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Post by rodge on Jul 28, 2022 21:50:02 GMT
I’ve worked as an engineer now for over half of my life.
I’ve had many employers and many colleagues who have become friends and some that I’d like to forget.
My latest job has me working with someone who is a genuinely nice bloke. We were at the pub this evening with other colleagues, eating, laughing and drinking and having a good time being out in a non Covid environment.
However, I know something about him that the others don’t. He’s getting fired in the morning.
His personality is great but unfortunately he’s terribly incompetent, to the point of being dangerous to others.
He hasn’t listened when things have been explained to him, has had to have his work checked, has had to be stopped from doing stuff, the list goes on.
I work in an environment where people can be killed if a valve is turned on that shouldn’t be.
So I’m happy that he is going because it could and would save lives.
But the funniest string of events happened today.
The same guy left his place of work and forgot his helmet.
He had to go back to get it and couldn’t because he didn’t have his helmet to access the area.
So he borrowed one and went back but couldn’t get in because his access badge was in his helmet.
So he went to security to get a temp badge to get his helmet and his actual badge.
He got them and then joined us for lunch.
And before he sat down, he started panicking because he couldn’t find his keys so went walking looking for them, only to return a few minutes later telling us he found them in his pocket.
We had lunch and went upstairs to the office.
When he arrives in work tomorrow, he will be told he’s leaving and a part of me is sad for him,but for my own personal safety, I’m glad of him leaving.
Clumsy doesn’t come close, but I’ve known people to interview well and be ill fitting employees but he took it to a new level.
I wish him the best in the future, but man, he certainly gave us some laughs before he left.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Jul 29, 2022 8:58:32 GMT
Not quite the same but there was a funny moment today, a colleague during a Health & Safety discussion yesterday, boasted he'd worked for the company for 32 years without an accident. This morning there was an accident report submitted as he'd burnt his hand on a hot air pencil.
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Post by Grampa on Jul 29, 2022 9:20:44 GMT
I’ve known people to interview well and be ill fitting employees I suspect that's my BIL - must have had at least a dozen jobs in 20 years - most he's left of his own accord, saying, "The bosses are all twats" - I suspect it's more leaving before he's pushed. When he was starting job no 8 or 9 my sister said to him, "I don't want to hear anything about bosses being crap - they can't all be, you need to look at yourself" At one time he wanted to take over our family business and then hardly spoke to me for about 4 years after I told him (in a kinder way) after hearing his business plan: no fucking chance. BUT he must interview well because each time he just walks into one of the first three jobs he applies for - which is amazing - when I was on the other side of job interviews, unless there was an exceptional reason I would never even interview anyone who had changed jobs every year or two for 20 years. |
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Post by rodge on Jul 29, 2022 12:53:37 GMT
Not quite the same but there was a funny moment today, a colleague during a Health & Safety discussion yesterday, boasted he'd worked for the company for 32 years without an accident. This morning there was an accident report submitted as he'd burnt his hand on a hot air pencil. That’s brilliant! |
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Post by Big Blue on Jul 29, 2022 14:17:48 GMT
I’ve changed jobs loads, mainly because I’m a consultant. I now work for a consultancy so my employer is stable but I still can’t be in the same project too long: mainly because I do the front end then throw it over the fence for someone else to move forward with whatever shite I’ve bought into. Most of my new jobs have been because I’ve been recommended or specifically requested and even the current program I’m working on only beat another client request for my services by a week. Amazingly I’m the last man standing from our consultancy on this project so I’m doing something right (mainly earning fees).
The point is modern day employment is far more receptive of high levels of change provided you can demonstrate some element of delivery. I almost always leave because I’ve done what I came to do (one notable exception was Sizewell C when I was asked to leave due to my comments on governance - which was borne out by my continuing to receive the entire UK billing data for a large French provider for over a year after my departure) and that’s why I’m still here.
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Post by Martin on Jul 29, 2022 14:32:18 GMT
I’ve changed jobs loads, mainly because I’m a consultant. I now work for a consultancy so my employer is stable but I still can’t be in the same project too long: mainly because I do the front end then throw it over the fence for someone else to move forward with whatever shite I’ve bought into. Most of my new jobs have been because I’ve been recommended or specifically requested and even the current program I’m working on only beat another client request for my services by a week. Amazingly I’m the last man standing from our consultancy on this project so I’m doing something right (mainly earning fees). The point is modern day employment is far more receptive of high levels of change provided you can demonstrate some element of delivery. I almost always leave because I’ve done what I came to do (one notable exception was Sizewell C when I was asked to leave due to my comments on governance - which was borne out by my continuing to receive the entire UK billing data for a large French provider for over a year after my departure) and that’s why I’m still here. Isn’t that the truth for pretty much every consultant! Along with getting the most senior stakeholder over excited about the size of the ‘opportunity’  We’ve got 3 big consultancies in at the moment and some of the numbers being floated around are eye watering….I just hope they are coming from central functions not my business unit! |
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Post by Big Blue on Jul 29, 2022 14:54:09 GMT
Fortunately the opportunity has been given the green(ish) light by the time I’m asked to come and design and run a competition to deliver it. But then again my post-competition client mantra is “I didn’t know what I wanted but I do know it isn’t that” coupled with mine of “smile and invoice.”
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Post by PG on Aug 2, 2022 8:00:27 GMT
...We’ve got 3 big consultancies in at the moment and some of the numbers being floated around are eye watering….I just hope they are coming from central functions not my business unit! +1. The fees that the big consultancies charge is truly eye-watering. And yet companies keep ponying up. Whereas my approach was always to say "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me", as I got shouted down and the consultancy appointed for mega-fees to do something. My personal favourite was when our corporate tax department paid over £250k for the advice and set up of a company to own IPR in a tax haven (which was of course a truly commercial transaction and nothing at all to do with saving tax). Only for a mis-interpreted piece of information about the double-tax treaty between Australia and said tax haven to lead to the whole thing having to be un-ravelled 5 years later at another £250k+ in fees. I think the overall maths was tax saved £600k, fees £599k. Nice work if you can get it. My attitude no doubt explains why a few people I know who retired got offered nice cushy NXD roles by their consultancy contacts and I didn't.  |
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Aug 2, 2022 8:59:02 GMT
I read a confession by someone who said they had spent most of their working life interviewing really well for roles they were completely unsuited to and then interviewing for the next step up on the ladder before they were found out in their current role. They had now found themselves elevated to a a senior role, couldn't go any higher, and were living each day in fear the whole house of cards was about to come down.
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Post by Big Blue on Aug 2, 2022 9:29:04 GMT
I read a confession by someone who said they had spent most of their working life interviewing really well for roles they were completely unsuited to and then interviewing for the next step up on the ladder before they were found out in their current role. They had now found themselves elevated to a a senior role, couldn't go any higher, and were living each day in fear the whole house of cards was about to come down. This is the entire career profile of almost all Senior Civil servants up to PPS level in my experience. I say "almost" because I've met some great ones but they are stymied by those terrified that they will be the one that pulls their lower card away. |
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Post by rodge on Aug 2, 2022 18:09:31 GMT
The CTO in my last job was one of them. He was found out by the staff quickly and when the good staff left including yours truly, he ended up being fired because he hadn’t a clue and his preferred operating method of throwing young, inexperienced engineers at the problem meant they they had no knowledge- sorry, wisdom- to do the tasks at hand.
I’ve heard it described as an “orphan mentality”. Basically the person holds into everything for fear they will lose it, where the good ones will actually gather and encourage smart people because they all succeed then.
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Post by Stuntman on Aug 3, 2022 20:38:59 GMT
My current employer is very fond of spending eye-watering sums on consultants who have virtually zero real-word knowledge and even less appetite for playing any role in implementation. Unsurprising when our current MD is a former consultant, who has recruited former consultants into senior positions, who then engage current consultants to regurgitate the same words onto the same slides but with a different client name on the logo.
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Post by Alex on Aug 4, 2022 5:55:52 GMT
I've been in H&S consultancy for a few years now and never been in more demand. We're one of the sectors that can be said to have had a rather good pandemic!
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Post by Grampa on Aug 5, 2022 21:19:35 GMT
My current employer is very fond of spending eye-watering sums on consultants who have virtually zero real-word knowledge and even less appetite for playing any role in implementation. Unsurprising when our current MD is a former consultant, who has recruited former consultants into senior positions, who then engage current consultants to regurgitate the same words onto the same slides but with a different client name on the logo. What? You mean consultants visit different clients and tell them exactly the same things?? Well bless my soul! What line of business is it that’s there’s so much money to waste? (A client of mine was given a government funded consultant to look at an aspect of his business - I forget what now - he told me “Waste of fucking time, I don’t need someone tell me what to do, I need someone to do it for me like you do.”) |
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Post by woofwoof on Aug 11, 2022 16:43:48 GMT
I was a supervisor or manager for about 20 years. I'm thankful that I never came across anyone who I could say was incompetent to the point of being a danger but there were certainly people I'd only send to certain jobs and I did discover some mistakes before they became a problem. Anyone can have an off day or be going through something and have it affect their performance, these things can happen. People problems were always my biggest fear as anything technical or logistical could usually be worked around and the customer placated somehow but a people problem could lead to someone losing their job PDQ and facing all the consequences of that. When my little team in computing all went our separate ways I was touched to be told by one that the team experience was the best he'd had in his life. Some kept in touch for years and for a group of people all over the country I took that as a compliment. I was glad to leave work in the end at 49 as so many times things seemed to be going so well and then someone swore at a customer or announced they'd never work with someone again. The people problems were always the most worrying, upsetting and difficult for me. When Mrs WW gave up her job she missed it for a while but has gradually come to the same conclusions as me, that work isn't worth the hassle unless you need the money Her worst experience was hearing a commotion and breaking glass in the car park and when she went to see what was going on she found two female members of staff fighting, one had pulled a knife and the other had a broken bottle. Unarmed she waded in to separate them. I never had anything like that. One guy once threw a pot of tea over me. I sent him home and we had a chat the next morning and he apologised unreservedly and we cleared the air and that was the end of it. Sacking him never crossed my mind but if he hadn't apologised and if we hadn't cleared the air he'd have been another incident away from a more formal talk and possibly being offered an alternative post. He was one of the ones who kept in touch. |
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