garyhlucas
Stainless
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2013
- Location
- New Jersey
I’ve posted before about arguing with one person, the shop manager that I hired and have wanted to fire for almost two years. A management reorganization put him out of my reach. Last week he caught me off guard.
I was out at a jobsite where we often work from 7 am to 10 pm or so and I got a text from one of our young engineers that some valve flappers had come in for a couple of customers having trouble with a pump that the manufacturer made a design change that doesn’t work well. Two weeks early I looked at the problem and came up with a solution of grinding away the rubber on the bench grinder, which the shop manager saw me do.
So I wrote a text explaining what I needed done and sent it to the young engineer, along with photos and who they should be shipped to. My coworker says to me “You are going to get pushback from the shop on that. He saw me doing it for the other job and told me I would get in trouble for it”. So in a moment of weakness I included the shop manager on the text. One minute later he pushed back saying the manufacturer had already molded a slot in the flapper. I responded “Yes I know, that doesn’t work either. Please just do what I asked.
One minute later he copies ONLY my response to me, the young engineer, the head of engineering, and my boss the owner! 4 minutes goes by and my boss texts to the five of us “We really have a problem with Gary’s attitude!” No phone call asking what the problem is, and no mention of the photos and polite instructions and who they were for.
Yes, I totally lost it and gave my boss a reaming about the “Whiney Ass Kisser” he was defending.
Last week I was in the shop and used the band saw, the guy gave me grief for coolant on the floor. I investigated and found HE drilled hole in the tank for a pipe and didn’t install a fitting!
A short time before he buggered up a 1/4-20 thread on the mint SB Heavy 10 and said the lathe couldn’t make that thread! I went out with him saw the compound set wrong, and he engaged the halfnut at the wrong time. I cut a perfect thread. I needed a second one a week later. 5 year apprenticeship and 30 years experience and he buggered that one up too. I had to fix it at a jobsite.
He made a tap guide fixture that was out of plumb by at least 5 degrees and wobbled too.
Got the shop Snap Jaws because they constantly change soft jaws. He wouldn’t even try them. Said they were dangerous to use because they didn’t work with the vise lifting fixture. He was right because he drilled the bolt hole spacing wrong on the fixture!
He did some plastic pipe welding which we do a lot of, it was awful. He welded some aluminum, it was awful even after he brought in a paid teacher on company time to teach only him. I had repeatedly suggest he get someone else to do it, and we couldn’t send customers his work.
He cut fittings into plastic tanks and wouldn’t listen to me on how to do it even though I’ve done dozens. I spent the weekend at midnight repairing his shoddy work.
The tool boxes have wrench organizers, every wrench in a loose pile, he says ‘people’ don’t put things back, him and 2 others.
Another really good mechanic quit after two weeks working with him. Another good one quit two weeks later because he couldn’t stand him.
His son worked for us one summer and I saw him as a slacker working in the shop with his dad. My boss hired him as an engineer anyway. The kid was then working under me and absolutely hitting it out of the park! I sat him down to find out how I could be so wrong. His dad is an extreme micromanager!
See a pattern here? You guys warned me, and I was in fact being very careful not complaining to the boss about the guy with brown lips. It wasn’t enough.
The next couple of months should be interesting at the company. They have 4 jobs in startup right now. One is 100 miles away, one 180 miles, one 20 miles and one 3000 miles. They fired the main guy doing the startups, one of two. One has leaks everywhere, one has a tank too big to fit in the building, one is way behind and has a 2700 a day penalty clause. Three jobs already running are having problems.
I am under no illusion that my two replacements will not let the company fail. Unless of course a couple of others talking about quiting leave too.
I was out at a jobsite where we often work from 7 am to 10 pm or so and I got a text from one of our young engineers that some valve flappers had come in for a couple of customers having trouble with a pump that the manufacturer made a design change that doesn’t work well. Two weeks early I looked at the problem and came up with a solution of grinding away the rubber on the bench grinder, which the shop manager saw me do.
So I wrote a text explaining what I needed done and sent it to the young engineer, along with photos and who they should be shipped to. My coworker says to me “You are going to get pushback from the shop on that. He saw me doing it for the other job and told me I would get in trouble for it”. So in a moment of weakness I included the shop manager on the text. One minute later he pushed back saying the manufacturer had already molded a slot in the flapper. I responded “Yes I know, that doesn’t work either. Please just do what I asked.
One minute later he copies ONLY my response to me, the young engineer, the head of engineering, and my boss the owner! 4 minutes goes by and my boss texts to the five of us “We really have a problem with Gary’s attitude!” No phone call asking what the problem is, and no mention of the photos and polite instructions and who they were for.
Yes, I totally lost it and gave my boss a reaming about the “Whiney Ass Kisser” he was defending.
Last week I was in the shop and used the band saw, the guy gave me grief for coolant on the floor. I investigated and found HE drilled hole in the tank for a pipe and didn’t install a fitting!
A short time before he buggered up a 1/4-20 thread on the mint SB Heavy 10 and said the lathe couldn’t make that thread! I went out with him saw the compound set wrong, and he engaged the halfnut at the wrong time. I cut a perfect thread. I needed a second one a week later. 5 year apprenticeship and 30 years experience and he buggered that one up too. I had to fix it at a jobsite.
He made a tap guide fixture that was out of plumb by at least 5 degrees and wobbled too.
Got the shop Snap Jaws because they constantly change soft jaws. He wouldn’t even try them. Said they were dangerous to use because they didn’t work with the vise lifting fixture. He was right because he drilled the bolt hole spacing wrong on the fixture!
He did some plastic pipe welding which we do a lot of, it was awful. He welded some aluminum, it was awful even after he brought in a paid teacher on company time to teach only him. I had repeatedly suggest he get someone else to do it, and we couldn’t send customers his work.
He cut fittings into plastic tanks and wouldn’t listen to me on how to do it even though I’ve done dozens. I spent the weekend at midnight repairing his shoddy work.
The tool boxes have wrench organizers, every wrench in a loose pile, he says ‘people’ don’t put things back, him and 2 others.
Another really good mechanic quit after two weeks working with him. Another good one quit two weeks later because he couldn’t stand him.
His son worked for us one summer and I saw him as a slacker working in the shop with his dad. My boss hired him as an engineer anyway. The kid was then working under me and absolutely hitting it out of the park! I sat him down to find out how I could be so wrong. His dad is an extreme micromanager!
See a pattern here? You guys warned me, and I was in fact being very careful not complaining to the boss about the guy with brown lips. It wasn’t enough.
The next couple of months should be interesting at the company. They have 4 jobs in startup right now. One is 100 miles away, one 180 miles, one 20 miles and one 3000 miles. They fired the main guy doing the startups, one of two. One has leaks everywhere, one has a tank too big to fit in the building, one is way behind and has a 2700 a day penalty clause. Three jobs already running are having problems.
I am under no illusion that my two replacements will not let the company fail. Unless of course a couple of others talking about quiting leave too.