Post by Dave on May 13, 2010 20:19:46 GMT
Merse said something in a post yesterday that reminded me of the time very early in my working life, that I discovered it was possible for me to be no more than a number. I’m sure Merse has only taken about four days holiday this year when he came down for our first home match this season.
Until he was told by his doctor he had to stop driving for safety reasons, he has been up very early every morning, done a hard days work and I know that like most of our generation, he would have given 100% to his job each and everyday, if only for personal pride alone.
Yet the second he can’t earn someone else money he just gets forgotten, as he said no phone call asking how he is getting on, no phone call saying get well soon and hope to see you back at work, no nothing at all and when anyone has given their all to their work, it hurts a bit when it seems you have just been cast aside.
I learned the lesson very early as I say, I had not long been married and got a job as a driver for a hire tool hire company. Now it was only three months after I started there that the owner said he felt I was wasted on the van and would be off much more value to his company, working in the hire shop itself.
This decision had nothing to do with what happened on my very first day as the van driver, the van was an old VW pick-up, the same as the camper vans only it had a flat bed and it was hard to load because the engine was at the back and this made the deck very high.
I was sent to a site where all the work had been finished to pick up a full size cement mixer, there was nobody at the site and all I had to load this very large lump, was two planks of wood. I spend a good 15 minutes trying to push the mixer up the planks and on to the back of the pick-up, but I could only get it half way up before it started rolling back down again.
I looked around and discovered a road about 100 yards away that went slightly down hill, so I moved the van to this road and parked it facing down the slope. It was very hard getting that mixer the 100 yards to where the van was now parked, but my plan worked and I got the mixer loaded onto the van.
Feeling very good about myself that the small man had overcome what was a very hard task for one his size, I never gave a thought about what was the best position for the mixer, I should have turned it around and got it up against the frame behind the cab, but I just tied it with ropes just where it was.
I still had a smile on my face as I drove off the site that was until I turned my very first corner. The van very violently lunged to the left and I looked in the mirror and saw the mixer hanging over the side of the van just a few feet off the ground.
I tried to push it back up and onto the van without any success and as luck would have it a few builders who were in a van, stopped and helped me. I had to tell the boss as unfortunately the side of the van that hinged down if required and was made of metal, was somewhat twisted and bent.
After working in the shop for six months he wanted me to be the manager, now I was warned not to take the job by those in the know as the guy changed managers like he changed his socks. I was young and the thought of becoming the manager as such a young age soon had me saying yes yes yes.
The hours I worked for free as I changed the whole place around to make it look something a bit special never bothered me, I believed all my efforts would be noticed by the boss and I would not suffer the fate of all the other managers before me.
How wrong, as one day he just said he had someone else who he wanted to be the manager and I was just paid off and didn’t even get a thank-you for all I did. Just being a number is far worse if you work for a multi national company, its more than likely you will even have a number and when you leave that really will be it and if you’re lucky some line manager might say goodbye and wish you luck
There really was once a time when bosses really valued their staff and who remembers when one of your fellow works were about to leave for a new job, you had to put into the collection to buy them a leaving present.
There still are some good companies, who do value their staff, but there are plenty who just see the worker and not the person and while I understand to some bosses workers are just there to work and earn him money, I feel they should never forget they are also people who have feelings and like to feel they are valaued.
Until he was told by his doctor he had to stop driving for safety reasons, he has been up very early every morning, done a hard days work and I know that like most of our generation, he would have given 100% to his job each and everyday, if only for personal pride alone.
Yet the second he can’t earn someone else money he just gets forgotten, as he said no phone call asking how he is getting on, no phone call saying get well soon and hope to see you back at work, no nothing at all and when anyone has given their all to their work, it hurts a bit when it seems you have just been cast aside.
I learned the lesson very early as I say, I had not long been married and got a job as a driver for a hire tool hire company. Now it was only three months after I started there that the owner said he felt I was wasted on the van and would be off much more value to his company, working in the hire shop itself.
This decision had nothing to do with what happened on my very first day as the van driver, the van was an old VW pick-up, the same as the camper vans only it had a flat bed and it was hard to load because the engine was at the back and this made the deck very high.
I was sent to a site where all the work had been finished to pick up a full size cement mixer, there was nobody at the site and all I had to load this very large lump, was two planks of wood. I spend a good 15 minutes trying to push the mixer up the planks and on to the back of the pick-up, but I could only get it half way up before it started rolling back down again.
I looked around and discovered a road about 100 yards away that went slightly down hill, so I moved the van to this road and parked it facing down the slope. It was very hard getting that mixer the 100 yards to where the van was now parked, but my plan worked and I got the mixer loaded onto the van.
Feeling very good about myself that the small man had overcome what was a very hard task for one his size, I never gave a thought about what was the best position for the mixer, I should have turned it around and got it up against the frame behind the cab, but I just tied it with ropes just where it was.
I still had a smile on my face as I drove off the site that was until I turned my very first corner. The van very violently lunged to the left and I looked in the mirror and saw the mixer hanging over the side of the van just a few feet off the ground.
I tried to push it back up and onto the van without any success and as luck would have it a few builders who were in a van, stopped and helped me. I had to tell the boss as unfortunately the side of the van that hinged down if required and was made of metal, was somewhat twisted and bent.
After working in the shop for six months he wanted me to be the manager, now I was warned not to take the job by those in the know as the guy changed managers like he changed his socks. I was young and the thought of becoming the manager as such a young age soon had me saying yes yes yes.
The hours I worked for free as I changed the whole place around to make it look something a bit special never bothered me, I believed all my efforts would be noticed by the boss and I would not suffer the fate of all the other managers before me.
How wrong, as one day he just said he had someone else who he wanted to be the manager and I was just paid off and didn’t even get a thank-you for all I did. Just being a number is far worse if you work for a multi national company, its more than likely you will even have a number and when you leave that really will be it and if you’re lucky some line manager might say goodbye and wish you luck
There really was once a time when bosses really valued their staff and who remembers when one of your fellow works were about to leave for a new job, you had to put into the collection to buy them a leaving present.
There still are some good companies, who do value their staff, but there are plenty who just see the worker and not the person and while I understand to some bosses workers are just there to work and earn him money, I feel they should never forget they are also people who have feelings and like to feel they are valaued.
A number, what is a number?
