My son worked at the local Briggs& Stratton factory for several years. They would hire any crack head that would show up. Fire them and hire more. Quality was dropping and the work environment was getting very poor.
That's been the labor model at a lot of places for a lot of years. It works well enough to preserve the golden parachute funding when the place eventually goes down the toilet. Some of it is supply and demand based. My last retirement gig would hire in batches of 15-20 for 90 day trials with the hope of keeping one or two. Sometimes that was hard to achieve.
As for B&S motors, can't tell ya what they're like over the last couple decades because I have (2) 8 hp verical shafts that are 20+ years old and still running strong. Tend to suck a little oil but they have since new, still start on first of second pull and the only thing I've had to replace is oil, filter and magneto. My other briggs is an 8 hp horizontal that is at least 30 yrs old and aside from needing starter fluid to start, is also still going strong.
They don't make em like they used to because they aren't still around to make anything.
