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Cominatcha's redundancy thread reminded me of this because a similar thing happened to Mr. Dips. I'm starting a new thread because this is long and I don't want to hijack that thread.
He had a job at a sheet metal fabricator (they make metal parts for various things; their customers are usually other manufacturers). He was the shipper/receiver. His duties required that he keep track of all the jobs, schedule runs with outside vendors (e.g. painters, platers, etc.), run the parts to/from the vendors, quality check the vendors' jobs and eventually deliver the parts to the customers. He was also the janitor and, in his spare time, he'd pitch in and help with production. He made the princely sum of $12 per hour.
At any time they would have at least a dozen jobs in various stages. Mr. Dips knew off the top of this head exactly where each one was and when it would be ready for delivery to the customer.
All of the vendors liked him and respected him. He never pushed them to move a job faster unless it was necessary. Thus, when a job needed to be rushed, they were happy to do what they could to help.
The customers also liked him. He kept them informed about their jobs and was very polite when he delivered parts to them.
For whatever reason the big boss felt that he needed to hire a business school grad to "manage" the production process. That's when things got tough. When you have someone like Mr. Dips around the process runs itself pretty well. If there is a weak link, it can be addressed, but a wise manager does not meddle with the part of the process that is working.
This manager was not wise. First he started interrupting and asking pointless questions about what Mr. Dips did. Then he made Mr. Dips start documenting everything he did to "justify" keeping his job. The next step was to lay Mr. Dips off because his job was "redundant."
Guess who got do Mr. Dips job after the layoff?
Anyway, Mr. Dips went on to work for another sheet metal fabricator doing basically the same job. Interestingly, his new employer used many of the same vendors as the old employer did. So when he went to drop off and pick jobs, he got to hear some very interesting gossip.
1. The sucky manager wasn't handling Mr. Dips job duties very well. He was always stressed out and acting like an asshole towards the vendors. To the point where they were considering telling the sucky manager that a lack of planning on his part wasn't an emergency on theirs and he could go to hell.
2. Eventually, the sucky manager begged the old boss to hire an "assistant." The guy wasn't getting the job done, so they hired a second "assistant." Together these two plus the sucky manager still weren't doing as good a job as Mr. Dips did by himself.
3. The big boss eventually realized that the sucky manager was useless and fired him.
4. But not in time. Mr. Dips new employer got two of the old company's biggest accounts. I guess they got fed up with the slow response times, missed deadlines and very bad quality control.
5. When these customers realized they would be working with Mr. Dips again, they were delighted. They mentioned that they had been asking the old employer about Mr. Dips and had only been told he didn't work there any more.
To say Mr. Dips enjoyed hearing this from afar would be an understatement.
Those of you who might remember a story I posted about a laid off colleague of Mr. Dips getting his ex-employer fined $50,000 by the EPA might be wondering if this is the same place. I'm happy to confirm that it is.
They are still in business, but it's only a matter of time.
Note: Mr. Dips is still in the sheet metal business, but voluntarily went to part time. His main p/t job is at the coin shop and he works here at the software company one day a week assembling software boxes.
He had a job at a sheet metal fabricator (they make metal parts for various things; their customers are usually other manufacturers). He was the shipper/receiver. His duties required that he keep track of all the jobs, schedule runs with outside vendors (e.g. painters, platers, etc.), run the parts to/from the vendors, quality check the vendors' jobs and eventually deliver the parts to the customers. He was also the janitor and, in his spare time, he'd pitch in and help with production. He made the princely sum of $12 per hour.
At any time they would have at least a dozen jobs in various stages. Mr. Dips knew off the top of this head exactly where each one was and when it would be ready for delivery to the customer.
All of the vendors liked him and respected him. He never pushed them to move a job faster unless it was necessary. Thus, when a job needed to be rushed, they were happy to do what they could to help.
The customers also liked him. He kept them informed about their jobs and was very polite when he delivered parts to them.
For whatever reason the big boss felt that he needed to hire a business school grad to "manage" the production process. That's when things got tough. When you have someone like Mr. Dips around the process runs itself pretty well. If there is a weak link, it can be addressed, but a wise manager does not meddle with the part of the process that is working.
This manager was not wise. First he started interrupting and asking pointless questions about what Mr. Dips did. Then he made Mr. Dips start documenting everything he did to "justify" keeping his job. The next step was to lay Mr. Dips off because his job was "redundant."
Guess who got do Mr. Dips job after the layoff?
Anyway, Mr. Dips went on to work for another sheet metal fabricator doing basically the same job. Interestingly, his new employer used many of the same vendors as the old employer did. So when he went to drop off and pick jobs, he got to hear some very interesting gossip.
1. The sucky manager wasn't handling Mr. Dips job duties very well. He was always stressed out and acting like an asshole towards the vendors. To the point where they were considering telling the sucky manager that a lack of planning on his part wasn't an emergency on theirs and he could go to hell.
2. Eventually, the sucky manager begged the old boss to hire an "assistant." The guy wasn't getting the job done, so they hired a second "assistant." Together these two plus the sucky manager still weren't doing as good a job as Mr. Dips did by himself.
3. The big boss eventually realized that the sucky manager was useless and fired him.
4. But not in time. Mr. Dips new employer got two of the old company's biggest accounts. I guess they got fed up with the slow response times, missed deadlines and very bad quality control.
5. When these customers realized they would be working with Mr. Dips again, they were delighted. They mentioned that they had been asking the old employer about Mr. Dips and had only been told he didn't work there any more.
To say Mr. Dips enjoyed hearing this from afar would be an understatement.
Those of you who might remember a story I posted about a laid off colleague of Mr. Dips getting his ex-employer fined $50,000 by the EPA might be wondering if this is the same place. I'm happy to confirm that it is.
They are still in business, but it's only a matter of time.
Note: Mr. Dips is still in the sheet metal business, but voluntarily went to part time. His main p/t job is at the coin shop and he works here at the software company one day a week assembling software boxes.
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