Workplace politics

[petasux]

Not government politics but about the same, they make very little sense most of the time.

We have a guy at my shop, he does nothing, he misses 2 days a week minimum and when he is there its nothing to find him sleeping in his car.I have filed numerous complaints and nothings ever done.

Ive been on this site for 2 years, the average employee lasts less than 4 months, Ive worked my way to the top of the ladder and have been running things for about 8 months.Its the most brutal, labor intensive site out there.

A job opening came up overseas, it means being away from my family for 6 months but the moneys hard to beat.I throw my name in to go over there and they tell me its being discussed.Yesterday my supervisor takes me outside, I already know somethings up.

He tells me I didnt get picked to go.I have a feeling I know whats coming so I beat him to it.I tell him if the worthless waste of oxygen got chosen over me I wasnt gonna be to amused.He tells me the kid got picked and he knows Im pissed.Apparently the kids been kissing someones butt high up the chain of command.

I have had enough, I tell him to call his boss and tell him as soon as I find another job Im outta there, Ive had enough, theyve screwed me over to many times and Im not doing it anymore.That afternoon he tells me to keep my phone on as the office will be calling me.I had a first aid/CPR training course so I was staying there last night anyway instead of driving home.

The day goes on, then the night opasses and by the time I goto bed at 11 nobodies contacted me.Im beyond mad now, I goto work and dont say a word, just start doing my job.Finaly I look up and notice the kids not anywhere to be seen, I look outside and his cars gone.I go ask where hes at, Im told he had to go back to the hotel for personal business.Thats the last straw, I started yelling things I cant repeat in here and tell them if hes leaving to get him gone, Im done dealing with it.I leave the office and return to the floor and start working again.

An hour goes by and my supervisor comes down with the phone in his hand, tells me I have a call and looks pretty serious.I take my stuff off and head upstairs fully intending to quit or be fired.Its our main field supervisor, he asks if I want to goto india and tells me hes also got another site in Minnesota he needs me on 2 weeks from today.Another guy will be calling me about the India job which pays about 3X the money I now make, even the Minnesota job comes with a raise so either ones fine.

Im still annoyed by the handling of this and am not ready to let it drop, I ask abouit the reason the kid was chosen and not anyone else, not specifically me but anyone would have been a better choice.He gives me a detailed explanation about whos butt the kids kissed and how he had to goto great lengths yesterday and most of this morning to get them to reconsider taking me.A call with the HR dept will be set up to deal with the kids absences and he will personally be taking part in the call and make sure its addressed.

The paperworks been started for my passport and work visa for India and the job in Minnesotas mine in two weeks but I still dont understand why these little pukes with no motivation and no work ethic are being given these great jobs while all around me theres hard working dedicated guys that do quality work that are never gonna get anywhere except where they are now.Seriously, had I not fully intended to lose my job over this and caused such an uproar I would have never gotten anywhere, most of these guys arent willing to push things that far and suffer as a resut

[The Rev]

I hate to say it but many times in business it's not nearly as important as what you know as who you know. But if he has these kind of work ethics it will catch up with him. Ever think maybe they were trying to pass the problem off to someone else without his influences?

Hang in there performance is hard to overlook.

[Mr. Conservatism]

Originally Posted by The Rev

I hate to say it but many times in business it's not nearly as important as what you know as who you know. But if he has these kind of work ethics it will catch up with him. Ever think maybe they were trying to pass the problem off to someone else without his influences?

Hang in there performance is hard to overlook.

Yeah, maybe they just saw an opportunity to get rid of him. Sometimes people don't have the guts to do the right thing. It's easier to pass the problem on to someone else.

[bigbulls]

Far too many times laziness gets rewarded in the work place. I too see it on a day to day basis where I work. Those that do the least and constantly bitch and moan, and screw up simple tasks get to skate through the day with little effort on their part. The boss never asks them to come in early for special events, never asks them to do any of the day to day labor than needs to be done, they never have to go away from the family to buying shows, etc... etc...

What it all boils down to is people management. Some people can manage people and some can not. Those that can not manage people will allow this crap to take place and those that can manage people will not put up with it.

[Wolf killer]

Your place of employment suffers from poor leadership and management skills. People with a sub-standard work preformance and a high absent rate should be eliminated.

[Lemaitre]

Originally Posted by bigbulls

What it all boils down to is people management. Some people can manage people and some can not. Those that can not manage people will allow this crap to take place and those that can manage people will not put up with it.

People often get put into management positions for the wrong reasons. I know because I am a classic case. Because I was very good with tasks requiring superior cognitive skills I was promoted to a position managing people, even though I had no experience in that area. My cognitive capabilities were often of little use in managing people and I found it a real struggle. I think I did an acceptable job but I am sure there were other people in the organization with less pure intellectual ability but better aptitudes for managing people that would have done the job better than I did. I think it probably happens fairly frequently that an engineer or scientist will make some sort of an intellectual breakthrough and get rewarded with a management position that they are ill suited for.

[falcon]

Petasucks, you are caught in one heck of a situation. Your boss is a milquetoast.

Supervised and managed a lot of jobs. Worker bees come in two types; hard working ones and lazy ones. I gave the lazy ones two chances and then they were gone. My management style is different from most. When i ran my own company i just fired the troublemakers, the dopers, the drunks and the lazy butts.

When i worked for other companies i canned them without consulting human resources first. It did not matter to me whether or not they had a hook somewhere up the food chain.
After the guy was off my work site i would call the company president and tell that person that so and so was just fired. Never had any trouble at all.

`

[vc1111]

We have a guy at my shop, he does nothing, he misses 2 days a week minimum and when he is there its nothing to find him sleeping in his car.

Why would any employer in his right mind offer what you portray as an opportunity for higher income with commensurate responsibility to an employee you portray as completely and utterly incompetent?

Sorry, makes not a lick of sense to me. Is he related to the owners? Is there some type of twisted union protection for the guy? What?

Something is missing from the story.

[petasux]

VC, I dont know the entire story behind the guy but here is what Ive been able to piece together.We had a big change in management in the last year, lots of higher up were gotten rid of and lots of the people on the lower rungs were advanced to various positions.He made friends with one of them while in Canada for training over the course of 6 weeks.That guy happens to be heading up this project.

Theres 2 different types of sites we have as far as work goes.Theres many where theres tons of down time, waiting for resin to setup, cranes to move, inspections to be done etc...Honestly on some of these you can put in 14 hour days and maybe do actual labor for 4 of them and wait around the rest of the time.

Then theres my site, 12 hour days, 6 days a week, but theres no time to screw off, its constant manual labor with actual quotas and deadlines to meet.

He came off one of the easy sites where they did nothing all day and his supervisor from that site gave him a good review, apparently he is good at sleeping in the truck all day which is what they did most of the time.When it comes to actual labor it turns out hes really not cut out for it.

But between the two guys they convinced the company president this kid was a good choice.By the time my supervisor and one of the head guys caught wind of what they were doing it was allready set up and the paperwork was started.Apparently theres a lotta money involved in getting the right visas and such for this job so instead of eating the cost outright theyre gonna send him and hope it works out, really what could go wrong there

[vc1111]

Well, I hope things work out for you, peta.