One of my friends is considering going into a more blue collar industry.

It’s a cultural change for him.

I’m trying to think of how to explain the following:

When “Junior/Idiot” makes a shit sandwich, particularly if you want to keep “Junior/Idiot” around, Boss has to take a meaningful bite, when it comes time to fix it.

Boss doesn’t have to be there for the whole thing, and Foreman will probably run him off for slowing things up, but Boss should work with Junior/Idiot, who will have the worst role, while fixing it.

In the blue collar field.

The business is only as strong as its weakest employee.

I’m trying to understand the question Ag but I don’t have a clue. Try rewording that.

Yeah, not understanding the question either. If we’re talking nepotism and junior/idiot is the bosses offspring, what I’ve work best is that boss stays out of the entirely. Introduce junior to immediate supervisor, explain that he or she is who junior works for, then get out of the way. Make clear to supervisor (privately) that you’d like to see junior succeed, but not at the expense of the company. Help him, counsel him, teach him, but work him like a rented mule. I want him to become an asset to the company, and to himself.

If I’ve totally misunderstood the question, sorry.

I have worked blue collar jobs. You can be very direct and generally profanity is acceptable. It is important,however to be nice. Throwing tools and threatening others is unacceptable. Hitting the local tavern after work is generally expected.
Mike Rowe probably covers this topic much better than me.

Sorry for the lack of clarity. I should have said “New Guy” instead of “Junior”.

Sometimes, in blue collar work, everything goes to pot, and it’s going to take very unpleasant work to get it right - climbing inside 210 gallon vat of scrambled eggs in my case.

(New Guy, a great young engineering student, decided to improve the efficiency of an air heater. Things snowballed, and we ended up with 1800# of hard cooked scrambled eggs in a vat...

In his defense, I think he asked his idiot of a boss (me) about it, first. I know I decided he “must have” later. He really was a great kid.)

So, New Guy was the one we made climb into the vat. I was up the ladder with him, until we got a process/got the crew’s attitude sorted, and got everyone OK with the young guy & that we were all getting covered in eggs that day.

I’m trying to think of a concise way of explaining to him, that when something like that happens with his new role, he has to leave the office, and go get covered in muck like everyone else.

(As an FYI, 1800# of scrambled eggs in a vat has quite a pungent odor…. New Guy’s name was “Eggy” for a bit…)

I have been in situations that parallel.

I tell everyone to take a moment to chill and focus on fixing the problem, and the person (if new/junior whatever) responsible is going to take the lead in un-fucking the situation (with proper leading and assistance), but they need to redeem themselves by taking the heat.

Almost always, the "old heads" will find themselves helong the youngling work through things and the whole becomes more unified.

Kicking a young pup to the side, putting the "best" on the fixing of the problem, often leads to an opposite effect, where the nasty attitudes become a long running thing, and animosity towards the leadership for permitting it to occur, and the "old guard" feeling forced to clean up the "new guy's fuck up" and the "leaderships failure".

Real and effective "team building" occurs in the suck, not at some overpriced resort setting that costs too much, gives back so little and at best results in silly mission statements and useless overused phrases.

Hoping I understand the query.

You do - and I agree absolutely with putting Lead and New Guy at the point of maximum suck (provided it’s a situation both can deal with, safely.)

Thank you. That will go over better than my “when someone makes a shit sandwich, you have to take a bite” attempt.

"If you were perfect, you'd be hanging from a cross when you (were / will be) about 33 years old.

Since you are not perfect, and no died or had red stuff coming out of their body, lets fix this and see what we can learn."

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
You do - and I agree absolutely with putting Lead and New Guy at the point of maximum suck (provided it’s a situation both can deal with, safely.)

Thank you. That will go over better than my “when someone makes a shit sandwich, you have to take a bite” attempt.

I actually did such things, and to the chagrin of many that thought I was as wrong as the day was long, (military), who never seemed to forget, nor forgive my hubris, realized as proper confidence.

But many years later, the very people that were in those situations, told me that the impact to them, and their outlook, as well as how they looked at things going forward in their individual careers, redeemed my concerns when I was not 100% sure it was the best.

And all of that, between one on one recollections.

The "settling" after many years, is something one does not take for granted.

Know your heart, and listen...