Unhappy like many of us 7

[farmENGR]

Hi Everyone.

I work for a small distributor of cutting tools in particular carbide/cermet tipped sawblades and other blades including friction/segmental/HSS. Primarily we are a grinding shop. Our boss is a very demanding guy. He is in his mid 30's and is a good buisness man, cagey, slick, and sharp. I have been unhappy here for much of the year i have worked for them. Its my first real job out of college and i'm 26. Im a applications/process/ and even our quality engineer. Anyways our boss allways expects more from us and so everyone is wearing the proverbal 5 hats. We are "lean" as they say. Not really....

Last monday our operations manager(production lead man) quit after three years. He could not handle our boss and that day so many things went wrong and our boss picked the wrong fight with him that day. This guy was not only doing lead man stuff but also a full time mainteance man as well. A big problem with him is he didn't know how to delegate well. Instead of teaching me how to do something so i can learn he would do it himself and sometimes i would watch and he would never explain. I would always have to ask questions to learn something. Anyways He was always busy fixing a machine or filling in for someone sick or someone that didn't come to work. He was getting paid poorly as well. Granted he doesn't have a degree but i know he is worth more and frankly i have told him on the side. "hey man what you do is basically manuf enginereing work and could make much more money elsewhere because of your experience". Well a few days later he was allowed to come back but he is only doing mainteance work on machines now and so we have an open position. His title was Operations manager. This new position is titled Production Lead man. Bascially its the same job. Our boss has asked one guy in the shop that has been there for seven years but he doesn't want it. He says he doesn't wanna deal with our boss and answer to him everyday but he also shys away from responsibility. I have noticed that as of late.

We are a small shop and i have thought about applying for the job but i really wanted HR and my boss to come to me and ask. I feel that management experience would help further my skillset and help strengthen my resume. I have had alittle bit of supervisor work at a job i worked in during college but really none at this job.

I just got woof today that a kid who is afew years younger than me and has only been there like 3 months has shown interest in the job. He runs one of our drilling/milling machines. He is very new. Once i heard that from our old operat manager i sent an email to my boss requesting to be considered for the prod leadman job that is open. Why is the job now Production leadman instead of operations manager?? i wonder about that. It seems my boss is further trying to degrate the positon yet having a shit ton of responsibilities. To me this crap is inexcusable!!

I explained that i would want to have a 30-60 day trial period with a review period after that to decide if i could handle the job responsibilites. If my boss felt i could handle the job i would gladly accept. If i could not handle the job i would gladly concede and go back to full engineering responsibilities which really now most of the time boar me. We don't do any real engineering work out of our shop. We have a salesguy who is pretty knowledgeable and so he and the other salesmen really call most shots. So basically i don't feel used very well but my boss has said i bring value to us. Whatever that means. Well basically im the only one who has the real engineering background. I guess it looks good in paper when my boss is trying to acquire new customers. Yes i have learned alot and done some good things for our shop but alot of times i'm boared and don't wanna go to work in the morning.

My bosses response to my email was that this job was a step below me. He says they have big plans for me over the next 12 months. He even said that it pays less money and has no engineering work involved. Well hay, i'm thinkin' i don't do much engineering work anyways. It sounds like he doesn't want me to even apply for teh job and doesn't want to give it to me. He said if i was still interested tho he would consider me.

I talked with my gf and i still cannot understand with the laundry list of responsibilities on the job posting in the shop that it would be worth less money than my current job. it seems very demanding and stressful. Like i said the job responsibilities are endless. There was about 10 bulletpoints with multiple items on each bullet. You are responsible for making sure safety regulations are followed, manage people, develop and hone our employees skills, coach our employees, help out anyway you can, ect ect ect. My gf told me today that He/HR or even the company/HR has developed that job for someone without a degree which allows them to pay very poorly and get away with it. Like i said before its still great experience for me but not for a large pay cut. That seems pretty stupid from my view. To me this job cannot be accomplished and done well without someone with engineering/machining/management/pricing knowledge.

I continued to talk with my gf about this and how much the person is resonsible for. Our old oper manager was always running around almost frantically and sometimes even so. Granted he smoked and had to take smoke breaks every hour but whatever it is what it is. My gf explained to me that exercise phyisologists work with nurses when stress tests are applied in hospitals and even tho ex phy are running around and doing all the work they still make less. Why? Their degree is not as intensive/exstensive as a Registered nurse. She also gave me the example of a CNA and a RN working together. The cna makes OK money and is doing all the labor intensive work while yes the nurse works but does the routine blood pressure/change fluids/monitor patients/ect ect.. A RN's schooling is much more rigourus and demanding than a CNA program as you guys probably already know that.

Any suggestions? I feel like i'm being held back and i have felt like this with this company b4. My gf thinks my boss is looking out for me. He says he doesn't want me to take a step back with how far i have come. Its probably worht noting i have a company car and company credit card for cases when i'm on the road.

I don't think my boss is a bad guy but to me i always feel like he has these very very secret, shady hidden agendas. Because our oper manager has stepped down i have being doing more logistical things in the shop so i hope i am noticed. My mom said to just keep doing what you are and he will notice you and the value you posess.

I have a hard time looking at this from other prospectives. Hense why i have asked you guys. I am activly looking at other jobs and just this week alone after reposting my resume online i've had 8 recruitors call me in 3 days and a phone interview yesterday. Only problem with new jobs is you are the new guy on the block. a price you have to be willing to pay. thanks guys!! PLEASE BE HONEST AND BLUNT WITH ME. i can take it.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

how about going to school through a business program and/or taylored to management? My friend went through a information/operations management degree at the college of business and....they start right out of the gate as a supervisor gaining experience.

And those managers are usually some of the poorest performers that command little to no respect from anyone along the chain of command. They typically believe they know best because they have a degree on their wall, not the guy in the trenches. As Ken said, just because it's done doesn't mean it's a good idea.

I don't think your first paragraph is accurate.

Well, maybe after you've been in the job world a bit longer and had more of that experience I mentioned earlier, you would think differently. But I suppose that brings us back to your earlier comment about knowing everyone's age and slta's rebuttal..

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[farmENGR]

why don't u rebuttle yourself...try it! . There is no need to degrade me for attempting to gain some valuable thoughts from the forum.

 

[ajack1]

The first part of happiness is knowing what you want and going out and finding it.

You talk of working under pressure as if it is a really bad thing. I know a good few people that work in Formula 1 teams (Grand prix motor racing) they all a well paid get to working on cutting edge technology, get to work with large budgets and on state of the art equipment and the ones in higher positions get to travel around the world and watch their “babies” race against the best in the world in some stunning locations.

On the flip side none of them work nine to five, you are expected to do what it takes, they all work under extreme pressure and dead lines and if you are seen as responsible for the team failing to meet its goals you are out of a job PDQ. It is not a job for everyone, some would see it as a dream job others would see it as a nightmare; you need to find what suits you at the stage of life you are at.

You talk of poor pay, is that reality or some misguided idea? Again it is important to separate the two. If you did a survey on here, or any other site for that matter, and asked are you overpaid or underpaid the split should be around 50-50, I am sure it would not be.

A really important lesson to learn is everything is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. That doesn’t matter if you paint masterpieces, design clothes, manufacture widgets, are trying to sell your house, are the world greatest footballer or offer your engineer services. What you think it is worth or what it costs to make doesn’t matter one jot.

You talk of bad managers/ owners again is this based on fact or fiction? Again if you did a survey and asked do you work for a good or bad manager/owner you should get a 50-50 split, in fact more should say they work for good ones as with the amount of companies that have failed in the last few years many of the bad ones will be on the dole along with the people they employed. Would that be the case?

You could walk into almost any pub in England and find some “expert” who will tell you how they could do a better job of running the national football side than the current manager and actually believe what they are saying. Of course the reality is the complete opposite they would be totally out of their depth, have no relevant experience and be a complete disaster. When I read some of the posts on here they remind me of the pub experts, do not be taken in by them.

If you want to know what makes a good manager/owner speak to people who are successful in that field, they will know, do not listen to people who have not been successful due to their own short comings and are bitter about it, the will not tell you the truth.

In short find out what it is you want and go for it. Learn the real value of things. Learn the difference between fact and fiction and base your judgements on that.

 

[msquared48]

farmENGR:

You may feel unhappy, disillusioned, used, undervalued, underpaid and overworked, but if I were you, and I do speak from experience, in this economy, I would be darn glad that I had a job to provide for my family.

Things can get a lot worse.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[csd72]

I would not recommend the production manager job as this person will be the fall guy when things go wrong.

Learn everything you can from this employer, including what not to do, and when you have no more to learn move on to a better job that utilises your skills properly.

 

[bridgebuster]

Amen Mike

 

[MacGyverS2000]

There is no need to degrade me for attempting to gain some valuable thoughts from the forum.

None of my statements were an attempt to degrade you. You came here asking for opinions/facts, and that's what we're giving you from our viewpoints, many of which from many many years of experience. If you have such thin skin that you cannot separate out the emotion from the statements, I would suggest that as yet more proof you are not ready for management. The position you're looking at takes a thick skin, and as csd mentions, you will take the brunt of any problem that comes along. Your boss won't tolerate whinging, finger-pointing, hurt feelings, etc. He'll want the problem solved, and he'll want it solved now. You'd also have to deal with people who would do exactly that on a daily basis... and that's no fun.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[jmw]

"Denigrate" rather than "degrade", I would have thought.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com