The decision has provided the company with a few diamonds in the rough. But it's worked out really well for us. At the Hampton Inn in Warrenton, Va., General Manager Greg Merritt has hired nearly 10 workers from the welfare rolls in the last year. It's worked fairly well for the hotel, although he's had to pay more attention to details such as his employees' child-care arrangements when making out work schedules. People have always helped me, and it stuck with me, I guess.
Few employers say they've encountered welfare recipients who are unwilling to work.
Rather than laziness, they've encountered people who simply don't know how to work. Some are functionally illiterate or don't understand the importance of calling the office when they're ill. Others can't manage their paychecks well enough to afford bus fare to work sometimes or can't get to work because a boyfriend beat them the night before or an eviction notice just came in the mail. But perhaps the most common barrier, according to employers and the workers themselves, is the low self-esteem that seems to be poverty's twin. They've been on welfare for so long that it's all they know, and they're just scared to try something else.