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This is one of those all purpose threads where I got it from everybody, the customers, my MiM, and my co-workers.
Things start out innocently enough, it's just a single station re-configuration. Okay, great, let's see what you want. Oh, they want to add panels between two complete workstations pods, joining them together.
(I don't expect anybody who is not educated in furniture installations to understand the difficulty of this. But let's say you're building Lego. You build up a wall and leave a couple of pieces out of the middle. Now take the pieces that fit into that empty space and put them in. It is virtually impossible to do so without taking the whole thing apart and rebuilding it from there.)
The customer is a complete moron for even requesting such a re-con. But of course, that's where the professionals come in. We can look at the request and let them know that they are off their rockers. But of course, I've got MiM #1 who knows absolutely nothing about installations, so she just gives it the okay. Then I've got MiM #2 who has never seen a job that he didn't think was easy. So in we go to accomplish the impossible. Now we get to the coworker part, he dives right in and gives it a shot. But he hits a snag because the panels don't even fit in the desired location, they are a couple of inches too big. But rather than analyzing the problem, he decides to change the layout to something that doesn't work. I don't know if he approved this change with the client, but it was later deemed to be completely unacceptable.
The client complains, and based on a discussion with the furniture manufacturer, it is decided that the problem is that the wrong connectors were used. Back to MiM. Rather than analyzing the problem, checking the site, and coming up with a solution, they just decide that it was incompetence on the part of my co-worker. In their defence, this is a reputation that this co-worker has earned, but if they put just a little thought into things and communicated, it would be seen that this was wrong. The manufacturers information was wrong, and I knew that just by being told what brand the product was, this is something my boss should know as well. But no such thought was put in, so instead the sum of my MiM's effort was to make up a workorder to send me in.
I screwed up when I went in and believed what my MiM was telling me. So I just dove right in and got to work, only to run into the same problem that my co-worker had. At this point, my intelligence kicks in and I decide to check the whole thing out to find the source of the problem. As it turns out, the runs were not installed square, so I was losing two inches of space between them at the point where I was supposed to be adding panels.
So now the only solution to this fiasco is to get enough manpower in to straighten these runs and get the measurements correct. I convey this message to my client, who then has to run it past her boss. Her boss comes over; let's just say that 'complete and total bitch' would be a polite description of her attitude and demeanour. I explain the problem to her. She is oblivious to how and why this is a problem. I dumb it down, still clueless. I have to pull out my tape measure and physically show her, 110 inches at this end, 104 inches at the other end. She still can't figure things out. I finally dumb it down enough so that she clues in that the station has to be pushed over so that the measurements are equal, so with a shrug she gives me instructions to push the stations. (If this were said politely, it wouldn't bother me, but it was said with a contempt full tone, with a strong side of 'get off your lazy ass and do it'). I give her 'the look' before advising her that this is 1,000-2,000 lbs of steel and wood, we need additional manpower and additional equipment to "just push it over". After about half an hour of discussion and argument, it's finally decided to re-schedule this job with the proper requirements.
I am just furious about this whole thing. This is a job that should never have been accepted in the first place. Upon this mistake, my co-worker should have advised them of the mistake they made with this request and told them that it cannot be done, at least not as requested. But no, so here we are having to pull off the impossible. I haven't even sent in my report of the whole thing because I'm pretty sure I'll get myself fired or I'll quit. I've got MiM #1 who knows absolutely nothing about the requirements, but at the same time knows everything about the requirements so any recommendation I make is shot down. On to MiM #2 who will give me the classic "what's the problem, just do this and this and that". I haven't got these answers from them yet, but I know I will; and the only reply I can give back to them is "FINE, if it's so fucking easy, you go do it." I've just got to decide if that's the direction I want to go.
Things start out innocently enough, it's just a single station re-configuration. Okay, great, let's see what you want. Oh, they want to add panels between two complete workstations pods, joining them together.
(I don't expect anybody who is not educated in furniture installations to understand the difficulty of this. But let's say you're building Lego. You build up a wall and leave a couple of pieces out of the middle. Now take the pieces that fit into that empty space and put them in. It is virtually impossible to do so without taking the whole thing apart and rebuilding it from there.)
The customer is a complete moron for even requesting such a re-con. But of course, that's where the professionals come in. We can look at the request and let them know that they are off their rockers. But of course, I've got MiM #1 who knows absolutely nothing about installations, so she just gives it the okay. Then I've got MiM #2 who has never seen a job that he didn't think was easy. So in we go to accomplish the impossible. Now we get to the coworker part, he dives right in and gives it a shot. But he hits a snag because the panels don't even fit in the desired location, they are a couple of inches too big. But rather than analyzing the problem, he decides to change the layout to something that doesn't work. I don't know if he approved this change with the client, but it was later deemed to be completely unacceptable.
The client complains, and based on a discussion with the furniture manufacturer, it is decided that the problem is that the wrong connectors were used. Back to MiM. Rather than analyzing the problem, checking the site, and coming up with a solution, they just decide that it was incompetence on the part of my co-worker. In their defence, this is a reputation that this co-worker has earned, but if they put just a little thought into things and communicated, it would be seen that this was wrong. The manufacturers information was wrong, and I knew that just by being told what brand the product was, this is something my boss should know as well. But no such thought was put in, so instead the sum of my MiM's effort was to make up a workorder to send me in.
I screwed up when I went in and believed what my MiM was telling me. So I just dove right in and got to work, only to run into the same problem that my co-worker had. At this point, my intelligence kicks in and I decide to check the whole thing out to find the source of the problem. As it turns out, the runs were not installed square, so I was losing two inches of space between them at the point where I was supposed to be adding panels.
So now the only solution to this fiasco is to get enough manpower in to straighten these runs and get the measurements correct. I convey this message to my client, who then has to run it past her boss. Her boss comes over; let's just say that 'complete and total bitch' would be a polite description of her attitude and demeanour. I explain the problem to her. She is oblivious to how and why this is a problem. I dumb it down, still clueless. I have to pull out my tape measure and physically show her, 110 inches at this end, 104 inches at the other end. She still can't figure things out. I finally dumb it down enough so that she clues in that the station has to be pushed over so that the measurements are equal, so with a shrug she gives me instructions to push the stations. (If this were said politely, it wouldn't bother me, but it was said with a contempt full tone, with a strong side of 'get off your lazy ass and do it'). I give her 'the look' before advising her that this is 1,000-2,000 lbs of steel and wood, we need additional manpower and additional equipment to "just push it over". After about half an hour of discussion and argument, it's finally decided to re-schedule this job with the proper requirements.
I am just furious about this whole thing. This is a job that should never have been accepted in the first place. Upon this mistake, my co-worker should have advised them of the mistake they made with this request and told them that it cannot be done, at least not as requested. But no, so here we are having to pull off the impossible. I haven't even sent in my report of the whole thing because I'm pretty sure I'll get myself fired or I'll quit. I've got MiM #1 who knows absolutely nothing about the requirements, but at the same time knows everything about the requirements so any recommendation I make is shot down. On to MiM #2 who will give me the classic "what's the problem, just do this and this and that". I haven't got these answers from them yet, but I know I will; and the only reply I can give back to them is "FINE, if it's so fucking easy, you go do it." I've just got to decide if that's the direction I want to go.
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