I have to become the expert at everything

[dickfoster]

It is a constant battle...

I work with a lot of dedicated people that are devoted to the company... they would come in or stay late on their own time to see to it the work is done.

After the founder retired and moved several states away the culture shifted... the employees were no longer the soul of the company... we are seen as replaceable cogs which hurt morale

Some left and others carried on... with more taking a hardline in that anything outside their 8 hours is no longer their problem... the kids don't know any different... the oldtimers are the ones that remember how it was.

The founder said the company's greatest asset are the people that make us a success... for 25 years there was one person at the top... in the last 5 years it has been a series administrators rolling through with department heads keeping the doors open.

A lot of us have months of sick leave on the books... the latest announcement is all accumulated sick leave will be wiped out as it is carried as a liability on the books... 20% of the workforce is having surgeries before the sick leave is gone...

My observation is loyalty is a two way street... if the top doesn't care about training and longevity employees won't either.

So far it has taken a just a few years to undue what it took 20+ years to achieve.

What this means is a lot of the accumulated institutional knowledge is lost forever...

I blame it on the proliferation of MBAs which in my book are nothing more than glorified bean counters.
You simply can't run or build a company from the accounting department. It takes vision, hard work and dedication. It's much more than accounting and marketing alone, those are just anecdotal to the rest of what it takes but it's most of what MBAs focus on.

 

[ultrarunner]

Numbers are just that...

I remember taking business classes for my minor and it really was all about the cost of making widgets...

What I have found is a new manager will come in with lofty ideas and most fail miserably in the face of reality.

It use to be Hospitals were run by Doctors... now, the top is often a MBA that jumps industries... no idea about patient care.

Don't get me wrong... accounts and such all have their place as part of the team... it's when they are in charge that problems arise.

The MBA said nurses were logging in too much overtime... medicine is an art... there is no way to 100% predict complications on the table... you can't send home a patient early and not expect problems.

It's like the nurses that were told all overtime needs to be approved in advance.

So the surgical team in the OR and at 5 o'clock they leave the patient... saying the case is running late but I'm off the clock.

I know it happens with airlines... even when the plane is full and the flight crew has approached the maximum shift hours.

Part of the problem is there is very little in the way of apprenticeship learning...

There was a time when nurses were Diploma nurses... they learned on the job... today, they are all College Grads with little practical training... they have the book smarts but lack the knowhow.

I see it in many industries

 

[teejk]

I'll opine that I think the employees started this "revolving door" trend...chasing jobs (with no regard to ever getting into the retirement plan). Any place I have ever worked knew full well the cost of training and retaining quality employees (think about it...a new employee in many industries is really only a partial employee for weeks/months/years). Perhaps I was lucky and had smart employers that could do the math and try to retain the best.

 

[ultrarunner]

Most guys in the Union are pretty loyal... at least my experience.

What I've seen is a steady erosion of the benefits offered... if not outright taken away... more like a temporary freeze that is never lifted.

I have a few friends in the Silicon Valley and they have done real well.... companies come and go and they take their knowledge with them...

One of the new bosses and I had a talk about why trained medical staff was leaving... I said can you blame them?

Went on to say we basically work for a paycheck... she looked stunned. Then I went onto say the companies snapping up are best people have a retirement plan, continuing education and after 10 years the spouse and dependants are fully covered for medical... AND they pay more.

When I was recruiting all I could promise is a chance to put what you learned into practice and not have night and weekend call or rarely... after about 2 years they are perfect for getting picked up with a 22% boost in pay and the full benefit package in time.

Guess the moral is if you are really good at something and people know it... you have options.

 

[Kenneth in Texas]

I built a house 3 years ago, plumbed it for propane, ran the 1/2" copper 70' from the house then the day came to install my tank, propane company came out, set the tank, hooked it up, went inside to run a flexible line from the cut off to the back of my stove and to my water heater. He went back outside to do a pressure test to make sure no leaks before the propane truck arrived to fill up the tank. He put several meters on the tank and after 30 minutes he said all safe absolutely no leaks. Ok truck comes and fills her up, i pay them and notice for a couple days i smell that tell tell smell from propane. I start looking around and sure enough he didnt tighten the connection on the back of my stove, he just had it thumb tight. And all this was after he pressure tested and deemed it a non leak system. I tightened up the connection and have never had any other problem.

 

[Wagtail]

G'day Mates. Firstly, I've read this thread though to #55... twice, mostly to get the feel of the general thought trend. Sadly, yes, we darn near DO have to become an 'expert' in order to oversee work being done today. One of the prime reasons for this is the standard of education and the benchmark to what is required to achieve a "finished task". I'm referring to the Standards & Quality of the training to which the trainee is deemed competent and receives whatever qualification/certificate/rating/degree.

It ain't what it used ta be. Here's what I've observed during my Navy career [I'll try and 'Americanise' this for the majority of you];

When I joined up as a Firecontrolman (FC) {Gun fire control, not putting out fires}, back in '75, we were taught basic maths (yes, we started with addition & subtraction to make sure that we were all at the same level) and then progressed through to algebra so that we could then be taught electrical, followed by basic electronic circuitry. We then learnt to operate and fire the 3"50cal gun using the FC radar & computer... at the end of our initial training we were told "congratulations, you now know enough to be dangerous... mostly to yourselves."

As an Ordinary Seaman (up to and including E3 rank) I performed supervised routine maintenance, fetched & held tools for 'bigger jobs' and learnt the finer points of operating the ship's weaponry.

Then it was back on course for my Able Seaman (E4)... More maths & in depth electronics leading to basic system fault-finding. End result was that I was now responsible for myself and my actions. I still required supervision 'cause I had a lot of experience to gain... a few more years at sea & I was ready for the big trades course as a Leading Seaman (E5), the 13 month FC3 (Technician). By the time we were finished we had the equivalent of a Diploma of Electronics Engineering. We could fault-find darn near anything and repair it. That included precision soldering & micro-soldering circuit boards.

And then the 'world' changed.

"Repair by replacement" became (slowly at first) the standard. Broken circuit boards were sent back to a 'contractor' to be repaired; we were not allowed to fix them. As a Petty Officer {new trade of Electronics Tech}(E7-E8) I started seeing my ODs, ABs and eventually the Leaders knowing less and less about their systems... everything was 'in the manual'... they had no fault-finding skills except what was written in the 'trouble-shooting' section of the equipments book.

Things were being 'dumbed down' and so were the standards of the qualifications. We 'old salts' did our damnedest to teach them some of the 'old ways' and 'tricks of the trade'... but you can only do so much, especially since the basics weren't being taught anymore.

So, that's what you all are experiencing now. The standards for a Tradesman, Journeyman, Technician etc... just aren't what they used to be.

 

[Industrial Toys]

If I hire contractors, I will be here to oversee them. I am usually run off my feet, more like a gopher but almost always mistakes are avoided, quality is maintained and everyone is happy.

Friends of mine, on the other hand, just don't learn. They leave contractors to their own devices and then they are utterly frustrated with the results, as if things will magically just go right. Even high end general contractors are often incapable of doing a project right, from what I have seen.

 

[k0ua]

G'day Mates. Firstly, I've read this thread though to #55... twice, mostly to get the feel of the general thought trend. Sadly, yes, we darn near DO have to become an 'expert' in order to oversee work being done today. One of the prime reasons for this is the standard of education and the benchmark to what is required to achieve a "finished task". I'm referring to the Standards & Quality of the training to which the trainee is deemed competent and receives whatever qualification/certificate/rating/degree.

It ain't what it used ta be. Here's what I've observed during my Navy career [I'll try and 'Americanise' this for the majority of you];

When I joined up as a Firecontrolman (FC) {Gun fire control, not putting out fires}, back in '75, we were taught basic maths (yes, we started with addition & subtraction to make sure that we were all at the same level) and then progressed through to algebra so that we could then be taught electrical, followed by basic electronic circuitry. We then learnt to operate and fire the 3"50cal gun using the FC radar & computer... at the end of our initial training we were told "congratulations, you now know enough to be dangerous... mostly to yourselves."

As an Ordinary Seaman (up to and including E3 rank) I performed supervised routine maintenance, fetched & held tools for 'bigger jobs' and learnt the finer points of operating the ship's weaponry.

Then it was back on course for my Able Seaman (E4)... More maths & in depth electronics leading to basic system fault-finding. End result was that I was now responsible for myself and my actions. I still required supervision 'cause I had a lot of experience to gain... a few more years at sea & I was ready for the big trades course as a Leading Seaman (E5), the 13 month FC3 (Technician). By the time we were finished we had the equivalent of a Diploma of Electronics Engineering. We could fault-find darn near anything and repair it. That included precision soldering & micro-soldering circuit boards.

And then the 'world' changed.

"Repair by replacement" became (slowly at first) the standard. Broken circuit boards were sent back to a 'contractor' to be repaired; we were not allowed to fix them. As a Petty Officer {new trade of Electronics Tech}(E7-E8) I started seeing my ODs, ABs and eventually the Leaders knowing less and less about their systems... everything was 'in the manual'... they had no fault-finding skills except what was written in the 'trouble-shooting' section of the equipments book.

Things were being 'dumbed down' and so were the standards of the qualifications. We 'old salts' did our damnedest to teach them some of the 'old ways' and 'tricks of the trade'... but you can only do so much, especially since the basics weren't being taught anymore.

So, that's what you all are experiencing now. The standards for a Tradesman, Journeyman, Technician etc... just aren't what they used to be.

Wow, an awful lot of what you outlined seemed to apply to the state of electronics repair and specifically the telecom industry that I worked in over here as well. I used to troubleshoot electronic telephones down to the component level too "back in the day". That is unheard of today. Oh by the way, for those that don't know, when he say a 3 inch 50 caliber gun, he means that the bore diameter is 3 inches and the length of the barrel is 50 X the 3 inches or 150 inches.. When we say 50 caliber many people think in terms of a gun with .50 or 1/2 inch diameter bore, but "big guns" are often referenced in the manner our down under friend describes.

 

[Garandman]

I had an old snow thrower and the belt was slipping. Took it to the dealer, who tuned it, put on a new gas cap, charged me $170, and didn't change the belt! Took it out the next storm and was unamused.

Bought the old Ariens dealer manual on eBay, and restored it from the nut-and-bolt level.

 

[Garandman]

I had an old snow thrower and the belt was slipping. Took it to the dealer, who tuned it, put on a new gas cap, charged me $170, and didn't change the belt! Took it out the next storm and was unamused.

Bought the old Ariens dealer manual on eBay, and restored it from the nut-and-bolt level.