Aw c'mon hero - if you been doing this for 8 years, this sounds like winter blahs to me...Think of all that interesting, youthful energy and ideas they bring to your work environment - I've found it can help delay the inevitable onset of "old fart-ism" that, after 30 years in this business, I find creeping up on me!

I worked for a company with the public works contract for a small but wealthy community. Part of the contract allowed budgeting for spot labor during the busy season. In fact, the boss made money by hiring spot labor, whether we needed them or not. So I would get 2 new people each day to put to work - and as they usually did not come back, I would often be faced with 10 new people each week! Talk about "training and retraining" nightmares!!!

Be grateful you have a budget that even allows student labor - my state university cut that out altogether in their maintenance crew budgets...

It will be spring soon, and we can all get re-juvenated with this endless cycle of the seasons.

Brian

Find another line of work
Hire less students for more hours.
Have them participate in training new hires.
Do only as much as you can do well.

I suspect allowing you to have student help is one way of the university getting THE KIDS some real-life work experience and also getting you some help with as little cash outlay as possible. Sort of a they win/win situation. LOL.

If they hired them off the street, I'm sorry you prolly wouldn't do much better, and maybe worse. Unless somebody has a background in grounds maitenance it's always going to be a teaching excercise for you. Greenhouse strawbosses have the same thing to contend with. Can't keep the experienced crew over the periods of no work and layoffs, so you loose them.

Then there's the bad pay, lack of benefits, browbeating (one local hort. employer actually belows and swears at employees on a routine basis), toxics exposure (toxic substances as well as toxic personalities)...no wonder people lose interest. But you see that in other arenas as well, the owner/manager or small management team surrounded by a buncha hirelings who really don't know or care. Not every company or institute is good to work for. And with Wal-Mart now being the big successful model...

Have you considered writing down the most mundane routine chores and aspects of each building's landscape or task that the students help you with so you don't have to repeat the same thing over and over and over with each new helper? They can then read the basic stuff from your "Guide for Newbies" and you can just emphasize "If you are not sure ASK."

ilima