Our Q1 was horrible. In addition to corporate’s suggested cost-cutting measures, we’ve also been brainstorming locally on ways to increase revenue/reduce costs short of a layoff. So far, Q2 isn’t looking all that much better.
A couple of recent corporate memos have vaguely indicated that something like this might be in the works, but today it became official: we’re letting one of our local shop’s technicians go.
As workers go, he was at best a “paycheck player,” showing up at work and doing the absolute minimum he thought he could get away with and still keep a paycheck. Heh. Think again.
As a tech, he was sorely lacking in technical knowledge, and in spite of several guys (myself included) who were more than happy to teach him what we knew, he never evinced any desire or motivation to expand his knowledge, or retain the little we were able to impart to him.
So we used him for PM checks on customer equipment, a job that basically requires a pulse and an ability to get dirty and sweaty. He was unhappy doing this, and often sloughed off on doing even these menial tasks.
So, as a coworker, we’re not really sorry to see him go.
But we’re still sorry to see someone hitting the bricks in a down economy.
Especially after he just dropped a big chunk of change on week-long vacation on an extravagant Carribean cruise. All of us at “the shop” strongly hinted that, given the economy and our financial situation, he might not want to spend any extra money than he had to, and this was before we knew anything was going to happen.
But he seemed supremely confident that he wouldn’t have to worry about losing his job. “I’ve got seniority,” he would often proclaim. And he did have overall corporate seniority, but he was moved over to our division the winter of '08 because his former division local manager was a hairsbreadth away from firing him for (non)performance issues.
New News: we’re not a union shop. Actual performance counts wayyy more than any notional “seniority.”
So, to my soon-to-be-former coworker: so long, and good luck.
A few parting tips for your next job:
Don’t show up to work with a newspaper in one hand and a bag of MickeyD’s in the other, and spend the first two hours of the work day reading the newspaper and surfing the internet.
When there’s work to do, go do it; don’t put it off and put it off and put it off hoping someone else will find a way to work it into their schedule.
If there’s anything you should know about your job, learn it and retain it and apply it.
If there’s company policies and procedures, follow them.
Get a haircut, shave, and by all the hairy armpits of Vishnu, lay off the cheap cologne; “one bottle per day” is not a good personal hygiene policy when it comes to any cologne, much less the cheap stuff.
If you don’t wear the company-provided uniforms and logos, at least wear clean, non-hole-ridden work pants and shirt. Your torn mosh-jeans and concert T-shirts aren’t exactly the technically competent, professional image we’re trying to project.
“No Tobacco Use” policies also include chewing tobacco; so walking around with a prominently conspicuous “chaw budge” is probably less than wise.
If you can manage these few things, your retention prospects at your next job will probably be much improved.
Good luck with that.