I'm about to quit [rant]

[RedFury]

my job.

Why is it that no matter how hard I work to keep my customers happy, keep the money flowing in, that I get no respect? I have some clout at my job, but mention the word "Resand" and suddenly you've got the audibly transmitted plague.

A couple of weeks ago ( when this really started ) I had a nice old lady customer, who had a really nice library added to her home and we installed a hardwood floor in it ( 15 X 15 max ). I only got to see it for the final coat which I put on at the end of a very long day of work ( 9pm ), so I was in and out pretty quick. I noticed that the floor didn't look right when I was working on it, tried something, saw it wasn't having an effect, so i continued and finished the job. A day or two later, we get a call about the job not looking right. On the spot, I tell the shop we need to resand the job. They tell me the job Supe wants us to put another coat on it, which I refuse to do knowing well that it will do nothing to the appearance of the floor, it will only add another coat that we will have to sand through...it needs to be resanded! Coat it they say. I refuse, and go home ( it was to be my last job of the day anyway ). They send someone else out the next week and he coats it like a good drone.

Funny, another week later and guess where I am putting the first coat on the floor? Idiots! If they had listened to me in the first place, we wouldn't have wasted all those man hours plus material for the extra coat. I WAS THERE! I SAW THE JOB! but, in their "infinite" wisdom, they seemed to know better than me, my eyes, and my experiences.

Fast forward 2 weeks to today. I get basically the same call, except this time, I decided to be the drone and " just coat it" Guess who gets reamed for not calling the job in to get fixed properly? Yeah, me

Bossman wants to know why I called the job a hack job to the customer ( in not so many words ). What am I supposed to tell the guy? "uh...yeah. that's the way floors are supposed to look! we predistress it for you...it's a free service from us to you!"

C'mon! I'd look like an idiot, and instill ZERO confidence in the customer in my abilities. They want me to be that other guy, I won't have a job for long, cuz no one in their right mind is going to recommend us for nothing!

I am so sick of seeing these people back at the office sit back in their expensive computer chairs and dictate what I'm supposed to do with a floor, when I'm calling them knowing full well what needs to be done. They work harder at not working than they should getting the things we need to get our problem jobs fixed right the first time, instead of candy coating everything with an extra coat "to make the customer happy"

Since when did having a good work ethic become a bad thing?

[end of rant]

[Siliconjunkie]

I see the same kinds of things all the time. Can't win for losing. I tell them to just reboot the server and all will be well, but they wanna futz around with it, in the end they reboot it and its fixed. We catch heat for how long there was an outage. So, next time I just reboot it. I get heat for not calling them to let them dip me in the grease. No....I've only been working with these servers and applications longer than any of the people they hired off the street to manage them, what do I know?

I feel your pain, but I think its the same everywhere in every field.

I'm right there with you, RF. I used to get the same exact thing at my job about drafting projects. I even told them that not fixing stuff would lose us the customer. And it did. Of course I rubbed that in so they laid me off, but hey.

When pencil pushers run a labor based company, no good will come of it.

[RedFury]

Well, I've had a chance to calm down, which helps out. I actually have a great job, and I do have clout, as hard as that may seem from my first post. The problem is when my boss gets heat from a customer, the person on the job last is the first person he calls to yell at ( instead of getting the full story first and then deciding whether it is worth getting the blood boiling over )

I'll live. I just need to learn to be my old relaxed self, and not let it get to me. Drill Sgt's never got to me, why should this guy? Worst case scenario, I jump ship and find a new line of work. Not the end of the world, and I'd probably end up happier anyway. So, the story continues...

[F/A-18 MechDood]

Dooood... I know exactly how you feel. I see it everyday in the Military also. Granted I am wrong on occasion and I'll accept that. I love showing the higher ups that they were wrong. I just sit back and bask in my own glory then. That usually pisses them off even more. But there isn't anything they can do.

[Martoch]

Hey Red, buddy, I know exactly where you're coming from! Of course, you can empathize with me here as well...being military, I get told what to do and a lot of the time, HOW to do it!
GRRRRRRRRRR!!!

I know my jobs (I'm a telecommunications tech AND our workgroup manager) very well and I don't need an old "has been" trying to tell me how to get things done. But, of course, I "drone" my way around with "yes sir, no sir" and do what I'm told to do.

I'm mouthy as hell though, let me assure you...BUT I'm one of those kinds of people that can get away with it. I think that's the only thing that keeps me going, my super sense of humor and quick wit.

A lot of us are in that same boat with ya bud...such is life.

[Knothead]

Dang, Red I like to jump out of my seat when I saw that thread title...say it ain't so, Red!

[draboo]

Originally posted by Knothead
Dang, Red I like to jump out of my seat when I saw that thread title...say it ain't so, Red!

that was my first thought too,KNot.

i was working for a contractor pouring concrete walls. i told mr bossman that a certian area of the forms was weak, he told me to stay by it and watch it. after around 10 minutes,he decided that the form was gonna hold,and told me to go do something else. i smiled and obliged him.

another 10 minutes passes,the formwork blows out,and we now have 20+ yards of concrete flowing all over the ground.

you couldnt have got the smile off of my face with dynamite. we worked till midnight(6 hours overtime )to get it straightened out.mr bossman wouldnt even look at me for a week.

[RedFury]

Draboo, I've been there myself, which is why I went off on that rant. Exact same thing happened, with a twist.

See, the boss goes outta town often, which leaves one of his lackeys to run the shop-which currently is the guy that I worked with the first day I started oh so many 6 years ago. The guy is pretty much chained to the shop ( he gets a lot of nice stuff from my boss at the expense of being his yes man ). I've fought with him about using the waterbased sealer for first coats when we do waterbased jobs because our sanders can't seem to put on a first coat of waterbase to save their lives unless they use the sealer. 45 minutes I argue with him ( only to be proven right ).

3 weeks ago, I work my tail off til 9pm and my last job was a small one room library in waterbase. I saw something was wrong, tried to buff it out and coated it. We get a call the following Monday about the job. He wants me to go fix it. I tell him right there and then that the job needs to be resanded, because when I was there the first time and there is no point in me going out there for that reason. He says the contractor wants another coat to fix it. Again, I argue, that buffing it will do NO good at all, just end up with the same floor with another coat on it. Oh no, won't listen to me. I go over there, and tell the homeowner that the floor needs to be resanded and that my shop is being stubborn, and her contractor is being stupid, and that the right way to fix the job is resanding and doing it the right way. Funny thing is...she didn't complain about the floor in the first place, the contractor did, and the only reason he was complaining was because he knew the architect wouldn't like it. Holy carp! Who's in charge of this job anyway? So, I don't coat the floor, and go home for the day.

Next thing I know, they are sending someone else out there to coat the floor ( which I vehemently opposed ). Well, he coats the floor anyway. I mutter something under my breath and do my work for the day.

Fast forward a week. I get another waterbase job to do. Guess what? It's the job that needed to be resanded, and guess who's putting the first coat of finish on?

The only satisfaction I got was when my boss called me about the other job, and I ranted to him about the job earlier that I called a resand and the other guy ( who was on a 3 way with us ) just shut up and didn't say anything for the rest of the conversation.

Well, fear not, Knot. I'm still in the biz. I've got a 401k to fatten up still, and need the time on the job to help with getting a house eventually, and the money is still good.