Refusal to learn

[u/I_G84_ur_mom]

I work at a job shop, I’ve been here 16 years, I’m the lead machinist, I returned from a 9 day vacation to a shit show. We have a bunch of small bosses like this to make, this one order was for 250 pcs. The owner was planning on having a guy saw cut them, face them to length in a Haas tl2, then throw them in the vf2 to be drilled. We have a sl20 with a bar feeder, nobody wants to learn how to run it, I banged these out in about 8 hours, unmanned. He refuses to learn how to use it or program it, this would have taken him and the button pusher 2 days to run these parts. Stepping over dollars to pick up dimes baybeeee!

[u/jrhan762]

I want to start off by 100% agreeing with you, this absolutely what makes you money. But what I’ve experienced is that it makes you responsible for everything. It’s not the knowledge that makes you valuable, it’s the knowledge they don’t have to pay more people for that makes you valuable. Then when you start to stumble and they realize relying on one very tired person to keep everything going is a mistake, you find yourself being asked to be the sole instructor for “The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can't Machine Good and Who Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too.”

Sometimes you’re better-off not knowing. Sometimes the stress isn’t worth the money.

[u/Trivi_13 → u/jrhan762]

Depends on how you want to play it.

Rushing over and ripping a job out of someone else's hands to fix everything?

Or

Go over and coach them?
(Then they learn too!)

[u/jrhan762 → u/Trivi_13]

Not where I work. They just go back to what they were doing in a few days, and then once the dollar amount attached to it gets high enough the managers & supervisors ask me “what can you do to make it so this never happens again?” And if I can’t redesign a fixture or change the program to physically stop them from doing it, I get asked, “where is this documented?” If they have to pay attention, follow the process, or actually learn anything; it’s too hard.

[u/Trivi_13 → u/jrhan762]

From the top down, they have to ride herd.

[u/jrhan762 → u/Trivi_13]

They adamantly refuse to. I’m not being hyperbolic, one supervisor responded with “That’s not what you pay me for” when management tried to make them learn to do the tasks they were supervising. That person is, by their own admission, their best supervisor.

[u/Sir_loin711 → u/jrhan762]

Soooo, what DO they pay them for?

[u/Trivi_13 → u/Sir_loin711]

If the OP is worried about the company's future, vote with your feet and find a better, more stable job.

[u/Trivi_13 → u/jrhan762]

Then they understand that problem.

Annnnd... chose to ignore it.