Am late to the party
I have been through this a few times. Sometimes, it’s not ones fault.
First Job
Imagine being an Indian Post-Graduate in an old English factory where folks including senior management barely had a degree. Modernisation was, to them, stick a new machine on the floor, shout and scream at everyone till it works. Production managers spent hours shouting at each other to get things going (I was not part of that but that was the culture). Add to that a terrible divide between managers and workforce.
First role was to get existing machines working. All it needed was to educate the operator on proper maintenance and it also exposed the fact that the input material quality was miserable. First alleged mistake– listening to the workforce.
Next one was a tube cutting machine never worked properly leading to high scrap rates. Problem was the work of art in combining the cutting mechanism with the length measuring wheel. Looked nice but the shock of the cutter disrupted measurements, I got a technician (brilliant but alcoholic) to separate the two and it never happened again. The engineering artists were not happy.
I also eliminated some destructive tests and innovated some other stuff. My problem was I never bragged and kept my nose down.
Then a 500000 pounds production line was due in. I managed to wangle a trip to Sweden to talk to the manufacturer, it was found that the specs were wrong. That cost a few months and pissed the management off but it was better than a DOA project. There were two phases.
Before completion of Phase 1 -the management decided to sack me. They left it to my new boss who was a racist brown-noser to pass the news, telling me some alleged home truths along with the bad news. I was given three months. The Manufacturing Director would avoid me, I walked in him and told him “why?”, he had no answer, only some allegations. I tossed my resignation letter on the spot and told hime "fine but let me complete the project".
It was fun, he could not believe seeing me put in a lot of time and effort when production line was installed. Even crazier was the fact that the machine worked from day 1 onwards. My racist boss kept ranting (I was encouraged to involve the union but the job was not worth fighting for).
The Mayor came to inaugurate, I was told to be on hand to ensure nothing goes wrong. I told the PR girl what to do and walked out of the factory. Its fun when you have nothing to lose. Everything worked!
The Racist kept ranting. I come to office one day and find my replacement at my desk. The racist got me moved to another racist boss Howard, in Production Control. He made me do some menial relabeling of stuff on the production floor. Other engineers kept coming up to me and saying, you should refuse!
I did the opposite, I put on a smart suit and stood on the shop floor doing this task. The workers started cracking jokes – “Most educated person doing the most menial jobs” What happened was the normally invisible Managing Director was showing visitors around and asked me what exactly I was doing, and I told him – “I am an engineer tasked with sticking labels”. He got really pissed. I was taken off the floor and made to clean up some production data. When Howard could see what I could do, his attitude changed.
One day, I was given the task of fetching the Manufacturing Director from the airport. I could have given him a rough time but we talked of other stuff. Next day, he asked me to work on some inventory reduction ideas. I then outlined what could be done at a top level, he was all ears but I regretfully said, my time is up in a month.
Bottomline, much to the racist’s chagrin, I got asked to stay on for a couple of months. I also got some extra pay. Paid for a backpack trip around Australia.
Lesson to be learnt – Keep your integrity and dignity in all situations
Another experience was with a consulting firm. Actually, it was a HR + training firm trying to consult. I was new to India and it was not easy. I managed to get a meaty project where I could apply my skills and get my customer some spectacular savings. After that project, with a new baby, I no longer wanted to travel so much, I was crap in business development, so we mutually agreed to part. I worked a deal where I could take long leave until I got something new. Still in touch with the folks
Lesson to be learnt – If things are not working out – negotiate and focus on Win-Win
Finally in another place of work
This was subtle headcount reduction.
Attempt One – not focused on any individual, my role was moved to the US for “co-location” reasons. Folks in New Mexico and India were impacted. We had 18 months notice but my boss was under pressure to cut me loose earlier. He tried every trick in the book but he got nailed so his boss resolved things. It suddenly noted that my departure would create a major void, by then, someone else asked me to work with him. I ended up having a dual role!
Lesson to be learnt – Know the rules and escalate! Attempt Two – Culmination of various things
- A Know-it-all under me trying to undermine me
- A Kafkaesque situation, accused of mishandling something, not disclosed what or given the opportunity to resolve it.
- My boss from another region wanted to give his cronies my work. He was also influenced by an expat lady who lied a lot. He did not believe in questioning authority when required.!)
- Put on a Dead-on Arrival project.
In October, the nice HR lady also called me and said we offer a generous separation package. She was generous! It was time up.
I’m extremely happy, the boss is still playing chopsticks, the Know-it-all is still grumbling and the evil lady was sent back to the US.
Lesson Learnt – Be cordial, accept the end and strive for a new beginning. Karma works for everyone