Poor hiring, vetting, supervision and training procedures.......again?

[Convicted One]

Psychot

Pride in a job well done is one of the things I live for,

 

You are certainly entitled to set that as one of your (own) priorities, however, you seem to be missing that not everyone shares that priority.

I could tell you a long story from another job I once had, but let me just summarize it briefly by saying some employers will push push push for productivity,  and when you finally hit your quota they reward you by laying off team members.

Lessons such as that are hard to unlearn, and tend to become institutional knowledge instead. So people learn to produce "just enough" to survive the system....can you really fault them?

[Electroliner 1935]

When I was in college, I rode a bus home at night from Cincinnati to Greenhills Ohio. This was an Ohio Bus Lines operation that grew from routes that the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Interurban had. Running from Cincinnati to Dayton and Hamilton etc. The regular bus driver was very professional and enjoyed people, and his job and it showed. I always thought of how lucky it was to enjoy what you do. And how that feeds back to how you do it. I don't know whether he had any issues with management or the bus maintenance or his union. If you rode with him once, he remembered where you got off and if you didn't get up to get off there on your next trip, he would inquire if you wanted that stop this time. His route included the last two round trips of the day to Greenhills and he knew all the regulars and if someone was not where they usually boarded when he got there, he would dwell a little and look for them. I have known many men who loved what they did but many companies today don't respect loyalty or extra effort and demand strict adherance to rules and sometimes seem to want to squeeze the employees to do more than is reasonable. On the other hand, I have seen employes who have no respect for rules or the companys property, or of the customers and their fellow employees. 

I worked for a company that had a good reputation, treated me well, gave me what I needed to do the work I did, and had good benefits. Some of the benefits were due to the negotiations with the unions that worked for the company. (I was management) And I would say that I liked almost all of the union men I worked with. So I liked my career.

[tree68]

Convicted One

I could tell you a long story from another job I once had, but let me just summarize it briefly by saying some employers will push push push for productivity,  and when you finally hit your quota they reward you by laying off team members.

While I was in USAF, at one unit we had an in-house project building GATR racks.  Not a complicated job, but kept us busy when we weren't on the road.

One fellow got pretty good at building the racks, to the point where he was building one a day.  Then he got even better and figured out he could build five racks in four days.  At that point, he went to his supervisors and asked if he could have Fridays off if he finished the five racks in four days.  Not believing he could do it, they agreed.

So he did it, at which point management said that if he could finish five racks in four days, why not work on Friday, too, and build a sixth rack.

Last I heard of that story was that he was down to one rack a week...

[jeffhergert]

Psychot

 

 

jeffhergert

I do love my job, most of the time.  But I've come to the conclusion that I don't love the company.

About 19 years ago, I had a chance to go to work for the Iowa Interstate RR.  I didn't, but for a while afterwards I wondered if I made the right decision.  Those feelings faded.  Now I'm again wondering if I made the right decision back then.

Jeff 

 

 

 

 

If you don't mind sharing, what factors caused you to stay with Uncle Pete and not switch over to Iowa Interstate?

 

We were in the process of buying our house in Ogden, IA.  To go to work for the IAIS would've probably required moving.  Their closest terminal was Newton, IA and they gave a 90 minute call to work.  That would've been close timing in good weather.

I had put in applications for them for years before.  Even the first couple years with UP, I kept them current in case I was furloughed.  I was to the point where I was pretty safe from being furloughed, so I hadn't renewed one with them for over a year and a half.  They went through their old applications and had found mine.

Had I gone to them, I would be about at the top of their seniority roster now.  They also moved their terminal out of Newton, IA.  They built a new shop and yard complex between Homestead and South Amana, IA.  The area I'm originally from.  

Jeff