Long one
Well here's a little update about my life here in Kansas City. My boss is a dumbass, I hate working where I do, etc. etc. They technically put me in as the "shop manager" when the original shop foreman guy left, which went terrible for the first week. The other guy left right before December rolled around, and for the first week, I was getting so irritated with everyone asking me "what do I do?" when I hadn't been told what to tell them what to do that I told him I couldn't handle it. So he got desperate and begged me not to quit on him, and he and the office manager/sales guy/sometimes build guy named John would make more of an effort to be out in the shop to lend me a hand.
I find it odd though, because in my review when they asked me to take over that position, they said they weren't going to just throw me into it, which is what they did. They "helped" in the shop for 2 days, then they disappeared again. Now it's pretty much at the point where they both come out and hand me stuff, and expect it to be done yesterday and complain and bitch when it isn't. They just hired a new guy who started this past Thursday, but I really could care less at this point because my boss has pissed me off so much with his craptastic management skills.
For the last month and a halfish it's been me. Then there is a 78 year old guy who has some skills but has to be instructed in how to do everything because he hasn't done it their way. There used to be a 55 year old guy who they just let go this past week because he had absolutely NO woodworking skills, was part time, and kept messing things up which I would have to go back and fix(because they didn't bother showing him how to do things before setting him loose) . I liked him more than my boss though, even though I had to fix his screw ups. There is also a 20 year old guy named Andy who doesn't have any previous woodworking experience, but he's cool and has caught on a lot. But my boss, the pontificating ass hat expects him to be a miracle worker/expert at everything he touches even though he's only been there 2 and a half months.
All I hear from my boss is "every time you guys make a mistake it costs me money. MY money! You guys are wasting my money! You guys are taking forever to do this, you've had all day (when it's only been 3 hours). Marvin (the 78 year old) is working circles around you (forgetting the fact I have to cut everything out for him and walk him through things step by step, and Andy goes back behind him to check his poor sanding skills)." All the time..."my money this, my money that" and "there's no way I'm getting rich off of you guys" when he sees us looking at him like "screw you, you're just in it to make money off us". My boss told us he didn't want to resort to being a dick and playing games with our hours, so over the (unpaid) holidays we had off, he had a brilliant plan to cut some costs. He went so far as to say he's putting a new policy in place that if we make a mistake and have to go back and fix it, he'll make us clock out and fix it on our time. Highly illegal as that is. If I'm still around long enough for him to even DARE tell me to do that, I'm going to give him a big bag of STFU with a side plate of "I quit". I understand mistakes take time and money to fix, but if you rush people all the time and ride them about EVERYTHING then you get mistakes. It's a fact of life in the line of work I'm in.
Andy feels the same way as I do now that he's lost his fanciful view of the "great growing company" they sold both of us on when he interviewed with them. It's a great company I'm sure, but it's run terribly. They have an extremely high turn-around on employees, so fast that they just don't even bother trying to get insurance or anything because they just expect the guys to quit. There are zero paid vacations, zero sick days, no benefits, and all for a guy that I have no respect for. Since I've been working there I've seen 6 guys leave and the one get fired. I've only been there 5 months. I've been there the longest, and I hate working for him. Needless to say, I don't deserve this crap for the pathetic pay I'm getting. My brother makes as much as I do working for Circuit City and he had no legitimate previous experience (I've got 3 years in my field), and he has only been there for 2 months or so.
Other than all of that, I'm alive, and I guess that's good. If I only knew some place else I could work and actually enjoy it while being paid well for it, I'd be a much happier person. As for now, I'm still living with the parents, single, all the crap with work, I don't know anyone outside of work here in KC, and yeah. That's about it. If you've managed to make it through this rant, kudos to you.
I find it odd though, because in my review when they asked me to take over that position, they said they weren't going to just throw me into it, which is what they did. They "helped" in the shop for 2 days, then they disappeared again. Now it's pretty much at the point where they both come out and hand me stuff, and expect it to be done yesterday and complain and bitch when it isn't. They just hired a new guy who started this past Thursday, but I really could care less at this point because my boss has pissed me off so much with his craptastic management skills.
For the last month and a halfish it's been me. Then there is a 78 year old guy who has some skills but has to be instructed in how to do everything because he hasn't done it their way. There used to be a 55 year old guy who they just let go this past week because he had absolutely NO woodworking skills, was part time, and kept messing things up which I would have to go back and fix(because they didn't bother showing him how to do things before setting him loose) . I liked him more than my boss though, even though I had to fix his screw ups. There is also a 20 year old guy named Andy who doesn't have any previous woodworking experience, but he's cool and has caught on a lot. But my boss, the pontificating ass hat expects him to be a miracle worker/expert at everything he touches even though he's only been there 2 and a half months.
All I hear from my boss is "every time you guys make a mistake it costs me money. MY money! You guys are wasting my money! You guys are taking forever to do this, you've had all day (when it's only been 3 hours). Marvin (the 78 year old) is working circles around you (forgetting the fact I have to cut everything out for him and walk him through things step by step, and Andy goes back behind him to check his poor sanding skills)." All the time..."my money this, my money that" and "there's no way I'm getting rich off of you guys" when he sees us looking at him like "screw you, you're just in it to make money off us". My boss told us he didn't want to resort to being a dick and playing games with our hours, so over the (unpaid) holidays we had off, he had a brilliant plan to cut some costs. He went so far as to say he's putting a new policy in place that if we make a mistake and have to go back and fix it, he'll make us clock out and fix it on our time. Highly illegal as that is. If I'm still around long enough for him to even DARE tell me to do that, I'm going to give him a big bag of STFU with a side plate of "I quit". I understand mistakes take time and money to fix, but if you rush people all the time and ride them about EVERYTHING then you get mistakes. It's a fact of life in the line of work I'm in.
Andy feels the same way as I do now that he's lost his fanciful view of the "great growing company" they sold both of us on when he interviewed with them. It's a great company I'm sure, but it's run terribly. They have an extremely high turn-around on employees, so fast that they just don't even bother trying to get insurance or anything because they just expect the guys to quit. There are zero paid vacations, zero sick days, no benefits, and all for a guy that I have no respect for. Since I've been working there I've seen 6 guys leave and the one get fired. I've only been there 5 months. I've been there the longest, and I hate working for him. Needless to say, I don't deserve this crap for the pathetic pay I'm getting. My brother makes as much as I do working for Circuit City and he had no legitimate previous experience (I've got 3 years in my field), and he has only been there for 2 months or so.
Other than all of that, I'm alive, and I guess that's good. If I only knew some place else I could work and actually enjoy it while being paid well for it, I'd be a much happier person. As for now, I'm still living with the parents, single, all the crap with work, I don't know anyone outside of work here in KC, and yeah. That's about it. If you've managed to make it through this rant, kudos to you.