No, this isn’t another millennial bashing. There’s been enough of that. This blog post is my reflection on a new seventeen-year-old landscape worker who lasted exactly 2.5 days.
Probations
Probations work both ways. They allow employers to cut their losses when a new worker obviously isn’t working out in her new role. And probations also allow workers to walk away when their new job isn’t what they expected. It’s totally fair.
I personally trained the teenager in question on the mower and line edger. He did fine on Friday and then again on Monday. Then it got worse because we had yews (Taxus x media ‘Hicksii’) to install.
These burlapped beauties were heavy and access to our planting area was challenging. We had to load the plants onto wheelbarrows and then again to the planting area. Additionally, removing the burlap required more lifting.
Then came soil. We had to bring in new soil and incorporate it into the upper layers before completely top dressing the area. Hint: always backfill your planting holes with the original soil. Backfilling with new soil is tempting but don’t do it. Water will find it easier to penetrate the new soil and your saturated planting holes will turn your plants into joysticks. And eventually they will fall down.
Spooked by sweat
This is my new worker test: how does he or she react when he or she produces sweat. Does it spook them? Or do they plug away? This reaction is, I would humbly submit, a reliable predictor of employment longevity. It’s also amusing to observe.
Our teenage subject struggled and his phone came out way too often. More on that later. Soft landscape installs are physically challenging because there are time parameters to meet.
How to turn into a landscaper
I didn’t turn into a real landscaper until I put the work ahead of my physical discomfort. It wasn’t an easy shift but it had to happen. Now I welcome the physical challenge so I can stay in shape for running races. It’s a different story for a teenager who lives at home.
Final day
The boss had told him to stay off his phone until lunch which meant four hours without contact with his girlfriend. This would hurt him. I knew it.
I saw him put his phone into the glove box and stroke it the way people touch the caskets of loved ones they are about to bury.
Half-way through the day he complained about his knee. Allegedly he banged it on his second day and now the pain was horrific. So he went to the doctor at lunch time and applied for WCB compensation. He quit by the end of the week.
Clearly, attracting and keeping new landscape workers will be a challenge. Denying them full-time access to their phones might be a deal breaker one day. And yet I firmly believe that landscape horticulture is a great field.
