dealing with my boss...

[grumpydasmurf]

As some of you know I am in a position where I have some control but not toal control. I still have to refer to my boss on various subjects like scheduling. Oh man this past week of shceduling has me damned near ready to quit...

Everything he tells me is a lie, and I don't think he is lieing on purpose... but it's making me look like a liar to all my customers.

One case... I always brag how good our cleanup is. Last wednesday we started a job. We finished as the sun was going down on Friday night. Supposedly one of our guys went back the next day to cleanup. The customer has been calling me since Sunday to bitch about all the garbage left behing. When I ask my boss it's always "Ummm explain exactly what needs to be done... ok I'll have someone there today." The next day the customer calls. I don't get paid until the job is finished and the customer doesnt consider this finished, and I don't consider this part of my job.

Another situation. A good customer, general contractor, who gives me personally a ton of work has had a 2 square torch down in our schedule for two weeks. Albeit we have about 3 weeks of what we call "shitty jos" being jobs that take one man a day or less, but EVERYTIME we make out the schedule, the next morning it's like we never did. Our repair guy is out on HIS jobs that were scheduled for next week.

I don't need this stress! What can I do? If he were an employee of mine I'd fire him. I can only lean on him so much before he fires me.

[grumpydasmurf]

I forgot to mention earlier today I called him to ask about 2 specific little jobs and he starts going "I... Can't... Hear... You... Bad... Signal..." and laughing. He obviously knows there is a problem but doesn't care.

[Rich]

Probably one of the hardest things I've had to learn how to do is manage up as well as manage down. Up being the hardest to deal with by far. I would suggest a face to face meeting with him and explain what you expect from him and what he expects of you. When he says something like "I expect you to get more work and keep our employees busy" you can come back with "Well in order for me to do that I need a very specific schedule so the clients we currently have are not upset when I tell them someone is going to be there and nobody shows."
This may bring his wrath upon you, but I've sat through many butt chewings with a smile on my face. Later on it becomes apparent that they realize that I was right or at the minimum showed them I was concerned about the well being of the company. If he doesn't see that you are concerned I would probably look into buying or starting that new company.

[grumpydasmurf]

No money :cry: I mean I have enough to make ti through winter without crying. Infact if I decided 2 months ago to start my own business maybe it coulda worked but at this point... he has a bunch due to me and I'm not going to find much work in the next 4-6 weeks before the snows come.

Definetly not enough work to re-coup my nest egg. I'd have to definetly take on a second job to make it through the winter if I left now. I am guesstimating to make 20k more before the end of this year.

[utahcutter]

one thing to remember when shit hits the fan it doesn't spread evenly. Bringing up you concerns now may cost you a few brownie points, but you'll have something to go back on if things get bad. Also, present your opinion very distinctly as your concern for the company. It's hard to penalize an employee who is just trying to think of ways to make the company more money. much easier to get after someone who just want's to shed some stress. Keep the situation in your control. You may not always like the people you work with, but they don't have to know that. And you are in control. Same with new ideas that have quirks. Say you look forward to seeing it happen, give a few helpful suggestions that can lead to pointing out problems. This puts the task of making things work on whoever had the bright idea in the first place. It's all in the politics, gotta love it.

[grumpydasmurf]

As I spent 3 hours cleaning this morning I was thinking... Each job should have a report card, by the customer and by the project manager. Then each employee should get a copy of the report card for each job with their pay check.

[Rich]

We do something similar to that. When a job is complete we have a questionnaire and an exit interview with the owner and all the employees. And if we send a staff member to another job before it's done we have an exit interview before they leave. It works out really well and we get a lot of feedback from it. It doesn't help the overall company in the short run - but in the long run as more and more interviews are done it helps the company because we hit each employee at least twice.
For the first 2 years of employment employees will have a goal setting review and performance review every 6 months - this is also helpful having a set of fresh eyes on everything. I wouldn't say that they contribute to changing the company in the short term.. but again does help in the long term. Some of our employees have been with the company for over 30 years in a 75 year old company. We must be doing something right :D