Middle Management Blues

Since I am a professional griper, or at least I strive to be a professional griper, I should complain bitterly and meanly about travelling. It seems that many people who do what I do LOVE to complain about travel. And, yeah, there are some things about it that suck, e.g. missing the family, getting stuck in places like this , (and BTW that has got to be one of the worst airport web pages in the history of the internets), losing your luggage, and bathing in airport restrooms. (Did I forget the "MOOOs" while waiting to board any Southwest flight? I did? Sorry.) Ladies and Gentlemen! It's really not that bad. Right at this moment I'm sitting in an airport terminal waiting for an airplane that, God willing, gets me home. And this part does suck. But I've been having a great time (until now). I met some new, interesting people. I ate some food that I enjoyed and would probably never have tried had I been with other folks. I saw some sights that are famous (to some peo...

I am now working for my 5th boss in lees than three years. I'll wait just a bit so that this will sink in... It's a position just a heartbeat away from plant manager. It's pretty important to the whole organization. The only person who has more folks under him, directly and indirectly, is the plant manager. Decisions made by the person in this spot have a huge impact. Remember the old joke about it taking 1000 bolts to build a car but it only takes one nut to scatter it all over the road? The guy two bosses back was pretty nutty, but he doesn't hold a Roman candle to the new guy. This might be a good thing. Then again, it might be another catastrophe. Bad things first... The new guy is old. He has been receiving this for at least a decade. He doesn't hear well and I am terrified to take him out in the plant because he doesn't walk very well, either. The boys have taken to calling him "Walleye" because his left eye is so lazy that he ca...

I've been doing other things lately, so it's nice to get back to writing. Plenty of things to think about... I wrote a few weeks ago about my experience on the negotiating team, and how it's sometimes better to have a cohesive union. After a few weeks negotiating we dead-fish flopped our way to a contract that both sides accepted, only to have the union rank and file dump it like the barf bag it was. No new talks are scheduled. I continue to be dumbfounded by the flat ignorance on both sides. The union (or I should say a vocal segment of the union) is steadfast against any company take-aways, and the company is just as stubborn that the take-aways will indeed by a part of the new deal. It appears that the company is "winning". The hourly folks simply do not have the leadership to pull the group in any direction. They have to rely on the company to give them something they can all stand behind, and the compny, in their infinite idiocy, have handed them a g...