Anybody who's in full-fledged fishing mode might wanna back out of this thread, I just gotta put some frustrations down in text...I don't feel like boggin my wife down with the drama.

So I'm a production supervisor. I am one of 2 supervisors on the shift. We are responsible for about 100 employees on 2nd shift. There are about 40 full timers and the rest are temporary employees.

There are not highly skilled workers. The highest paid of the full-timers is about $15.00 an hour and there's only about 10-12 of them in that pay range. The average hourly worker there is making $10 full time and 8.50 for a temp.

OKAY that being said, I am so f'n SICK of the drama that a select few of them bring. It's the same crap every day....Person A can't get along with Person B.

I'm 26 years old, supervising these 40 year old people and they act like they're in middle school. I swear, they're worse than teenagers when it comes to not being able to get along with each other. I tell them repeatedly that they don't have to like each other, they just have to act professional toward each other for 8 hours.

Yes, I do hold them accountable and yes, I do write them up. I have 3 of my line leaders on their Final Warning level of discipline right now. It just gets really old dealing with the same crap every day.

I have just kind of decided that I'm at the point now where I'm tired of "mentoring & coaching" and giving them chance after chance. My viewpoint right now is that if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem....and if you haven't gotten on board by now, you ain't gonna get on board. So I guess I'll just write them up for everything from now on and hope that they're out the door soon.

It's a shame because I truly do believe in the "good" in all people. I like to give chances and I like to believe that folks are going to try to get better. But hell when they just don't show you any improvement after you've coached and coached and coached....

I think that something I really need to work on is that I tend to "take my work home with me"....IE I have been thinking about this big debate I had with one of my employees yesterday all day long today. She berated her operators on the line and I demanded she come to my office...told her she just cut the legs right out from under herself and that those people she just yelled at had no respect for her as a leader....we went back and forth and I've been repeating the conversation in my head a thousand times this weekend.

ARGGHHH...to top it off I have to work tomorrow (Sunday)...which means by this coming Friday I will have worked 14 days with only 1 day off in between...I REALLY need to get out and go fishing. I might have to call in sick one day next week......

Anyways, I just needed to vent....I didn't want to pile this all on my wife because I know that in the overall scheme of things, this ISN'T that big of a deal....I'm in control of the employee situation and if they don't get on board I can just keep documenting it and writing them up until they're gone......but I guess I'm just a "human" and have a conscious so this kinda crap bothers me.

Wish I could be a cold-hearted type of supervisor :(

Ego,
Im the General Manager of the California Pizza Kitchen restaurant at Short Pump Towne Center. I have been a restaurant manager for 13 yrs. I have about 100 employees. I deal with the same issues you do brother. Dont dispair. Rule #1, cover your A--, then just document, document, and get rid of the bad apples and trouble makers. The rest will fall in line.
Bill

One of the things I get paranoid about are those employees who know they are one step away from getting fired making up some BS accussations and calling HR on me....

The folks I work with can be very vindictive and vengeful if they think you're "out to get them"....which is what most of these people think. No matter how many infractions they do and how much of a case you build against them they still feel like you're singling them out.....that victim mentality kills me.

Like you said, I know my job is just to document, document, document.....but still, that stuff just gets to me.

I guess that's part of MY development, to not let it get to me.

Work sucks bottom line that is why it is called work...Having said that sure wish I was working right now. I am an I.T. project manager and have been out of a job for 5 months and it justs sucks. I long for the days I had a job to ***** about.

Jeff

So THAT'S how you get to fish all the time :)

Yea you know when I think about the bottom line of it, none of this is really going to affect me....I'm in the driver's seat of these situations ya know? It's not MY job that's on the line...

But like I said, the DECENT HUMAN BEING inside of me just gets bugged by all of the conflict, deceit, and just plain old ANGER behind some of these people.

5 months of Jerry Springer and I would be pulling my hair out, if I had any. Ive been there, thats why I shave my head, to save me the trouble. I was out 3 months.

The only thing worse than having to work is, having no work. Good luck to you all and if you got a Job be glad that you do. Many are about to lose one.
Blackie,

Dont sweat the small stuff man. At some point, you will realize people's opinions on each other is small stuff. If it affects productivity...thats when you can em. But even then, its still small stuff.

As I mentioned in another thread, Im a Ind/Com Construction Sup. I deal with anywhere between 10-40 Sub Foreman and their workers which can equal over 500 people on my site, at any givin time. And thats just skilled labor.

If I worried about squabbles, with that many people on my site, I'd never get any of the meaningful things done...equates to me not doing MY job.

Just remember, as long as there are at least 2 humans on this planet, there will be spats....Its unavoidable.

And as for being cold hearted...Its either their job or yours...Cold hearted is not putting food on your family's dinner table. It IS that Black and White.

You got that right. In the end it IS all small stuff......it's just me doing my job. Not a pretty, glitzy side of the job, but my job nonetheless....

Thanks for the pep talk. Going back into work in about an hour....