It seems that for the last two years we've had a lot of trouble hiring a good maintenance technician for a particular set of properties.
A little about myself, extensive background in operations management, one part of which is having managed staff of over 30 with various skills ranging from skilled trades to laborer. Had great crews, developed and kept good teams.
The company I work for currently owns over 1800 apartments so we are not new to hiring personnel. For some reason which I/we can't grasp we just can't seem to find a good tech for a particular hub of properties. We do all the standard of screening, references, following gut reaction of something seems wrong with this one keep looking, job description, expectations. We're just worn out. The latest tech informed me that he doesn't want to have to remember to close the pool, it's illegal to ask/require this; when I presented him with a written warning he started to try to negotiate the warning telling me he would agree to the warning if we included a clause of things he felt we should be responsible for. And yes, he was informed that the warning is not negotiable.
These types of people end up self-destructing by either getting fired or being told to find a new job, which is where we're at with him. One way or another he's going to be gone in the next month or two.
The thing is this is a cycle going on more than two years and I'd love to hear independent feedback, suggestion, ideas, current trends, any insight would be of value. Nothing would be considered too remedial, too esoteric, too strange, etc. Thanks in advance.