Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[ozexpat]

By now there must be some readers wondering what horrible conditions our staff work under or that we are mean cruel taskmasters.

Truly we are not. We pay more than minimum wage, start on benefits on day one instead of six months, provide private room with bath, electricity and running water. Their beds have clean mattresses.

Most people that have worked for us (including Dominic Ibu and Waysan) come from homes of lesser quality than the most recent chicken coop we built and had to pump water from a communal well to carry home.

The work day is 6am to 5pm. They get a 30 minute breakfast two hour lunch and 30 minute lunch. As live in gardeners the law requires just 8 hours off a day. Our guys work eight hours only.

The problem of finding good staff is not uncommon. Everyone we know has the same issues. They will lose gardeners or house keepers every three weeks and then keep one for eight years.

Mrs Oz does not want local people because they would quit just the same. Then one night when they are drunk they could return an capitalize on the weaknesses in security we may have and rob the place or worse.

At least if they are broke and drunk an live a distance away, they can't afford the bus fare to ride here to invade.

 

[cwrite]

@Ox delurking just to say, you can't explain 3rd world to anyone who doesn't understand. It's a hard learned lesson. You are doing great! Also, more pics of your hen operation please : )

 

[cwrite]

@Oz - not Ox!

 

[Penny Hen]

Exit Wysan.

No reason. He just quit.

Apparently there is a "white lady" (ghost) that haunts the room he was staying in. That was the reason his cousin Ibu gave for leaving. He was fine till he went home last weekend. He must have come across his cousin.

Oh well.

Next.

Pour salt around the perimeter of the room. Pick up a sage smudge next time you are in California and burn it in the room. This should clear and protect the room in case the word gets around about the white lady.

 

[ozexpat]

Its going to require more than that. Probably a hefty donation to the church to come and bless the building and exorcise the deamons. Then lots of ginger, some small red silk pillows with herbs in them. Add a couple of crucafixes and we should be good to go.

 

[ozexpat]

@cwrite

Thanks for un-lurking to give support.

You are so correct on the third world mentality. There is nothing I can do about it. It's part of living here.

There are ample opportunities for letting third world living get the better of you. From the lack of predictability of drivers behavior to not being able to find a 1/2" GI coupling in four hardware stores to your new phone shorting out in your pocket from the volume of perspiration one excretes while looking for said couplings.

If you can't handle the little things then shovel snow and spend 400 per month on electricity.

It's funny. When I moved to America, the idiosyncrasies drove me crazy. From banking to grocery shopping, things were different. Twenty five years later I still can't order a diet coke at a drive through without having to repeat myself.

The world is full of similarities and differences. That's what makes it an exciting and wonderful place.

 

[ramirezframing]

I hope my post didn't make you feel that I thought that it was your fault that the employees were leaving. I understand that that's not the case. My husband goes through the same thing with his business (construction). He has had a few new people actually quit on their first day of work once they realize that they really have to work. I have to laugh when he comes home and tells me how someone has quit because it's starting to get cold or hot outside.

Hope you don't have to go through everything with the white lady room.

Good luck with the out of area worker hunt and have a great day.

 

[Amykins]

Wow. That just sounds...wow. I mean, of course other people and other cultures will believe some wild stuff, but...wow.

 

[ozexpat]

@ramirezframing

Oh no I did not think that but even I have to reassure myself sometimes it's not me.

I have been a supervisor/boss for many years and the only employees on two other continents that I have had quit are those I have assisted in doing so.

My father was in construction and the second morning was always telling with green laborers.

Here the work has periods of hard labor and periods of sitting and doing small things. We try and do the hard stuff before lunch and the stuff we can do out of the afternoon sun or tropical storms.

Its not like the days when I used to mix cement and sling bricks up twenty feet all day.

 

[apteryx]

@cwrite
It's funny. When I moved to America, the idiosyncrasies drove me crazy. From banking to grocery shopping, things were different. Twenty five years later I still can't order a diet coke at a drive through without having to repeat myself.

The world is full of similarities and differences. That's what makes it an exciting and wonderful place.

I know the feeling of having to repeat yourself when ordering the most basic of things. After only 10 1/2 years in America I still have that problem. On a bad day it is frustrating. On a good day it is entertaining and I can have some fun with it. It has also produced some very entertaining stories.

And I agree with similarities and differences making the world an interesting place. I had a friend that had lived here for about 2 years before I moved here and they frequently complained about how things weren't like back home. After about two months I had had enough and told them that if it bothered them that much they should just move back. If they didn't want to move they needed to accept that things were different because it is a different country and start to enjoy and make the most of what was around them. They are still things that make me shake my head, but if I were to go back home, I am sure I would find just as many things to shake my head at.