Angry manager doesn't allow back talk
When I was a lot younger I worked at a fast food restaurant. As a true SpongeBob I really loved my job. I worked there really hard for 7 years. I was the fastest and most precise in the kitchen and the fastest and most precise with doing the stores delivery. Managers usually didn't put me on the day plan when I was working so I wouldn't be attached to 1 station and I would swap between the ones that needed assistance. I was pretty much running solo.
In comes the new manager. The other managers inform him that I'm very stubborn, but if left alone I'll make his shift easy. He sees this as a challenge to his leadership or something and starts giving me specific jobs. Which I complete in no time and continue jumping around between stations.
Eventually he gets really angry at me and tells me that I'm only to follow orders and that I'm not allowed to back talk to him.
The next day we work together again. He takes me to the back room and tells me to remove all the empty crates to the back. Including the 2 below the fridge that have obviously been there for quite some time. I open my mouth to tell him that those crates are there because those 2 wheels on that fridge were broken. He just shoots this rage filled look to me, and I close my mouth again. He goes away, and I start cleaning. I rip the crates from under the fridge. The fridge falls over, doors fly open and all the produce falls on the floor. Fridge also stops running. I stack the crates and move them to the storage area outside.
I tell my manager I'm done, and waiting for the next order. He goes to the back to check on me and gets angry at the mess. "I wasn't allowed to explain why those crates are there, this is the result".
He gave up the fight after that and I went back to what I had done for 7 years already. We ended up having a good professional relationship after that.
Edit, this ended up a hell of a lot longer than I expected. Also written on mobile, so sorry for the formatting and autocorrect.
Posted Jun 29, 2019, 1:19 AM UTC
Good work. Sometimes people need to learn that there is no substitute for experience.
Some times though experience really does just mean set in their ways. Not all change is inherently bad, some is undoubtably and some change is just badly implemented.
This☝️. I work at a hospital in the engineering department, going on 6 years now, and until recently I was still the “new guy”. Most had been there 30+ years with the next ”newest” guy had been there 20 years. Hell my director when I started working there started there 2 days before I was born there. Yes I work at the hospital I was born at. Lol. Anyways that director was a joke, he had been promoted from within and was clueless about his actual responsibilities. He was a yes man. The hospital had a director of operations (DOO) that was a 27 year old intellectual that had no real world experience. She came there as an intern, helped bring connect care online, this is basically a healthcare information portal that allows different practices within the system to access your records as necessary and allows the patients to see their medical records online. Anyways the crappy director retired about 4 years ago and we had at best department leadership that was adequate. Almost 2 years ago we finally hired s new director that had only been as high as a number 2 in an engineering department. He is very smart though and knows policies and procedures well. So to get to the point after about a year the clueless DOO left for another healthcare system and we got a new DOO that knows what he is doing. So as he starts finally updating policies and procedures he started getting the kickback from everyone about how “this is how we’ve always done it”. He doesn’t stand for that. Unfortunately our facility had started getting the reputation of being a run down facility. Well in the last year and a half we’ve really turned things around. Our reputation has improved greatly and we just had a regulatory inspection. The inspectors said they expected to come in and find a ton of deficiencies as had been before. They were thoroughly impressed, we had only a few minor deficiencies that were corrected before they were done inspecting. It’s been a great couple of years since he joined our team. He promoted me to a lead position, over people that had been there for years. At first there was some push back and maybe a little resentment, but once they figured out that I wasn’t going to let it go to my head and actually know what I’m doing, things have settled down and are running pretty smoothly.
Edit: sorry for the novel, got a little carried away typing. Lol
the crap people stuck in their ways is the bane of my job right now.
These people are the bane of our entire species/world and if it wasn't for them we'd be working 3 days a week.
Crap people who are stuck in their ways are probably the cause of most of my problems.
Especially that one I keep seeing in the mirror...
Yeah, managers that can't get with the times are also annoying. Just because an idea is old it doesn't mean it's good. I've moved on from fast food and now I'm an officer in merchant shipping. So I can't really be maliciously compliant anymore (people can do that to me now). But shipping is a very conservative branch. But the company is very innovative. That brings a ton of friction.
But I've also had colleagues in high positions that basically refuse to tow the line because "it isn't the way we did it for years". Yeah, but years ago you also didn't use hearing protection in the engine room. Just because an idea is new it doesn't mean it's bad.
Huh? 😁
What does a hospital engineer do? Equipment upgrades and maintaining the facilities equipment? I never thought that hospitals would have a full engineering department with degreed engineers.
It’s a terminology thing I guess. Basically it’s the maintenance department. We have a handful of general maintenance workers who take care of typical repairs, 1 journeyman and 1 Master Electrician, 2 journeyman HVAC techs plus myself, I hold journeyman cards in HVAC and Plumbing. As of right now we don’t have a staff plumber, since I got promoted to Supervisor. We use contractors for larger projects and some of our pm’s, and right now most of our plumbing. (Because I’m not supposed to be doing the work, directing others to do it, so says my boss the Director of Engineering. We fall under ASHE, American Society of Hospital Engineers. I came to the hospital out of my local union (Plumber and Pipefitters Local 110) and most of our Mechanical and Plumbing contractors are union as well.
Great comment. I see this a lot. Here’s one of my favorite retorts that challenges them to grow without being a jerk.
Them. “We’ve always done it this way”
Me “ Just because you’ve always been swinging your golf club the wrong way doesn’t mean you have to keep repeating your mistake. Let’s improve some things and up your game folks.”
We're a shit team and that's how we like it. So let's continue doing the shit job that we've always done.