Hey Guys,
I've been drowning in some issues as of a late in our shop and at the point to where I'm just not seeing a way out. I need some perspective here....
We are small job shop, have 11 employees and have occasional production runs that typically last for a 4 month period where we will run a double shift with limitless overtime (we are about to embark on that in the upcoming months)
I'm struggling here every turn I take whether it's with customer, vendors, employees etc... but mainly want to focus on the employee aspect of things for this post. I read it everywhere on this forum about lack of skilled labor and a shortage of machinist available, but in this scenario just getting people to show up and perform a task or two has turned into a mere impossibility. Oh man can they complain... "that's too heavy, that's hard, Deburr and run my machine?! Run two machines?!!!" Then of course pay... there isn't enough room in this post to get into all the conversations had regarding this with them but to sum it up they do 3/4 of a halved ass job but expect 2X as much because their buddy Joe Shmoe is making whatever elsewhere.
...taking a deep breath (I'm not an a-hole and am normally very calm and honest with them)
I'm more then willing to admit that a lot of our issues stem from the top down but I'm in belief that even if we were to change our ways as a business that the people we have now wouldn't be as willing to change theirs. I've stopped any training, as it is eating my time and yielding no results. The owner is in limbo on whether to just cut ties with this crew and start fresh or invest more time into getting these guys to where we need them.
What's the solution in this industry? employees want more for less while customers want the same damn thing... getting it from both ends it seems. Anyone else been here? What do you do? I'm trying to convince the owner to invest in labor not more machines to sit idle.
p.s. We are located in the Bay Area if it affects anything.
I've been drowning in some issues as of a late in our shop and at the point to where I'm just not seeing a way out. I need some perspective here....
We are small job shop, have 11 employees and have occasional production runs that typically last for a 4 month period where we will run a double shift with limitless overtime (we are about to embark on that in the upcoming months)
I'm struggling here every turn I take whether it's with customer, vendors, employees etc... but mainly want to focus on the employee aspect of things for this post. I read it everywhere on this forum about lack of skilled labor and a shortage of machinist available, but in this scenario just getting people to show up and perform a task or two has turned into a mere impossibility. Oh man can they complain... "that's too heavy, that's hard, Deburr and run my machine?! Run two machines?!!!" Then of course pay... there isn't enough room in this post to get into all the conversations had regarding this with them but to sum it up they do 3/4 of a halved ass job but expect 2X as much because their buddy Joe Shmoe is making whatever elsewhere.
...taking a deep breath (I'm not an a-hole and am normally very calm and honest with them)
I'm more then willing to admit that a lot of our issues stem from the top down but I'm in belief that even if we were to change our ways as a business that the people we have now wouldn't be as willing to change theirs. I've stopped any training, as it is eating my time and yielding no results. The owner is in limbo on whether to just cut ties with this crew and start fresh or invest more time into getting these guys to where we need them.
What's the solution in this industry? employees want more for less while customers want the same damn thing... getting it from both ends it seems. Anyone else been here? What do you do? I'm trying to convince the owner to invest in labor not more machines to sit idle.
p.s. We are located in the Bay Area if it affects anything.