Having been self employed for over 55 years and much more the giver than the taker , my experiences with takers have been mostly with my employees… (had lots of givers over the years, but many more takers) … I have seen many many employers over the years who were takers… like my first real job that I wrote about a while back. I am not throwing rocks here… it is simply the outworking of what I have spoken of as the natural man… my nature is to take… not to give.
I worked as a Union roofer for 7 months (a long story)…. I was constantly told to “slow down”… we don’t run on the roof (flat roof – I was hustling for my boss, not running)… I can’t tell you how many times I would bring something up the ladder to the roof and the other employees were sitting down, having a beer, eating something, joking, taking yet another unauthorized break…. I can’t tell you how glad I was when that season in my life was over… too many stories…
Back to our Crane business… employees filled their cars and their friends cars from our gas pump… employees had no idea what happened to the rolls of copper wire we had in storage… or the tools that were missing… that diamond drill bit? I don’t know, Phil…somebody must’ve left it on the job… and on and on… 2 years.
I was relieved when the Lord told me to resign as the President of Jersey Crane Corporation. It was time for other stories… but there are takers everywhere.