Stupid autocorrect. 
We’re still struggliing with stamps in Acrobat where I work. The most popular method involves copying one from an existing file on the server.
In the “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” category one of our new cashiers is a thief.
She probably thinks she’s getting away with it, but everything is videotaped and biometric. The company is letting her filch while getting copious evidence against her, and letting amount get up to “grand theft”.
Yesterday afternoon they lowered the boom, caught her in the act not only with biometric tracking and videotape but three witnesses because they were waiting for her. She left work for the final time in the custody of the local police.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Enjoy your paltry pile of cash and lifetime felony record.
How is it that I give you two perfectly good options where the experts will get you what you need and add in, “Those are the two ways you’ll get the right one. Otherwise no guaranties.”
Then you try to do it with your own third option then ask me if it’s right.
I work in a lab. You know, hardware. Tools. Meters. Analytical instruments. Stuff like that.
I’ve been pretty unhappy with the engineers we’ve hired over the last decade. They seem clueless on how to do hand’s-on work. All they want to do is sit at their computers and “model” stuff. But that’s not what we do - we’re supposed to do lab work. So when it comes time for actual lab work needing to be done, they always come to me and one other engineer. Which gets overwhelming.
Universities have been phasing out lab work and hands-on assignments for quite a while now, because it is expensive to run these courses.
I can’t wait for the time when a newly minted surgeon comes into the operating theatre and wants to know where the computer station is, so he can do the computer simulated surgery, and is baffled about why that unconscious guy is lying on the shiny table over there.
That’s a perfect analogy.
So we hire EEs. To do lab work. They have no idea how to solder. No idea how to make a current measurement. No idea about things like wires, circuit board traces, oscilloscope probes. Totally clueless when it comes to instrumentation. They want to do… MATLAB. But our mission is not to model things. Our mission is to perform hand’s-on failure analysis of electronics systems.
Just last Friday, I told a PhD EE that we needed to drill a small hole in a panel and inset a rubber grommet so we can route a wire through the panel. I handed her a caliper, drill, and some drill bits. She had no idea how to read the caliper, so I first had to show her that. (It was the type with the analog dial.) She then measured the inside diameter of the hole. I said, “No, that’s not it.” She then measured the outside diameter. I said, “No, that’s not it.” I then showed her how to measure the diameter of the groove.
I mean, I know it’s a small thing. But it’s not just that. I have to show these EEs every. Little. Thing. It’s stuff I learned when I was building stuff as a teen.
It’s apparent they don’t like the physical lab. As mentioned, they want to model stuff using MATLAB or whatever. But since that’s not what we do, they spend a majority of their time doing ancillary work, e.g. emails, meetings, finding a conference or training session to go to, meetings, purchasing stuff, more meetings, teleconferences, Zoom, more meetings. Where I work, a person can be successfully employed year after year, and never do any actual lab work.
Sounds like your hiring processes could use some work.
My husband is a CAD/techie/modeling worker at a large corporation. He is 70 years old. He has always worked with his hands as well as with computers (as soon as it was feasible to do computer-assisted drafting). He is always able to solve knotty problems thrown at him, because he’s just used to going at the issue, breaking it down, and figuring it out. His chief co-worker is about the same age, and is also able to tackle problems and work out solutions.
He’s weary of new hires being unable of figure out HOW TO WORK. They have degrees, they know all the buzzwords, they know how to “manage upwards”, but they simply don’t know how to buckle down and figure out problems.
Well, he’s retiring in about a year, so his company is going to be stuck with young pups repeating buzzwords to each other and assuring management that all is going well when all in fact is falling apart.
More like the interview needs to include a physical skills test.
Ooooo boy.
A project manager got fired yesterday, so suddenly there’s a job opening. While the position requires extensive engineering knowledge, it actually reports to the customer service manager, since there’s not much actual engineering involved. The customer service manager is newish, having been promoted to his current position on Friday with the retirement of the previous customer service manager. To make things even more interesting, the department consists of mostly new people, so they’re desperate to hire someone experienced within the company.
That’s where I could come in…both my manager and supervisor approached me today to let me know that I would be a great fit for the job, and that it would be an awesome opportunity for me to learn new skills (budgeting, scheduling, dealing directly with customers, etc.). There would also be a bump in salary, of course. The catch? I don’t get along well with this customer service manager. I can’t say I care for him much – in my work-related encounters, he’s always struck me as the type who wants you to think he knows more than you do about the topic in question. Also, our customers can be jerks. I’ve been relatively insulated from that while working in engineering, since all of our correspondence has to go through one of our customer service reps. And I really can’t get excited about the job description…I would truly love to learn more about the business side of things, but I’m not ready to give up engineering yet.
TL;DR: I’m not sure if the salary and resume-boosting job experience would be worth giving up a job in my chosen field and a management team that I like. 
@WolfpackJeep, that’s a tough decision. Money is nice, but it’s not everything. Working with good people is much better for your mental health.
I’ve seen some of my good friends going into a field (say, engineering?), where they love what they’re doing and as a result they’re great at their job. So of course they get promoted… soon, they’ve become the dreaded middle management.
And now they’re “supervising”, meeting with the bosses, meeting with other supervisors, meeting with their “reports”, writing actual reports… and budgets, and overviews. You get the idea.
They’re no longer doing much, if any, engineering. I watched as their motivation waned, their work suffered… they were just not as good at pushing papers and going to meetings as they were at engineering.
I have so much respect for a friend’s dad who kept getting promoted (that’s where I first heard the term “golden handcuffs”). He realized he was ten rungs up the corporate ladder from where he’d been happy, so he told his boss to demote him or he was leaving.
I guess he made a convincing case that his strengths were in one-to-one relationships with their customers on the front lines… “And I suck at administration.”
He got to go back to the job he’d had when he started… we all assumed that was with a corresponding pay cut, as we watched the family start to cut corners.
But, damn, they were happy. 'Cause Dad was happy!
Where I currently work I have three co-workers who worked their way up into management but then asked to be returned to the ranks of the peons. All three of them are much happier.
My current job is getting a bit more routine than I feel is ideal (not that “boring at work” is all bad) and I’ve maxed out the wages, but since my bills are paid, I’m saving towards retirement, and I can go home after 40 hours a week without having to think about the job after hours I’m OK. I just don’t see enough benefit to “advancement” into management to outweigh the liabilities of that move.
YMMV.
I’m a “group leader” where I work. But our group is so small that I also do a lot of the hand’s on work.
I hate the group leader aspects of the job. Hiring people, firing people, mentoring people, keeping them busy, timesheets, meetings, listening to B.S. excuses & stories, etc. And all the politics that go along with it. Hate it. But at least I get to do some real work.
I’ve never wanted to “move up” from here. If they offered me the job of division leader I would instantly turn it down. There’s no way in hell I would do it.
Suffice to say, I’m just not good at “being” a group leader.
I just hired an engineer a few days ago. If she works out, I may ask her to become group leader in a year or two. Would be so nice to get away from the B.S.
I’ve learned I’m not management material. I don’t revel in that shit. I just want to do technical work, and be left alone.
Yeah, that’s me - let me do some real work and can I please avoid the bullshit and politics?
Unfortunately, the current corporate system doesn’t reward well for people good at doing hands-on and technical work. You only get rich by becoming upper management, which is more politics than anything else.
I’ve fallen for that trap before: “C’mon, Maus this new department is perfect for you. You like the manager, and you’ll get to learn new skills.” Two months later, they’ve replaced the manager with a gaping asshole, and completely changed the job description. In eight short weeks, it went from being excited to come in and learn and do new things to pulling into my parking spot, and repeating “Fuck” to myself for five minutes before dragging my ass in.
WolfpackJeep you already know it’s a trap.
Thanks for all the feedback!
This is pretty much what the former engineering manager did; several years before he retired, he stepped down to a rank-and-file engineering position, although he was treated more like a project engineer as far as his actual responsibilities.
I haven’t notified my manager or supervisor yet, but that’s the way I’m leaning. I know I’ve ranted plenty in this thread about my current position, and while it would be nice to have a quiet office with a window, I would really miss the people in my department, and would especially miss doing the engineering work. (And I’m not too sure how long it would stay quiet over there; the previous customer service manager was known for yelling all the time, and I’m now starting to realize that this was likely because he was constantly being yelled at by customers and upper management.)
Yes - customer service SUCKS. I was much happier when I had a layer between them and me. Now that I’m on the network side, I don’t have to deal with them at all.
First customer of the day for me attempted to entirely strip our shelves of baby formula.
We currently have a limit of two.
Customer did not react well to this news, claimed that because we did not have a sign stating a limit of two there was no limit and he wanted everything in the cart.
I said I’m sorry the sign is absent, but there is still a limit of two.
He wanted to see a manager. I found a manger. She said we have a limit of two.
He then wanted to see a higher-up manger. We found one. She said sorry, we have a limit of two.
He demanded to see the store director. We called her over. She looked him in the eye and said we have a strict limit of two.
He grumbled then said OK, he’d settle for two of each sort.
No. TWO TOTAL. Not two of each. JUST two. That’s it.
More grumbling ensued but he only left with two.
(Actually, people on WIC are permitted the number of containers of formula their allotment normally gives - if we have that on the shelf. We asked if this guy had a WIC card. He didn’t. Too bad, so sad.)