One year I took a nice 2 week vacation, and this is what happened when I got back:
1. 8 projects that could have been done by my techs (I trained them, I know what they can do) were waiting on me. When I asked one of my techs, she said the boss wanted me to do it because he didn't believe that any of them could. She asked if she could do it 3 times and he told her not to touch it.
2. They hired 1 warehouse person, operations manager, and an inventory control person (I'm not saying they're bad people) right before I went on vacation. All the procedures that took the rest of us 5 years to establish for things (seemingly unimportant to them) like, proper inventory management, quality control, and department communication were changed. That was 3 years ago and we still have problems with all three (worked like a well oiled machine before).
3. Then I had the usual parts that I had not trained anyone on yet and a long list of tech support questions to finish. That was expected, however.
Since then if I take more than 3 days off in a week, it's because I'm sick and even then, I'm calling in to make sure things are done right.
I love my job, thank God, but there are times I miss that go to work, do your job, and go home feeling I used have when I was a field tech. I was responsible for my service calls and that was it. Notice I did not say service manager. I don't miss that. Too much like being operations manager. You're in the middle in that job, crap runs downhill and rises up to your eyeballs at the same time. Here, I'm kind of like the oil that makes the machine work. It works without me, but not as well. Additionally, I can't figure out how I got all these extra jobs that have absolutely nothing to do with being a technician.
"Did you order the office supplies from Staples?"
"You were late this morning, your supposed to be here to make the coffee."
"The air conditioning in the breakroom went out again, can you see what you can do?"
oh and did I mention, this company has 3 owners who are all equally important...
"I need a service note written for this problem?"
"Why are you doing a service note, we need these parts?"
"Do those parts later, I have a tech support question on line 1?"
"Why haven't you finished the service note already, we need that done today?"
"Can you make a list of what exactly you do here, because we want to make sure it's cost effective?"
Can't take a service call to hide from them either. The good thing is I have 2 supervisors that let me run my department the way I want, defend what I do to the big 3, and are fun to work with. Plus, I don't get that bored having a variety of things to do. The big 3 don't like when I'm not here, so a random sick day, if I mention the time I quit one job without having another job to go to (had another job before I got home and not afraid to do it again if I have to), or ask them if they want my door key, usually straightens out the problems.
There are more positives than negatives, so far. When the negatives outweigh the positives, I'll go somewhere else. Besides, I'm getting a bit of vacation time in Sept. Can't wait...
1. 8 projects that could have been done by my techs (I trained them, I know what they can do) were waiting on me. When I asked one of my techs, she said the boss wanted me to do it because he didn't believe that any of them could. She asked if she could do it 3 times and he told her not to touch it.
2. They hired 1 warehouse person, operations manager, and an inventory control person (I'm not saying they're bad people) right before I went on vacation. All the procedures that took the rest of us 5 years to establish for things (seemingly unimportant to them) like, proper inventory management, quality control, and department communication were changed. That was 3 years ago and we still have problems with all three (worked like a well oiled machine before).
3. Then I had the usual parts that I had not trained anyone on yet and a long list of tech support questions to finish. That was expected, however.
Since then if I take more than 3 days off in a week, it's because I'm sick and even then, I'm calling in to make sure things are done right.
I love my job, thank God, but there are times I miss that go to work, do your job, and go home feeling I used have when I was a field tech. I was responsible for my service calls and that was it. Notice I did not say service manager. I don't miss that. Too much like being operations manager. You're in the middle in that job, crap runs downhill and rises up to your eyeballs at the same time. Here, I'm kind of like the oil that makes the machine work. It works without me, but not as well. Additionally, I can't figure out how I got all these extra jobs that have absolutely nothing to do with being a technician.
"Did you order the office supplies from Staples?"
"You were late this morning, your supposed to be here to make the coffee."
"The air conditioning in the breakroom went out again, can you see what you can do?"
oh and did I mention, this company has 3 owners who are all equally important...
"I need a service note written for this problem?"
"Why are you doing a service note, we need these parts?"
"Do those parts later, I have a tech support question on line 1?"
"Why haven't you finished the service note already, we need that done today?"
"Can you make a list of what exactly you do here, because we want to make sure it's cost effective?"
Can't take a service call to hide from them either. The good thing is I have 2 supervisors that let me run my department the way I want, defend what I do to the big 3, and are fun to work with. Plus, I don't get that bored having a variety of things to do. The big 3 don't like when I'm not here, so a random sick day, if I mention the time I quit one job without having another job to go to (had another job before I got home and not afraid to do it again if I have to), or ask them if they want my door key, usually straightens out the problems.
There are more positives than negatives, so far. When the negatives outweigh the positives, I'll go somewhere else. Besides, I'm getting a bit of vacation time in Sept. Can't wait...
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