Career Mistake- Making Yourself Too Valuable

There's some things you never get over. This is one of them for me. When I applied for a production job I made it clear I wanted to be a maintenance mechanic. At the time the company was hiring 15-20 people a week for several months. At the time they needed warm bodies as quickly as possible to work entry levels in production.

They explained I could be hired the same day if I agreed to these super boring repetitive jobs. Otherwise my prospects were doubtful. The person doing the hiring said why not take one of these. Then once in I would stand a better chance at becoming a mechanic

Well I paid my dues. For two years I did what had to be the most mind numbing job on Earth. Within those first two years my supervisor gave me a pouch with tools in it. He explained he didn't want the mechanic assigned to my production line equipment touching them since I did a better job doing light repairs on them. In the meantime I continued to bug Rubin, the mechanic supervisor. Eventually he agreed that I should be made a mechanic because of the skills I demonstrated. At last I proved myself!

Two weeks went past. Then three. I approached Rubin and said what's the hold up? He said well Jim, your supervisor, went above his head to the superintendent both which agreed not to release me. WTF!!

I walked off the line and got right up into Jim's face saying he knew how bad I wanted that job. Jim more or less said too bad. If he released me he would lose me to another department which meant he'd end up with the mechanic he didn't want touching my machines. So in other words I screwed myself by doing too good a job.

As a result I figured I'd get even with Jim by bidding out of his damned department. To add insult to injury it took two people to replace the job I once did. Neither which had to repair the equipment like I had to. No hard feeling right? WRONG!

Even though I left that department the superintendent was still around five more years. Being the kind of egotist he was, he never forgot how a skirted around them both. Therefore for 8 years I never could become a mechanic. Finally a new superintendent was moved in his place after he left. The new 'super' immediately setup a new policy for mechanics. Those mechanics who did not have a certificate from an accredited school, even if they were there for 8 years, were bumped down to production. My fate was sealed!

They only hired young graduates from the outside after that. Despite that for 33 years I carried a small tool box around because many of those hired were no better then some of them had been before. Yes there was some really good mechanics, but unless you could snag one of them to work on your production machines you were better off tweaking the equipment yourself unless the job was too big to handle.

As a result for 33 years I received about 25% less pay then I would have otherwise. That works out to $100,000's more I could have earned when overtime is factored in.

Over those years you would have thought I learned my lessons. Alas I must be a slow learner because I always tried my best. Call me an ass, but that's just the way I am. No matter which department I went I was assigned to the most sophisticated equipment even though all operators were paid the same.

Working against me on the other end was my seniority. For every 10 moves I made up the list, 11 were eliminated by automation. I started out 630 on the sonority list of 1100. By the end of 33 years (before I retired) I was number 310 down from the top of the list. Unfortunately the list was down to only 610. In essence I ended up with less seniority then I started out with. Over the last 4 or 5 years I couldn't even hold day shift more less able to bid on any dayshift job above that of general labor. That's when I finally decided to bag it.

So what's the lesson, boys and girls?
Huge corporations' hierarchy cannot be trusted. If I had it to do all over again I would never have agreed to touch the equipment unless I was promoted to the position they all knew I wanted. I was too eager to impress ungrateful uncaring selfish bosses. I was too trusting in those above me would do the right thing. I did not realize at the time they got their jobs not by hard work but by being more selfishly slick then those who held the best interest of the company over that of their own. By the way, the guy in human resources who hired me quit three years after I was hired. He personally told me he could no longer stomach the shenanigans upper level management wanted of him. That was, shall we say, to be 'economical with the truth'. This explains to this day my distrust with companies and their management.

So here's my advice. (1) Never compromise or settle on your goals if what you are doing is not working out after a few months. (2) All the dedicated, honesty and hard work in the world means nothing if others don't show their appreciation. These are people you don't want in your life. (3) Then comes the hardest part. Move on without them. Try a different direction.

My grandson hooked up with a electrician who hired him because he was a lot like I was back then. The difference is this guy not only appreciates his work but offered to pay for his education to become a licensed electrician. Too bad I didn't move on. Who knows how things may have turned out differently if I had?

I've come to the point in my life where I don't give a shit whether others acknowledge or appreciate my efforts or not. Fortunately for me, now that I'm retired, I don't have to. No I'm not bitter, but I'm a hell of a lot wiser. I've been burned too many times by bullshits artists whose actions don't match their words. For me to be otherwise would be the same as building a house before it has a good foundation.

Here's some of the similar kind of equipment I operated..

Up to 5 Palletizers at a time



Depalletizer



We Used Drop Case Packers



Labeller (up tp 550 bottles a minute)



I did these along with dozens more. Including a cooking process involving 8-14,000lb blenders, custom 500lb cheese cookers (500lbs every 3 minutes), dual 250 horsepower cheese grinders, 300 jars per minute fillers and a whole lot more. Including operating forklifts that required ticketing, scanning and warehousing into 3 high racks some 300 pallets per shift. All of them very boring, noisy and very redundant. But hey.. it paid the bills.