unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6770|PNW

Maybe the Koreans will be Sufficiently Impressed with him and he'll have no need to return.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+635|3718
Maybe he will be bored and isolated in a strange culture and start a "it's complicated" relationship with Bill Murray.

Also fuck Bill Murray.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6770|PNW

I feel like this is treading old ground, but aside from Bill Murray apparently being a dick to people IRL and on the set, do we really need more "old guy dates girl young enough to be granddaughter" movies? I fail to see their charm, and it's uncomfortable to watch.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6105|eXtreme to the maX

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

Maybe the Koreans will be Sufficiently Impressed with him and he'll have no need to return.
Maybe he won't be allowed out

In a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, Ms Patel said England's lockdown rules were "clear [that] people should be staying at home unless they have a valid reason to leave. Going on holiday is not a valid reason."

She said the new rule would require people wishing to leave the UK to go abroad to first "make a declaration for why they need to travel", which would then be "checked by carriers prior to departure".

Ms Patel said: "Anyone who doesn't have a valid reason for travel will be directed to return home or they will face a fine.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55821702
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DesertFox-
The very model of a modern major general
+794|6683|United States of America
We found out a week ago that all of us WFH people were being called into work to have a meeting of the minds to push a lot of our outstanding items to closure cause we're behind and it's not a good state to be in. Thus far, it's been nice in that we've been able to delegate a lot of the labor and resources to take some simpler off our plates. I think being present may have helped keep me on task as well, in addition to management putting fairly aggressive goals. At least another week of it, and then I'lll probably be back when they have an on-site vaccine distribution next month.
Pochsy
Artifice of Eternity
+702|5542|Toronto
We're at that point where floating along until the end of the pandemic isn't going to cut it for management bonuses to roll. They see the C-suite getting angry that they can't buy another car this year, and the pinch is being passed down the line. As the pressure builds from the top, the folks at the bottom will either become diamonds or dust from the stress.

T-minus 1 month from routine mental health leaves at work. Calling my shot.
The shape of an eye in front of the ocean, digging for stones and throwing them against its window pane. Take it down dreamer, take it down deep. - Other Families
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6105|eXtreme to the maX
Two years into a reorganisation and a spate of useless new hires there's still no organisation chart in sight.
The work I'm doing is open-ended but I'm contracting and on contract rates so I don't care. There've been mutterings that it needs to get done and finished but every time I delve into something I find a whole new can of worms and other people's half-assed and unfinished work so bad luck for them, they either want it fixed or not. If not I don't care either.
And if people sit on their asses and don't sign off on my projects then amazingly they don't get released and I can't go onto the next step - whatever that is.
Protip: If you acquire what is supposed to be an ISO9000 company its worthwhile to still do an audit to see if they really do have any documentation in place before you fire all the staff.
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Pochsy
Artifice of Eternity
+702|5542|Toronto
How long has the company been in business? How was the quality when you first joined? Are your standards just too high, and 'good enough' is good enough to make money?

I think there's a few missing considerations in the problem identification here.
The shape of an eye in front of the ocean, digging for stones and throwing them against its window pane. Take it down dreamer, take it down deep. - Other Families
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6105|eXtreme to the maX
I've been with the company ten years on and off. The acquired company was in business 30 years and apparently a market leader.

Its complex in that the former CEO had a track record of buying companies with good cash flow, absorbing them, firing the original employees then raping the customers and grinding that business unit into nothing until it was nothing but a nameplate. He repeated that multiple times and apparently it kept the shareholders happy.

The CEO's last act was to acquire another company, fire all the staff, then sell the parent company to private equity cashing himself out - neat trick. Only later did the PE firm discover that the company as a whole is a basket case masked by the cashflow of the new acquisition which is now dead in the water.
The situation now is they're trying to make products and keep customers happy with little clue about how to make the products or what the customers want as all the information is in the heads of the people who were fired. (It didn't help that the quality and engineering manager who was responsible for managing the acquisition was a gutless pussy who was in total fear of the CEO and would lie on his behalf - he was left with little choice but to resign)
Various people did sort of dabble in it, declared the work was done and integrated and everything was tickety-boo, except it wasn't. So when customers started ordering products and it was realised they couldn't be made because no-one knew how it all turned to shit.

My job is to unscramble this mess and help manufacturing and purchasing figure out how to get it all working, then probably fix all the product faults and bring everything up to date without upsetting any customers as we go along.
Its not been helped by no-one really understanding the market or the products, the marketing manager has been wholly useless, hence he's been fired. "I just take in the orders and pass them to manufacturing" OK goodbye.
Thankfully none of this stuff is safety critical, other business units are safety critical and are in a much worse state. One failure and the PE firm will likely be bankrupted. Their plan from day one was to crank cashflow and get out after 3-4 years so bad luck for them.

Protip 2: If you acquire an engineering firm its worthwhile to audit the engineering, not just the finances.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2021-01-28 19:11:59)

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Pochsy
Artifice of Eternity
+702|5542|Toronto
All fair assessment. What I'd suggest is a degree of professional detachment from these situations. Executioner of Paris style. Don't make it a personal problem that stresses you out. Often engineers are extremely prideful of their work, and it leads to them taking huge amounts of ownership that really just leads to stress and burn out. This is/was the central conceit of the Dilbert comics you've named yourself after. Self preservation is an instinct that has to be in place--you've made clear you know the management team will turf you the second they get down wind of the negativity.

This all sounds like pithy cliché, but for real, it's the business survival playbook.

Last edited by Pochsy (2021-01-29 02:10:34)

The shape of an eye in front of the ocean, digging for stones and throwing them against its window pane. Take it down dreamer, take it down deep. - Other Families
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6105|eXtreme to the maX
I'm not worried, I don't care, they need me more than I need them.

Its fun and painful to watch, sad for the people who want to keep their jobs, meanwhile I'm using the workshop to make handy stuff for myself, new gun barrels, robot housings, maybe a heavy duty robot.

It is instructive to see just how little any exec team really cares about the people, the business, the customers or anything else.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
Pochsy
Artifice of Eternity
+702|5542|Toronto
Capitalism teaches us that greed is good. It's literally the doctrine taught to children to avoid scary ideas like sharing too much, which could result in insane things like socialism or communism. I'm not saying the pendulum should swing 100% in the other direction (towards sharing as a core principle), but I am saying the pendulum is so abjectly skewed towards greed, that, well, we have...abject power asymmetry.

I genuinely believe people are starting to see this, to an extent. Where it will go, who knows, but I see the problem being presented in an extremely visceral way through the looking glass of the pandemic.
The shape of an eye in front of the ocean, digging for stones and throwing them against its window pane. Take it down dreamer, take it down deep. - Other Families
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6105|eXtreme to the maX

Dilberts new sales rep wrote:

Someone is going to have to sit with me and explain this to me, cause have no idea what im looking at
Still, a massive improvement over the last one.
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unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6770|PNW

That's ideal though, isn't it? A competent sales rep who wants to steer clear of impostor syndrome and actually learn about the product?
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6105|eXtreme to the maX
Well kind of I guess, better than "I don't know what I'm doing and I don't care, I'd still like a salary though"
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6105|eXtreme to the maX
Oh and the new org chart doesn't even list anyone below senior manager.

OK, fuck you all, I'm slacking off now until I get found out.
Haven't even ordered my .357 barrel throat reamer or threading die, am I brave enough to just cut them with a single point tool?
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unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6770|PNW

My personal rule is to wait for the better tool unless it's something that needs done now.
KEN-JENNINGS
I am all that is MOD!
+2,973|6631|949

I have an interview scheduled for Monday with the person who would be my boss. Things are moving quick!
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6105|eXtreme to the maX
My manager keeps getting shitty then apologising a few hours later.

Not really sure what to make of it, I think I said before, there is literally nothing happening in the factory at present. Normally we'd have two internal products and two external products being launched into the factory at any one time which would keep him and everyone else busy - which he is yet to experience, as it is he's out of his depth in nothing.
It doesn't help the new owners are right on with new wave management bullshit, everyone is in pointless meetings at least half the day, too bad for them. The last manager took early retirement in part because he couldn't deal with that - but mostly because he was lazy.

Next time he does it he's going to be told he can behave or shove this job up his arse.
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Larssen
Member
+99|1886
You said you were a contractor right. I'd just up and leave at some point
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6105|eXtreme to the maX
Probably going to happen.

I'm mostly waiting for decisions and direction out of other people and scratching around to find things to do, so at this point I'm somewhat spectating

In the meantime I'll keep taking the money, its just annoying when people get stroppy and shitty when the problems are all other people's laziness and dishonesty and I'm there to try to solve it.
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unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6770|PNW

I think that's more the norm than the exception. Just gotta keep records to protect yourself, it's a pain.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6105|eXtreme to the maX
On the plus side, the tedious bitch who has spent the last six months being unhelpful and obstructive has now been taken off her preferred work and been tasked with delivering everything she's obstructed. L M A O

Still, she has a special talent for deflecting blame.
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unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6770|PNW

Whenever I think about how annoying things at my company sometimes get I just think back to the time I was at the site listening over the phone to two women screaming at eachother in their property manager office. The other guy in my truck they were on the line with removed it from his ear, put it on speaker, and started making faces to go along with it. They kind of deserved the mockery considering the threats and the nasty things they were insinuating about our company on that call. The whole toxic fiasco turned out to be mountains out of molehills.

tl;dr, glad I wasn't working there

Would not feel bad in the slightest at dropping them from our list of customers, but as frustrating as they are to work with sometimes (some other companies have refused), we still get lots of work from them.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6770|PNW

Meme for macbeth, from random internet teacher rant:

https://i.imgur.com/hxkxcFy.jpg

full rant: https://imgur.com/gallery/g8RlV1G

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