[Elspode]

I am the office manager for a moderately large roofing company here in KC ($5 Million gross sales last year, 60 employees at our location - we are a branch office). As we really only have an office staff of two, I wear a lot of hats, including HR, EEO, OSHA, AP, AR, Payroll, construction submittals, warranties, communications, computers, purchasing and - my personal fave, workman's compensation.

Roofers are a different breed...unfortunately, they verge on being a different *inbreed*. As such, roofers, as employees, present us with absolutely all the possible problems you could have with an employee. They are almost universally drinkers, they more often than not use drugs, they have revoked drivers licenses or so many violations that they cannot operate a company vehicle according to the insurer. They are frequently parolees with POs calling everyday to make sure they are actually at work, they fake or overstate injuries in order to profit via compensatory insurance. They call and tell you they have to go to court the way other people would tell you they had to stay home with a sick kid (and they see nothing unusual in the fact that they spend lots of time in court), theft of tools and materials is rampant (most roofers put on side jobs on their days off, despite their union contract which forbids it). If they slack off or do shoddy work and you fire them, it is not at all unusual to be threatened for your trouble, and fighting on the job between roofers is fairly common as well. 25% or so, on average, will have garnishments to be dealt with, and I field about six or seven calls from collection agencies per day (and they want to argue with me because I won't take a message for them). Their wives/girlfriends call me frequently, either to check up and make sure they came to work in the first place or to tell me that they are hooked on drugs and I should have them tested. Few, if any, can spell any word over four letters, and the only math they know is that they were a day short on their check. We have large numbers of Hispanics, who work really, really hard, and generally shame the American roofers alongside whom they toil, but I don't speak Spanish, and communication can be difficult. And don't get me started on illegal aliens and fake ID's.

Why am I telling you all this? Who the hell knows. Just needed to vent, and this seems to be a thread that doesn't end. I really like my job in general, it is the people I have to deal with that make me want to spit nails.