Says my former assistant sitting at her workstation in tears.

Yes, former assistant. I had a deal with her, she could advance up from counting hardware in shipping to moving into the flagship department under my instruction as long as she stayed in college and got her degree. I would advance her through the ranks to a professional position.

Then a position in the company came open for a few dollars an hour more. She had learned just enough to do the job with my instruction continuing for a while. But her newfound windfall chasing a few pennies had her thinking that she had somehow cheated the system of hard work to advance and promptly dropped out of college. Oh how she thought she had bypassed all the hard work and education I had endured to achieve a position of authority.

Now she has been in that support position of my department for several years now with zero advancement and very little supplementary training that she is stagnant.

Yesterday a problem from one of the designers crossed her desk. The designer EXPECTED a professional result within minutes. For me the task was a matter of seconds simple and could return the result almost immediately.

It was like a foreign language to her and the simple task of making the proper adjustments was an impossibility because learning those skills would have taken time she was not willing to sacrifice and effort she felt she was too good for to exert.

So as I told what needed to be done, she just looked up at me and said that she had no idea how to do it.

She said she had been hunting a similar job because they pay so well at other companies, but they ALL required a degree and minimum skills in other software packages that she didn't have.
I said well, yeah. Pay is relative to skill, education and experience.

I told her that she did exactly what my assistant before her did. Got in my department for the bump in pay, learned enough to think they knew it all and they chased the first bump in pay lure that was dangled in front of them.

Now reality is hitting home.

Her mother is an order entry clerk and they had this huge fight this past weekend over her being stagnant because of her poor decision making to be hasty in leaving my department and her low level employment boyfriend. She alone has penalized her success.

The assistant I have now that does have his degree is doing the same. He doesn't want to learn color management and troubleshooting because they won't pay him to learn it first.

He thinks that he is some sort of stock trading financial genius, however he ain't paying his capital gains sitting there day trading on his phone.

NONE of these younger assholes want to put in the time, effort or sacrifice it takes to do this job.

I have workers that LOVE their job in here. They are always happy, motivated and just never complain. However outside these doors is people who don't get the freedoms I give and they know it. All the Vietnamese say I am a very fair supervisor to them.

The executive management has told me many times my training method is very successful and I have been able to take people who don't speak English and train them to do very complicated tasks.
My assistants aren't that smart, their training is just that good. 15 years in education shows.

I feel like I am failing these people by not giving them the hard reality of failure enough.

It's both cultural and generational. The youth today expect instant gratification. Doesn't always work that way, does it?

The company has me train with just enough investment to prevent them from going somewhere else that requires a higher level of training.

Why invest in someone that's going to leave.

When the school system sent me to finish my degree, I had to sign a 5 year agreement to stay there.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
The assistant I have now that does have his degree is doing the same. He doesn't want to learn color management and troubleshooting because they won't pay him to learn it first.

Heh. I had a young man pull something like that line on me, years and years ago.

Him: "I'll do more when they pay me more."
Me: "Doesn't work that way. You get paid more when you demonstrate you can and will do more."

"And it wouldn't hurt to bath regularly, get your hair cut neatly, and dress more neatly, either."

He was quite taken aback by all that, but damned if he didn't take my advice.

He came to me, one day, months later and thanked me for my guidance. He'd worked his way into a supervisory position.

He was wearing a tie

Mine has the instant gratification ambition.

I sit here listening to his stock markers beeping on his phone.

The piper is going to need paying soon and he will wish he had payed more attention to me.

He is not supervisory material.

quote:

Originally posted by Krazeehorse:
It's both cultural and generational. The youth today expect instant gratification. Doesn't always work that way, does it?

It doesn't work that way, and the professional workplace is generally the first time this generation hears as much. It's also the first time many of them learn that "doing their best" is only good enough if their "best" doesn't suck, or that their value to any organization is tied directly to the results they bring and little else.

There are exceptions-- probably many, many exceptions-- but I'm genuinely surprised when I see them.

I've often said that the one job that everyone thinks they'd be good at and almost nobody is, is supervisory positions.

I only had 2 or 3 good supervisors in all my working years. The rest were somewhere between barely adequate and completely incompetent.

I see it with my nieces and nephews.

We were expected to work hard and work our way up and endure a lot of shit jobs along the way but it was all character building and part of the journey.

None of these kids want to do that now. My one nephew must have had 25 jobs already because he just can't stick to any of them more than a month or two. He's early 20's now.

It's bad and going to be bad for the future if this is the generation that is supposed to replace the Gen X and Boomer workers.

Every last one of these nincompoops think my job is just to tell others what to do. They think that getting a position like that will mask their inadequacies.

I stole this today, with atribution.

What a post. I am meeting with a bunch of rooks in a short time. I am going to read it to them and discuss it at length.

I'm thankful that our 4 have a better outlook on careers.

Have both a daughter & a son currently working their way through nursing school / electrical engineering respectively. All of them understand the value of honest effort.

quote:

working their way through nursing school / electrical engineering respectively.

Excellent choices! I wish them well.

Then there's the passive aggressive, malicious compliance attitudes.

An alarm light comes on on one of the machines and they just sit there doing nothing until I see an error message on the RIP. "I don't get paid to do repairs" and "Pay me to learn maintenance". These assholes don't even warn me when their supplies are getting low, so I have to come in an hour early to take inventory every morning.

Heck, I allow overtime. All you can handle.

What does my assistant do? Show up 30 minutes late every morning and take a 30 minute lunch to make up for the missing time.

I already told him to be in by 7:00AM and he can work to 5:30PM every day to make extra money. Nope, he wants the pay for that amount of time in the barely 40 he works now.

When I do contract work for Mimaki, I get paid $750 for the first linearization and color profile, a skill I am an authority on.

I'm trying to GIVE this skill to my assistants for FREE, the keys to my kingdom. They don't want them. Nope. They want to get paid expert wages by the company to learn this.

When I was younger, the older coworkers NEVER tried to teach me, in fact they kept all skills to themselves in a jealous secret. I had to pay for the classes and learn on my own.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
Every last one of these nincompoops think my job is just to tell others what to do. They think that getting a position like that will mask their inadequacies.

I love it when you mention a poor work ethic or lack of urgency to get something done. “Yeah but you get paid the big bucks.” I took one of those types to the side and told them they could make the same and I’d show them what it takes. I wasn’t even through the list of shit I have waiting for me to start the day before they were on the “nope” train.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:

I'm trying to GIVE this skill to my assistants for FREE, the keys to my kingdom. They don't want them. Nope. They want to get paid expert wages by the company to learn this.

Wow.



I've seen many times over the years in the industrial hvac field as machines become more digitized, the younger folks who don't apply themselves - unable to actually troubleshoot.

They walk up to the machine and start checking the display to begin repairs. Don't learn the fundamentals and if a sensor(s) fails - processor won't be providing good readings.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:

quote:

working their way through nursing school / electrical engineering respectively.

Excellent choices! I wish them well.

Bueno, thanks.

I have been away for 8 years. I am not sure what the "quality" of the workforce is , but my employer soured me on EVER working again. They deserve all the problems they can handle.

But does she have a nice ass?

My biggest cuts hair…he’s always bitching. Now he hates hearing their problems Yada yada yada…he works 3 days a week and still manages to make his house payment, eat, and drink. I’ve told him till I’m blue in the face to come into work even if no one is scheduled-get the walk ins!
Nope, too bothered…..hell I’d be there every waking hour with a book in hand. He makes good money and would be making more money than he knew what to do with but he lacks a work ethic. (I blame his mother-he grew up with her and not me)

“All the Vietnamese say I am a very fair supervisor to them.“

I bet that growing up, they didn’t receive a trophy for showing up at school.