Mobi's 10:1 & Raro's 4:1

[onemorechang]

Spiced right up.

You got to be a bit sad to sit and wright all that..

have a nice day.

bet you never do.

[Jip99]

Spiced right up.

You got to be a bit sad to sit and wright all that..

have a nice day.

bet you never do.

I thought it was a very accurate assessment.

He was not having a go at either establishment - in fact he said they were good. One issue arose about hygiene - that was a personal experience so I have no doubt it happened.

[transam]

Spiced right up.

You got to be a bit sad to sit and wright all that..

have a nice day.

bet you never do.

Write..................Sorry, sorry..............

[onemorechang]

Spiced right up.

You got to be a bit sad to sit and wright all that..

have a nice day.

bet you never do.

I thought it was a very accurate assessment.

He was not having a go at either establishment - in fact he said they were good. One issue arose about hygiene - that was a personal experience so I have no doubt it happened.

He did make more than one post

the other one, was what im on about.

Have a nice read

[onemorechang]

Spiced right up.

You got to be a bit sad to sit and wright all that..

have a nice day.

bet you never do.

Write..................Sorry, sorry..............

That's ok,

[Jip99]

Spiced right up.

You got to be a bit sad to sit and wright all that..

have a nice day.

bet you never do.

I thought it was a very accurate assessment.

He was not having a go at either establishment - in fact he said they were good. One issue arose about hygiene - that was a personal experience so I have no doubt it happened.

He did make more than one post

the other one, was what im on about.

Have a nice read

Maybe you are trying to be comedian ?.............

I presume you mean post #30, that I referred to, regarding his personal experience of under-cooked food?

Or................. are you suggesting that boldface made 3 posts and I missed one ???

[onemorechang]

Get on with it man

[boldface]

Spiced right up.

You got to be a bit sad to sit and wright all that..

have a nice day.

bet you never do.

1 - I have ebola. Well, not ebola, but definitely flu. Well it might be a cold. Nevertheless I am at home succumbing to ebola and have time on my hands.

2 - If just one person reads it and thinks "Hmmm maybe 45 years as a taxi driver in Scunthorpe does not equip me well to run a bar or restaurant. I'll just have to take knocked up nok back with me instead" and therefore save half their pension being pissed away, 6 months of heart ache and a relationship down the shitter, it would have been worth while my investment in time and effort.

3 - Try this instead "He did make more than one post, and I was referring to the other one".

See I'm being very helpful tonight.

Edited January 17, 2015 by boldface

[onemorechang]

^{Are you high ?}

[boldface]

^{Are you high ?}

Maybe I am. One of the ebola medicines I got is listed online as an opiate. Its not tiffy, but the other one they sell next to tiffy.

Hmmm. What's your excuse for wasting your time on a forum rather than be oooott and abooooot living the high life?

[onemorechang]

none,

finish bottle of red wine.

service wife and go sleep.

normal day for me.

[Anthony5]

none,

finish bottle of red wine.

service wife and go sleep.

normal day for me.

If you need any help with any of the above, please give me a shout.

Please send picture of the wife so I can inform you which part of the daily task I can help you with.

[canopus1969]

^There is plenty of manpower out there and skilled people.

The only problem is (as far as i can see) remunerating the right people when found at a salary they are happy to do there job and incentives also go a long way too!

It is an old adage but very true "you pay peanuts you get monkeys"

In my experience most employee problems come from staff who feel unwanted,underpaid and therefore insecurity grow.

Total nonsense, there are not 'plenty of manpower out there' Raro's example is just one

[MrRed]

^There is plenty of manpower out there and skilled people.

The only problem is (as far as i can see) remunerating the right people when found at a salary they are happy to do there job and incentives also go a long way too!

It is an old adage but very true "you pay peanuts you get monkeys"

In my experience most employee problems come from staff who feel unwanted,underpaid and therefore insecurity grow.

Total nonsense, there are not 'plenty of manpower out there' Raro's example is just one

You said it.... is just one

We have different experience obviously.

[yankee99]

"Staff here tend to leave non busy places; not about the money, they get shit bored as they rather play with their phones when they have work to do. No fun playing with their phones when they have no work to do. "

I find this is statement above to be 100% correct and about accountants with degrees working for 12,000 none that i know of

[Mobi]

The fact is that Thailand, and Pattaya in particular, has more or less zero unemployment.

Any Thai who wants a job can find one very easily, and not necessarily in bars. These days there's plenty of factories, retail outlets etc that pay reasonable money to Thais even with minimal education.

And of course there's thousands, of bars, massage parlours and eating joints.

I know from my own wife's family and friends who are always drifting from job to job. They are not bothered too much about financial security and really just want to earn enough to be happy and not work too hard.

Some girls, but by no means all, need to send money back to their families in the villages. These girls are more likely to work in the bars, but again the salary is not so important as (a) their general happiness and b, the amount of customers who will give generous tips and take them out on short times.

The girls who work in Walking Street are more money orientated than the ones on the Darkside, who just want to have an easy life and maybe find a husband, with the occasional 'short time' for money to send back home. These girls like to be from the same village as each other and their boss. It works much better that way.

Here is what I wrote yesterday on Raro's thread.

Outside of Pattaya City, staffing will always be a problem. It's a problem even within the city, but at least in town there will be plenty of girls looking for jobs as well as those leaving....

I was aware of this problem when I opened my bar and I knew the only way I could keep staff was to try and treat them like family, be indulgent of some of their bad habits but not to the extent that it seriously affected my business. I also knew that the secret of keeping staff on the Darkside was not only to provide accommodation, but to get them from my wife's village. Many were actually related to the wife and all of them knew each other well.

So when they came to work for me it was one big happy family, but that didn't stop the wife and I laying down the law when it was necessary, but they accepted it as it was all in the family. As a result we always had between 7 and 9 girls working there, and whenever one or two went back to the village others would come to replace them.

Within a few weeks of selling the bar, all the girls left, as they didn't get on with the new owner and didn't like all his new rules (e.g. washing up glasses at 3 am when they were tired and drunk rather than washing up when they got up in the morning; and making them eat their food upstairs in their communal room where the day time temperatures were unbearable, rather than in the kitchen, where there was plenty of room to eat.)

He will tell you that he fired them, but that is not true - they walked out...(nobody fires staff en mass in this employment climate...)

Since they all left he has struggled like hell to keep staff and most new ones have left within a couple of days of being hired. I hope he can see his problem and change the way he deals with the girls. Anyway I wish him all the best.

As far as Raro is concerned, I'm not saying he and his good lady could have done any better, but I'm simply pointing out how hard it is to retain staff on the Darkside. They all have their own agendas, and security of employment is way down on their list of priorities.

I am sad that Raro has called it a day, but I can well understand.

I wish whoever buys his business good luck, but please think through the staffing issues - its not just a question of offering the right salary - it's the way of life - or quite possibly a husband - the girls are looking for.

I also agree with virtually everything that Boldface has written. The Darkside has far too many bars and eating places for the number of customers out here. There are virtually no tourists, but plenty of residents, but nowhere near enough to support all these places.

But however bad a place is, they will always get a few customers which will take them away from other, better places, which means that even the good ones will give up sooner or later.

But I doubt it will ever change, as everyone believes they can make it work, and many don't actually care as it is just a hobby that may or may not make the wife a bit of pocket money. When they grow tired of losing money, they will sell on to another mug. So the number of places just gets more and more - very few ever shut down for good.

The only people who are getting rich are those who are buying these places at fire-sale prices and selling them on at much higher prices.

[boldface]

"which means that even the good ones will give up sooner or later."

Exactly. Good places usually have higher costs and can not afford to ride it out like the bare bones minimum places can.

[Turkleton]

I also agree with virtually everything that Boldface has written. The Darkside has far too many bars and eating places for the number of customers out here. There are virtually no tourists, but plenty of residents, but nowhere near enough to support all these places.

But however bad a place is, they will always get a few customers which will take them away from other, better places, which means that even the good ones will give up sooner or later.

...........

Hmm, I think there are far too many businesses, operated by uninspired owners with no experience or any "business instinct".

They've opened rests or bars at abysmal locations etc.

If you chat with them, the most used phrases are: we should do...if we would do this or that.....I'm thinking about this or that...but next week for sure.

Many owners are just lazy and transfer all responsibilities/work to their (even more clueless) "missus".

But most are great in finding excuses for their own failure.

I personally know a handful of very well running "Farang operated" business's here on the Darkside.

But running a successful business is a very hard work (and not only for the "missus"), especially here in Thailand.

PS: Keeping staff is not only a matter of money, but more a "familiar atmosphere" thing.

And most important: you need a "hierarchy", the Farang boss should not waste his time, to show the "cleaning lady", how to do the job....

and much more.....

Edited January 18, 2015 by Turkleton

[raro]

^There is plenty of manpower out there and skilled people.

The only problem is (as far as i can see) remunerating the right people when found at a salary they are happy to do there job and incentives also go a long way too!

It is an old adage but very true "you pay peanuts you get monkeys"

In my experience most employee problems come from staff who feel unwanted,underpaid and therefore insecurity grow.

Total nonsense, there are not 'plenty of manpower out there' Raro's example is just one

You said it.... is just one

We have different experience obviously.

Very different experience apparently. In the business I am working at now (large multinational) we are hiring throughout all levels, from unskilled labour to top management. Nada.

Anyone I spoke to over the past couple of years (!) reported the same problem. I wonder where you saw people looking for jobs, seriously!

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

I've seen posts on an FB page with more than 20,000 English-speaking members seeking to hire Thai nationals at really outstanding salaries. 20K and well beyond. The jobs go begging for months, as reported in follow-up posts, or are never filled. The employers tell stories of locals arriving utterly unprepared for interviews. The employers have hired substandard staff and were proved right very quickly. They either could not do the job, immediately started showing up late or not at all.

My GF tried out five jobs in a 2-3 week period in Nov.-Dec. In every case she went in and was asked to start the next day: selling Thai food, or doing restaurant service or working in the kitchen. Currently she's cleaning hotel rooms in a small place with a really good foreign owner (who speaks fluent Thai). They upped her salary and shortened her hours just to keep her after just 2-3 weeks. She is a good worker.

Just to throw out a related issue with running a business.

Two examples about how hard it is to keep a successful business going: 1. A very successful, long-standing pub in BKK faced a new demand for huge rent increase. Months of talks led nowhere. The pub had to move or pay about 25% more for the space (a 6-figure hike). The pub is under construction elsewhere, but the space has stood empty for 7 months now. 2. A new but successful restaurant in BKK was to see rent doubled because the building saw the owner's business was improving. But the restaurant owner, a Thai lady, said we have a contract and it's not over. The building owner locked her out of her business with all its equipment. It's gone to court.

So you see, you are not only fighting to hire and keep staff, you have to fight outrageously greedy property managers when they think they see you doing well.

Back to Pattaya: My GF sold soup in Buakhao market on non-market days for two months last year. She had many happy customers, some eating two times and some ordering soup three times in one day. The revenue was fine and growing, but the cost of doing business was too high. We pared costs again and again. But she had to pay someone to move the cart out and back in twice a week and put up the tent and take it down. That was costly. Add in market rent, electric fees, water and cooking gas, etc. By the end she was only making a few hundred baht a day.

If we can find a low-cost spot (not that likely in expensive Pattaya) she will try again.

As for me, a foreigner, business in Thailand? Never.

[smokie36]

Even at the 30k level its difficult to keep Thai staff happy.

It must be a nightmare at 12k