Q: Worst part of your j*b?

[TOOLMAN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB Firing people to cut expenses. Over the years I let people go for performance reasons and was not bothered that much by it, because substantial effort was first put into helping them do their jobs. Toward the end of my career, we were letting go 10% or 15% of the employees each year. Financial performance was good but it was cut, reduce, and find a way.

Letting people go for no fault of their own, is the worst. I have closed one plant, and one office. One guy took it very bad. He killed himself that weekend.

While getting fired under these terms, seems at the time like the end of the world, I found most move on to equal to or better jobs. I work for a mega corp.

[Amethyst]

Oh. Well, my workplace definitely won't take any prizes in that regard - looking awful is almost a point of pride with many. Still, I managed to find an outlier to marry

Amethyst

Quote:

Originally Posted by citrine LOL!! No cute women/men to look at

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TOOLMAN Letting people go for no fault of their own, is the worst. I have closed one plant, and one office. One guy took it very bad. He killed himself that weekend.

I think it feels even worse when it's a very profitable company already having record profits doing it. Enough is never enough for these executives and their shareholders (and yes, I know I'm a shareholder). Wall Street's demands are such that whatever you profit, it's not enough and you need more. Never mind how many lives and families are broken by it through no real fault of their own.

At least when a company is fighting for survival, one can appreciate why these actions are necessary.

[Amethyst]

You were lucky he took it out on himself and not you!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TOOLMAN Letting people go for no fault of their own, is the worst. I have closed one plant, and one office. One guy took it very bad. He killed himself that weekend.

[TOOLMAN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst You were lucky he took it out on himself and not you!

Yes, you never know if and when that could happen, these days. I have had a few face to face death threats, but those are probably not the ones who would act on it.

BTW profit for mega corp is counted in the billions / year.

It took me a while to get that...

It's not about the MONEY - it's about the AMOUNT.

[frayne]

Being an operations superintendent at a chemical plant when I was still a working stiff were those late night/early morning phone calls about plant problems or worse yet about somebody getting hurt and taken to the hospital.

As far as being a part of employment hearings and letting people go, I didn't like it but by the same token, it had to be done and usually for good reason. We basically had a three strikes and you're out policy. In fact I recall one employee telling us he was shocked that we hadn't fired him earlier. If it wasn't for the union we no doubt would have.

[scrabbler1]

I remember having to recommend to my boss that we let a staff member go due to his incompetence. Even though he made it easy to make the recommendation (he was a nitwit), the whole process still turned my stomach (and my stomach was having its own unrelated problems at the time). One of my most unhappy moments.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 Ah, the latest: After executing on a plan for the last year and a half and doing a damn good job, we laid down our plan for the next year. It was approved and we started to plunge forward. Yesterday the head office did a complete 180 (with no warning) and told us to tear up the plan, we need to review the outcome of the last 18 months of work, before you do anything you must check with legal, and no, we can't give you any firm guidelines because everything is on a case-by-case basis. As of now, about the only thing I can do on the client site without specific approval from head office legal is take a dump in the men's room (and I am not even sure about that). Suddenly, I am not allowed to do my job. I hate these people.

I thought I'd be the only one to have that feeling. Nope, looks like brewer and I are in a similar boat, even if the functions differ somewhat. Nothing like a year of work going down the drain for mysterious reasons.

Yeah, the layoffs, HR review garbage, and other stuff is a pain too. I'm not in management so I can't relate to the problems of firing. I can only imagine that is terrible.

But as a designer, engineer, programmer, creative person... having your work tossed (usually for politics) is very depressing.

[ronocnikral]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 Ah, the latest: After executing on a plan for the last year and a half and doing a damn good job, we laid down our plan for the next year. It was approved and we started to plunge forward. Yesterday the head office did a complete 180 (with no warning) and told us to tear up the plan, we need to review the outcome of the last 18 months of work, before you do anything you must check with legal, and no, we can't give you any firm guidelines because everything is on a case-by-case basis. As of now, about the only thing I can do on the client site without specific approval from head office legal is take a dump in the men's room (and I am not even sure about that). Suddenly, I am not allowed to do my job. I hate these people.

Entire empires have fallen using this strategy. Case in point, Fabius Maximum taking out Hannibal.

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras I thought I'd be the only one to have that feeling. Nope, looks like brewer and I are in a similar boat, even if the functions differ somewhat. Nothing like a year of work going down the drain for mysterious reasons. Yeah, the layoffs, HR review garbage, and other stuff is a pain too. I'm not in management so I can't relate to the problems of firing. I can only imagine that is terrible. But as a designer, engineer, programmer, creative person... having your work tossed (usually for politics) is very depressing.

Eh, in a way it s freeing. They obviously don't give a rat's patoot, so neither will I. My paycheck is the same regardless, so if they want to pay me to sit around with my finger up my butt, so be it.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 Eh, in a way it s freeing. They obviously don't give a rat's patoot, so neither will I. My paycheck is the same regardless, so if they want to pay me to sit around with my finger up my butt, so be it.

At my previous Megacorp, we had so many project missteps that one of my coworkers never did anything. Every time we started a project, he literally announced to everyone that he wasn't going to work on it because it would be cancelled. He'd read books (pre-internet) or study for an MBA during office hours but never do anything.

It was kind of surreal... Perhaps a little too much like "Office Space."

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras At my previous Megacorp, we had so many project missteps that one of my coworkers never did anything. Every time we started a project, he literally announced to everyone that he wasn't going to work on it because it would be cancelled. He'd read books (pre-internet) or study for an MBA during office hours but never do anything. It was kind of surreal... Perhaps a little too much like "Office Space."

The stuff of nightmares...

At one time, there were so many wafer lots branded P1 (priority one), that it was almost meaningless. Next, they created the P0 designation... After a while, there were so many "hot lots", I jokingly asked if it was hotter than the last hot...

Many times, some "hot" project would sit on a shelf upon completion, sometimes for weeks. I liked to relabel those as "Special High Importance Test"...

[Original Wally]

J*b. Hahahahahahahahaha

[martyb]

I've changed my mind. The worst part of my job as a federal employee is being a perpetual political football.

Edit:
LOL...now that I went back & looked at my first post in this thread (01-17-2012) that's pretty much what I said back then too. Guess I haven't changed my mind since then....

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR Many times, some "hot" project would sit on a shelf upon completion, sometimes for weeks. I liked to relabel those as "Special High Importance Test"...

Oh man, you are hitting a raw nerve. Been there, done that. Not with wafers, but software. Doesn't matter, it could be ditches dug. "This is the most important thing, get to it now!"

Nothing worse than The Man beating the cr@p out of you to finish, only to have your hard fought work just sit there, decaying or gathering dust.

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by martyb I've changed my mind. The worst part of my job as a federal employee is being a perpetual political football.

Yeah it sucks. My little 7 person agency just got called out in the Governor's State of the State address for a big F up and resulting poorly handled PR nightmare. Fortunately it was a coworker that was in charge of the screw up and not me. But it was all caused by the former Director that "coincidentally" resigned right before the big F up hit the front page. Fun times!!

The best part is that nothing was done to structurally change why F ups happen. No heads rolled, not even a stern talking to as far as I can tell. Dirt pile, meet rug, sleep comfortably underneath there until someone else discovers you, at which point we will sweep you under another rug.

Band aids and press releases will get you a pretty long way I guess.

In the mean time the paychecks keep getting deposited the 15th and 30th (or 28th!).

[brewer12345]

A new low of absurdity in my cube farm:

I work in a branch office of my organization where we are somewhat shielded from the politics and opressive 1950s culture of the head office. The wonks at the head office decided to start a mentring program which I unaccountably failed to volunteer for. However, a colleague decided to join up. She was paired with a young woman who does not appear to need mentoring, but hey. The head office flew an HR boob out to conduct a training on how to mentor people. This creature proceeded to instruct the mentors to make very sure that their mentees understood the finer points of the dress code, how peep toe shoes are acceptable, but open toe shoes are not, etc. I am left to wonder if there is a toe inspector roaming the halls of the head office.

I swear, Dilbert has nothing on this madhouse.

[Sarah in SC]

God save me from your life, Brew. I could not survive anyplace that required shoes to be worn year-round. Let alone something that wasn't Tevas or tennis shoes. Peep toe indeed. Gaaah!

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC God save me from your life, Brew. I could not survive anyplace that required shoes to be worn year-round. Let alone something that wasn't Tevas or tennis shoes. Peep toe indeed. Gaaah!

I don't even know what a peep toe shoe is. If I mentioned it to a mentee I would be worried about a sexual harassment problem.

I think I would last 3 weeks before getting canned if were in the head office. My bosses being 500 miles away is why I think I can make it to the end of the year.

[rodi]

I wish our HR focused on things like peep toed shoes. Our head of HR is Catbert incarnate... she is focused on how to get people to quit in order to save severance. The latest is that they re-branded annual raises from "merit increases" to "salary adjustments". That's because even super-star performances don't get an increase if they are deemed to be in the top half of their compensation pay grade. She seems clueless that the teams who have been working weekends for a year will not be thrilled to be told they're hard work is not going to be rewarded, despite their' "walk on water" review status.

But Catbert rarely makes appearances out here in my branch office.... I think she fears for her life.