This morning another of my guys asked me if I thought it'd be a good idea if he wrote a variance because there was a wee bit of standing water in an area where he has to work.
Both of these guys are really good operators with bright futures out here. They are not attitude problems or guys who shirk their responsibilities. It's just the difference between being 30 years old and being 60. A big part of my job is teaching. Teaching the technical stuff, sure. But also teaching basic things like good work habits and responsibilities. Oddly enough, it's the latter that gives me/us the most trouble. It's not that these are bad guys, because they aren't. It's just that what they expect from the world is totally different from what I expected at their age.
I had to tell a probationary employee that all I wanted to hear out of him were two words: 'yes' and 'sir', and that is way out of character for me. That's not how I like to guide things along or how I think the guys will be most receptive to being taught. But sometimes.........
When your supervisor asks you to bring him a forklift he means right then. He knows it's raining. He has made a judgement call that it's safe to do this in the rain, and that the rain's not going to hurt you, and that it's worth everyone's effort to finish the job. That's how he or she got to be a supervisor. If there is standing water in your work area your job is to sweep it away. If it's coming from a continual leak or from something that needs to be addressed you sweep it away and then bring it to the attention of someone who can get it fixed. You don't leave it lying there and then complain about it to your boss. Because guess what? He is going to remember that instead of taking care of the problem yourself, you just whined about it to someone else.
I guess it's just a different generation, but it seems like these guys just want a machine to come along and fix everything for them so that they can stay in the breakroom all shift long? We went 20 years out here without having to dismiss a production employee. I think we have dismissed a half dozen of them in the last two years. Somewhere along the line we stopped instilling the kind of work ethic in our kids that our parents instilled in us. Maybe WE had it too easy? Or maybe we just wanted to love on our kids and not give them the hard lessons out parents gave to us? Whatever happened along the line, something did, and it's not all been for the better.
Mickey Lake
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