50+ thread

Our workforce at work has degraded to point older knowledgable operators are retiring or quiting. they made a new position, up a labor grade and Good raise to retain these. i got promoted 2weeks ago Bindery Tech III lead operator. there are only 12 in the plant across all shifts out of 85+ operators.so they put a screw up on my crew with plans to demote him. my job was to make him or break him!ive got him runnin the snot out of it. last nite 14 makereadys and 108% to budget.i was honest with him told him what was goin on and he took it and ran. they never told him and i felt that was wrong! id rather save him than lose him. he did great.

 

Bummer at least we have the equipment to deal with it. most know how to drive in it at this point in the season.....that is except the person in front of me.

 

Good afternoon. Just went out and checked roads and they all fared well. I'm not going to do anything to them. There's a bit of a mess up north but someone else is hitting that for me so I'm just going to go onto the next project Monday morning. I have one trench to dig for a power re-route then load and head north Tuesday morning.

I need to do some Christmas shopping but don't know what anyone wants. My son wants to get more into camping soooo I guess I can see what we don't have in the garage and go from there.

 

I'm finding fewer people in my field of work with 20 or 30 years of experience and we're having a bigger shift toward technology in equipment with gps and onboard info systems. There are fewer and fewer of us that still operate "freehand" that can do seat of the pants engineering. Newer operators don't need to think as far ahead and don't need experience but I'm also seeing them not getting that sense of accomplishment or sticking with it as a career. They are somewhere between "just left a job at Mc Donalds" to working on a degree in a totally different field or, atleast, out of the dirt. So if you can turn that person around into being productive and seeing it as a challenge and getting that sense of accomplishment at the end of the day you probably have that next "old timer" in the making.

 

thats what ive done. i want to fix him and feel thats an accompishment for me and him since they already gave up on him.i feel he got back stabbed as others tried to blame all things on him to look good themselves. we have a lot of that there. I call it blowin smoke up the supervisors ass. lol

 

Hi. Well...that requires a long answer, so here goes: living most of my life in stinky, overpopulated L.A. where Summer lasts 10 months out of the year, my biggest reason for wanting to retire out of CA is to go somewhere with 4 seasons and not too many people. My wife and I have traveled extensively across the US and looked at land (I want to build my own house) in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Rhode Island, Maine, and of course, Montana. We actually came closest to buying in Colorado until we learned of their wacky Property Tax laws which is based on the “future” value of your home, NOT the price of the land. Crazy. So... Montana. It just checked all of our boxes: beautiful scenery, low population, decently priced land close (but not too close) to towns that have all the amenities (like Starbucks and a nice Hospital and Veterinary Clinic). No sales tax is pretty nice too! And if we establish residency before we retire, then CA won’t screw us on our Social Security.
Hope this helps.

 

If need be, we have a few Cypress knees near ant hills and gators like "fresh meat".....

The good & the bad about hands on training , will they "get it" and "design on the fly" to make it work

R&R one manhole structure 3 times Friday and that was with 4 engineers in the dam picture ....

I was on "clean-up", removing & loading out the old water pipe and grabbed one of the pipe layers ( coincidence..my kid ) and he received a crash course on using the loader with forks and NOT hitting my side boards...…… 5 hour detail took less than 3 including driving to the dump site

 

Awesome. You never know when they will try to pull that shit on you! Rank and file gotta stick together!

 

Back home. Lots of funny stories and a few tears. We see people at funerals and weddings that otherwise we forget. The preacher who performed the service challenged me to tell a better story about Bill than he could. He had no clue just what me and my old buddy had been up to in our younger days. Had em all rolling in the isle.

The stories just made me miss my old buddy even more.

 

lol. we have laurel thickets in the mtns. that grown men want out of before dark. bears and rattlesnakes bout all that live there!!

 

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

NO

 

There is something to be said about a friend who will get up and share stories of life with a long time friend. I had to do that once. I was scared shitless. But,I made it through. My hat off to you sir. I’m sure you did him good...

 

Something else I'm seeing is some of these kids further along become foremen and supervisors with so-called "operator experience" and they really haven't been in the field long enough to get a grasp of what's going on and really have no leadership or management experience but can do the programming and read the shit out of a set of plans and they are not above rat-fucking someone because they haven't quite shown their ability or haven't been given or realized the challenge or importance of what they should be doing.

 

I’ve had the police coming after me on at least 3 occasions. The irs coming to evict me from the house 2 times. My computer has had this virus that allows anyone to take money out of savings and checking.
My long lost son overseas needs money to come and find me..
He’s still waiting.. lol

 

It was 20 something this morning. Would have been nice to stay in bed but went up to the mtn and popped a big 'ol doe good freezer meet. I remember all the years i would put at least 8 in the freezer a year. It was all my kids knew for red meet

 

see it all the time ole buddy. our good management came thru the ranks and some that came in as manag. dont have a clue and only read out of the play book because they have no idea! i stayed out of supv. position. dont like the politics and i can get more done on the floor as i can say crap they think about but cant say because of HR and political corecttness. they call it my manag. style as ive fixed alot of problems for them all i ask is they have my back

 

THIS is exactly why My Florida resume looks like a who's who.....

You give me a job description and I accept, then you undermine that....guess what , I am not afraid to

With the Old School retiring or passing onto the "Heavens" , this New Gen sometimes has no clue...and then too "$hit" on your senior, experienced staff, again

I now show up to a site and the "Old Man is here" starts , if they are not "truck ready", I just jump in, , last week on a hammer, then the mini and then the loader....

We work as a team or we FAIL as a team..

And Quiet me has no problem telling someone to get the f!@# off his a$$ and phone...……….or I will kick them both....They giggle at 1st until my son says he is totally serious ....ask me how I know

Respect is something this country has FORGOTTEN and once that becomes a natural occurrence again, we might become a better society...

Ok, I am done.....Had a weird feeling Tacoma Mike was typing for me...

 

I think I'd like working with you. If yo tried that where I work though they woud just sit down and laugh at you I have seen it it's pitiful and they'll still get the sae if not better raise than I do

 

Chris, our ownership is not afraid to give someone an "unpaid" day off for discipline as they have found it to be less disruptive to have a few GOOD men working, than an a$$ dragging the whole team down..

Sadly we just lost a GREAT pipe-layer to addiction, he will be in a State run hotel for an extended stay..

 

awsome post!!!