Friday, September 03, 2004
A little background
Since I'm planning on ranting, I guess I should give a little background, and sort of introduce the cast of characters. As I mentioned earlier, I am not going to give anyone's real name, including my own. So I'll have to make up names for everyone. But some background is still in order...
I work for a large company. I guess it's in the Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000 or something like that. Who knows or cares. They're all the same, more concerned with their 'bottom line' than they are with their employees. That pretty well describes any large company these days. So to keep things simple, I'll call them "AnyCo."
AnyCo is a large company, with lots of divisions, and lots of people. I am one of them. I feel like a Borg describing them. Yeah, I feel like I was assimilated. But unfortunately, I still retain some individuality, and that's what makes working for them so bad. The Borg are all part of a collective and happy to be there. I'm part of a collective, but I long for my individuality...
I'm in a department that's basically a bunch of mechanics [that's what we're called on paper anyway]. We're expected to be able to do pretty much anything though. As one of the guys likes to say, "One minute, we're expected to be computer programmers, the next, we're expected to be turd wranglers." Translation: We're expected to go from being programmers to plumbers and all points in between. I guess that makes us maintenance people or something similar.
Our plant runs three shifts, so there are three shifts of us. I'm on the day shift, along with six others, which include four co-workers, a 'working' group leader (who seldom does) and our supervisor (and you'll read much more about this idiot in days to come). The two "off shifts" (second and third shift) are comprised of three people per shift: a working group leader (who actually does work) and a couple of other guys (you'll read more about all of them too).
Our plant manufactures widgets (just like any other manufacturing facility), and we mostly work on the equipment used in making the widgets. Most of our equipment is old and delapidated, and we're expected to somehow keep it running. Not upgrading or keeping up-to-date is considered a cost savings. No one realizes that it could actually cost more to continually pay someone (or several someones) to repair equipment [lost production because of downtime + paying someone to sit around while 'their' machine is being repaired + labor to repair machine + parts + whatever else is involved] than it costs to upgrade to newer equipment. It's also a cost savings because you don't have to train anyone in the latest and greatest technology. Since most of our 'technology' is roughly 20 years old, you can hire any idiot off the street and he should be able to operate/repair it.
For these reasons, our Plant Manager (or whatever they call someone in his position these days) wants to keep things low tech. Most of us think he's an idiot. He's from the old school of management, meaning that he likes to threaten and intimidate people, rather than motivate and challenge them to get them to produce results. He also likes to stroll around the building and check out the women (he calls this his 'titty patrol'). Not many of us have any respect for him, but since he likes to hold our jobs over us, we pretty much do as we're told. It's basically his universe, and he's our 'god'. Personally, I don't know if there's much difference between worshiping him and worshiping Satan. Of course, Satan can do much more for you in the afterlife...
Well, I think that's enough for now. I plan to piss and moan more later on, and eventually I'll start bitching about specific incidents. Who knows, maybe you can see if you can identify me by my complaining. Maybe we can make a game out of it. You can try to identify me. After all, there can't be that many disgruntled employees on the planet, can there? Anyway, I'm done for now, but there's definitely more to come.
I work for a large company. I guess it's in the Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000 or something like that. Who knows or cares. They're all the same, more concerned with their 'bottom line' than they are with their employees. That pretty well describes any large company these days. So to keep things simple, I'll call them "AnyCo."
AnyCo is a large company, with lots of divisions, and lots of people. I am one of them. I feel like a Borg describing them. Yeah, I feel like I was assimilated. But unfortunately, I still retain some individuality, and that's what makes working for them so bad. The Borg are all part of a collective and happy to be there. I'm part of a collective, but I long for my individuality...
I'm in a department that's basically a bunch of mechanics [that's what we're called on paper anyway]. We're expected to be able to do pretty much anything though. As one of the guys likes to say, "One minute, we're expected to be computer programmers, the next, we're expected to be turd wranglers." Translation: We're expected to go from being programmers to plumbers and all points in between. I guess that makes us maintenance people or something similar.
Our plant runs three shifts, so there are three shifts of us. I'm on the day shift, along with six others, which include four co-workers, a 'working' group leader (who seldom does) and our supervisor (and you'll read much more about this idiot in days to come). The two "off shifts" (second and third shift) are comprised of three people per shift: a working group leader (who actually does work) and a couple of other guys (you'll read more about all of them too).
Our plant manufactures widgets (just like any other manufacturing facility), and we mostly work on the equipment used in making the widgets. Most of our equipment is old and delapidated, and we're expected to somehow keep it running. Not upgrading or keeping up-to-date is considered a cost savings. No one realizes that it could actually cost more to continually pay someone (or several someones) to repair equipment [lost production because of downtime + paying someone to sit around while 'their' machine is being repaired + labor to repair machine + parts + whatever else is involved] than it costs to upgrade to newer equipment. It's also a cost savings because you don't have to train anyone in the latest and greatest technology. Since most of our 'technology' is roughly 20 years old, you can hire any idiot off the street and he should be able to operate/repair it.
For these reasons, our Plant Manager (or whatever they call someone in his position these days) wants to keep things low tech. Most of us think he's an idiot. He's from the old school of management, meaning that he likes to threaten and intimidate people, rather than motivate and challenge them to get them to produce results. He also likes to stroll around the building and check out the women (he calls this his 'titty patrol'). Not many of us have any respect for him, but since he likes to hold our jobs over us, we pretty much do as we're told. It's basically his universe, and he's our 'god'. Personally, I don't know if there's much difference between worshiping him and worshiping Satan. Of course, Satan can do much more for you in the afterlife...
Well, I think that's enough for now. I plan to piss and moan more later on, and eventually I'll start bitching about specific incidents. Who knows, maybe you can see if you can identify me by my complaining. Maybe we can make a game out of it. You can try to identify me. After all, there can't be that many disgruntled employees on the planet, can there? Anyway, I'm done for now, but there's definitely more to come.
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