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How to turnaround a company and stop mass exodus, or simply how to survive one?

adammil1

Titanium
Joined
Mar 12, 2001
Location
New Haven, CT
I work for a custom machine design/builder who made the unfortunate mistake of simply trying to grow to fast. The work that we do is some of the most fun work I have been involved with in my entire career and as far as I am concerned I would love to work at this company for years to come. The owner of the company put in place a plan to double the business in a short amount of time but as far as I can tell this is the root cause of every other major issue in the company.

The key problem is in our engineering group where we just keep on loosing people. From my perspective it takes a good 1 year for an engineer to come up to speed at our company and maybe another 3-5years till said engineer is really able to lead and run projects on his own. Where I work the engineer is the guy who more or less owns the job from start to finish. He is there when the customer first states the needs of the machine, he see's it though design, then production, then testing and setup at the factory and later goes out, commissions it and teaches the customer how it all works. It is a lot to learn, lot of responsibility, lot of fun but also a lot of stress, which can and does burn out a lot of people especially ones who find themselves in over their heads with no support. A young engineer can come into our company and soon find himself almost solely responsible with minimal oversight for bringing a $2 million piece of machinery to life.

The good news is we are making money and have more work than we can handle but that is also the problem. We took on a few projects one of which that had the effect of burning out a 19 year veteran of the company (my mentor) which appears as though it is propagating down to more and more people who may be on their way out the door. As with each person who has quit the load gets transferred to fewer and fewer people. It is almost like watching a structure fail and pretty soon even the happiest employees such as myself start wondering if it is time to get out.

Anyone ever seen such a phenomenon at a company they worked for? Anyone ever seen something like this get turned around and how does that happen? Any ideas for surviving such turmoil and even being able to help be part of the solution?
 
Anyone ever seen such a phenomenon at a company they worked for? Anyone ever seen something like this get turned around and how does that happen? Any ideas for surviving such turmoil and even being able to help be part of the solution?

Yup. Without too much depressing detail, the outcome was not good. You "work for" the company, you don't own it. Unless the owner is willing to listen - and implement - nothing will change. You may want to hang on, that is your decision, but be prepared for anything. One thing I've learned, you can't change people. No matter what. If he's insistent on something, he'll stick until the auctioneers bang the final gavel on the last sale - and then he'll try blaming someone else.
 
I designed and built automation for years.

There are issues running a company like this. As you stated it is easy to get burned out. Especially if you get a difficult customer. It is difficult to find the right person to run a project. A young engineer may have more energy but will lack the experience as an example.

Things we did (or I saw at other companies) to maintain our sanity.
1. we tried to alternate between small and large projects. We would work on a machine for a year. Then the next couple would be small. Maybe some fixtures, or a single station assembly machine.
2. lose the fear of billing an honest amount. If you cant pay your people enough to keep them involved and go on a good vacation to relax, its not worth the job.
3. A good team. Older willing to mentor, younger wanting to learn.
4. Treat your vendors well. When you get in trouble they are a lot more willing to help, and not by simply writing a larger bill. THis can be as simple as giving them coffee and a donut when they drop of parts.
5. Integrity. No tolerance for an abusive individual. This includes your customers.
6. Customers. Read #5. We "fired" customers if needed. We would finish the contract and cut ties (we didnt actually cut ties, we jacked up the price on future work to the point it was well worth it. We had a customer that was so vicious, so mean, she was simply not worth it. She tried so hard to climb the coroporate ladder and look good. It didnt matter. The company laid off the entire workforce and pulled back to france. She died shortly after.
7. Experience level. Its one thing to push your skill level. Its how you learn. But there is a limit. You cant be afraid to tell the customer you cant do it. We will tell them that both of us are better off if we dont take the job. If we get halfway through and find that we just couldnt figure it out we are both screwed.

This was a hard lesson. We took on a job that was simply too large and too complex. We quoted around $200K. We went broke. Stopped halfway through the job and built a machine for another customer just to fund the first job. Went back to the first machine and did a redesign. Kept working, went broke. Went to the customer and convinced them to cough up another $30K. Completed the machine. At the end we still had a debt load. And over a year late delivering.
 
I work for a custom machine design/builder who made the unfortunate mistake of simply trying to grow to fast. The work that we do is some of the most fun work I have been involved with in my entire career and as far as I am concerned I would love to work at this company for years to come. The owner of the company put in place a plan to double the business in a short amount of time but as far as I can tell this is the root cause of every other major issue in the company.

The key problem is in our engineering group where we just keep on loosing people. From my perspective it takes a good 1 year for an engineer to come up to speed at our company and maybe another 3-5years till said engineer is really able to lead and run projects on his own. Where I work the engineer is the guy who more or less owns the job from start to finish. He is there when the customer first states the needs of the machine, he see's it though design, then production, then testing and setup at the factory and later goes out, commissions it and teaches the customer how it all works. It is a lot to learn, lot of responsibility, lot of fun but also a lot of stress, which can and does burn out a lot of people especially ones who find themselves in over their heads with no support. A young engineer can come into our company and soon find himself almost solely responsible with minimal oversight for bringing a $2 million piece of machinery to life.

The good news is we are making money and have more work than we can handle but that is also the problem. We took on a few projects one of which that had the effect of burning out a 19 year veteran of the company (my mentor) which appears as though it is propagating down to more and more people who may be on their way out the door. As with each person who has quit the load gets transferred to fewer and fewer people. It is almost like watching a structure fail and pretty soon even the happiest employees such as myself start wondering if it is time to get out.

Anyone ever seen such a phenomenon at a company they worked for? Anyone ever seen something like this get turned around and how does that happen? Any ideas for surviving such turmoil and even being able to help be part of the solution?
.
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usually any company that wants to keep employees has to pay enough to make it difficult to leave. and company has to be willing to hire young people with no experience and old people who often are not hired cause they are old.
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i often have gotten raises when too many others have left job to work some where else. most do not stay cause of any other reason but most jobs elsewhere do not pay as much.
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and there must be a type of training for new employees. nobody wants to train people anymore. they want people to pay for there own college training or for some other company to take the time and money to do the training.
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i have seen companies cannot find anybody to fill job at $18/hr. basically if they were offering more money they get more people willing to take the job. other thing is a boss hiring at $28/hr but hires and fires weekly nobody going to risk new job to get fired quickly as it effects their professional reputation when they got to explain they got fired from a job
 
Suppose you get the perfect answer for the problem here
And then ???

Peter

Well it would be nice if someone could at least give an example of what was done where they used to work to instill some hope in me that things can get better.

I kind of have had an interesting situation thrown on myself in that I am now the only guy they really have who is capable right now of getting a particular family of machine built, commissioned and then serviced for our largest customer, there are likely at the least another 5 more of these things on order, plus another $4 million of machinery we have on the floor right now that they would have a difficult time getting out the door if I leave tomorrow. These machines are about 20% of the business and really a cash cow. Not to mention that these machines generate a lot of follow on business for us where I truly am the last man standing who could even stand a chance at servicing that side of the business right now. The only problem I have is it is just too much work for one person and I know I need to start bringing a new guy up to speed.

They have handed me someone who has been with the company now 3yrs which is quite a long time for our place to start training, he has a lot of strengths in areas I am weaker at like project management and diplomacy. I want to see this be successful more than anything. I really like working with this guy, but his attitude about the whole situation has me afraid that he is going to leave which has me thinking that I may just need to toss in the towel and leave myself. This of course doesn't instill any confidence in him to want to invest in learning from me. I am also concerned if things get any worse elsewhere a bigger fire may break where he will be pulled away from me training him and I will be left on my own. That too makes it difficult to really transfer work over to him.

It almost seems like a discussion is needed with the owner to develop a plan to overcome these concerns and give us both hope things will get better. On the other hand per Douglas' comments if the owner didn't listen to my mentor with 19yrs at the company I am not sure there really is much of a point in saying anything unless he actually comes to me seeking out my advice.
 
Unless the owner(s) want to make changes it won't happen. I guess you could have a heart to heart talk with them but unless you have full grasp of the problem and a detailed plan on how to fix it then it will fall on deaf ears. Also, there may be things that you are not seeing that only the owners know about.
 
Burnout is never about pay. Burnout is always about tasking or work environment. Either people are given too much to do, too much to think about, too little to do, or too little to think about. Any combination of those will burn someone out eventually.

So will a toxic work environment, abusive managers or coworkers that are allowed to flourish or unrealistic timelines.

But pay won't help. It might keep butts in seats, but it will be more and more worn down butts.

Having two projects to work on simultaneously is bad from an efficiency standpoint, but it is great for burnout, especially if they aren't similar. Then if you can't handle working on one thing for one more day right now, you work on the other.
 
In Erie, we have 4 industries that I know of that are a result of someone quitting, and starting
off on their own, and sometimes taking several
key people with them:

1. High pressure (started with Autoclave engineers),
Hi-pressure, buetec, hydro pac, Maxpro, etc.
2. Automated assembly (started with Swanson Erie)
Automated devices, a couple more that I cant recall,
but rive by them daily.
3. Plastic molding and mold design/build. Can't recall the
Pioneering company, but there are many plastic shops
around here, along with mold making shops.
4. Electronic components and board assembly (started with
Erie resistor & stackpole nearby) and now (although
some places have moved overseas) Bliley electric, Sunburst
electronics, etc.

Which means this happens allot.
 
Well it would be nice if someone could at least give an example of what was done where they used to work to instill some hope in me that things can get better.

I kind of have had an interesting situation thrown on myself in that I am now the only guy they really have who is capable right now of getting a particular family of machine built, commissioned and then serviced for our largest customer, there are likely at the least another 5 more of these things on order, plus another $4 million of machinery we have on the floor right now that they would have a difficult time getting out the door if I leave tomorrow. These machines are about 20% of the business and really a cash cow. Not to mention that these machines generate a lot of follow on business for us where I truly am the last man standing who could even stand a chance at servicing that side of the business right now. The only problem I have is it is just too much work for one person and I know I need to start bringing a new guy up to speed.

They have handed me someone who has been with the company now 3yrs which is quite a long time for our place to start training, he has a lot of strengths in areas I am weaker at like project management and diplomacy. I want to see this be successful more than anything. I really like working with this guy, but his attitude about the whole situation has me afraid that he is going to leave which has me thinking that I may just need to toss in the towel and leave myself. This of course doesn't instill any confidence in him to want to invest in learning from me. I am also concerned if things get any worse elsewhere a bigger fire may break where he will be pulled away from me training him and I will be left on my own. That too makes it difficult to really transfer work over to him.

It almost seems like a discussion is needed with the owner to develop a plan to overcome these concerns and give us both hope things will get better. On the other hand per Douglas' comments if the owner didn't listen to my mentor with 19yrs at the company I am not sure there really is much of a point in saying anything unless he actually comes to me seeking out my advice.

You've answered your own question. HEAR the answer.
I get the impression that, according to you, your job is your life.
It should not be.
In the past, maybe still, you love the challenge, the learning and the accomplishment.
You think you're well paid but it's not WHY you go to work.
WRONG.
When you're vested in the retirement plan, other life factors make starting fresh, somewhere else, seem unattractive and the work environment continues to degrade (fun is harder and harder to find), eventually you'll learn that you're actually working for the paycheck. You'll know you're there when the paycheck is the most important reason you can think of for going in that day.

Be certain that your real life is away from work and work is what you do to afford your life.

Very late in my career, I was a Unit Engineer in a meeting with peers, the Project Engineer and chaired by the Project Manager.
The Project Manager was talking about "commitment" to the project. The PE questioned what the PM meant by "commitment" and offered an analogy of making a "ham and egg sandwich". The PE said that the chicken was committed and provided her part but the pig's commitment was much more significant.
Get it?
The career of a well kept, free range chicken isn't so bad (as chicken's lives go).
The career path of the pig isn't so attractive (no matter how much you enjoy ham/bacon).

It's not your company. I didn't catch that you're even a member of the Management team.
The owner(s) get to destroy it if they must.
Remember what happened to your mentor.

Make you contribution, if you must stay, but focus on your actual life away from work.

It's my experience that the boss will load on you whatever responsibility you will attempt to carry. If you die trying, they will attend your memorial service, maybe. When you succeed, the rewards will not be in proper proportion to the effort. The half life of an ATTABOY is about a New York minute.

Focus on your real life, away from work.

Sorry if I've been verbose.
 
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Adam,

If you are in a position where being terminated instantly or you giving proper notice of leaving would not wreck your life, keep training your guy and act as though everything will be OK. I am assuming you are paid on time and the checks are good.

Decide if you are being adequately compensated for what you are doing. If salary, how much free overtime are you giving? Working too long at a stretch makes for bad quality.

If the owners are asking more than is physically or mentally doable, tell them I can't do it. If they tell you if you can't do it we'll get someone who can, give notice. You will probably be led to your desk and your personal things put in a box, and led to the door. Your last check will hopefully come in the mail.

If you have a house with a big mortgage, pregnant wife, 2 year old kid at home, and $500 in savings; get your resume polished up and look for work. NOW!

It is possible you could come to work one Monday morning and find the place padlocked and a BUSINESS CLOSED sign on the door.

Maybe the company is so overextended the banks and creditors got the court to shut them down.

Or in Wednesday's paper you may read the owners have been arrested and are out on bail for this or that.

Look out after your own butt. Owners & and management in deep shit do not have your welfare at the top of their concerns.

Those are my thoughts. I hope the situation works to your advantage.

Paul
 
Extropic, a lot of what you say rings true in my experience. I'm curious why most bosses end up leaning that way and don't realize the business cost incurred by not trying to do a reasonable job of retaining skilled workers. Lazy? Can't understand how everyone doesn't think like they do?
 
I am sort of in the same boat, my company has been growing with massive work coming in and my boss is a mad man. he is the a big time micro manager and thinks he can remember every part umber and job order in his head. he is making mistakes, late on orders and has a group of workers who hardly have any skills to work on their own. I have been planning my escape for a long time and I know it is hard because you care too much, like I do. You are hoping that one day your boss comes in and he is a new changed person. not going to happen! I suggest you learn everything you possibly can to make your resume as good as possible and find your self a normal company. He made the mistake not you. If he doesn't want to hire extra help to help him manage this new found work he is simply being GREEDY!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Good replies in this thread.

One thing that sticks out in my mind is that you say that the owner decided to double the business volume. That does not seem like a healthy long term goal.

Why I say this is that it sounds like the owner has been around for a while. A more normal long term plan would be to strategically layout a plan to grow a business over a period of time, laying out company resources, cash, people, floor space, etc.

To me this sounds like a business owner with a very short term business plan. Double the volume and the owner has basically doubled the business value. This is a good plan only if you are positioning for a near term sale.

It is one thing to take on a lot of work because of a short term business opportunity which the business and resources can likely survive for a limited duration but it is quite another thing to do this for an extended period.

Most business bankruptcies occur during record volume business years. It is easy to increase volume, it is quite another challenge to increase total profits during this time. The increased short term cash volume often masks serious long term profitability issues. The trouble is that the reduced profitability will manifest itself just as a major economic downturn occurs.

I also sense from your post is that you get a "thrill" out of managing a 2 million dollar project. This response bothers me to a degree in that the challenge of a project value would be way down the list of personal satisfaction items of executing a particular project. The challenge and satisfaction of the technology and innovation would be more likely near the top of the list. Dollar size should be a sobering item in that if things don't go right, it will kill us.

I raise this issues because I think you are on the young side, filled with ambition, and a little short on real life experience. Extropic made a good point of balance in personal life. His comments need to be taken to heart.

There is an old dairy farmer joke that goes "How do you tell the difference between an old dairy farmer and a young dairy farmer?" Answer,"The young dairy farmer brags about how many cows he owns and the old dairy farmer talks about how many cows own him." It is a subtle difference but a major difference in how you live your life. Jobs and things have a tendency to enslave us unless we keep them in proper perspective.

Only you can decide what you need to do but I think you need to decide what you really want out of life. Your current job seems to be on a path that is requiring more and more of its employees and multiple long timers are leaving. I do not think this will end well for you. At some point you will have an event in your life that will cause you to re-evaluate your life. I have yet to meet a person that said he wished he spent more at his job in their twilight years.

Polish your resume and start looking for a better opportunity.
 
Was employment like this that convinced me self employment was not that much of a risk.

1. When your responsible for the job,
2. When management no longer grasps half the technical issues in the project,
3. When your going to be fired if it does not work,
4. When management no longer realise employee skill is of any benefit to them, as they can in there eyes "train anyone"
5. When your dealing directly with customers from the start to end of the project,
6. When your live evolves around the projects not your life any more,

There comes a point were you need to ask your self why are you sharing the profits with your current employer!!! If all the shit is going to fall on your shoulders some times its easier to do it on your own and lose the middle man.

Im currently mid way through a custom machine build for a customer, its one of the first "commissions" i have taken in several years, its strictly on the agreement that whilst i won't drag my feet that i do get to set my own time scales! high intensity projects do tend to burn you out, its a regrettable nature of the beast. The stress your feeling will be affecting your health. Like you i like the buzz, the challenge. Unlike you i have learnt its only a job and to a degree is only worth so much too me. Im done living my life under others time lines sounds like the same can be said for most of your ex co-workers, your boss burnt them out and never gave them a chance to recover.
 
Unfortunately it's human nature, we're brought up to please others, and by pleasing others the more we get on etc etc etc ...... only with some bosses and organisations the more a person is willing to do - the more they get piled on them AKA exploitationand the result is burnout ;- BTDT had the breakdown (not recommended!) had the therapy (like open heart surgery without an anesthetic!) got the tee shirt and carry the scars.

The only answer is to learn the word NO, ......it's not easy, but has to be learnt, ........and only then can you run the job instead of it running you.

As far as the OP goes, I'd also be wary of a company being built up to either be sold off / taken over hostilely, or being skimmed for every penny then dumped in to insolvency - with the owners walking away with the $$$$$$$$$ - if the owners lack the morals and have the know how it can be done .........and definitely happens.

Either way the result is you get shafted.

Do it's back to looking after #1, and if for whatever reason it doesn't suit, time forYOU to seek pastures new.
 
i had a company lay everybody off and everybody who wanted a job had to reapply. and nobody was guaranteed a job and especially the same job at same pay rate
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being unemployed over a month when over 50 years old you also learn that often 90% of job applications are not even replied to when they see on resume your approximate age. job appreciation really changes when unemployed over a month or even for over a year.
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and when apply for jobs and going to job interviews and not getting the job cause 50 others applied for the same job again it changes ones attitude about a job. and when job experienced and loosing job to kid just out of school it again effects ones attitude about job
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i have know people with college degrees couldnt even hold a job at a burger place. they did not discriminate but it didnt take long to find something to justify laying a person off and not finishing even one week on job. theres a reason people often retire early and often it is not their preferred choice
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you can easily see postings about a boss laying somebody off in less than a week cause they were too slow (cautious) or too fast (made mistakes) or really did nothing wrong but boss was in a bad mood that week. try getting another job after getting fired at a new job and trying to explain getting fired from a job. i have even seen a person get laid off job cause the boss wanted them to do a impossible task. and boss was willing to hire and fire others to see if anybody else could do the impossible task. it can take a person years to recover from getting fired from a job. again it effects job appreciation having a job after being laid off a previous job
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maybe thats why the company laid everybody off and everybody had to reapply for jobs. the ones left after reapplying for jobs were the ones that wanted to stay. talk about a company wide attitude adjustment
 
"How to turn around a company you do not own, nor even steer"

Simple:
Quietly get with other co-workers that you feel are "assets"
and ask for their help, amass as much credit as you can get with local
banks, etc.

Go to the bankruptcy auction, buy what you can.
 








 
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