A message to management.

I want to expound on this a little more, because you are 100% right on the money. Here is a story for you...

My first job out of college was working for the Social Security Administration. The office was located in downtown Ft. Lauderdale, 35 miles from my home in Miami. I had to leave the house before 7 am to get to the job by 8. The first year was classroom training. After the year was up, we all had our positions in the call center. There were about 120 people working there, not including the supervisors. The personnel was divided into units. There were 10 or 11 units, each with roughly 11 or 12 employees.

I normally took about 80-110 calls a day. I was consistently the top producer in my unit, and easily top 5 in the whole office. I was making $21,000 a year. One day, after about two months on the job, I was at the Xerox machine waiting for some documents. A man approaches me. He was wearing blue denim cutoff shorts and a t-shirt. His name was Stu, and I had never said two words to him before in my life there.

So he says to me, "John, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," I replied.

"Why do you work so hard?"

I said, "What do you mean? Because it's my job."

He asks, "How many calls do you take a day?"

"I don't know...maybe 100."

Stu says, "How much money do you make."

"$21,000 a year roughly."

He replies, "You see? That's what I'm talking about!"

"What are you talking about?"

Then the shocker came.

He says to me, "Do you know how much money I make? I make $45,000 a year and I only take 50 calls a day."

I was silent and then I asked, "How long have you been here?"

"18 years," he said. "You have to learn to take it slow. You are making some of us look bad."

I went home that day and thought long and hard about this conversation I had with Stu. The next day, I gave my two-weeks notice and resigned.

 

A message to Management or Leadership?

 

My phone is only at 98% battery or I would express my support and stories relating to this post

 

I worked for years with a young man that was a Top Producer. Dock foreman would pick out high bill skid loads and save them for him he would dock most of his freight and what he did load somebody would have to go in behind him and rework it.But he did get a whole bunch of scans.
Then one day he hurt his back and all of a sudden he was a liability and could not preform his job anymore. He was now a broken little freight machine that nobody wanted and as soon as the company could he was on the outside looking in.

 

I appreciate the honorable mention. I try to post things that are true*, relateable, easy to read, hopefully educational; all while ensuring I don't run afoul of any TTR rules. I always hope someone out there can benefit from my mistakes/experience so it is always nice to hear some positive or kind feedback.

*Names, dates, customers are always changed so I don't disparage anyone on here behind their back.

 

Great post! I used to be in management so I can relate on both sides. Being a road driver is a very thankless job. Leadership is there to collect a check as am I. That’s ok, I get paid pretty decent to just be a number. If I quit no one cares expect the people below me would move up a spot. It was a little different when I worked at a small EOL center. Now that I work out of a large hub it’s just get my paperwork and go. Sometimes it bothers me but usually not. No point in busting your butt for anyone but yourself. Stay safe and do just enough on the dock to stay off the radar. Im sure working in the city is a bit different.

 

I had a lengthy response to your OP, but I thought it would be faster to describe this with a meme I made.

 

I would like to add an analogy to this topic. I'm sure many can relate to this, I'll try to be succinct in my point.
A friend of mine has two young children. Siblings close in age, however one of them is developmentally disabled. If both of them get into mischief together or disobey their parents in some way, only one of them is held to a higher standard and receives harsh consequences from the parents. The reason, which is obvious, is that the disabled child probably won't understand the consequences in the same way. Therefore, one of the children is held to a higher standard than the other. Sometimes I feel like it is a similar situation in my work environment. Those employees who are unintelligent or, at least pretend to be, are not held to the same standards as those who seem more capable, and mentally competent.
I have been personally told by a supervisor who was dealing with lazy, incompetent employees all day, that he expected more from me because he was familiar with my capabilities compared to many of my co-workers. I just shook my head in frustration...