I had a conversation with one of the team today and got to reminiscing about some of the lads that have worked for us in the past.

We ended up concluding that many of today’s available workforce don’t actually want to work – they would rather draw benefits and feel sorry for themselves.

We then remembered the various characters that had graced us with their skills:

The lad that wore his high visibility vest underneath his sweatshirt
The lad that leapt off a dumper and wiped out a Tesco’s sign
The lad that when putting in fence posts said to his mate – ‘when I nod my head – you hit it’ – and the other lad did exactly what he was told
The lad that planted 850 whips (young trees) upside down – roots above ground/ foliage beneath
The lad that put a new tyre on a trailer using ignited petrol –
The lad that used our machinery and vans to do a series of – ‘foreigners’
The various characters that have been drunk/thrown up wrecked hotel rooms

The list just goes on and on…

Please note none of these characters now work for us, the trouble causers and time wasters are soon weeded out (pardon the pun) and the lads that we currently employ would never do any of these ‘crimes’.

We then got on talking about what the lads have done since they left the employment of JKSL? One of them works for ‘Quick-fit’, one of them is in prison, one of them is a drug dealer …and one of them sub-contracts to a successful landscape company that deals with Japanese Knotweed …..duuuuh ….wtf

Who is this person and how on earth have they managed this I asked????

Well it turns out that the lad who was fired for destroying a Tesco sign, and for planting trees ‘upside down’, the lad who was thick as a fence post and was hit on the head to prove this ….has managed to get himself a sub- contractor job working for one of the larger companies working in the weed control market…!

We also got to talking about other companies that these rejected lads from JKSL go to work for – one of whom has been travelling to Scotland to carry out sub-contract spray and strimming works near to Edinburgh. He has been travelling from Manchester to do these works and is being paid absolute rock bottom wages – so does a quick job and gets the work done with little or no thought as to what he is doing.

On a totally separate issue I was discussing with one of the senior guys at ‘G***********l’ the fact that they had been awarded a major contract with Network Rail relating to trackside maintenance of weeds and other unwanted vegetation.

I was asking how they managed to get the resources to complete such large scale projects ….?

He wasn’t really interested in answering my questions but was keen to tell me of their multi-million pound turnover…

Enough said.

Me?… I just wouldn’t sleep well at night using sub-contractors to carry out our works.

Mike C