Quote:
Originally Posted by TailgateNut
It's ok. Just tired of doing the "backstroke" and working for free.
We started by cutting our profits to bare bones, then cut our own salaries, then cut 401K matches for the employees, bonuses went "out the window" last Christmas, then we had no choice but to eliminate paid "weather days"/and sick days due to some rampant abuse by a few employees. We've been able to provide health insurance to date but the annual increases have just eaten us alive, so now we're in the shut down mode. I have three projects to complete and unless something magical happens between now and their completion date, we're shutting the doors.
Municipalities seem to think that due to the economy we are going to build their projects for free (0% profit and 100%risk), and in many instances take a loss to stay in business.
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I've seen several friends who've done everything from framing, roofing, to concrete in ND, where the housing market is still relatively good, say the same thing. Many developers have started their own companies buy buying out smaller ones that used to do the little things for them. I worked for a concrete company, did foundations and footings before I learned how to do flat work, he worked for 2 different developers. I quit when I had a paycheck bounce. The whole thing ended up in court but it turned out that he had spread himself out so thin with the price of concrete going up, and renting and maintaining the equipment had tapped him out, he ended up selling everything to the 2 developers and working as a project manager for them.
I'm glad I'm a government worker right now. I don't think I could survive in the job market. It would frustrate the heck out of me to go for a muta 5 drill weekend as a CPT and make more than I did in a 40 hr a week job.