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If someone is good at a job........BUT

Locust ForkLocust Fork Member Posts: 32,045 ✭✭✭✭
edited February 2011 in General Discussion
If someone is good at a certain job....but REALLY REALLY bad at everything else just HOW good do they have to be to make up for all the rest of the mess?
LOCUST FORK CURRENT AUCTIONS: https://www.gunbroker.com/All/search?Sort=13&IncludeSellers=618902&PageSize=48 Listings added every Thursday! We do consignments, contact us at mckaygunsales@gmail.com

Comments

  • swopjanswopjan Member Posts: 3,292
    edited November -1
    I think your question needs some context. if somebody's job is to make toothpicks but they can't walk home each night without inciting a riot and getting thrown in jail and missing work for two weeks after each day they do get to work, for example, i don't think their career is salvageable.
  • CA sucksCA sucks Member Posts: 4,310
    edited November -1
    Depends what the job is, and how important the other stuff is.
  • GrasshopperGrasshopper Member Posts: 17,018 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    * is certainly the most skilled,,,but anyone can do it.
  • Don McManusDon McManus Member Posts: 23,681 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You are a good enough GB seller to make up for most of it Kasey.[:)]
    Freedom and a submissive populace cannot co-exist.

    Brad Steele
  • bobskibobski Member Posts: 17,866 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    ah, the old specialist situation!
    people are graded in many areas.
    appearance
    skill
    bearing
    fitness
    apptitude
    social interaction
    etc....

    being good at one does not make up for lacks elsewhere.

    a well rounded person is much more valuable than a robot who does one thing well.

    i know guys who are great lawn men. but beyond that. dumb as a box of rocks. marines are sorta like that.[:D]
    Retired Naval Aviation
    Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
    Former NSSA All American
    Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
    MO, CT, VA.
  • babunbabun Member Posts: 11,038 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by CA sucks
    Depends what the job is, and how important the other stuff is.

    +1,000
    When I needed a heart operation, I checked on many doctors. I got the best at heart surgery, But he was regarded by the nurses and most of the hospital staff as a rude, stuck-up, over priced, braggart.
    I wasn't going to marry him........I wanted the best 'cutter' in my chest.[;)]
  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,491 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Locust Fork
    If someone is good at a certain job....but REALLY REALLY bad at everything else just HOW good do they have to be to make up for all the rest of the mess?


    I have heard this same question. Wife finally threw in the towel and admitted I can cook well and she would clean up any and all of my mess. I don't do cleanup.
  • Locust ForkLocust Fork Member Posts: 32,045 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Don McManus
    You are a good enough GB seller to make up for most of it Kasey.[:)]

    [:D]
    LOCUST FORK CURRENT AUCTIONS: https://www.gunbroker.com/All/search?Sort=13&IncludeSellers=618902&PageSize=48 Listings added every Thursday! We do consignments, contact us at mckaygunsales@gmail.com
  • dfletcherdfletcher Member Posts: 8,178 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    If the person has an individual talent that brings more money into the company than their deficiency remove, they are probably worth it. For example, let's say a manager is a pain but that he brings in an extra $50K a year to a company. Great - but if being a pain causes 10 people to quit and hiring, training, refining 10 folks cost $6K each - sounds like adios time.

    Higher ups often get locked into a mindset that states "I must take the bad to get the good" and I've found that's not often the case. People who think they are indespensible usually are not.
  • scottm21166scottm21166 Member Posts: 20,723
    edited November -1
    you have to manage people by putting them in positions where they perform well. Typically a good gunsmith would not make a good sales person and the reverse could get someone killed....[:0][:D]
  • ChrisInTempeChrisInTempe Member Posts: 15,562
    edited November -1
    Worked for a guy once who re-hired a former worker he had previously fired for showing up drunk. He re-hired him because the work load was way up. Boss had asked us if we knew anyone and we told him to call the tech school and hire someone about to graduate.

    Instead the boss is on his way home one night, stops at a liguor store and coming out is his ex-employee. Carrying a box with beer and hard liquor in it. Boss offers him a new job on the spot.

    He fails to show up.

    Turns out he got arrested for shop lifting on his last day in his job at a store in the mall. Arrested for stealing from his employer, and was accused of being the ringleader of a shoplifting operation. They found stolen merchendise in his car trunk.

    So he gets out of jail and shows up for work several weeks late. He was half-way competent at his work but rude to customers and looked down on the rest of us. Not violent or the like, just a problematic jerk. I often had to fix his errors.

    One day the boss called us into his office one by one to grill us on the prized pocket knife he kept on display in his office. Most of us had no clue what he was talking about, not having noticed it. Aparently it was in a display case on a shelf, and one day the case was empty.

    Then there was the time the store got burgled. They came through the back door and ripped off everything in the stock room. Big score against a small business. Real bad news.

    The cops told them it was a professional gang, the M.O. fit perfectly. How they got in, what they targeted, all of it. The boss didn't believe them, he promptly took away everyone's store keys and changed the alarm codes. Except for the guy he just hired. He kept his keys and got the new codes.

    A couple weeks later he fails to show up for work for a while. Seems he got drunk in Mexico and spent a little time in jail there.

    Goes right back to work for our boss.

    I had enough of that crap, went out and got another job.

    How bad can a worker be at all sorts of things and not get canned?

    Beats the hell out of me.
  • kimikimi Member Posts: 44,719 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by swopjan
    I think your question needs some context. if somebody's job is to make toothpicks but they can't walk home each night without inciting a riot and getting thrown in jail and missing work for two weeks after each day they do get to work, for example, i don't think their career is salvageable.


    Is this a union man we're discussing here? [8)]
    What's next?
  • kimikimi Member Posts: 44,719 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Don McManus
    You are a good enough GB seller to make up for most of it Kasey.[:)]


    [:D][:D][:D]
    What's next?
  • dfletcherdfletcher Member Posts: 8,178 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Rehiring a fired employee is like opening the ice box, sniffing the milk carton to find the milk's gone sour - then putting it back and saying "well maybe tomorrow it will be better ...."
  • MudderChuckMudderChuck Member Posts: 4,105
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Locust Fork
    If someone is good at a certain job....but REALLY REALLY bad at everything else just HOW good do they have to be to make up for all the rest of the mess?



    The trick is to find somebody that does what is necessary without being told, a self motivator. Double edged sword though, the do nothings get upset that the person actually doing something, will make them look bad. Management gets upset because they appear irrelevant. :)
  • jltrentjltrent Member Posts: 9,337 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    If the good out weighs the bad then they are alright. Sometimes this is real close.
  • tccoxtccox Member Posts: 7,379 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Mudderchuck, can you break that down to plain english in 25 words or less?? Tom
  • MudderChuckMudderChuck Member Posts: 4,105
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by tccox
    Mudderchuck, can you break that down to plain english in 25 words or less?? Tom


    Fixed it for you, if it is still to long I can shorten it some more, how short does it have to be for you to be able to wrap your mind around it? Please answer in millimeters. :)
  • Locust ForkLocust Fork Member Posts: 32,045 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I just keep telling myself "let this go"...."let this go"...."let this go" how many times I can say this is the problem.

    Asking me for proof of employment so they can get a loan from the bank to get out of a title loan deal on the first day of work is odd to me...but since there isn't actually anything fishy about it I tell myself "let this go."

    Asking me for two weeks advance pay after working only one week isn't crazy (just this side of it though)...so I tell myself "let this go."

    Losing the paperwork to a transaction after printing out a shipping label so it makes it look as if I have a package that has shipped, but is untrackable but never shipped and it costs me $60 in the end to fix things and holding up my payment of $1100 for over 20 days in cc limbo-land isn't something that is unforgivable, mistakes happen, lets move on....so I tell myself "let this go."

    Spilling coffee on their computer so that they have to use MY computer to do their job until I buy a replacement, making things aggravating whenever I want labels printed, reminders sent out, or credit card payments and tracking numbers emailed out because I have to give up my access for a bit, but I don't want to have to do these things myself....so I tell myself "let this go."

    The fact that I find someone has googled "porn" on my computer makes me wonder if it was this person? What grown person googles porn??? It doesn't seem to be the kind of thing this person would do...but since they spilled coffee on their computer it isn't IMPOSSIBLE that it is them that has done this. Since I do have three teenagers of my own and teen "buddies" over here from time to time....I tell myself "let this go."

    The crazy socially crippling noises that come from this person get on my ever-lovin nerves and since I have a partner's desk we are facing each other day in and day out so it is like my own personal punishment at times, but this is MY hangup and I shouldn't be so petty...so I tell myself "let this go."

    The fact that part of the job is supposed to be packing up items and shipping them out...but it took nearly FORTY MINUTES to box up the one thing this person tried to pack up (in the end it looked like someone packed it blindfolded and only using their feet0 Since I am REALLY particular about how something gets packed it actually makes me feel better to do it myself....so I tell myself "let this go."

    I have to say after everything I have dealt with it is a mystery as to WHY I still have this person. I am still giving a lot of leeway because for anyone that isn't a gun person to come in and deal with all of this it can be overwhelming. This person is excellent with the paperwork and since this is SO important I recognize I need to overlook as much as I can in order to have that part of things done right. Also, I work from home and this means I have to leave this person ALONE in my home....which isn't a problem since I trust this person. They are a friend of the family and they have been involved with many of my relatives for a long time so I trust her to be here. She also has to work with my dogs....which is a nightmare. Four dogs barking at every crazy noise...the going in and out of the house....the one that isn't quite housebroken that you have to watch like a hawk so she doesn't have an accident...this is a pain for anyone! We are still heavy on the "pluses" so I am not quite at the point where I will call it quits, but there can't be too much more.
    LOCUST FORK CURRENT AUCTIONS: https://www.gunbroker.com/All/search?Sort=13&IncludeSellers=618902&PageSize=48 Listings added every Thursday! We do consignments, contact us at mckaygunsales@gmail.com
  • MVPMVP Member Posts: 23,453 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Managing people is like maintaining lawn mowers and weed eaters, Find out where they fit and give them room to and enough time to excell'

    You don't start the mower and try to shove it through 18" tall grass because the mower will conk out and you will be frustrated. Use the weed eater to knock it down and the mower to maintain it and eveyone is happy.
  • Locust ForkLocust Fork Member Posts: 32,045 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'm trying....it just seems to be a bit of an uphill battle every once in a while. Since I'm not perfect I don't expect perfect, but I'd sure like to not say "let it go" for a while.
    LOCUST FORK CURRENT AUCTIONS: https://www.gunbroker.com/All/search?Sort=13&IncludeSellers=618902&PageSize=48 Listings added every Thursday! We do consignments, contact us at mckaygunsales@gmail.com
  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 48,464 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Part of the reason I gave up a great Paying Job. I was the Plant Supervisor. I found I do not play well with Idiots.

    Kind of an Example.

    Today running behind in work trying to train a new guy and still get my Job done. Which I just started and am teaching myself. Another employee who works elsewhere decided he would work in our area right in our way.
    I build the roof that go on RV's I was installing the 12 Volt harness, But now I'm teaching that to someone else and now I run the 110V side. But also need to prep the roofs such as lights, vents, Co detector and smoke detectors. We do one of these 3 times a day getting ready to move up to 4 a day next week.

    Well this one Idiot who was in our way I finally had enough and in not as nice as words as I use here told him to get out of my area and leave NOW. As soon as I saw my supervisor I did let him know what and why I did it.

    Training one new guy not on about thursday they will give me the other guy and expect me to train him by Monday. All the while I'm still a temp Myself.

    And they wonder why I have a short fuse
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