I Got Some Time Off For The Holidays!!
Apparently I can have as much time as I want! In other words I lost my job :)
Oh well it wasn't meant to be. I was really frustrated at first because I was being lied too and other shit was happening but in reality, Julie and I had planned on me looking elsewhere in late January or early Feb anyway.
I think what bothered me was the fact they let me go before I could quit. But deep down, I think what bothers me the most is that I know I could make some serious changes in there to make the company run better but they refused to listen... or even try. But I guess that a company that has been running since 1979 doesn't need advice on how to do things.
The work I was doing was fun. A lot of hands on stuff and new techniques I was learning... and when I say "learn new techniques" what I really mean is that I was learning how people used to do things by hand before the invention of machines that I am used to running back home at Corporate Images. An example being that back home we had a 75 foot-ish long monster of a machine that took five guys to run that we used to apply laminate to our boards. We would attach a 500 or 600 pound roll of laminate on top of the machine and then load full lifts of 40 to 50 sheets of wood into the front. Once the machine was up and running we'd be laminating a full lift of wood every 15 to 20 minutes and the forklift driver had to be quick enough to load the front of the machine as well as unload the back of the machine so everything would keep running smoothly. Well here at my new job I used to have to load single sheets of 4 by 8 plywood on to a set of saw horses.... I could do a maximum of three sheets at a time. Then I'd grab three sheets of 4 by 8 laminate and place them upside down on top of the plywood..... ending up with three "sets". Well, first you'd get this manual pressure pot that held about two gallons of glue and had a spray gun on it. I'd use the gun to spray glue all over the surface on the laminate.... then *carefully* move the laminate and then spray the plywood next. Well this glue was like instant-stick-it-aint-moving-for-shit kinda glue so you had to be very careful not to let it touch anything.... especially to itself or the whole thing would be screwed. So now I'd have to lift this big 8 foot floppy piece of laminate over my head and try to *carefully* place it on top of the plywood I just glued. It had to be perfect and square and done the right way the first time because like I said.... once the laminate touches the wood it ain't coming apart. Ok, now that that is done you need to do the other two "sets" and then lift all three of them over to the "pincher". Which is a machine that has two large heavy steel rollers you push the wood through so it evenly presses everything together and removes any air pockets if there is any. Whew!! Ok, that took about 25 minutes for three sheets.....
Anyway. The point is that the company is owned by three people, Bruce, his wife Janet and their son Todd. Bruce takes care of the contract bidding and hiring, Janet does the office stuff and apparently all the "dirty work" and Todd controls the production side of things. There is also a guy named Chris that is considered the foreman on the floor..... or so the title says. Everyday Chris would come in and get things going just in time for Todd to show up and make all the changes. The first couple of hours of everyday were frustrating for everyone.... because nobody knew what the hell was going on.
Chris is a very nice guy and communicates very well. The guys like and respect him but unfortunately he is kept out of the loop as to what is going on daily. I remember spraying some primer on some boards with him one day and asked what we were making. His response was that he had no idea what the part was, which run it was for, or when it has to be done by. This is a foreman? A foreman is supposed to know what everybody is doing on the floor at all times without having to go look. A foreman needs to be in the loop and sadly, Todd didn't let anybody know anything..... until it was late in the day and we "weren't going home until this shit is done".
The other guys I worked for did nothing but praise me. They were all glad that the company finally hired "somebody with a set of brains and some common sense". I made lots of suggestions to help the guys out do things faster and more efficient and I also did whatever they asked of me right away with out questioning it all. The guys liked that they were able to explain something once and then not have to hear back from me for the rest of the day. I got lots of compliments from everybody except Todd.
Chris and I grew close very fast... and we thought the same way and he confided in me. He came right out and told me last week that for some reason..... Todd didn't like me. He said he had no idea why he didn't like me but I definitely wasn't going to get a Christmas card from him. Last Thursday I asked Chris if I could leave work 1 hour early so I could give myself more time to get ready to attend Julie's company Christmas dinner. I told Chris to ask Todd BUT.... BUT... if he was going to raise any kind of stink about it then to drop it immediately and I will work until he end of the shift... no problem. Well apparently Todd's response to my request was "who that guy? I don't give a shit". Now of course if Chris was a good foreman he wouldn't be telling me about things like this but on the other hand, he should make people aware there is a problem so they can try to resolve it. So I decided it's time to have a talk with Todd and was going to talk to him at the end of Friday. All day long I thought about what I was going to say to him... and I promised myself that if push came to shove I was going to leave on good terms and be the better man. I pictured asking Todd if I had done anything to upset him since I started and in what areas he wanted me to improve on. I also pictured telling him that if he had a grudge against me and no matter what I did if that grudge of his was going to hold me back from advancing in the future then perhaps it was time for me to move on. I pictured telling him this and shaking his hand, thanking him for the opportunity to work and just be on my merry way.
Well 3:30 rolls around and Janet walks around giving out the paychecks and comes up to me and says that I'm not working out and that they are laying me off. I asked her to explain a bit more and apparently nobody is happy with my performance and they are going to make a change. She seemed confused and surprised when I explained to her that I've gotten nothing but compliments since I started and that everybody liked having me around. I asked to speak with Todd.
So Todd comes out of the office just as everybody is getting their checks and I start talking with him about being laid off. The other guys see what's going on and are upset. They shake their heads and I hear one guy say "that's bullshit". Anyway, I explain my side to Todd and he insists to me that I was being laid off because the company lost a couple of bids for work in January and that work was slowing down. In fact, he said my work was not the problem at all and it was never an issue. I asked him if I were to use his company on my resume would he have a problem giving me a good review and he said no... not at all. So I asked him a few more questions and then he pawned off the firing on to his parents. So I asked to speak with Bruce but he was at a job site and wouldn't be available until Monday. And let me tell ya, I'm going to go see him on Monday. Not to stir up shit but I want somebody down there just to be a man and tell me the truth. Also, I really want to go shake everybody's hand and thank them for helping me along while I learn. I admit, they do have a good bunch of guys working there and I'm not leaving without saying goodbye... and thanks.
I really want to speak with Chris again, he was great and made the job enjoyable. He was really pissed that I was being let go. He slammed his office door closed, stormed out of the shop at the end of the day and bolted the hell out of there. I remember a short while back when Chris was wanting me to start running the CNC but Todd said "absolutely not!!" even though I have more experience running that machine than they do even OWNING it. I've been running that machine for almost 7 years and they've owned theirs for only 5. Chris said to me that day that he doesn't understand why they are holding me back "because if they keep this up they'll end up pissing you off and running you right out the door and what good is that? Why not use all this experience you have?" I told him that I wasn't going to let that happen too easily. I couldn't see myself quitting without trying to work at this first and seeing if it could work out at the end.
My main problem is that I'm stubborn. People have told me even way before I applied at this job that it was flaky as hell. The suppliers that come to the door, the delivery guy who takes our cabinets to the job site, our neighbors within the same building all told me I could do better and that this company was "a sweat shop who treats their employees like shit". Christ, half the people that work there are on their second or third stint. They've quit and come back three times already so I guess the writings on the wall before you even start. But dammit, with my experience and the skills I feel I possess I felt deep down that I could make a difference and turn the company around. The company had sooo much potential and it's being pissed away by people who insist on living in mediocreville. I guess in order to be able to make changes you need the authority to do them.
Oh well, my frustrations were high for a while but I now realize it was for the better. I earned enough money to get through the Christmas holidays and looking back.... that's exactly what I wished for back in early November. I remember asking Julie even before i got my work permit that all I wanted was to find a job and get one full paycheck before Christmas. Well, that's what I got plus more so I guess I got what I asked for. :)
Now I get to take the holiday off and we'll start fresh in the new year.
Oh well it wasn't meant to be. I was really frustrated at first because I was being lied too and other shit was happening but in reality, Julie and I had planned on me looking elsewhere in late January or early Feb anyway.
I think what bothered me was the fact they let me go before I could quit. But deep down, I think what bothers me the most is that I know I could make some serious changes in there to make the company run better but they refused to listen... or even try. But I guess that a company that has been running since 1979 doesn't need advice on how to do things.
The work I was doing was fun. A lot of hands on stuff and new techniques I was learning... and when I say "learn new techniques" what I really mean is that I was learning how people used to do things by hand before the invention of machines that I am used to running back home at Corporate Images. An example being that back home we had a 75 foot-ish long monster of a machine that took five guys to run that we used to apply laminate to our boards. We would attach a 500 or 600 pound roll of laminate on top of the machine and then load full lifts of 40 to 50 sheets of wood into the front. Once the machine was up and running we'd be laminating a full lift of wood every 15 to 20 minutes and the forklift driver had to be quick enough to load the front of the machine as well as unload the back of the machine so everything would keep running smoothly. Well here at my new job I used to have to load single sheets of 4 by 8 plywood on to a set of saw horses.... I could do a maximum of three sheets at a time. Then I'd grab three sheets of 4 by 8 laminate and place them upside down on top of the plywood..... ending up with three "sets". Well, first you'd get this manual pressure pot that held about two gallons of glue and had a spray gun on it. I'd use the gun to spray glue all over the surface on the laminate.... then *carefully* move the laminate and then spray the plywood next. Well this glue was like instant-stick-it-aint-moving-for-shit kinda glue so you had to be very careful not to let it touch anything.... especially to itself or the whole thing would be screwed. So now I'd have to lift this big 8 foot floppy piece of laminate over my head and try to *carefully* place it on top of the plywood I just glued. It had to be perfect and square and done the right way the first time because like I said.... once the laminate touches the wood it ain't coming apart. Ok, now that that is done you need to do the other two "sets" and then lift all three of them over to the "pincher". Which is a machine that has two large heavy steel rollers you push the wood through so it evenly presses everything together and removes any air pockets if there is any. Whew!! Ok, that took about 25 minutes for three sheets.....
Anyway. The point is that the company is owned by three people, Bruce, his wife Janet and their son Todd. Bruce takes care of the contract bidding and hiring, Janet does the office stuff and apparently all the "dirty work" and Todd controls the production side of things. There is also a guy named Chris that is considered the foreman on the floor..... or so the title says. Everyday Chris would come in and get things going just in time for Todd to show up and make all the changes. The first couple of hours of everyday were frustrating for everyone.... because nobody knew what the hell was going on.
Chris is a very nice guy and communicates very well. The guys like and respect him but unfortunately he is kept out of the loop as to what is going on daily. I remember spraying some primer on some boards with him one day and asked what we were making. His response was that he had no idea what the part was, which run it was for, or when it has to be done by. This is a foreman? A foreman is supposed to know what everybody is doing on the floor at all times without having to go look. A foreman needs to be in the loop and sadly, Todd didn't let anybody know anything..... until it was late in the day and we "weren't going home until this shit is done".
The other guys I worked for did nothing but praise me. They were all glad that the company finally hired "somebody with a set of brains and some common sense". I made lots of suggestions to help the guys out do things faster and more efficient and I also did whatever they asked of me right away with out questioning it all. The guys liked that they were able to explain something once and then not have to hear back from me for the rest of the day. I got lots of compliments from everybody except Todd.
Chris and I grew close very fast... and we thought the same way and he confided in me. He came right out and told me last week that for some reason..... Todd didn't like me. He said he had no idea why he didn't like me but I definitely wasn't going to get a Christmas card from him. Last Thursday I asked Chris if I could leave work 1 hour early so I could give myself more time to get ready to attend Julie's company Christmas dinner. I told Chris to ask Todd BUT.... BUT... if he was going to raise any kind of stink about it then to drop it immediately and I will work until he end of the shift... no problem. Well apparently Todd's response to my request was "who that guy? I don't give a shit". Now of course if Chris was a good foreman he wouldn't be telling me about things like this but on the other hand, he should make people aware there is a problem so they can try to resolve it. So I decided it's time to have a talk with Todd and was going to talk to him at the end of Friday. All day long I thought about what I was going to say to him... and I promised myself that if push came to shove I was going to leave on good terms and be the better man. I pictured asking Todd if I had done anything to upset him since I started and in what areas he wanted me to improve on. I also pictured telling him that if he had a grudge against me and no matter what I did if that grudge of his was going to hold me back from advancing in the future then perhaps it was time for me to move on. I pictured telling him this and shaking his hand, thanking him for the opportunity to work and just be on my merry way.
Well 3:30 rolls around and Janet walks around giving out the paychecks and comes up to me and says that I'm not working out and that they are laying me off. I asked her to explain a bit more and apparently nobody is happy with my performance and they are going to make a change. She seemed confused and surprised when I explained to her that I've gotten nothing but compliments since I started and that everybody liked having me around. I asked to speak with Todd.
So Todd comes out of the office just as everybody is getting their checks and I start talking with him about being laid off. The other guys see what's going on and are upset. They shake their heads and I hear one guy say "that's bullshit". Anyway, I explain my side to Todd and he insists to me that I was being laid off because the company lost a couple of bids for work in January and that work was slowing down. In fact, he said my work was not the problem at all and it was never an issue. I asked him if I were to use his company on my resume would he have a problem giving me a good review and he said no... not at all. So I asked him a few more questions and then he pawned off the firing on to his parents. So I asked to speak with Bruce but he was at a job site and wouldn't be available until Monday. And let me tell ya, I'm going to go see him on Monday. Not to stir up shit but I want somebody down there just to be a man and tell me the truth. Also, I really want to go shake everybody's hand and thank them for helping me along while I learn. I admit, they do have a good bunch of guys working there and I'm not leaving without saying goodbye... and thanks.
I really want to speak with Chris again, he was great and made the job enjoyable. He was really pissed that I was being let go. He slammed his office door closed, stormed out of the shop at the end of the day and bolted the hell out of there. I remember a short while back when Chris was wanting me to start running the CNC but Todd said "absolutely not!!" even though I have more experience running that machine than they do even OWNING it. I've been running that machine for almost 7 years and they've owned theirs for only 5. Chris said to me that day that he doesn't understand why they are holding me back "because if they keep this up they'll end up pissing you off and running you right out the door and what good is that? Why not use all this experience you have?" I told him that I wasn't going to let that happen too easily. I couldn't see myself quitting without trying to work at this first and seeing if it could work out at the end.
My main problem is that I'm stubborn. People have told me even way before I applied at this job that it was flaky as hell. The suppliers that come to the door, the delivery guy who takes our cabinets to the job site, our neighbors within the same building all told me I could do better and that this company was "a sweat shop who treats their employees like shit". Christ, half the people that work there are on their second or third stint. They've quit and come back three times already so I guess the writings on the wall before you even start. But dammit, with my experience and the skills I feel I possess I felt deep down that I could make a difference and turn the company around. The company had sooo much potential and it's being pissed away by people who insist on living in mediocreville. I guess in order to be able to make changes you need the authority to do them.
Oh well, my frustrations were high for a while but I now realize it was for the better. I earned enough money to get through the Christmas holidays and looking back.... that's exactly what I wished for back in early November. I remember asking Julie even before i got my work permit that all I wanted was to find a job and get one full paycheck before Christmas. Well, that's what I got plus more so I guess I got what I asked for. :)
Now I get to take the holiday off and we'll start fresh in the new year.
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