Homeless dude
A story in a Facebook group about a homeless man in the US inspired me to write this blog post. Briefly, a landscape professional ran into a homeless man and asked him if he would drink away the US$100 he wanted to give him. No, he said, he stopped drinking a long time ago.
Well then, what about a shower and supper at his home; plus US$100 to do some mowing. Nope, he stopped mowing long time ago.
So, what does happen to a man who stops drinking and mowing? In that order.
Now, obviously, I don’t know the homeless man’s history but I can’t help thinking he shouldn’t be homeless. He can mow lawns, after all. It’s not right. Especially when there is lots of work available on the West Coast. Soon, many temporary summer workers will go back to school and we’ll have to hire people for the fall. And fall is super busy with leaf clean-up and cedar hedge shearing. With so much work available, homelessness doesn’t make sense to me.
Education
Technical skills are important and you gain those skills in the field. But what if you’re grinding and still not making great cash? You can follow two of my recommendations.
One, get landscape industry certified. The lawn care technician exam is written only; no practical testing, and not even a study manual. When I took it, the instructions said something like this: if you make a living mowing lawns, you should pass this exam. Aha.
Now, since I was already a landscape industry certified technician, this exam was fairly easy. I think. I passed it but I never got to see my scores. They just sent me a certificate in the mail. OK.
And if you can’t afford the exam, I’m sure your employer would happily sponsor you. You just have to ask. Who wouldn’t want a landscape industry certified lawn care technician on their staff? Kiss homelessness goodbye.
Going big
Now let’s say you’re no longer homeless and you still want to get better and improve your wages. You can go bigger with an online principles of turf grass management certificate from the University of Georgia. It’s one hundred percent online and the cost is also reasonable: from US$340-399.
Because the course covers turf grass management, you can find work at golf courses, municipalities or private landscape companies.
Once you complete the course successfully, you become a landscape industry certified manager! Now we’re talking. Now your past homelessness looks like a little bump in your life. I suspect you’ll be in a position to help a homeless man you run into.
Be great! Not homeless.
