Too much help is worse than not enough...

[LowBoy]

It seems you can't win for losin' sometimes. I get a job that seemed to be the answer to all of life's problems 2 months ago, with a hvy. hwy. contractor in New England as an operator with the option of becoming a crew leader. 15 minutes from home, and a 2 year project. So far, I'm miserable, and not alone.
Since day one, there hasn't been a single day that we have had a full day's work on one single task. No crew structure, just bounce around doing "odd jobs" all day long. Makes for a long day watching the clock for 12+ hours.

We started out with 15 workers on this site, and myself along with several others have been floundering around for things to keep us busy. Desperation sets in every so often, and we resort to stupid little laboring jobs like picking up the site. Today I slipped in with the concrete crew helping them set up for a pour. Kind of a waste of good qualified people in my opinion, but "work is work" I keep saying.

Now it wasn't bad enough that 15 of us are going through this on this site, but now we just inherited another 16 workers, from another division in another state. Their workload is done for the year, and instead of taking a layoff in September, they were given the option to come down and work with us. That's fine, but now THEY'RE doing what we would have been.:Banghead There's a rumor of that same amount of men again coming next week.

In these slow economic times, I keep repeating "I'm thankful to be working", but I'm not really "working". It's a folly; a joke. I'm not a stand-around-and-look-busy kind of guy, I prefer to have a plan and execute that plan. There'll be none of that here on this job, I can see that. 2 other good, quality people are getting ready to walk away, one did last week. This is a tough one, again due to the slowing economy and the end of the season issues.

Let's hear how some others would handle this scenario. Would you "milk it", like the normal Joe 6 pack, or do something about it? Before you start, let me make it clear...I've had this talk with this project "manager" several times, and he thinks it's funny, I'm too nervous, calm down, etc. I'm done with him, because I don't want to keep chasing my tail on this topic of maintaining a steady workload.

If you go over his head, then he'll hate you for it. What say you?

 

[RollOver Pete]

I'm kinda in the same boat.
First off,
I'm good friends with the owner.
I'm not sure if that in itself allows me to get away with certain things?
On any other job, I'm sure I would have been caned by now.
But I look out for Michael and he in turn looks out for me.

Unless you have somewhere else that you can go,
it's a hard call.
I don't know what I'd do if I didnt have the kind of relationship that I have with the owner here.
If it were up to me, I'd fire 75% of the leaches around here.
They are lazy, they could care less about doing the job quickly, efficiently or trying to make the owner money.
And if you dont speak, read and write english, you're outa here because I don't play that "no comprendo" crap.

It's frustrating seeing all the money being wasted because of lack of management (babysitters).
That's why I mostly work alone.
I don't care if these snails like me or are intimidated by me or not.
I push them, make them get off of their rumps or I send them somewhere else.
Much of my day is spent cleaning up their stupid, stupid mistakes.
Like last night...
Almost 1 am and some brain surgeon leaves the lights on draining the battery of a rental backhoe :Banghead
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
And I told Julio that that was his 1 stupid mistake of the evening.
Don't do it again.

I could go on and on but everyones gig is different.
You need to go where you will be happy.
Look out for #1...yourself.

Here.... the money is one thing.
Many times it seems like its not worth the money...
The problems it causes at home,
lack of sleep....
and the abuse on my body....

But the other night while Michael and I were here he comes up to me and says,
"Pete... out of all of these employees, you're the only one around here that I can count on to get things done."

I remind him that since I have no life, its not a problem...
Seriously,
He appreciates what I do and every now and then he lets me know.
That makes it all worth while for me.

 

[Grader4me]

It seems such a shame that you have to work in a place like that. It is so convenient for you as it's so close to home, but from what you are descibing I wouldn't want to work there. It's a hard call, but really things doesn't sound like they are going to improve with that company. It wouldn't be to bad if by talking to your superiors you would make a little headway, but it seems like your just banging your head on the wall as no one is listening.

I wouldn't know what it's like to wake up in the morning and dread to go to work. I've been very fortunate in that regard. The good operators that are leaving this company, any idea where they are working now? I would say it's resume time again my friend. I would suggest to stick with it for now but actively search for another job.

I know travelling to far to work sucks, but if you can find a job that you're happy with...everything will work out I'm sure

 

[LowBoy]

Tough call it is indeed. This economy and the latest series of events with Fannie whats-her-face, and Freddie the Freeloader makes me even more concerned about making a spontaneous move right now, but it's getting a little harder each morning to muster up the ambition to go to work here at this joke of a place.
The ones(operators) that left live 4 hours north of here, so they've most likely found something closer to their homes. With several more workers coming in from Maine next week, this is going to be a circus. I watched at least 4 guys milking the day out today...can't wait to see next week's version. 4 guys on a hay mulch truck...2 inside the cab. That was interesting. What, one guy to steer, the other to shift? I'm surprised there wasn't 3 guys inside to drive it, because it's a two stick Mack. One for each lever, and one to steer. Another deal was 2 guys carrying a 20' X 6" plastic pipe...all 3 lbs. of it? It's brutal to watch.

I was busy at least today doing a bunch of tasks, but tomorrow could be dead. Hopefully we quit early due to some heavy rains headed toward us tomorrow, and I can sneak over to a gas pipeline job I caught wind of recently and see if I can beg for a job there. Can't possibly be any worse than what I'm going through now (I hope.):drinkup

 

[OCR]

It's frustrating seeing all the money being wasted because of lack of management

but it seems like your just banging your head on the wall as no one is listening.

Situation= small family farm/ranch corporation....
Owned by Mother... brother... myself....

Results= :Banghead... :Banghead... :Banghead... big time.

Seems to be a big tug of war, all the time, on management decisions.

The ironic thing is... I'm part of the problem... because I'm part of management... do I just say... " Ok, do it your way "? ... even if I think I'm right??? ( I do this often... and then dwell about whether I gave in to fast... or if I am wrong :beatsme ).


May have more to add later... if I can compose myself.


OCR

 

[LowBoy]

Then there's days like today when all the help disappears 'cause it's pouring rain, and so me and a few other "dedicated" idiots are wallowing around in the mud hand mulching the site. Busy I must say, but very wet and unhappy.

Nothing some grape flavored vodka and ginger ale can't cure though.:beerchug

 

[Bully]

I know how you guys feel. I have been in that situation before.

Just keep in mind that you are still bringing home a check. Many aren't. I know you have to have pride in your work and how efficeintly you make use of the time, because sitting still and waiting for the clock to run out is a pain in the ass. And busywork sucks even more. Especially if it's being delegated to you by someone who isn't going to be doing said busywork. And having to pick up some morons slack everyday and know that he is still working when your bros that are pros aren't is even harder to take.

Treat it as blessing though, nothing drives me crazier than being in the hall. Or at home doing everything the wife had been doing before 6 am just to keep yourself from getting lax.

The way i look at those type of situations is this. If they didn't need you to be there, you wouldn't be. You'd be doing whatever at home. Whether or not I make one pick, pass, or move, or one thousand you needed me to be there to run that piece of iron. If you don't need me, i'll be at home. If you do I'll be here waiting. All business.

Maybe the company is looking to lose some money for a write off?

 

[roddyo]

The Same Sitution

Situation= small family farm/ranch corporation....
Owned by Mother... brother... myself....

Results= :Banghead... :Banghead... :Banghead... big time.

Seems to be a big tug of war, all the time, on management decisions.

The ironic thing is... I'm part of the problem... because I'm part of management... do I just say... " Ok, do it your way "? ... even if I think I'm right??? ( I do this often... and then dwell about whether I gave in to fast... or if I am wrong :beatsme ).


May have more to add later... if I can compose myself.


OCR

I was in the same sitution except no brother, to make a long story short I left home when I was 19 with nothing and haven't spoke to anyone in my family since. That was 20 years ago and some people still think I'm crazy. A few people in this town think I turned out alright though.:cool2

 

[LowBoy]

I was in the same sitution except no brother, to make a long story short I left home when I was 19 with nothing and haven't spoke to anyone in my family since. That was 20 years ago and some people still think I'm crazy. A few people in this town think I turned out alright though.:cool2

Heck I don't think you're crazy at all roddyo, I have a brother I haven't talked to since 1986. That's 22 years, and it wouldn't bother me if it went another 22. Nothing to do with me...he's just an idiot.

 

[bear]

he thinks it's funny, I'm too nervous, calm down, etc.

If you go over his head, then he'll hate you for it.

Wonder why he'd hate someone for telling the big boss how money is being wasted? He's prolly worrried you'll wind up with his job and he'll be out looking and that's why he tells you to calm down. (posibly i don't know the guy he could be doing his best and still be incompetent and wasting time and money.)

 

[landrvrnut22]

Here's my advice. Work as hard as you can, put fourth effort, impress the bosses, and get stuff done. Make a list of what you accomplished everyday. Then, actively look fo other work. There is work out there. You just need to be the sqeaky wheel, and find it.

Hang in there. You are bringing home a paycheck, many are not.

 

[RollOver Pete]

"dedicated" idiot

I resemble that remark :drinkup

 

[LowBoy]

Looks like you're under the heading of "doing what ya gotta do" Pete..

Me too. I was laid off unexpectedly 2 weeks ago myself, and never stopped shaking the bushes. Was getting a little nervous I will admit, there's not a whole lot going on, especially around here in the winter.

Landed a job yesterday hauling propane. Not bad, should be back and forth past the house every day and not have to live in a truck at least.
Not overpaying either, but better than sitting here looking stupid.
Don't want to be too busy anyways, it's snowmobile season!!!:woohoo

Been working on them this week doing the preseason maintenence, ready to hit it hard as soon as the trails open officially here. My 14 yr. old daughter put 30 miles on the Ski Doo GSX 600 around the place today! Got just enough snow to be able to ride them around here easy.:drinkup

 

[sandnsnow]

I wish I had you guys around here. The guys around here would rather walk around and look busy rather than be busy. Its hard to find a guy that is intrested in making the company money. I tell my guys, If you don't give 100% then what you give is about how long you and I going to be employed.

I keep guys on until I cant afford it and then they get laid off. They feel bad for standing around a site sweeping or at the shop washing equipment but I feel I owe it to them and there family. Sometimes its cheaper for companys to keep guys on because of unemployment insurance rates.

 

[milling_drum]

This is something thats pretty common in the south. Those last people I worked with in Alabama who were virtually clueless about running asphalt milling machines but had six of them were pretty insecure about outside experience.

When I was hired, I was one of the first people they brought in from the outside with milling experience. The first meeting the supt told me to try to give them pointers and help out as best I could which was a given already by the looks of the equipment.

From the first 10 minutes out on the road it was all downhill from there. I tried to point out when going into a plunge cut (deep) its usually best to try to lower into it slowly so you aren't damaging anything or getting parts jammed up without having some control over it. They didn't want to hear it.

I sent an email to the supt that they might like to try to get a few more hours out of the teeth they were changing out and he may wish to have a look at the used teeth pile in the yard to see what I meant. In that email I also explained they were WAY over greasing the machine in areas that simply did not need alot of grease and that highspeed grease was mainly for bearing use and if used in other areas all it does is make a mess, like over the waterbar on the rear of the drum housing, mixed with oil leaks, the nozzles plug up and you are not getting proper water feed to the cutting drum which affects wear on teeth.

Well, I heard that week (I was 6 hours away from the shop and this supt somehow couldn't return emails) that the supt had come out in the yard flipping out about people changing to many teeth. The owners of this company were green to construction and clueless. (still are) Initially I had thought this may have been a good thing but later I found out that the email had been printed and circulated around the office and percieved as I was trying to tell them off about something. I was trying to HELP these poor commonsenseless people about things that SHOULD be pretty obvious whether you have experience with mills or not. Obviously my email caused a ruckus.

On the Job I was on at that time, I was with an older Wirtgen W2200 with a 12 ft cutting drum under it. It has a V-12 CAT in it. They seemed to be bragging about how the moter had just been rebuilt and so on, I asked why, they had no answer. However when I got up on the top of the machine, I could see where the exhaust had blown alot of soot over the engine hood. it has a collapseable exhaust pipe system because on transport you need all the space you can get. So it is a pipe that collapses over. I noticed it had no cover or flap on it to keep the water out for when it rains. That explains all the soot being blown all over, ok. I mention to the foreman, (a fella who could neither read or write) that it might be a good idea to keep that pipe covered because water getting down into the exhaust can cause problems with a number of things in your freshly rebuilt V-12. He countered with oh we just got a new turbo put on it....I did notice the two different coloured turbos, both with different dates marked on them the way CAT mechanics do it...

I had to walk away shaking my head and laughing. I did get the back end of the machine opened up one day and had a look at that too, the rad had never seen a drop of washdown even after the rebuild, you couldn't see the bottom because of leaves and dust built up.

I did my best to inform the higher ups even going as far as letting the owners hear about this. NOBODY wanted to hear it. When I quit just after thanksgiving, it was not under pleasant circumstances at all.

Companies like that aren't going to be around long in any case but some of those issues were quite simply rediculous. At the end of the day it affected MY income and that wasn't cool atall....

Wonder why he'd hate someone for telling the big boss how money is being wasted? He's prolly worrried you'll wind up with his job and he'll be out looking and that's why he tells you to calm down. (posibly i don't know the guy he could be doing his best and still be incompetent and wasting time and money.)

 

[surfer-joe]

Just saw yer pictures today Pete. I could swear I know you from someplace. We will have to get together sometime and reminisce.

 

[Grouser]

I wish I had you guys around here. The guys around here would rather walk around and look busy rather than be busy. Its hard to find a guy that is intrested in making the company money. I tell my guys, If you don't give 100% then what you give is about how long you and I going to be employed.

I keep guys on until I cant afford it and then they get laid off. They feel bad for standing around a site sweeping or at the shop washing equipment but I feel I owe it to them and there family. Sometimes its cheaper for companys to keep guys on because of unemployment insurance rates.

Howdy sandnsnow, I am over in Newport, let me know if you need a good hand . . . I always give 110%. I was over at Idaho Club for ACI in '07 running "finish excavator". Tried to talk them into a Bladerunner but ended up with a 320 . . . Chuck Reeves loved me, and man I hate to see the economy hammer that guy like it has . . . a great guy to work with.

ps. part time is good too . . .

 

[Hendrik]

This is something thats pretty common in the south. Those last people I worked with in Alabama who were virtually clueless about running asphalt milling machines but had six of them were pretty insecure about outside experience.

When I was hired, I was one of the first people they brought in from the outside with milling experience. The first meeting the supt told me to try to give them pointers and help out as best I could which was a given already by the looks of the equipment.

From the first 10 minutes out on the road it was all downhill from there. I tried to point out when going into a plunge cut (deep) its usually best to try to lower into it slowly so you aren't damaging anything or getting parts jammed up without having some control over it. They didn't want to hear it.

I sent an email to the supt that they might like to try to get a few more hours out of the teeth they were changing out and he may wish to have a look at the used teeth pile in the yard to see ..

There are a few things to be learned from this and unfortunately it is something that is all too common. Often with companies there is a void between white collar and blue, usually this is overcome by the supt/foreman and junior execs working together to overcome any problems that may arise. These people are the real movers and shakers of any business.
Sounds like in case the problem was a lack of good junior execs willing to learn how the wheels turn, that supt seemed to know that things could be better but it would appear that the company execs where not willing to improve things and probably more interested in their secretaries than the operation.
You can't do anything about this unless they are willing to improve the situation.
This is why it is important to get to know the operation before trying to tell them how to run their business. Some people are not very receptive to change or criticism (and remember what may seem like sound advice to you, someone else might not see it as such).
Unless it was specifically part of your job description to author reports, don't go putting anything down in writing.
Remember you are the new kid on the block and if you have any hope of improving the efficiency of the operation, you have to get as many people as possible on side. More than likely some of the others have been with the company for a long time and to have someone come along and tell them how to do their job will not sit well. I know you meant well but you have to always consider how others will feel. Changing the operational behavior of people is a long term process and there is a hierarchy within any outfit.
Telling the king cheese operator that he/she is doing it wrong is something that has to be handled with care.
You would have been best of to make a note of the errors and then tell the supt, it is up to him/her to implement change. However it would seem in this case the supt is an idiot because he took your email and used it as ammo to prove a point.
If he was any good he would have tried to implement improved work practices without waving your email around, making you look like a rat.
Basically it looks like they used you for some sort of power play and through the goodness of your heart you feel into the trap.
My advice to anyone who may find themselves in this situation is to keep your head down until you know what is what and who is who. You need to have people both on the work site and in the offices wanting to improve. No good being on the ground and yelling up at the tower that there are problems. Remember when you tie a tie around someones neck you make them a whole lot smarter than a person without a tie.