Work dilemma
0patience
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So I was told last week that the manager position may come open and I may be able to work out of my home area. Our manager may move up.
It really isn't much more money than I am making now and the upper management is less than favorable.
I qualify and would probably be offered the position, but there are so many variables that keep me questioning whether I want to go for it or not.
Time away from home is probably the biggest, although some summers I spend a lot of time away as it is, then there is the upper mangler issues.
I would be in charge of the techs in the west side of the state.
Which is cake. These guys know what they are doing. They are the elite of techs.
So while dealing with them wouldn't be any issue, it's the management team that makes me balk at it. On the other hand, my manager now, would be the next manager up's boss.
So that might make things smoother.
I'm at a crossroad on it and a lot of the techs are telling me to go for it, but there is still that nagging discomfort in the back of my mind saying, "Hell no."
I keep going back and forth on this.
I love being in the position I'm in, as I'm basically the manager of my area equipment, but it would get me out of wrenching and probably be a lot less hard on my body this last 5 years of my career, but the idea of changing is hard.
I've been in charge of fleets for over 35 years. The idea of no longer being a tech is a tough one to deal with.
It really isn't much more money than I am making now and the upper management is less than favorable.
I qualify and would probably be offered the position, but there are so many variables that keep me questioning whether I want to go for it or not.
Time away from home is probably the biggest, although some summers I spend a lot of time away as it is, then there is the upper mangler issues.
I would be in charge of the techs in the west side of the state.
Which is cake. These guys know what they are doing. They are the elite of techs.
So while dealing with them wouldn't be any issue, it's the management team that makes me balk at it. On the other hand, my manager now, would be the next manager up's boss.
So that might make things smoother.
I'm at a crossroad on it and a lot of the techs are telling me to go for it, but there is still that nagging discomfort in the back of my mind saying, "Hell no."
I keep going back and forth on this.
I love being in the position I'm in, as I'm basically the manager of my area equipment, but it would get me out of wrenching and probably be a lot less hard on my body this last 5 years of my career, but the idea of changing is hard.
I've been in charge of fleets for over 35 years. The idea of no longer being a tech is a tough one to deal with.
In Fumo Pax
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
Wylaff said:
Atmospheric pressure and crap.
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Comments
I always make my mind up first thing in the morning after tossing it around in my head the day/night before, things always seem clearer that time of day.
What does your wife think?
Been battling in my mind with it the last couple days.
Will know more about the status of things tomorrow and planned on going over it tonight with the boss lady to see what she thinks.
But I've been getting texts all day today to see what I plan on doing.
There are a couple other techs who want to go for it, if I don't.
I told them even if I go for it, they should too, but they don't seem to be wanting to do that. Well, except for one guy and no one wants him as the manager. LOL!
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
First, talk to the wife, soon. If you don't you could end up in one of those "Why haven't you told me?" / "I'm telling you now" / "But why didn't you tell me before?" things that women like to do. Maybe your wife is different, I don't know.
Second, it gets a lot harder on the ole body pulling and lifting on cold steel as you get older. You know this.
Third, that guy who "no one wants to be manager". Is there a real chance that could happen? I've seen that play out. Blecch!
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
I know, You're a big dog and I'm on the list.
Let's eat, GrandMa. / Let's eat GrandMa. -- Punctuation saves lives
It'll be fine once the swelling goes down.
Fortunately, I'll have a say in it (who gets picked, if it's from my crew).
So there is a benefit to being a front runner. LOL!
The bump in pay would be about $500/month.
And that's only if they put me in at top pay rate, which may not happen.
So really, the pay increase, while it does make a difference, it isn't much of a difference. A couple hundred dollars take home.
At this point, even if I don't want to consider it, I may go ahead and put in for it, just to see how much they are willing to go on the pay rate and concessions they are willing to make. If nothing else, to see a few people squirm a bit.
The crews I manage the equipment for will most likely have a fit.
The crews tend to get protective over the techs, meaning they get the "MY tech" attitude. And they hate field techs transferring or leaving.
Especially when they work well with them.
And most of the coordinators and managers of the crews I deal with, I've worked with for over 10 years. One of the crew managers is my nephew and he's not likely to take it well. Which I will discuss with him tomorrow.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
The only thought that she had, that might be a problem is, I would have to bring home all my tools. And on a 30,000 lb service truck, that is a crap load of tools and my giant roll away won't hold them all. LOL!
And I talked with a couple of the field techs on a conference call and told them I'm having doubts and one of them asks me, how often do you get called from the other techs every day? Probably 10-20 calls, why?
Well, do you think that our manager receives that many calls from us every day? NO!
Ok, so I get it.
But the other thought is they may try and do an "interim" manager and they definitely want me to put in for that.
So, it seems I will put in for it and see what happens.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
I'm not sure once I took the position, that if it didn't work out, I could go back.
They would have to fill my position, unless it was interim, then they will move a tech from one of our main shops to my area for the term or rotate them to my area.
It may take several months for the process, so it may be January before anything actually gets done. Govt, you know. LOL!
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
Don't be like me.
At any given time the urge to sing "In The Jungle" is just a whim away... A whim away... A whim away...
Why? Well more money for today and after retiring for one. Also, depending on your upper level management and how they work. Say they need to cut positions by 10%
They will tell you to let X amount of people go. You get the undesirable decision of who to let go, but it will not be you in your last few years before you retire. It seems as though you are already a supervisor, so you know how, less time out in the elements as we get older is a good thing, doing more paperwork is not fun, but part of it.
And finally, you get to mold the guys/gals under you, you have been there and know what and how must be done. You also have the opportunity to be that buffer between "the guys" and upper management. You have been there a while and they sometimes may even listen to your opinion/recommendation. Being a supervisor you also have the opportunity to weed out trouble makers, under producers/achievers. Unless they are the big boss' nephew or something.
My manager didn't get the job, instead, they gave the job to someone who has no experience with fleet. Typical useless govt. And they talk about ethics. What bullshit.
So me moving up is out the window.
Not that it really matters, in the past 30 years, only 1 field tech has ever moved up and he took a lesser job to put himself in a position to get that job.
Right now, I'm so disgusted with where I work, that I may go to work somewhere else and make more money. Amazing.
But the problem with going somewhere else is it will kill my body.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
I made the comment, "Sorry, we didnt our bananas today."
He asked what I meant by that.
I told him that we're just a bunch of monkeys and we don't always get our treats of bananas, so sometimes we make mistakes.
He didn't appreciate the sarcasm.
Imagine that.
Friday after I found out about the new mangler, I got a call to go south to take care of some problems that they couldn't figure out.
They needed some info on what the problem could be and how to check it.
My reply, I don't know.
Dead silence on the phone for almost a minute.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
For the next year, roughly, I trained three individuals each of whom became my immediate supervisor once I finished training them. I decided enough was enough and went over my then-supervisor’s head and asked what was going on. Why wasn’t I being promoted to management?
His answer was, “Well, we’ve noticed that you don’t socialize with the right people”. I said, “What you’re saying is that I don’t throw cocktail parties and such for management personnel”? When he answered “Yes” I immediately gave him my two weeks notice. I told him that if I couldn’t get ahead based on my performance, what I knew and what I could do, then I was working for the wrong company. Two weeks later I went to work for a firm in Alaska.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain