If you ran YOUR company like this...... - Ducati Monster Forums: Ducati Monster Motorcycle Forum

vwboomer · 12-13-2007, 12:16 AM

Gotta vent. SOOOO much stupidity. Maybe someone can explain it to me, cuz it doesn't make sense to me.

The place I work used to run 24 hours a day, 3 shifts, 5 and 6 days a week. Housing market has been down for awhile. Eventually they went to two shifts. Immediately after getting rid of 2nd shift, they ran 10 hours a day. At the same time, they got rid of several maintenance people.

Then they run 9 hours each shift...Making things that nobody can pinpoint where exactly they are going since the housing market is down so bad. Orders are down, yet still running 9 hours a day making thousands of these things. But it's contract time, and they are probably stockpiling.

So contract goes thru, still running 9 hours/shift. Thanksgiving rolls around, and they cancel production for the friday before, and the entire week of thanksgiving. SO. To recap, you are paying people 5-17 hours of OT per week, only to make them claim unemployment (or take vacation) the 3 days of thanksgiving that aren't covered by HOliday Pay. And the company is paying for the unemployment.

Come back from Thanksgiving and run 9 hours/shift, half the saturdays. Now xmas is rolling around. They are shutting down the Thursday before. Should resume after xmas shutdown on the 2nd. Now they are canceling production for the first week of january. But still running 9 hours a day now!

whoooo runs shit like this? I mean seriously. It's stoopid. And, they aren't letting maintenance work during these shutdowns to save money.

it's so stupid and been going on so long it's ridiculous and gets on my nerves. I feel a bit better now, but makes me wonder why I didn't finish college and realize what's wrong with this picture, but the bigwigs haven't got a clue. Or at least, the middle management isn't telling the bigwigs what's going on.

striker219 · 12-13-2007, 12:53 AM

I dunno, this sounds pretty standard in any industry where you can use the term "bigwig."

duc_fan · 12-13-2007, 01:59 AM

Sorry dude, sounds like normal managerial detachment from reality. :-\

jbrizz · 12-13-2007, 08:40 AM

I'd say it sucks, but it is common in corporate America.

The company I work for wouldn't do something like that. It's actually a 7 billion dollar company with some social conscience. Unfortunately a lot of companies just try to get every ounce of blood out of you and couldn's care less about their employees. Over the years we have had to lay people off, but we try keep it to an absolute minimum and do our best to find other jobs for them and give them a good severence package.

Good luck!

punker248 · 12-13-2007, 09:44 AM

Are your workers unionized? It would explain a lot if they were.

vwboomer · 12-13-2007, 01:41 PM

yeah all the factory workers are union. Which has benefits and detriments. It's good because they can't just get rid of someone for no reason. It's bad because they can't just get rid of the people who coast through the day doing nothing.
It's especially bad for me, being skilled trades. There is no separate skilled trade union. So who do you think gets the bargaining power? The 2000 (or whatever) production people, or the 100 maintenance people? The forklift driver who watches his bucket fill up with sprues, then hauls them to the yard, gets paid 19/hour. That's only 3 less than me, and I am supposed to know environmental procedures (my ass is on the line) be able to fix machinery when it's down, and troubleshoot it when it breaks down on the run, do PM's on safety equipment, hoists, etc. Doesn't make sense. But that's a little OT.

I don't think it will be long before the doors close here, and the company moves south to mexico or even southern US, where people are happy to get $11 per hour. There's several companies in the area that have closed their doors and moved to Brazil, Mexico, and China.

With a privately held company making over a billion a year, you'd have to wonder when is enough enough? No stockholders to satisfy, maybe it'd be nice to look out for people instead. But maybe it's just like me. Social conscience? Not here.

toolfan · 12-13-2007, 01:43 PM

Do you begrudge the operator his $19/hr, or do you think your time has more value than you are currently compensated for it?

vwboomer · 12-13-2007, 02:03 PM

Nope I don't begrudge him anything. I think, however, that if a person has a certain skill set and degree of responsibility, he/she should be compensated for it.

There are benefits to being in my position. I'm not stuck in one place 8 hours a day, I have some variety in what I do each day, things like that. We have to make sure we do our jobs well and, especially, safely. Others rely on us for their safety. So yup, I think we should be getting more $, but not that production should be getting any less than they do.

toolfan · 12-13-2007, 02:21 PM

As an interesting aside -

I think it was in the early '30s (may have been a little bit earlier) that Kellogg started requiring a 32 hour work week and continued to pay for a 40 hour work week. The interesting thing is that gross production (and therefore profits) went up, as did morale.
There was also a noted rise in acts of good deeds and charity in the town where the factory was (is?).