Now There’s a Job I Won’t Even Apply For

http://www.i-dont-think-so.com/?p=439 I’d rather dance around on the street corner advertising Little Caesars Pizza than apply for this job!

So here I was feeling sorry for the Bend Parks and Recreation employees that get to clean up the goose shit (http://www.i-dont-think-so.com/?p=603) when I found this job description from that selfsame Bend Parks and Recreation.

After finding this male bovine fecal material I still feel sorry for the Bend Parks and Recreation employees that have to clean up goose shit but I now think their employer gives a new definition to the words greedy discriminatory and dumb!

I have bolded the most outrageous parts of this job description.

Big Sky Sports Complex
Park Care Taker

Bend Park and Recreation District is accepting applications for a Resident Park Care Taker at Big Sky Park Sports Complex located at 21690 Neff Rd. The Park Care Taker resides on site, is available to the public at all times, and oversees the park grounds, facilities and resources.

Primary duties:
• Open and close the park and facilities; Oversee park grounds and facilities.
• Dispense information and provide good public relations to park visitors.
• Monitor activity in the park for unsafe and unlawful acts; contact appropriate law enforcement authorities when necessary; enforce park rules.
• Respond to park users needs at all hours as needed; contact appropriate emergency services when necessary.
• Maintain the residence and adjacent grounds in good order.
• Advise supervisor of needed repairs and hazardous/unsafe conditions.
• Work effectively with staff, vendors and public.

Salary: $10.00 per hour. Hours: approximately 20 hours per week from November 1st through March 31st and 40 hours per week from April 1st through October 31st.

Residence: Care Taker pays no rent but pays utilities. No pets. Immediate family members only to reside in residence.

Qualified candidates should possess the following:
• High school diploma or equivalency and two years experience in landscape or athletic field maintenance, with an emphasis on public relations; or any satisfactory combination of experience and training which demonstrates the knowledge, skills and ability to perform the above described duties.
• Two years satisfactory rental history
• Excellent public relations and customer service skills.
• Ability to work independently, exercise initiative and good judgment.
• Ability to understand and follow oral and written instructions.
• Exceptional ability to work cooperatively with staff and the general public.

On the surface, its a fine job. $10.00 per hour and a place to live.

Read a little deeper though and you can clearly that Bend Parks and Recreation wants to control every aspect of the caretakers life in addition to having them on call 24/7 while only paying for 40 hours a week 7 months out of the year (20 hours a week the other 5 months out of the year).

If an employee is going to have to be at the beck and call of their employer, not allowed to have guests or pets, must reside on site, and must be available to the public, 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year, $400.00 per week (BEFORE taxes) is a gross underpayment and the $200.00 per week in the off season is an insult.

The fact that they pay for housing doesn’t make a difference. This is controlling every aspect of the caretakers life, discrimination (see below), and seriously underpaying people with enough education and experience to make 2-3 times the pittance they want to pay.

Most salaried people at other jobs for decent honest employers work 60-80 hours per week. They are compensated for that with a decent salary (in most cases) and normally they don’t have to be on call 24/7 nor do they have to live on site.

A qualified entry level landscape maintenance worker in local government jobs should be compensated at around $12.65 per hour (with NO experience) but Bend Parks and Recreation wants to pay $10.00 per hour to someone with a minimum of two years experience plus they are required to have excellent customer service skills plus they are required to live on-site and not allowed to have a life other than their job.

An entry level landscape maintenance worker doesn’t have to enforce park rules or call law enforcement either.

This is the old-style company town attitude that went out of favor with most companies and most employees at least 50 years ago except in Bay Lake, Florida and Buena Vista, Florida–where Disney World is located (the two towns named are solely owned by Disney related companies and mostly populated with Disney employees or their family members (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town). Disney companies pay better and treat their people better!

In addition, Bend Parks and Recreation is blatantly discriminating against unmarried people who don’t have children, since as a park caretaker you aren’t allowed to have your boyfriend/girlfriend/significant other in the residence (“immediate family members only to reside in residence”).

I thought discriminating based on marital status or whether or not you have children was illegal? I wonder how the Oregon State Employment Department and the Department of Labor and Industries would feel about this blatant disregard for employment law.

I find the two years good rental history problematical also.

If a person owns their own home free and clear they are eliminated at first pass since they can’t prove ‘two years good rental history’ now can they?

And if someone has a home/apartment of their own already and are having no problems making their rent or mortgage payments, why would they want this job?

Most landlords maintain their own properties, but Bend Parks and Recreation requires the caretaker to “maintain the residence and adjacent grounds in good order.”

Most places that want caretakers also pay for the utilities but not Bend Parks and Recreation. I guess they must have spent too much money on cleaning up goose shit to be able to pay a caretaker a living wage!

Nobody with a life (even a life that sucks) is going to apply for this job, even in this bad economy. Those with the required skills in landscape or athletic field maintenance can work at the numerous golf courses spread throughout Central Oregon (and probably make much more money).

What Bend Parks and Recreation wants is a total oxymoron: a homeless (with two years good rental history) hermit with landscape maintenance experience and people skills who can survive on $600.00 per month (25% off the top to taxes don’t ya know?) 5 months out of the year.

Hermits by definition don’t have people skills. Hermits generally don’t have landscape maintenance experience either because that requires –again– people skills.

And those people who already have a home of their own certainly aren’t going to go for paying rent/mortgage/utilities/space rent/property taxes and paying for maintenance on their own home plus paying utilities for and doing maintenance on a residence that isn’t even theirs.

As far as I can this position provides no employee benefits other than housing and $10.00 an hour (more like $8.00 per hour after taxes).