Buffalo Rising Online

hrbuff makes many great points. People who think the Buffalo job market can be upgraded by adding more and more new government spending programs should read the above comment several times slowly as a starting point for understanding the real world economy.

This passage nails it better than anything I've seen in a long while:

Perhaps if employers thought Buffalo was a terrific place to do business, there would be more of them. But the region has something of a stigma as a workers paradise and an employers nightmare. The solution is to get very politically active and elect pro business leadership to dismantle some of new york state's barriers to business...

Very well put. Given the majority political philosophy around here, the proposed solution is about as likely to happen as 10,000 lightning strikes solving our abandoned vacant house surplus - but still it's nice to read something so grounded in reality once in a while.

HRBUFF - Well put! I have had a very difficult time finding good employees in Buffalo. I have had mid - to - senior level requisitions open for months, done dozens of interviews, and have yet to find someone who wants to work. Buffalo has some of the laziest and unmotivated employees in the land, this is why we are moving our shop to Charlotte, NC. Our hiring search turned up more qualified and enthusiastic candidates in 3 weeks than we saw in 6 months in Buffalo.

I interviewed a candidate for a $45,000, non-exempt position a few months ago who told me that she would not work for my company because we were non-union and therefore we exploited our workers and demanded too much. This was during her third interview for the job, I couldn't believe it! This interview was the last nail in the coffin for hiring in Buffalo. We closed all our requisitions and started moving operations to NC. We will still retain a scaled down presence in WNY, that way we can always expand if there is a mentality shift up here.

Al-alo - Thanks for responding. I don't feel that we need a union presence because all of our current employees are treated fairly and compensated well. They are rewarded for performance, creativity, and productivity; not tenure. The newest member of staff has the same opportunity for growth, advancement, and career opportunities as the most senior members, this doesn't site well with most unions, even with a partial presence.

Our employees are members of our corporate family, and the majority of them are loyal and dedicated, our turn-over is less than 2 - 3 employee per year. We have a very stringent recruiting and hiring process that includes an extensive insight into the candidates background and personality. We find it easier to wait on the right candidate than to hire someone who isn't a good cultural fit for our team. I have found many good candidates in Buffalo, they are the core of our team and most have agreed to either move to start-up our operations in North Carolina or will see us through the changes in Buffalo. No one will lose their job in Buffalo, as it stands today.

North Carolina has offered us extensive incentives and benefits to move, we will be saving almost $50,000 a year in tax reductions alone. The employer's burden for state benefits is almost 30% less than what we pay in NY. The taxes and fees in NC are much lower than NY, this isn't Buffalo's fault, it is just a matter of fact. We were offered a ten year power and property incentive that reduces our expenses by almost $3M over the ten years. Erie County would do nothing to come close to matching, in fact they were pretty much uninterested in having us stay due to the size of our shop and number of employees. They would work with us if we were the size of New Era or BC/BS, but we were basically shown the door and given a road-map to Charlotte.

Chief Psychic... what kind of business do you own?? (Just curious).. Its a shame things couldn't work out for you.. I only hope for environment for small business changes with Spitzer and Gunderson.

I'm with Alo.. good recruiting but great?? It doesn't sound like it.. depending on what industry you are actually in...We do have a surplus of qualified people/workers/students.. etc.. that want to stay here? ( So much so that they're leaving in flocks... BRAIN DRAIN.. anybody.. Braindrain).. after reading your responses I have to ask why?

Good Luck in Nc.. I'm going to get to see it for the first time this December.. I'm nervous, afraid I won't ever come back. : )

Alo-alo... I've often wondered the same thing about labor unions... its not like we're in the early 1900's anymore with children workers and huge abuses.. lack of standards and such.. etc... I mean seriously especially in NYS ( I like the "workers paradise" QUOTE).. its not like you can get screwed with the legislation thats in place statewide and federally...labor dues just look like another unnecessary expense to me.

The only reason I could think of is if your employer is continually pissing everybody off... hey what ever do your thing.. but thats it.

Sorry if this posts twice - another time the "add your comment" seemed to do nothing so I'll click again.

I agree with 42nate and hrbuff that the reality around here is far from a true paradise, but actually what hrbuff originally wrote was "the region has something of a stigma as a workers paradise and an employers nightmare"

Something of a stigma means something of a negative reputation, and reputations certainly aren't always 100% fact-based.

Where I think there's *some* factual basis for that stigma is union situations in which employers are handcuffed by seniority rules regarding who they can promote, who the can offer overtime, who they can let go, etc. It really removes many incentives for workers to perform well. I realize unions aren't all bad all the time and in some cases are warranted. But from an employer's perspective they can limit flexibilities needed for business success. Buffalo was ranked the #1 most unionized area of the U.S. in an analysis a few years ago, so it's likely that compared to most areas the mindsets of entitlement and anti-business attitudes/politics is more present around here.

This is exactly right:

if you dedicate your efforts toward taking care of the business climate - the foundation, it will take care of you and provide you with more than enough arts and liesure and cultural spending. But if you starve or ignore or destroy this foundation, everyone suffers.

Many people believe (or want to believe) that it's the other way around - that focusing spending and efforts to build up arts and culture will somehow greatly improve the business environment. There's many counter-examples of how this isn't true but a great one is pre-Katrina New Orleans. No city in the country could match N.O. for it's combination of great arts, culture, historic preservation, architecture, cuisine - all that creative stuff. Yet their business environment still was terrible, private sector jobs market terrible (except for low-wage hospitality industry) - and the poverty devastating. I'm not saying the arts and culture caused those economic problems, but the point is that even as great as N.O. was for that stuff it didn't help solve the economic problems that were largely caused by their anti-business political environment. Support arts, culture, architecture, all that for their own sake, but it's just delusional to think that's an economic development strategy. "Business first" is indeed a great motto for what this area would need to seriously improve the jobs market and population ranking trends. I won't hold my breath.