Rant-Apprently I’m privileged

77GreenMachine said:
my wife and home life is not his business
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This

And ask him what's the last new customer he got signed up. My bet, working inside sales and talking like that...it's probably been a while (if ever).
 
Whatever. I’m taking my privelaged self on up to Smith Mountain Lake to do some privaliged Striper fishing in the rain tomorrow.

Guess I’m living a lavish lifestyle with my busted XJ and half million mile tow rig. Now going on a fishing trip split with 4 guys planned 2 months ago.
 
I went through this about 3 months ago. We hired some new guys out in the field. All middle 20s or early 30s. I’m 27 but only been in my current field for two years AFTER I put myself back threw college for a second time. First time I showed up on a job and stated giving orders they all bucked. The superintendent looked at them and said you better do it or he’ll fire you then he’ll do it. They all came in bitching wanting a raise and promotion because it wasn’t right for them to be taking directions from someone younger than them. My owner sat them down and told them if they didn’t like who was in charge they could do two things. Bust their ass for a couple years and move up or take their shit and leave. We have one guy left out of the 5.
Everyone know wants something for nothing.


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I look at it a little differently. It's my job to make sure all employees grow and develop and become an even bigger asset to the business. If I don't, that's poor management. I'll rarely hire a person just to be a warm body. That said, that's exactly what I'll tell the employee too. If you feel you've arrived, and I'm not promoting you fast enough, or paying enough...you're more than welcome to leave, I even applaud their ambition. In my career, with dozens/hundreds of these complaints, it's been about 50/50. 50% get the point and I don't hear another word about it. The other 50% actually do leave to get what they feel they're worth, of that 50% about 1/3 fail miserably, about 1/3 I bring back within 6 months and 1/3 flourish. Bottom line, someone has to tell 'those employees' if they wanna make more, they have to work harder. Perfect example, I'll be revamping my office structure in Q1, mom & pop ain't cutting it any more. After months of blowback and attitude on new requirements/reporting/etc on how much more time XYZ takes and they're not getting paid any more money. It all came to an end when I let everyone know they were auditioning, I'm moving forward with or without them, do you have the necessary tools to get done what I need done, or not. If you do, I'll promote from within, give you a raise and let you build your team...if not, you're gonna be mighty pissed off when I hire your manager and you just become a part of their team. That bitching stopped pretty quick. I'm not necessarily saying that's the right way, but if employees don't see the incentive or opportunity, chances are good, they'll always be $12-14/hr employees...and if that's as good as they can be, I don't want them working for me anyway.

I understand that's not the intent of the original rant, but I say that to say...your CEO shouldn't be that spineless.
 
CasterTroy said:
My middle child is at Wilmington. Recently she had a life lesson with a group project for finance class. She's a ball buster and hardest driven kid I've ever encountered. Had 3 "partners" that were all complete turds. No one helped her. She made that clear in the presentations too. Despite that, the "group" got a 97 collectively on the project. Had to coach her on how to handle that and not let it eat at her. She took the coaching well. Very proud of her.

These participation trophies have done more damage than good. Not a reflection on Upwards....more of the whole movement
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That is exactly why I always tried to get in groups with "go getter" girls in college. Most of the time they didn't even give the rest of us a chance to do anything before they had the entire group project done. Most did not appreciate us guys last minute approach to projects. They were alwayd scared to death that we wouldn't follow through :lol:
 
UTfball68 said:
I look at it a little differently. It's my job to make sure all employees grow and develop and become an even bigger asset to the business. If I don't, that's poor management. I'll rarely hire a person just to be a warm body. That said, that's exactly what I'll tell the employee too. If you feel you've arrived, and I'm not promoting you fast enough, or paying enough...you're more than welcome to leave, I even applaud their ambition. In my career, with dozens/hundreds of these complaints, it's been about 50/50. 50% get the point and I don't hear another word about it. The other 50% actually do leave to get what they feel they're worth, of that 50% about 1/3 fail miserably, about 1/3 I bring back within 6 months and 1/3 flourish. Bottom line, someone has to tell 'those employees' if they wanna make more, they have to work harder. Perfect example, I'll be revamping my office structure in Q1, mom & pop ain't cutting it any more. After months of blowback and attitude on new requirements/reporting/etc on how much more time XYZ takes and they're not getting paid any more money. It all came to an end when I let everyone know they were auditioning, I'm moving forward with or without them, do you have the necessary tools to get done what I need done, or not. If you do, I'll promote from within, give you a raise and let you build your team...if not, you're gonna be mighty pissed off when I hire your manager and you just become a part of their team. That bitching stopped pretty quick. I'm not necessarily saying that's the right way, but if employees don't see the incentive or opportunity, chances are good, they'll always be $12-14/hr employees...and if that's as good as they can be, I don't want them working for me anyway.

I understand that's not the intent of the original rant, but I say that to say...your CEO shouldn't be that spineless.
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I needed someone like this 20 couple years ago. What I lacked was a person that would allow growth. The flip side is a CEO who is complacent and does nothing to further growth......or worse answers to something like this the way the OP's did.
 
77GreenMachine said:
Whatever. I’m taking my privelaged self on up to Smith Mountain Lake to do some privaliged Striper fishing in the rain tomorrow.

Guess I’m living a lavish lifestyle with my busted XJ and half million mile tow rig. Now going on a fishing trip split with 4 guys planned 2 months ago.
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Smith Mtn has some monsters pulled out last month!! Musky hittin on the New right now walleye too I’ve pulled 40” striper out of the New in Radford near the dam and theirs some bigger if Smith mtn isn’t hittin good tom, Pm me if ya make it to the new I can put you on some damn good musky striper spots! Flash flooding alert for tom for us tho so river may be too much to be on!?
 
@77GreenMachine you are one cheap bastard, just look at your tow rig :flipoff2:

So I have encountered people like your counter guys. I changed companies a few years ago and the people I work with now know almost nothing about me. Not because I don't like them, I do, and we get along great. The reason is because I have been stung by it kind of like you did. I am not going to disclose details on here (as this is an open forum and for the same reasons haha), but I can give you some stories of times I wish I hadn't mentioned anything to my co-workers.
 
CasterTroy said:
My middle child is at Wilmington. Recently she had a life lesson with a group project for finance class. She's a ball buster and hardest driven kid I've ever encountered. Had 3 "partners" that were all complete turds. No one helped her. She made that clear in the presentations too. Despite that, the "group" got a 97 collectively on the project. Had to coach her on how to handle that and not let it eat at her. She took the coaching well. Very proud of her.

These participation trophies have done more damage than good. Not a reflection on Upwards....more of the whole movement
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Jake has experienced similar things himself.He had to take a class that taught them how to balance a check book,take care of personal finances,ect.He had to make a monthly budget for credit cards,auto loans,ect.Jake ask why he had to have cc debt and a car payment .Her reply was "cause everybody has them" to which he replied "my parents don't have either",It didn't work.
 
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trailhugger said:
I volunteered with the kindergartners for their 'holiday craft workshop' that's part of their social studies "wants and needs" project. They make little candy cane reindeer and other such crafts and can earn up to 3 pennies for the 30-45 minute session, based on their work habits and performance. Then they will get to spend their pennies buying back stuff to give to family members.

Not all the kids in my group pulled their weight, do they really earn all 3 pennies? What about my kid, who totally rocked it... does he get a bonus when the others don't?

In the real world, we know what the answers to those questions should be. Or maybe I'm too much of a hard ass to expect 5 and 6-year-olds to get a taste of "real world." Either way, we know what the answers are in the classroom... because even the kid who got sent to the office for acting up got his 3 pennies.

Because someone has to make the snowflakes.
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Tonya recently saw a post on FB where a woman was asking for recommendations on how she could keep her coffee table from scratching her hardwood floors when her 1yo pushed it.To which someone posted "teach them not to push the table".The woman didn't see that as an acceptable solution to her problem since "the child is just a year old" and "too young to be disciplined".
 
Yeah your CEO messed up...should have politely nodded during the conversation then moved on and not said another word about it. My bet is the disgruntled employee would move on due to unfair treatment or some other BS they would have made up to make themselves feel better.

I switched jobs from a corporate environment (every one on the team made similar amounts) to a manufacturing environment (I work with hourly employees, not sure how much they make). Showed up with a new truck and was the talk of the floor for about two weeks, I just ignored it and when about my business. Would get called out a company potlucks for bring what I signed up for and not more, again I would ignore it move on with my day.

“Haves” and “Have nots” exist in every situation in life, always have and always will, my dad always tells me that.

trailhugger said:
Because parents make the snowflakes.
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Fixed

Parents make snowflakes, parents are the most influential person in a kids life, not entertainers, not teachers, not school administrators...parents. Show me a chronic bad kid, I’ll show you bad parents. Show me a snowflake kid I’ll show you a snowflake parent.

Sorry long week rant off. Carry on
 
77GreenMachine said:
Long rant...

So for those who don’t know I’m Outside sales at a construction material company. I visit job sites, office, take people to lunch/golf whatever, just maintaining the relationships so they think of us for their purchasing needs. This also inlvoves a lot of problem solving and technical services, pre bids, pre-construction meeting, arguments with engineers and architects and such.

Anyways, a foot of snow has made for a slow week in construction. Also keeping my daughter out of school for 4 days. So yesterday I brought her to work with me. I’ve done this before during the summer and she’s tagged along in the evenings after school. My customers love her and have no issue with bringing her to their office, I’ve never taken her on a job site. She comes to my office with me too for short periods of time. She typically sits at an available desk and draws pictures.

My inside sales guys on the counter help with walk ins, process orders that I send in, answer phone calls and help us outside sales people. It is not a high paying position ($12-$14/hr). Most of them do not put any effort into being better or moving up. They are as high as they will ever be in this company due to their own effort (lack there of). So one of them ask me yesterday if daycare was closed, I said “no she’s in 1st grade man, her school is closed again” this was followed by asking if my wife couldn’t get off work. I said “my wife doesn’t work, my daughter is just tired of being at home so I brought her with me since we are so slow” followed by laughingly saying “we needed to give mommy a break didn’t we?” To my daughter.

I had no idea the millennial snowflake entitled lierabal melt down this would cause. I had to go talk to someone in the warehouse about something and told my daughter to hang tight and I’d be right back. I was gone about 8 minutes and when I returned I had a phone call from my GM who wasn’t there at the moment saying that he just received a call from our CEO and that there was a complaint. He was upset too because the day before he had his daughter with him, and we were both told we could no longer bring our kids to work. This really pissed me off being we are family owned and claim to be such a family oriented business.

So I talk with my GM this morning and get the whole scoop. The catalyst to this was that I was “arrogant and cocky” with the fact that my wife doesn’t work. This among other things over time that the counter guys have gathered, such as me taking wheeling trips, currently in the market for another Jeep, keeping an eye out for land the purchase, etc.

So my GM tells me he got the same talk. The other week he invited an employee over to his house prior to our company Christmas party. My GM has a huge 5400sqft house in Jamestown. His wife is VP of a huge company, they have saved well, and they also flipped 3 other house several years ago before buying this one. Well by the time he got to the party this person went around talking about how extravagant his house was and this that and the third.

So the CEO is upset because one of the counter guys went up and complained saying the outside sales (me) apparently are paid so much more that their wives don’t work and they take all these fancy trips, meanwhile they are stuck on the counter for their hourly rate and struggling, and comparing about how unfair it all is and the GM lives in a mansion with gold floors and a butler (sarcasm).

This pisses me of to no end. Let me explain. Must of y’all know I made many sacrifices a few years ago and worked very hard to be debt free. That didn’t happen till February of this year. Then my wife was able to quit work to be with our 2 kids more. I drive older, paid for vehicles with extremely high mileage. @Chris_Keziah can vouch for what a cheap bastard I am most of the time. I save and stretch and save some more. Everything I do is planned ahead and a budget is set for way ahead of time.
Now these guys complaining? They spend their paychecks on goofy shoes, going out to clubs and bars on the regular, then they are broke before payday again. They don’t save, they don’t plan, and they don’t try to do better at work and move up.

Basically I have to watch how these guys know about my life because of how it is percieved to them. Their sense of entitlement makes them angry if Johnny walks in with new shoes they say “how’d Johnny get new shoes, did he get a raise? I need a raise”

Stupid snowflakes.
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This is just a reflection of what society is becoming.Im too dumb or lazy to succeed like they have so Ill drag them down to my level.Im a spiteful SOB and it they would have done that to me I would be sure to lay it on thick the next time I was discussing jeeps,property,or anything to do w my personal life.I would probably have confronted them over it and called them out for being such whiney asses.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
I needed someone like this 20 couple years ago. What I lacked was a person that would allow growth. The flip side is a CEO who is complacent and does nothing to further growth......or worse answers to something like this the way the OP's did.
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I'm a sonuvabish to work for, but I'm the same sonuvabish to everyone, I expect 50 hours worth of work in 40, but I'll bend over backward to make sure every employee succeeds and has opportunities. Just yesterday, I decided there was a pretty glaring opening in an admin position. Rather than recruiting, I daisy chained my way into 8 promotions from $100k/yr job down to a $9/hr employee jumping to $12/hr, and now I'll bring in a $9/hr head off the street. I don't say that for a pat on the back, rather the Peter Principle is real, and there probably are more bad managers than there are good ones, and starry eyed $12/hr rock stars are a real thing, that never get discovered because of said bad manager. Which just breeds resentment and ultimately complacency and acceptance in their lot in the company. Not saying that's what's happening in the OP's case, just that it's not always an 'entitlement thing'. But the cream always rises to the top, so if you're being overlooked, go get what you're worth...but jumping jobs is scary for most.
 
UNCC-CRAWLER said:
“Haves” and “Have nots” exist in every situation in life, always have and always will, my dad always tells me that.
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and most of the time the "have nots" have not because of poor life decisions and/or poor management.
 
Dude...this is a timely post.

I'm fihtingnthis very battle right now. The lone difference, the owner of my company is a commissioned salesman done great.

I get 3 weeks a year, I've taken 6 days this year. 2 were when my grandma, who was my mother, passed. I knocked off at lunch today, told my 2 inside guys I was doing so as well as my boss/director, to attend a special banquet my son is being honored at. Sometheing he earned btw.

One of the inside guys (a guy I've covered up screw ups and fought to keep him from being fired in the past 30 days) decided to email the owner ( skipped 3 levels of management) to tell him how I was stealing from the company..(by taking half a day off without logging it)

The owner responded and copied me on the reply. In short recognozed that yes, i made "more than triple" what this guy made but that I was 100% commission and btw had never asked for a paycheck advance even when I went 6 weeks without a paycheck. Mentioned how I hadn't called sick in 4 years while this dude has missed 19 days this year. Etc

The email boiled my blood ....
Monday is going to be an interesting staff meeting....
 
 
Reading your post was as close as I have ever come to dropping the F bomb in a public forum. That absolutely infuriated me to read it.

@77GreenMachine you and I will have a campfire talk about this sort of thing sometime. I can shed some insight for ya.

When I was at the dealer, I would come in before most of the other techs after already having a solid workout. I was wide awake and ready to attack the day. Would pull a few repair orders before others even half ass walked in the shop. I too was labeled as privileged and favored. Truth was, I wasn't then and still am not, lazy. I want it, I go after it.

Myself, I'll be going into work tomorrow to add on to the 58 hours I have already worked this week. I'll likely privilege myself to a Bojangles biscuit and large coffee on the way. Because I'm made of money.

Somewhere along the course of NOT having student loans, child support, alimony, CC debt, living above my means, saving every dime I can, growing our business, marrying a like minded partner and not giving a flying fubar what others think of my possessions...I gained some "handed to me" privilege.
 
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@77GreenMachine - you’re not alone. Apparently you, me & many others responding can share stories around a campfire over a few adult beverages. Life is funny. Everyone gets dealt a different hand. How you play that hand, good bad or indifferent, defines you. My ex wife (emphasis on EX) would ask me when she had an issue, what’s the right decision... I’d tell her, right decision, wrong decision? Think it over, make the best decision for you, deal with the consequences of your decision and realize you’re the one that made that decision. Did I mention that she’s my EX wife?
 
Fabrik8 said:
Nothing wrong with student loans. I bought my privilege with student loans, best decision I ever made.

I'm still paying off my privilege. :D
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Not debating that fact whatsoever. I was speaking for myself regarding them.
I chose to attend a vocational college that half the tuition was covered by a manufacturer. I was fortunate that my attentiveness in HS allowed me the opportunity to further my education at 1/2 cost. After my dealership contributed, the remaing portion was very manageable.
Student loans can be a worthwhile investment as long as the student in question doesn't expect to earn 6 figures utilizing their degree in East African basket weaving.
 
The crazy thing is, every single counter guy that was with me when I started on the counter is either gone, or moved up. Actually only one other moved up along with me. The rest have went on and been replaced. I took an $8/hr pay cut for this job nearly 4 years ago. I told them what I wanted/expected and was told if I did what I said I would do I’d see it pay off. It did within 8 months and I was glad I made the change as I surpassed what I previously made. I also took that cut while my wife was pregnant and we didn’t know what the heck I was doing except that I was trusting God and seeking a better career. In that time I sold my Jeep, did without, packed my lunch, turned down trips, barley took vacation, my wife cut out nails/hair, we ate cheap meals, we drove our old cars, I didn’t go wheeling and took a break from my club, we literally put the brakes on life to pay off debt. Now we live a lot different, but that was earned thru a lot of sacrifice. I push myself daily. Those guys don’t see me working while I’m in Harlan wheeling, at the beach or Disney World, and 9pm at night and later, on weekends, doing whatever it takes to keep projects on track etc.

I’m over it. It is what it is. I appreciate you guys responses. I know it’s a generational thing and only getting worse. We are breeding entitlement these says. Someone mentioned it here, but @Curtis_H told me years ago that “perception is reality no matter what the truth is” and that has been the realist quote ever. Doesn’t matter what the truth is, how anyone else perceives it is what matters.
 
"Doesn’t matter what the truth is, how anyone else perceives it is what matters to them."

I work hard. I've got stuff. I come in to work when I want to, take a break when I to, leave when I want to. Many call me entitled because of that. My hours are on my door. Monday-Saturday. That's all. Oh and I must be rich because of what I charge per flat rate hour. They don't see all the late nights and the times I don't meet or beat the book. Or the favors I do sometimes for free. (Which I need to stop doing.. it's my time, and my time is worth being paid to be, because I could've done something else productive). Oh and then one guy that works for me sometimes wants to pick choose what he works on. NO. No more. Either you work on what I tell you to, or you don't work. And I'm the bad guy for it. No. I'm the one that built my business, I'm the one paying you, so do what you're told or beat feet. Sorry about my rant.
 
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