Photo: Andreas Klinke Johannsen/FlickrOne of the top pain points for landscaping companies is the lack of labor, or good labor to be more specific.
Elmsdale Landscaping Ltd. based in Nova Scotia, Canada, was particularly weary of unreliable hires when it created a job posting on Facebook and shared which people did not need to apply.
The 63-year-old company is currently searching for landscape laborers for its upcoming season, but past difficulties of keeping people on the job prompted it to be very specific in the job posting.
Those who tend to oversleep, have court often, do not have a babysitter every day or experience flat tires every week, were advised not to bother applying.
The post, which can be seen in full below, also outlines that employees are expected not to be glued to their phones, capable of talking and working at the same time and to return to work after lunch.
“Everybody interviews really well but then we had employees who go to the bathroom with their phones and they’re in there for 45 minutes,” Laura Coupar, vice president at Elmsdale Landscaping, told Truro Daily News. “We had people call their girlfriends at break to pick them up because they didn’t want to do it anymore. At the end of it we just started hiring everyone and telling them to try it out for a day.”
The company currently employs around 120 workers and is looking for an additional 30 for the seasonal work. Coupar explained that when someone doesn’t show up to work on the three to four person crews, it can throw everything off.
Elmsdale Landscaping offers commercial landscaping installations, hydroseeding, hay mulching, erosion control, residential product supply and delivery of nursery sods and soils.
“It’s not like we are hard to work for – we all laugh and have a good time here,” she told Truro Daily News.
Since the job was uploaded on Wednesday, April 5, the post has gone viral with 2,000 shares on Facebook and over 400 comments. Currently more than 200 people have sent in their resumes for the open position.
“Some people didn’t think the ad was funny but those kind of people probably wouldn’t do too well here anyway – we all have that same sense of humor,” Coupar said.
Apparently the very specific need not apply examples have all happened at Elmsdale Landscaping and there were even some that Coupar couldn’t include.
