Part of my job is to establish corn and soybean plots across a four county area in Michigan. I have one full-time employee, and hire one part-time assistant for 7-9 weeks in the spring. I also need some sporadic part-time help in the fall during harvest.

My current assistant, we'll call him Chuck, is about the same age as I am. He is finishing his third season with me. When I interviewed him a bit more than two years ago, he seemed like a good fit, and he has turned out to be a great employee. The good part, and bad part, is that he is otherwise unemployed.

He does some work for a neighbor farmer of his, and he picks up other odd jobs during the year. His wife is fully employed, and, as it turns out, they live in a family house, and apparently have no mortgage.

When I interviewed him in 2012, I promised nothing more than two months that spring. When he came back last year, he did, in an off-handed way, mention that it would be great if I had more work for him. I agreed that it would be great to keep him on, but I just didn't have the budget for it.

This year, he has made similar comments twice. And, I've replied with similar comments. Although, I did come up with an extra job that needed to be done, that either I nor my full-time employee could have done, but I guess I was feeling generous.

It looks as if he'll be finished next Tuesday, then I'll have to lay him off. Again, all he is ever promised is a couple of months each spring, but I do feel bad about having to lay him off again.

Four seasons ago, I had another assistant. He worked with us for one season, because he got a full-time job in between seasons. So that meant that I had to post the job, conduct interviews, and train Chuck. And, lay him off every June.