Staff Motivation

Worked till I was 30 doing everything and anything to get a start. Pay peanuts get monkeys it really is that simple.
I suppose you'd class me as a monkey then, had a few pretty low paid relief milking jobs, but really enjoyed in my youth working for some real characters, worked for a member on here father, cup of tea at 6am, tea and toast 7.45am, cooked tea on Saturday night, Christmas dinner in the house while he did the milking Christmas day, another place had a real slow milker, when she came in you put the unit on then went in the house for twenty minutes for tea and scones, good times.
 

coomoo

Member
I suppose you'd class me as a monkey then, had a few pretty low paid relief milking jobs, but really enjoyed in my youth working for some real characters, worked for a member on here father, cup of tea at 6am, tea and toast 7.45am, cooked tea on Saturday night, Christmas dinner in the house while he did the milking Christmas day, another place had a real slow milker, when she came in you put the unit on then went in the house for twenty minutes for tea and scones, good times.
What were you on those days compared to now in a sense
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
A good sense of humour can go a long way to help staff motivation.

But it can work in reverse too.
My father was giving the day’s instructions to the men. The fenland farm was up a mile long drive (drove).
Having given his instructions to them, one of the tractor drivers asked my father where the broom was.
”What do you mean?” My father said. “I haven’t asked you to do any work with a brush!”
”Well Guvner,” he said. “Once I have done all those things you want me to do today, I can stick the broom handle up my arse and sweep the drove as I cycle home!”

This caused so much laughter amongst everybody that they got bugger all done for the rest of the day!
 
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Milkcow365

Member
Location
Sw Scotland
I think we have to be carefull we don't get left behind. The most basic Morrisons employee is now on £10 an hour and that would give theml 4weeks holiday so closer to 11an hour for working 8 hours during the day.
18 an hour for skilled work at unsociable hours and probably self employed is fine as long as your current chap is happy but it probably won't be enough to find another
Remember I live in a place where a 4 bed house is £130k to buy and £475 a month to rent,
 

Pigken

Member
Location
Co. Durham
£10 an hour won't net many people to do unpopular or unpleasant work I'm afraid.


What would you expect some one to do that you were paying £10 hour to. And what would you expect to do if been paid £10. Think you will find massive difference in expectations on both through out the country. I know some one who arrives on site at 3.30 am for 3.45 am start milking trying to bill them £15 HOUR but been told £13 hour is maximum they can pay, this is self employed. Now I think they are trying it on, but would you do that. Seems vast differences in expectations and reality.
 

Pigken

Member
Location
Co. Durham
I find treating them like they are humans works .........

Oh, and it also helps that the boss (es) are seen to out working all hours too and getting dirty.


I always have more respect for boss that will get hands dirty and would not ask some one else to do some thing that they will nt them selves. But seems to be in some quarters the belief of we are paying you we can treat you peasants as we choose. We all put food in the same hole, we are all the same. But equally to many youngsters seem to expect to rise straight to the top and not work up and learn skills as they go.
 
What would you expect some one to do that you were paying £10 hour to. And what would you expect to do if been paid £10. Think you will find massive difference in expectations on both through out the country. I know some one who arrives on site at 3.30 am for 3.45 am start milking trying to bill them £15 HOUR but been told £13 hour is maximum they can pay, this is self employed. Now I think they are trying it on, but would you do that. Seems vast differences in expectations and reality.

I'm very much of the old school thinking: if I don't like it, I would leave kind of mentality.

Skilled and reliable people who know how to milk and do the job properly would be an asset in my view and well worth another £2 an hour.

Farmers seem keen to continue dairy farming but not that keen to milk their own cows. It's an interesting one.
 

Jdunn55

Member
I always have more respect for boss that will get hands dirty and would not ask some one else to do some thing that they will nt them selves. But seems to be in some quarters the belief of we are paying you we can treat you peasants as we choose. We all put food in the same hole, we are all the same. But equally to many youngsters seem to expect to rise straight to the top and not work up and learn skills as they go.
The number of young people I've seen over the past couple of years try and do a job and either cant be bothered or think they should be entitled to £50/hour plus a house is unreal. I'm only 20 but have seen more than 10 different younger people leave their job over the past 3 years in the 2 jobs I've worked at. For the most part they seem like they genuinly cant be bothered, some dont want to get off the tractor seat, some think they know everything. Several of them at my last job were asked to bed down calves, shown what is expected and where they are and after several weeks were taking ALL MORNING to bed them down (a job that took anyone decent half an hour to an hour depending on the number of calves). Giving them more money doesnt work either, as soon as they've got that pay rise they're thinking about how much the next one should be and when next week they should ask for it...
 

Sparkymark

Member
Motivating staff is simple. Don’t be a boss!
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Not quite. You need to have a bit of an aura so your staff understand where the line is.
If necessary, give them a “Positive Bollocking”

The best "positive bollocking" that I had was when I was a harvest student, working a grain dryer. One hot Saturday afternoon I was having a nap and the farm manager walked in on me and woke me up, "Oh good, you're asleep. That's excellent, that must mean that everything's going really well, all the bins a level full, everything is swept up, the moisture in and out of the dryer has been checked recently and adjusted as necessary, all recorded, the dresser is set up and running correctly and all maintenance is up to date. I'm really pleased that you had time for a sleep!"
The man was an utter legend as far as i'm concerned as a man manager, a really good leader of men and was always the first to roll up his sleeves and do any dirty horrible jobs.
Having actually managed to do a pretty good job on the dryer in a difficult harvest he brought the farm's owner, a distinguished titled gentleman to see me and thank me. Things like that go a very long way.
 
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multi power

Member
Location
pembrokeshire
Different things motivate different people, you need to find out what people like and appreciate
Sticking to what you said goes a very very long way in my book
As is being left to get on with the job, but again that doesn't suit everyone, different people require different amounts of managing
My boss tells me he hates having to micro manage, he normally tells me what I need to know and then asks me what I'm up to today, suits both of us
 
Location
West Wales
Different things motivate different people, you need to find out what people like and appreciate
Sticking to what you said goes a very very long way in my book
As is being left to get on with the job, but again that doesn't suit everyone, different people require different amounts of managing
My boss tells me he hates having to micro manage, he normally tells me what I need to know and then asks me what I'm up to today, suits both of us

I hate having to micro manage too. I’m a huge believer in giving people parameters and them achieve what’s been requested how they see fit to do so.
 

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