Chairman Moorman seemed confindent of course…What caught my ears was a 4% downturn in buisness (dont sue me i am just saying what I thought I had heard that aprox 8% of railroad cars are out of service and red tagged. However NS mechanical department said that they are getting a lot of cars from other railroads and reparing them faster.
There were 40 fresh faced college kids are are the management training program… I raised the question about hiring from within and the answer more or less is that the Demografics does not allow that (Post Baby Boom?)
Also again expect a war on re-regulation and the STB…What is odd about this is that the old days it was the Family Farmer vs the Big Railroad and now its The Big Railroad vs The Big Utlity.
Insuarnce rates and the requirment to haul haz-mats as the fact the the railroads are self-insured were discussed by Moorman…Finnaly there were no goodys after the Meeting only bottled water///Is this a bad sign?[|)]
Why would anyone out here that has any seniority at all want to work more for less? And on top of that be expected to work miracles while being shuffled around like a gyspsy.On second thought, I guess that would fall under demographics.
Of those 40 fresh faces, I’d be amazed if 10 of them are here in a few years…
PS.>> the bottled water… was it in little clear 8oz bottles, product of the municipal supply of some city? Or was it something special?
Prob the same bottled water they give us. lol As far as not hiring from within, thats one of the downfalls of the company. They keep hiring these “college kids” that don’t know anything at all about the railroad and they come out expecting things that are just impossible to do because of the time it takes etc.
4 ounce water… They must have seen me coming…
There is a pre-meeting the day before for VIP Shareholders and Board Members…Thats were the chow is!!
The days are over of when shareholders of railroads and Automakers took up the biggest Ballroom in town and had steak dinners…Its the age of the day trader… Dont like the company? Sell it! Gone are the days of Little Old ladies clipping dividend and Bond coupons
NS has a promote from within program. It’s called OST. They put a ton of agreement folk thru the program in the past couple of years. Even then, very, very few were 20-somethings.
The RR is going to lose a HUGE number of employees over the next 10 years. A much higher % from mgt than agreement. That’s why the mgt training program is going full bore.
They are hiring some bright kids. I just wish they’d hire more who took more than a healthy interest in RRing. The best ones I’ve seen come thru are railfans, believe it or not.
Who else of the best and the brightest are you going to get out of a business school? The others are off to work at Southwest, UPS or Google. I think the NS and BNSF know this.
I have had personal experience in hiring some of those “fresh faces” and let me tell you those kids are pieces of work. They don’t want to come in early, don’t want to leave late (don’t get caught blocking the door at 5:01 p.m. or you will get trampled to death), they want to earn $100K from day #1, they want to receive regularly scheduled raises whether or not they have earned them, they need frequent pats on the back whether or not they deserve them so as to not bruise their fragile egos. These kids are products of the “no kid left behind” thought process and most have little or no work ethic at all.
I think there are all kinds out there. Certain people dont want to work hard, placing a greater emphasis on other things. Ten years ago those that wanted that were given the “mommy or daddy track”.
As far as young kids out of college, my girlfriend’s daughter just started a management training program with a very large company. She has been at it 6 weeks and loves it. This week she is at work at 5am, thus out the door at 4am and up at 315am. My son is at his summer job at 630am.
I train and mentor new kids we hire out of college. We hire 2 to 3 per year for sales and our turnover is horrible. We are very lucky if 1 out of 10 is with us after 3 years. It is not always the kids, in our case we dont do a very good job of training and developing new talent.
Lets face it, the years of cradle to grave employement with one company ended a couple of decades ago. Why would someone expect to be at the same company 10 years from now with all of the layoffs, downsizings, etc.
Loyalty is a two way street.
As a 50 something year old salesman with 18 years with the same company, I am beginning to plan for the next career. Am I unhappy? Hardly. Underpaid? NO, Heck no. Overworked? No. Love the job, but you better have at least the next phase of your life at least on the drawing board…just the way it is.
My ultimate example of our upcoming kids: I was giving line orientated experience and the trainee told me there was 2 quarts in a gallon. He went to high school on Long Island and had an associates degree. Lasted three months.