Job Lead, Dead End.

Our friends in the next complex over were mentioning to us last week that her dad might have some temp work for SCB... which was fantastic news for us since he's been signing in to Labor Ready every day with no luck and we have yet to receive anything from the state of Utah pertaining to sealing his old misdemeanor... (which prevents him from getting a job with most employers in this current economy)...

So we had dinner at their home, talked construction work, paint jobs, and the type of work SCB would be doing. Her dad didn't seem to mind that SCB didn't have a big background in painting and he told him he would rather have a newbie he could train and teach correctly then a guy who thinks he knows what he's doing and really doesn't. He also mentioned how he needs to let a guy go because his SS Number keeps getting flagged in the E-Verify system, but it would formally take a few weeks because they had to notify him in writing and give him the opportunity to correct the error.

So everything seemed to be going well and it looked like in a few weeks he might have a gig coming up... We continued talking details and her father started talking about how SCB would need to sign up with the temping agency that he hires through... and when we asked which one, we got a case of Deja-vu

He contracts through Labor Ready.

Which leaves us in a bit of a dead end for the moment since this isn't apparently a new lead at all. We were hoping to find another local temping agency or perhaps land this as a temporary gig with a couple real paychecks for a few weeks... but alas, its Labor Ready again.

Just for a little FYI, Labor Ready tends to send people out on jobs not necessarily on a first come, first served basis, but based on the information in your file. If you have done dish washing jobs in the past with them and one of those comes up, they will give it to you over someone who hasn't done that type of work before regardless if you were the first person there or the 25th. (If they keep their customers happy, they continue to call back for more employees later.) The only way around that is to be asked for. That happened a couple times with SCB and his dish washing gig. After we got married and he got a full time job, Labor Ready called him to see if he could work there again. He politely told them he'd gotten a full time job and then the calls stopped.

So for SCB to get a painting gig, he'd have to be first in line on a day when no other painting guys have checked in or could be reached by phone.... or be asked for by name. Here's to hoping for the later.

While her dad has plans to eventually get his own payroll system up and running so he won't be charged $17 an hour to be supplied with a worker from Labor Ready, that move will take some serious time and won't be in the near future.