Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

[Emerikol]

I'm with Bruces on this one, partner. Just sharing a life experience thought here: I moved out to Phoenix with a national water treatment company. I was heavily invested in the position I had with this company, drank the Kool-Aid, whole nine yards. I was a salaried guy, working 70-80 hours a week, all hours of the day, night, and weekends. Making the move was a complete disaster. The teams out here were terrible, I have no idea how they were still holding onto customers, and the general attitude from the sales guys was "I sold it, my job is done. You get to figure out how to deliver on my promises to the customer..." (Nevermind that what they sales people sold usually violated half a dozen of our procedures, rules, or safety tenants. That's a whole other ball of wax) Fast forward a year and a couple months, and I'm at a customer site doing an install. The director of the department I'm working in walks by, stops, and stands there for a few minutes watching me run conduit for wiring, pipe for sample water flow, and the brackets to hang the analyzer panel. After a few minutes of this, he walks up to me and shakes my hand. He hands me a business card and says something along the lines of "This is the cleanest install I've ever had a contractor come in and do. I didn't have very high expectations of what I was getting, and I wanted to thank you for proving me wrong. If things don't work out with -insert company name here-, give me a call and I'll bring you on board." I kept in touch with that guy (who turned out to be a really cool cat, by the way), and a few months later I jumped ship from the company I was with, and went to work with the new place. I cannot even express in my usual garrulous fashion how much of a good idea it was. I have a set schedule now (which I will admit, does have some drawbacks), I'm hourly and that means I get paid for overtime, I'm making roughly the same money as base pay as I was at company x, and here's the best part, at 2:30, unless the building is on fire, I usually get to pack up my gear and go home. What's the morale of the story you ask? Sometimes the squeeze isn't worth the juice, and the grass really is greener on the other side. Hope it all works out however leaves you in the best possible position, Cheesy.

[cheesy]

If it wasn’t for my age, I would have been gone a long time ago. On the other hand, I only have 20 months left until retirement. It’s going to be fun when I get to start saying 18 months.
As aggravating as this trip has been, it has been very satisfying to able to speak truth, bluntly, to power; to see experience shut down a smart ass with a college degree, to be a part of a small group of guys that actually knows how to do their job.

I am supposed to hear next week if I am going to get an ‘apprentice’. Harold has been asking management what the contingency plan is when we both retire. So far, it’s been crickets. Until the audit they had from the mothership two weeks ago that forced the departure of two of the top brass, that is.

And that audit, it’s worse than anyone thought. I’m gonna need more popcorn.

[minimac]

Screw that 'apprentice' idea. When you walk out of there-your choice or theirs- take all that tribal knowledge with you. When they call for advice (and they will), tell them the meter is running, at an outrageous price. Nothing is free. This charade has been going on far too long, and what you tell them seemingly goes in one ear and out the other, without slowing down. Ask them how much they've saved, since the move. How much they've lost, in good people, work ethic, customer goodwill, etc.

As someone who's been there, done that, got the t-shirt, quit looking for the "good" to happen. If it hasn't yet, it's not going to. Smile, nod your head, do things like their "experts"(CE), want to, and let the chips fall where they may. After all, you're 'only' the tech. You're a smart guy, and smart guys will always land on their feet.

[cheesy]

It’s been an interesting week.
Jason and I have come up with a new verb. Beaufort, Beauforted, Beauforting. Definition; to Beaufort is to produce a crappy, substandard, product and to be proud of it.

Learned that we are in a bidding process to build a specialized truck. I was ready to stick a finger in my throat when I learned of it, but then I heard that we will farm out the assembly if we win the bid. Someone finally listened?

Was on a conference call when the CEO said he was tired of hearing about problems and wanted to hear solutions. I said he could step down for a start and rolled on for about two minutes before I was disconnected. Harold has been on vacation this week so he got a call about my little speech. He asked if it was true. I said yes, he said good.

[Weldangrind]

Please excuse me; I Beauforted.

[Sport Rider]

it's nice to be able to tell them what they don't want to hear.

[minimac]

Originally Posted by cheesy

Was on a conference call when the CEO said he was tired of hearing about problems and wanted to hear solutions. I said he could step down for a start and rolled on for about two minutes before I was disconnected....

Isn't that what his job is? A CEO doesn't have to have ALL of the answers, but he (she) does have to surround themselves with GOOD people who do have the answers-or can find where to get them. It's been a massive failure on the CEOs part. If he doesn't want to hear what's wrong and about the problems, maybe he should find another occupation. Doesn't he understand that it's his job to FIX the operation? I wouldn't have the patience that you've shown for tolerating such incompetence.

[cheesy]

Man, I wish I was a fly on the wall down there this week. There have been some interviews going on between the Overlords and the management serfs. What few people left down there that I trust are telling me is that the serfs emerge very sullen and silent.

I did have a pretty good set to with the “Production Supervisor” today. Idjit told me that he didn’t care if a product he was shipping to me had the wrong fittings on it, it was being shipped. I told him he had two choices. First was to hold it until the correct fittings were available. Second was to ship it with the wrong fittings, which would result in me having his sorry ass sent to northern Minnesota, with the correct fittings, that he could change outdoors when the temp was below zero. If he didn’t think I could, he should check with Harold and the COO. The unit is being held.

Also have the future Harold up here in Minnesota with me, just to have another set of eyes on the machine I am trying to make right. A lot of what I’ve heard from him when he sees what I see is “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

[cheesy]

Well, nothing changed after the Overlords left. So, the status quo of lousy everything is maintained.

But, maybe not. Mondays’ conference call, of which I was not part of for speaking truth to power, turned ugly. One of the sales guys has had enough and ripped into the CEO, which caused the rest of the sales staff to join in on the ripping. Apparently, it was another bald faced lie from the CEO that did it. Even the guys that don’t get mad went off.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this is it.

[bogieboy]

[cheesy]

Looks like we aren’t the only incompetent outfit out there. Our Canuckistani branch bought four very complicated specialized trucks from an outfit in BC. They sold one to an equipment leasing company in Ohio, who in turn leased it to Canadian Pacific. It ended up in my neck of woods.

The truck worked for less than one day. Because it is in my backyard it became my problem. Sh!t.

To make a very long story short, some dipshit, in a cost cutting move, replaced a NEMA weatherproof electrical box with a European style box that wasn’t weatherproof. The clown that wired it ran all the cables in from the low side of the box. No real issue there, but the cables went into the strain reliefs only up to the compression seals instead of a 1/4”, or so,
past the end of the strain reliefs. The box filled with water and froze, damaging all the cables in the process.

Guess who was elected to fix it. I’ve been raising hell about that.

The engineers are pissed at me because “I have a bad attitude.” The customer is pissed and wants to send the truck back to the leasing company. The leasing company is screaming at the Canadian branch, and the Canadian branch is threatening to sue the manufacturer. Add to this, there were at least three entities involved in the build and all have taken shortcuts in one form or another,or tripped on their own dicks and caused more delays in getting this thing fixed. Apparently, all four of the trucks are suffering from the same issue.

BTW, I am in the Send It Back camp. I think that may give some upper management types the kick in the nuts they need.

[Sport Rider]

Consistency is a positive trait, isn't it? :o

[cheesy]

Holy cow, someone got serious! I actually got an engineer to come to the US for this damn truck.
After trying to remotely diagnose the problems, the manufacturer agreed they needed their own eyes here as Jason and I are way over our heads on this stuff.

I got pissed at the whole lot on a conference call Friday as I’d had enough of “check this” and “check that”. Finally ended it with “It’s your goddam truck, you fix it.”

[minimac]

I keep waiting for this saga to end with you telling them finally "I'm Outta Here".

[Sport Rider]

I suspect it will be more flame-riddled than just that!