Just heard from some former employees of mine that has caused the unwarranted but perhaps worth discussing angst on my part. Ever buy an eighty thousand dollar auto reclaim unit but cant buy the chemicals due to bankruptcy? Ever get into high density/lenticular printing without costing it out and price accordingly? Ever waiting to your compressor completely dies and have to rent an outside gas one? Ever acquire a company that while having a book of business, loses money? Ever thought of moving ink inventory to an upstairs out of access area? Ever bought a larger/over engineered piece of equipment? Ever take on low minimum business with no or slim margin and then have to reburn a screen and actually lose money?
Obviously I need a nap but share if you like. Believe it or not these and other stories can be positively helpful
Two of my worst experiences:
SHOP 1
I've had a business owner lure me away from M&R to come work for them. M&R was a good job and no complaints there. The Travel was killing me and hard on the family.
This shop was pretty local to my home at the time and offered better pay, benefits and what seemed to be my dream job.
The need was for someone to come in and make changes to improve quality and production first and foremost and to take over the art department from a person that was stepping back to work from home as an artist and be more there for family. That said, the position was for Plant Mgr. Being over production, screen room and art department
Once hired, on day two, that changed to "Manager" and told to avoid going out into production so that it doesn't sound offensive to production, On day 3, that title then changed to Art department Manager.
The owner said those other titles sounded too threatening to production to appease the Prod Mgr. and 2nd shift Mgr, and they were told that I would have no authority over what they do or how they operate...but the owner still wanted me to make these changes. During the few management meetings I was able to attend, the other management team would shoot down your (common quality control proposals) and have prod. Mgr's and screen room Mgr push back on all suggestions presented...Then fire you on day 5 so that the production Mgr and 2nd shift Mrg doesn't get offended? Yea, there's that.
This was a shop where you had to lower your head as you walked in the dark production area so that you did not get your hair stuck in the overspray cob webs hanging 4' down form the ceilings...and the (one washout booth) cave area where they did both wash out and reclaim was covered with stalagmite looking mounds of washout booth crap hanging from ceiling that dropped and piled up from the floor (not kidding). The light in the washout booth was barely visible. The crap was caked on so much that it looked like the booth was made of stone. The presses were covered with mossy looking overspray and lint. The floors under the presses were the same...and all day, they would set each of the previous job screens with ink still in them...stacked down under the presses in that muck with no cardboard on floors, only to take the screens back to the screen room at end of day. The ink area, OMG. Just OMG. It was a consultants dream. It was a place where one would be able to make major improvements in a short time...yet they didn't want it. As more of a personal ick to me, outside the employee entry doors, the ground and parking lot was covered in a sea of white and brown. Cigarette butts all over...and I mean so much so that it was blocking out the view of any grass and gravel in the lot. No cigarette butt catchers or buckets for them to put them in. That's just for starters.A 2ND SHOP
Ever work for a company that hires you specifically because of your type of separation skills but nobody is there to run the shop? Never hires one sales person, Has a manager that only there 1/3rd of the time....and knows nothing about the apparel business or manufacturing yet despite that, you are bringing in new sales and contract customers and you increase business by triple?
Then you come to the realizations that the owner is only using the shop as a money laundering place...and doesn't want the shop to profit? Then you reach a point once you have that new business, but the Mgr quits, and the owner doesn't give you access to buy the blanks for the orders when you get them even AFTER the customer has paid in full in advance? I'm just an artist and a Operations Mgr is hired to run the place...but he's not given any access to credit cards or pay invoices and someone from the outside (another business the owner owns) and is to cover financials. That doesn't happen efficiently and now the owner gives "said ownership" (to his girlfriend) and she takes weeks and even months to pay for anything. Supply invoices or even blanks for orders that have been paid for in advance. So the newer Operations Mgr quits...and I'm now running the entire shop for about another 6 months and then I quite.
Ever work for a company that buys a new 18 clr press and dryer, puts it in another location 10 miles away to let it set there (for four years) and has only let you in to use it 2 times....while the mice build nest to live inside and crap and piss all over the main boards/hardware and chew up the wiring that cost 10k to repair? And once repaired, still doesn't let you use it?
Ever work for an owner that creates made up issues only to cause grief amongst the staff for his entertainment? Ever have an owner that says things and claims he never did? (Well, that one maybe a lot of you have seen). This guy was a criminal, a narcissist, a liar, and I was stuck staying as long as I did due to location circumstances. Then, I realized I could work remotely and took the first job available that happened to be a good one for a while.
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