO lazy (I know, I shouldn't generalize). I just see so much potential in these guys and keep being let down. :::shrug:::

Doc: You and your family just seem to be wonderful people. That Sunday night thing is very, very cool of you to do. I know that YOU get rewarded too but to donate your time and energy is very admirable.

 

[Joker]

It is very hard these days to find good hard working people who want to EARN a paycheck. Especially in the financial industry which I am in. We had a kid last week come in and apply who looked like he fell face first into a tackle box and had a green and purple mohawk. I wanted to ask him if he really thought there was a chance I could hire him. Sure, the credit union would love to have you represent them.

 

[Toejam]

I think Meth is just part of the problem, too many people just don't want to work period! Getting people who just show up everyday ON TIME is a chore in and of itself!

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Definitely understand the problem. I used to think that money would make a good truck driver. These folks are as concerned with impressing everyone else with a new truck (when it's your lost depreciation that pays for it!). They'd rather be a number than make more money. Geez, I drive a truck TO make money! What does a business make other than money?

I was up to three trucks a couple of years ago. Sold one last year and hoping to convert what is now my spare to an RV. (because everyone needs an RV with a 470 Detroit--AR, AR, AR)

I believe it's the largely socialist education environment that people now grow up around. I know this will sound racist, but I believe a lot of white people think the deck is automatically stacked against them the same as many black people have thought for years. All they hear is big business, while foreigners come here from places that ARE tough, work their butts off, and succeed. I say your biggest obstacle is between your own ears no matter who you are. One person saying it to someone doesn't seem to overcome years of indoctrination. Thirty plus years of a mostly liberal media. Most people don't even know that small businesses are America's number one employer. If someone were motivated to get themselves in a much better place, why would they even consider doing something like that? Because they don't believe they can. I don't think most people even know what the American dream is anymore, much less believe in it.

 

[.]

Buzzz, Paul and I have been teaching religious instruction in the Lewis and Eagle Point prison near Gila Bend on Sunday nights for years.

Wow, that is really really great!
Any success stories you can share with us Doc?

 

[force fan]

Meth is the Devil's drug. That is the worse stuff you can mess with imo. My uncle died at 40 yrs old because of that drug. I hate it and have no use for it.

 

[The Counterfeiter]

Meth is the Devil's drug. That is the worse stuff you can mess with imo. My uncle died at 40 yrs old because of that drug. I hate it and have no use for it.

Lynn - I thank God every day that my daughter hit bottom and asked for help before meth killed her. She has moved to Seattle to try something different with her life and is acheiving great success. So sorry to hear about your uncle. Unfortunately, very few people who become addicted will ever escape.

 

[rocketman]

According to a cop that spoke at a meeting I was at, the first time you try meth it's the greatest high then you try in vein to duplicate it and it never happens. By then your pretty %^&ed.

Wow 50K per year ....hey uh Jim....

 

[Nitrohaulic]

I was advertising the same money for a truck driver, along with being home on weekends. It's easy to find that kind of money if you want to live in a truck for two plus weeks at a time. In my ads on the old mater and racingjunk I even had thrown in "Rides in our bracket dragster when we test and tune." I would have loved to have found someone who wanted to start with me, then progress to owning their own, AND have motorsports/drag racing in common.

Hope I didn't seem to drift too far off from the drug thing into business, but I do believe the reasons I posted above are the root reasons as to the why. I just don't think you're going to risk everything if your dreams are strong enough, and I just don't think it's something they're instilling with the emphasis that they used to. I think most of the people who'll mess themselves up like that don't even have dreams.

 

[rollemup]

I think most of the people who'll mess themselves up like that don't even have dreams.

Hey Ron I hope you don't mind if I pick on you for a moment. My earliest dream was to be a crew chief for a race team, I even went to a mechanics class after school hours to become a crew chief, and then I smoked my first joint and had sex for the first time, I was thirteen then, from there I was stoned for the next twenty four years, the prime time of my life. I'm sharing this with my fellow Maters because if you have never done drugs or been an alchoholic then it is very difficult to understand why we did the things we did, so yes Ron we do have dreams it's just that we chose to go another direction. The good news for me is that when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior I was delivered from my drugs and alcohol addiction, the last ten years were hard core meth addiction. I understan the problem that was brought up on this thread, I to am a small business owner and we have the same problem up here in North Idaho with our labor pool. There are so many reasons some of us choose to do drugs and alcohol and I believe strongly that our upbringing has a major role in why we do the things we do. I hope this helps some Maters understand a problem that makes no sense at all.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

And as a teenager we drank and smoked pot as well. There's no way I was ever going to try to build my life around that, though. I'm not putting myself on a pedestal. I didn't exactly come up around the best circumstances myself, though. The goal of wanting to drive a funny car since I was about five did keep me out of trouble any worse than I already got into. Like probably most of the people here, I watched friends go over the edge no matter how hard I tried to hold them back. Maybe there is no one reason for everyone. Maybe a lot of people are going to fall no matter what you do. I just know that having goals that require money have forced me to live a certain kind of life.

 

[ProStockJunkie]

At one time in my life after racing, I counselled inmates for 10 years until I ran away screaming from it. Not because of the inmates. But because of the system.