I mean Jeez, after 40 years at the place I've broken in new bosses before. It wasn't pretty but everyone survived. I've been working with "Bob" for about 6 months. My 5 other co workers agree that giving Bob any authority would be a bad idea and voiced our concerns to management. The guy throws serious red flags for problems to come. It's going to happen anyway in a few months.

I've worked 2nd shift most of my life because it seems to agree with me. When I heard Bob was the man I marched into the office and said I'd be bumping day shift when this happened until I could find something in another department on nights. The boss lost it and hollered I have to give the guy a chance. Sorry...no I really don't. Been down this road before. Don't need the excitement. My bumping to days could cause a cascade effect of newer guys going to second shift and most likely quitting. Boss probably thinks I'm just trying to throw my weight around. I will probably have to explain this to him and his superior some time this week. I really don't care who you put in charge, not interested in breaking in a new boss. Get the kinks ironed out, I'll be around. Surely don't really want to work days but who knows, I might like it.

Nothing wrong with that as far as I'm concerned. Some people are just toxic assholes.

I have been working and earning money since 1970.
And always "mastered" the positions I was either employed in, or occupied as the proprietor.

And with few exceptions, I have found a great many "bosses" have far less experience or dedication to excellence.

Nothing more un-fulfilling that to suffer someone in a "Peter Principle" role.

Worse is becoming what it takes to rise above such people.

The cure is often worse than the illness.

After 40 years at the same place, can't you just retire?

I was forced into that at my last job, except I hadn't been there anywhere near that long. A new supervisor was not very bright, no real knowledge of the product, zero management experience, and not the first choice of the department head -- who was also a POS. I didn't want to leave, but there was effectively no choice.

Can't retire yet, I just turned 60, but the boss says I can go home at lunch time on the day of my funeral. Our oldest employee is 84 this year and can work me into the ground.

If you're familiar with the artist "Beck" and his song "Soul Suckin' Jerk", that's kinda' where my thought's are on this.

I dunno, when I had a job (before my own business) > my philosophy was always to make my boss look good!
It always got me promoted faster and it was just good politics.
As long as everyone was on the same page for company goals I never tried to undermine any supervisor regardless of my ability vs theirs.
YMMV

After 40 years I'd be asking myself why I'm not the boss.

I moved to another job due to a new boss. I had put in for the same position. Either he gave better answers or it was because his dad was a boss elsewhere in the company. He became my boss, but I had to train him on most of the equipment in the department. He had no clue. Arrogant, pompous ass he was and I got the shits of it. Bid on and transferred to another department.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
After 40 years I'd be asking myself why I'm not the boss.

He may be in a sort of situation like I find myself.

I fly planes, I love flying planes even when I hate flying planes.

If I started a climb up the corporate ladder, which I could, I would no longer fly planes, I would fly a desk where I would dream about flying planes. And that would just suck.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
After 40 years I'd be asking myself why I'm not the boss.

After 13 years I’m not a manager or higher because I’ve seen what they deal with and the hours they work vs the pay. Nope. No fucking way I’m doing that. My job for the most part has been fine and I’m good with my position.

quote:

Originally posted by duke762:
Can't retire yet, I just turned 60, but the boss says I can go home at lunch time on the day of my funeral. Our oldest employee is 84 this year and can work me into the ground...

Don't put loyalty to this company above loyalty to yourself, or that day may come sooner than you think.

They can, and will, fire you any time they feel like it, don't forget.

I get it, 40 years at the same job. In fact, I'm envious that you found such a good match at an early age. If you're unwilling to consider retirement or move on to a different company, your only choice will be to make peace with the powers that be, and soon, before you become the problem rather than your new boss.

Sorry I sound a bit harsh, but I've been in your position a couple times myself.

I was sorta in this position at one time. I didn’t at that time have the service edge that you have, but I found doing everything ‘by-the-book’ is a pretty powerful tool to ‘break-in’ the new boss who has no clue. It’s not always the best course, but management has little to no recourse if you play strictly by their rules and force them into a position to do the same. I was asked by the manager’s manager to stop it. My response was when you get rid of Bob as he has no clue about what to do and is dangerous to the business. Eventually they did, but it does take time and is annoying to everyone.

quote:

Originally posted by Otto Pilot:

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
After 40 years I'd be asking myself why I'm not the boss.

He may be in a sort of situation like I find myself.

I fly planes, I love flying planes even when I hate flying planes.

If I started a climb up the corporate ladder, which I could, I would no longer fly planes, I would fly a desk where I would dream about flying planes. And that would just suck.

Not everyone wants to be Chief. Every Chief needs good Braves. Great Braves make good Chiefs look great.

Well you went to your boss and gave him an ultimatum so you kind of are throwing your weight around. (Not saying that you shouldn’t)

Your boss is wrong about needing to give the guy a chance. After working with him for 6 months you probably know all you need to know about him. That your 5 coworkers all agree about this is what we call a clue, your boss should get one.

quote:

Originally posted by craigcpa:

quote:

Originally posted by Otto Pilot:

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
After 40 years I'd be asking myself why I'm not the boss.

He may be in a sort of situation like I find myself.

I fly planes, I love flying planes even when I hate flying planes.

If I started a climb up the corporate ladder, which I could, I would no longer fly planes, I would fly a desk where I would dream about flying planes. And that would just suck.

Not everyone wants to be Chief. Every Chief needs good Braves. Great Braves make good Chiefs look great.

And sometimes Great Braves run out of patience with working for blithering idiots.

When I’d had my fill and transferred, the bosses boss called me in and asked me why. I gave him vanilla reasons, then when he pressed I laid it out for him. He did nothing until six months later when five of the six remaining people came to him asking for transfers the same day. He asked them to give him a week and said he’d talk to the guy. After a few days the guy decided to “Resign to pursue other opportunities.”

Maybe your moving to day shift will be enough, maybe several others will have to do the same.

You may have worked there long enough to be able to get away with ultimatums, but is it the best route to go?

From my perspective, doing this before the guy is even in the position puts you in the spotlight. As was pointed out in the thread, they can and will fire you in a heartbeat if necessary...and if they think the "Braves" are all grumbling and causing issues with the new "Chief" and that you're the instigator...well, I don't know the company but I know in my line of work, right or wrong, it's usually the Brave that goes.

If you moving shifts will cause a cascade effect, it's going to make life much, much more difficult for the bosses. If they are, or feel they are, in a position where if you do that then they're going to have to deal with it, there goes any slack or good will you may have had, and again might put you in a negative spotlight.

Just my 0.02 from the outside with no actual knowledge of you, your job, or the other individuals involved.

Dealing with it too. Hasn’t happened yet but there is a guy getting promoted and if he ends up as my boss I’m out. Some just aren’t meant to manage.

I meant to include this is my original post:

A couple months ago, I promoted a new shift supervisor. Many of the people she had worked with, but now supervised, were unhappy. They wouldn't come to me, but instead griped to each other and the staff on other shifts about how unqualified she was, how one of them should have gotten the position, etc etc. Two talked about quitting.

I made it her first test to correct their behavior as it was insubordination, and couldn't be happening on the clock and at our place of business.

Ended up going very well. She's a no-nonsense, heavy-handed type with lots of supervisor experience in a couple companies, which is why I promoted her. She made the others very aware of her qualifications, and they immediately backed off and apologized. Since then, the working dynamic between all of them has been exemplary.

Sometimes, NOT ALWAYS, but sometimes, there is more to a promotion than you may know. Sometimes they are actually suited to it.


...others, they're blithering idiots and you're doomed. You know, roll the dice.

I hope it works out for you! I have always had the failing where I place 'the company' above myself. It's been pointed out to me many times. To me, saying "screw you, I'm out" and screwing over a ton of people is almost beyond comprehension. (it's been done to me several times by people at my site now, so I've learned to live with it as a reality of business and life).

It's a bad habit, but very hard to break.

I'm 28, so I expect that even by the time I'm 38 my perceptions will have changed dramatically...it makes topics like this really interesting/fun for me to read. My knee-jerk reaction honestly was "wow, what a jack-ass, holding a place over the barrel for something like this" but as I'm reading and re-reading replies and actually thinking about it, I'm realizing it's my age and lack of experience that's typically coloring my opinions of it.

You've been there 40 years. Either you're not the boss because of your reasons, or you're not the boss because of their reasons.

If you've been offered the promotion but turned it down, in my opinion, you have no room to complain. In this case, you've put the company in a position to promote the less than ideal candidate for your own personal reasons. There's nothing wrong with that per se but you don't have room to complain about who they do hire and it's a pretty bold move to go over your new boss' head to complain about him. Now you're putting that guy in a tough spot as well. Look at it from his side, his most experienced guy is telling him, he'd rather move along than try to make things work. And you apparently don't care what your influence will do to the rest of the team or to the output of whatever it is you do/make.

If you've not been offered the promotion (whether you want it or not) then you should take an introspective look into why this is the case. You obviously have a good rapport with your teammates and they take you very seriously, even in so much as they are willing to follow you based on your opinion of Bob. Those are qualities of a good leader. Why aren't you asking for Bob's job?

You've been with this company for 40 years. They've shown a lot of loyalty to you and apparently you've been happy with the pay, hours, and people otherwise you'd have been long gone by now. Maybe now's a good time to use your influence to help make Bob successful instead of figuring out how to ensure his failure. I'm certain Bob doesn't want to fail and I'd bet he'd love the help of a guy with 40 years experience.

sorry, gotta take a contrary position - since you asked for opinions. Mind you I'm focused on this comment in the OP: "I really don't care who you put in charge, not interested in breaking in a new boss."

People change jobs so it would seem that you'll have a new boss from time to time. If you plan to work a while longer, you might have one or two more.

As you talk with hire ups, you'll probably only make yourself look bad if you say you don't want a new boss.

You might get a more positive reaction if you say you'd wanted to change shifts and realize the timing of the request looks bad but you'd appreciate if they can accommodate the change.