View Full Version : Interesting workforce phenomena
The recent economic situation has caused all sorts of interesting conditions and behaviors in the workplace, for those that case to observe such things. One such is something we've seen in the construction business for years, and that is a lack of productivity at the worker level leading to better perceived job security.
In the construction business on jobsites this has historically manifested in a couple of ways. One example was the pipefitter that goofed off all week so he would have to come in with his crew on weekends and get 1.5x time to do the work he should have had done by Friday. From my perspective this wasn't really an issue because come Monday morning he was caught up, and he wasn't on the critical path anyway, and being an employee of my subcontractor his extra pay wasn't coming out of my pocket. Let's consider this the micro level as it was contained to 7-day cycles.
Another, which was a problem for me, was the electrician who knew that his company didn't have a job to send him to next, which meant that his paycheck was dependent on the job he was on. It was, therefore, in his personal best interests to NOT get anything done. He needed to do as little work as he possibly could to appear to be making forward progress. Let's consider this the macro level as his intentional incompetence dragged out for weeks, was on the critical path of the schedule, and was delaying the completion of the project which was costing me money both in terms of liquidated damages and personally as my bonus was tied to the profitability of the project.
This last example is what I'm seeing more and more of. With the economy in the dumper and no work on the horizon, it seems like everyone from the public sector to the private who's work revolves around repeated projects seems to have a vested interest in NOT being productive. From building departments that delay reviewing plans, reject them when they finally do review them, fail inspections the first time as a matter of course, etc. to the above situation with the single electrician becoming the status quo instead of an isolated single person.
Anyone else see this?
One thing we had around here at the beginning of the crash in 2008, and some in 2009 were subs who laid off all their guys but were willing to work at a loss to have cash flow to make payments on their equipment.
Now that lots of equipment has been repossessed (Cat was a mother****er about this and put lots of little guys out of business), there is another trend: Loading ALL overhead into one job. So although there is a lot of excess capacity out there, due to the small amount of work some subs think that they should load all of their overhead onto a single job making their charges way too high.
A lot of the materials suppliers, like lumber, granite countertop guys, etc. had a bunch of bad accounts receivables, which eventually make their way back into the bids being written now. It is part of the cost of doing business, so eventually we all pay.
Another thing that was happening at the beginning of the downturn was that inspectors had free time on their hands. So instead of inspecting jobs, they were going around looking for guys doing little stuff without a permit. One of my neighbors got nabbed for a shed and another got nabbed for roof repair, without a permit. I got a demand letter about some rocks that I had placed 2 years before. But apparently the county mayor got the message that if the inspectors made themselves a pain in the ass, then there would be a generalized movement for a layoff of county staff, and consequently I did not see a single roving inspector all of last year.
A friend of mine who is a commercial general contractor spent half of 2009 writing bids full time, and did not get a single job out of it. Lots of projects were being bid, but almost none of them moved forward.
While my personal, day to day, experience is in the construction business, the phenomena of intentional reduction in production at the personal level does not appear to be limited to that industry. From what I've seen it's any industry that works on an assignment or project basis, where once this work item is complete it requires a new project to remain employed.
ChicagoTex
02-28-11, 08:14
Those of us not working on a contract by contract (i.e. working in situations where working more slowly isn't to anyone's advantage) basis are seeing a lot of additional pushing from employers: sharp increases in productivity goals (despite the fact that there's actually LESS business), arbitrary cutting of benefits such as sick time/vacation time, shifting of business-related expenses to employees (uniforms, tools, office supplies, etc.) that were previously paid for by the company and constant general threats that any minute now any and all of us could be out on the street since we can now (supposedly) be replaced in a heartbeat.
I have always viewed my ability to work as a privilege, and my work ethic and attitude have earned me the private assurance of my managers that I'm not remotely close to the chopping block despite all the general posturing, but it is nevertheless wearisome.
jklaughrey
02-28-11, 08:26
I have a friend who works in manufacturing who was told by his boss to stop working so efficiently and concise because it was making others look bad. He was told to "milk the clock" more or he would be terminated because the other employees were senior in their time working at the company and it would be detrimental to him to "show them up".
WTF, strong work ethic used to get you a raise, now it gets you fired!
Simple economics. The incentive, whether perceived or real, to milk a job is greater than the incentive to finish on time or ahead of schedule. This phenomena has been occurring for time in memoriam.
Rmplstlskn
02-28-11, 08:51
OK, this thread is depressing...:eek:
I often wonder how we will get out of this mess as the past "good times" were a FACADE on credit and on loan...
Rmpl
I hope all the lazy ass people who want to milk the system or milk jobs be lazy etc... loose their jobs and homes and dont get them back have to work hard from the bottom up again !
I am sick of it and it all comes back on the folks but they are to stupid to see that ! maybe "they will work harder with a gun in their back for a bowl of rice a day" (some of you may know this from lyrics) when America falls because of their ignorant attitude
the new America system ! SUE or join a union dont pay anything and think the rich are evil and expect everything
its a sad state we are in for sure
I have a friend who works in manufacturing who was told by his boss to stop working so efficiently and concise because it was making others look bad. He was told to "milk the clock" more or he would be terminated because the other employees were senior in their time working at the company and it would be detrimental to him to "show them up".
Obviously that boss has no equity in the company.
Union shop?
jklaughrey
02-28-11, 10:24
Actually no it is non union. Just senior mgmt. is ****ing useless. Promote the idiots so they don't screw anything up. It is a defense contractor, and his the supervisor/boss has his job courtesy of his daddy. Small town="good ole boy system". My buddy is from LV and so no family ties here so therefore he is an interloper according to to the pecking order, even though he works circles around everyone else in his shop. Scary, no stupid actually. But he took a 2 week vacation and they fell behind and the 6 others in his shop had to work 25 hours of OT to catch up a week while he was on vacation. Sad really.
I think a possible solution would be to pay based on a piece work schedule or to put in place penalties for not having projects or segments of projects done by X time, providing that the time line is realistic.
I have been pretty immune to this as my guys are paid on a per SF basis and are not paid until after the client agrees project is complete. So it is in their best interest to work as fast and accurately as they can in order to get paid. This is good because it adds to our reputation and garners more business.
One thing I am seeing from some of my clients (and one is the biggest jackwagons to do this) are the changing of the standards / deliverables. If we balk or demand more time or money a few remind us that they can get one of our competitors to finish the job.
So I get it on both ends.
One thing I am seeing from some of my clients (and one is the biggest jackwagons to do this) are the changing of the standards / deliverables. If we balk or demand more time or money a few remind us that they can get one of our competitors to finish the job.
Of course the answer to that might be to let him do that. See if the competitor can do the same quality in the same time. If he can, you have a problem, if not, you may cut this sort of nonsense off at the pass.
...One such is something we've seen in the construction business for years, and that is a lack of productivity at the worker level leading to better perceived job security.
In the construction business on jobsites this has historically manifested in a couple of ways. One example was the pipefitter that goofed off all week so he would have to come in with his crew on weekends and get 1.5x time to do the work he should have had done by Friday...
Another, which was a problem for me, was the electrician who knew that his company didn't have a job to send him to next, which meant that his paycheck was dependent on the job he was on. It was, therefore, in his personal best interests to NOT get anything done. He needed to do as little work as he possibly could to appear to be making forward progress... Anyone else see this?
These are the same things I used to notice in the powerplant construction business as well, from 01' - 09'. The apathetic, piece of shit entitlement union ****s who work in that business are the laziest fat bastards I've ever met!
I have a friend who works in manufacturing who was told by his boss to stop working so efficiently and concise because it was making others look bad. He was told to "milk the clock" more or he would be terminated because the other employees were senior in their time working at the company and it would be detrimental to him to "show them up".
WTF, strong work ethic used to get you a raise, now it gets you fired!
Often found in the public sector as well.
I own and manage a heavy utilities construction company. I'm experiencing this now and I don't see a productive way to deal with the problem.
If you fire the slackers on your labor force, skilled or unskilled, three months from the end of a 16 mo. project, who do you replace them with? There's only one answer, labor that will quickly realize there is only three months left in the project and you're back in the same situation.
Subs are even a worse case. You fire your sub because they're slacking. What company is going to want to step in and finish a project three months from the end and finishing the work behind another sub. I'll tell you. The company that will charge you 2 to 3 times what the work is actually worth. This is not unrealistic nor in most cases unfair. Coming behind another contractor is a major pain in the ass and rarely worth the money for most people.
This economy has been killing my company for the last 18 months. There is no work to bid and what little there is, they'll be a contractor on the bid list that will bid it at cost just to hang on another few months. The slacking is just helping us bleed out faster. I don't know what to do about it.
Tougher times I have not seen in 30 years.
I know that there are some good people and companies out there that wouldn't do the things that I described above. However, I think I'd have better luck winning the lottery than having one walk through my door.
Scoby
All I know is I'm working twice as hard for half as much money.
What we clearly need is a FFL "union." Then I can get paid to not sell guns.
:D
well the rest of the world now knows what its like in Hawaii where this is common
Of course the answer to that might be to let him do that. See if the competitor can do the same quality in the same time. If he can, you have a problem, if not, you may cut this sort of nonsense off at the pass.
One would normally think. Alas I am in a very niche market and there are only about 4 of us that are considered to be major players in the nation. So the competition is cut throat and income is so tight for all of us that none of us is willing to take that chance. Yeah they have us by the balls and they know it.
I am naive to contracting jobs, construction etc., but is it not possible to tie up a contractor's reimbursement for the job to timeliness of its completion?
It is not exactly apples to apples, but certain things I do have well-defined time limits; missing those can lead to a number of undesirable circumstances, plus, there are some other aspects involved. Naturally, we rarely miss our times and we're certainly can't even think of procrastinating.
threeheadeddog
02-28-11, 22:18
I work at an hourly job in the auto industry. I constantly get crap for working at capacity because I am "costing us(coworkers) money" or some such crap by not dragging out a 45ish hour work week to 60 hours.
Ethically speaking I refuse to not work to my ability as I see it as stealing from my employer to whom I have a duty to be both honest and productive. As an hourly employee I am paid BY THE HOUR and as such I can only assume that if I can do x work in x hours than I should do 2x work in 2x hours. To do 1x work in 2x hours would be stealing unless I was only being paid for 1x work.
Also worth noting is that as an employee(non-union) who does work at my capacity I have absolutely no problem find extra work to get more hours. Supervisors are more than willing to give me work to fill in for someone who is on leave when they know that I will not negatively effect their work area. Employees who through no fault of their own are stuck in 80+ hour jobs are also more receptive to someone filling in who does not stretch out a job making them have even less time with their families.
As always it is the same people complaining about not getting enough hours who are generally worthless and would not be able to find extra work because noone is willing to put 1 person on a 10 person assembly line who will add 2 hours to everyones job just so he can be lazy and get paid.
dookie1481
03-01-11, 01:47
I have a friend who works in manufacturing who was told by his boss to stop working so efficiently and concise because it was making others look bad. He was told to "milk the clock" more or he would be terminated because the other employees were senior in their time working at the company and it would be detrimental to him to "show them up".
WTF, strong work ethic used to get you a raise, now it gets you fired!
My dad told me this same story, except it happened in the late 60's.
I work at an hourly job in the auto industry. I constantly get crap for working at capacity because I am "costing us(coworkers) money" or some such crap by not dragging out a 45ish hour work week to 60 hours.
Ethically speaking I refuse to not work to my ability as I see it as stealing from my employer to whom I have a duty to be both honest and productive. As an hourly employee I am paid BY THE HOUR and as such I can only assume that if I can do x work in x hours than I should do 2x work in 2x hours. To do 1x work in 2x hours would be stealing unless I was only being paid for 1x work.
Also worth noting is that as an employee(non-union) who does work at my capacity I have absolutely no problem find extra work to get more hours. Supervisors are more than willing to give me work to fill in for someone who is on leave when they know that I will not negatively effect their work area. Employees who through no fault of their own are stuck in 80+ hour jobs are also more receptive to someone filling in who does not stretch out a job making them have even less time with their families.
As always it is the same people complaining about not getting enough hours who are generally worthless and would not be able to find extra work because noone is willing to put 1 person on a 10 person assembly line who will add 2 hours to everyones job just so he can be lazy and get paid.
A buddy of mine owns his own business doing standard and custom concrete work. He's an honest, word-is-my-bond, handshake-is-my-contract kind of guy. He bids fairly, shows up on time, hires good people, does meticulously high quality work, stays on schedule, and leaves the job site cleaner than he found it. He has more work than he knows what to do with, and turns down far more jobs than he takes. He works hard. He is keenly aware that he could lower the bar a bit, still have plenty of work, and increase his margin and take-home substantially, but "it wouldn't be right."
My mechanic is the same way. If I have an issue with a car, I can drop it off, tell him to fix what he thinks needs repairing, and tell me what it costs. I get a job done right at a reasonable cost. Like my concrete buddy, he could make a lot more money if he wanted to.
There are good folks out there. They can be hard to find sometimes, though.
militarymoron
03-01-11, 11:19
Anyone else see this?
i've observed this every working day to some extent for the past 18 years working in a union environment (aerospace mechanical technicians). i'm salaried, but union technicians are assigned to me to when i'm down on the floor. i'd say that i observe a bit of that every time i go to the floor, but it's usually with certain individuals. i'd estimate that about 25% of them bust their asses and are truly hard-working, 50% are in cruise-control, and 25% are dragging their feet and counting the hours till they punch out.
but, i've actually seen a reduction in the time-wasters over the past couple of years as the more senior techs are retiring and we're hiring new, young blood, willing to work and glad to have a job in this economy.
the current environment i work in is pretty high pressure due to a lot of work, slipping schedules and rising costs, so there's a lot of peer pressure from those who work hard on those who don't. we're running three shifts around the clock and two on the weekend. if you're not carrying your weight, people won't want to work with you. i think that people are finally seeing the big picture and realizing that if the company doesn't stay afloat, they're out of a job.
Maybe Dem leaders are encouraging this behavior - lead by example.
http://antzinpantz.com/kns/images/FEB11/wisconsin-dem-bus.jpg
it's a really shitty environment right now. everyone has reverted to some prehistoric, primal self-preservation mode. guys are bidding at cost just to keep the cash flowing, and ripping each other off to make up for it. i recently had to break off a 12 year friendship and 2 year business association because he'd under-bid, run out of money and expected me to finish the project for free. in his desperation, he somehow believed threatening me was the best way to approach the situation... why didn't he just level with me, ask me for help? we could have figured something out. i'll never know. as it was, my reaction was to tell him to eat shit.
i don't have to worry about subs soaking up all my profit. they've all gone under. last year i had a project sit with bare studs for two weeks because i couldn't find a licensed sheet rocker. the guy who was supposed to do the work let his bond lapse... he wanted to do the work anyway, but you simple cannot have unlicensed subs on these big high-vis jobs. i can't afford the fine. the three guys i had in my phone were all TU, and i don't call random people out of the phone book- referrals only.
i'm out. i quit. i've been on the verge for over a year. i've been flying my own banner for 4 years... the first 2 years were great- made a boat load. the last 2 years have gobbled up everything i made in the first. i'm not bankrupt, i'm not defaulting- but probably only because i have to option of not paying my own salary. my insurance and bond have absolutely skyrocketed from already skyrocketed highs last year. i've never had a claim, and i pay cash for everything. they can shove it- i'm not renewing this year. not as a General, anyway.
so today, for the first time in 6 or 7 years, i'm writing a resume. there are two project manager positions available with bigger companies in portland. one's a straight salary gig- no commission. the other's a salary + commission.... traditionally, you'd want the commission job. but you know what? i'm kind of hoping i get the straight salary gig. that way i can't end up in the situation rob describes, with sponges for subs and employees, soaking up all my pay.
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