I knew this day would come. After all, very few employees stay forever, especially the young, talented ones. Our office manager, Montana Sims, is leaving us to return to school, studying to become a licensed nurse. She has been really special to us. Montana can diagnose an engine issue, find the part and probably make the repair while I am still looking for the phone number to the parts house. She can also straighten out subscription problems and upload the weekly paper quick as a wink.
She is an outstanding young mom to two littles who we have grown to love like our own grandkids. Little Oaklinn was our office baby for the first six months of her life. It was great because we got to do all the fun baby stuff, like smell the baby smell and give cuddles, bottles and rocking, but none of the bad stuff like up all night with a teething, cranky child.
Earlier this year, Montana decided to apply for a nursing program and to no one’s surprise, she was accepted. She will make an outstanding nurse, calm, efficient and exceedingly capable. I know if I were in the hospital I would want her by my bedside. I wish her all the best and we will miss her in ways we don’t even recognize yet.
But it made me begin to wonder where we as a nation are going to find our good, young employees. How do you find someone who has a good head on their shoulders and get them hired with what a regular job pays? I’m not talking about a recent college graduate, just someone with a high school education and a little maturity.
But how can anyone attract a good employee for even $15 per hour? That’s darned hard to live on if a person must pay rent, utilities, food and transportation. My own child has a roommate and doesn’t own a car, just to make ends meet. It is far less expensive to chip in for gasoline periodically or walk everywhere than it is to have a car note, gasoline and insurance. Even a paid for beater is expensive to insure for a young man.
So, as more young people are foregoing college and entering the workforce, what is the solution? How do we as businesses manage to pay them enough to live on, enough that they stay with us until they spread their wings and fly, or go part time to raise a family, or decide what they want their career to be, like Montana, and return to school?
I’m sure I don’t have the solution. Maybe some of you out there have a good idea and are willing to share it. But it is a problem that we as a society and as a small community that wants to grow are going to have to address.