G3 Install and Updates

[GraphicDisorder]

Looking good!

[alan802]

Hey Alan, what do you believe is the reason people don't seem to want to stay working for you?

I guess I would first say is I don't believe that it's not that they don't want to work for me, 4 of the last 4 left for reasons other than our working relationships.  You may not have meant that question the way it reads but I don't mind going into the details to explain why I think we've had high turnover.  I've only not got along with 1, maybe 2 of the 12-13 or so employees we've had in production in the last 10 years.  If I don't get along with someone it's 99% that they are bad at what they do, and/or lazy.  The only exception, I didn't get along with my printer even though he worked very hard, because he gave nobody respect.  He even thought Joe Clarke could learn a lot from him if he stayed longer and when Joe was trying to explain things to us at the press he would roll his eyes and walked off on several occasions because he felt like Joe didn't know what he was talking about.  If you think you're the smartest guy in the room, you better damn well be.  But with him, I could fix printing problems on a daily basis, that he created, which I did often, yet he'd never recognize it and still thought he knew more about printing, running a shop, running a business, running a household, etc than everyone else even though he didn't.   

Those who know me know that I'm about as easy going as a boss could get and even though we have very high standards, I don't ride the production crew and when they prove they aren't up to the job then we usually part ways amicably and most often it's on their terms, not mine.  We've almost always given them a few weeks pay on their last check, a small severance package I guess you could say, thank them for what they did and move on.  The one I didn't get along with, that I referenced earlier, we still worked well together and he was here for 6-7 years.  He left because he really always wanted to move back to his home country, simple as that I guess.  He didn't leave because of me, or the shop, he had it made here.  He was my printer for the last 4-5 years and I'd say that most everyone that came and left while he was here did so because they couldn't get along with him, not me.  I had most every employee that worked here during his tenure come to me and complain that they couldn't work with that guy but my printer had proven himself and worked harder than the rest so I basically chose him over the other employees that left because of him.  When he finally left in the fall it was bittersweet, long term it was great, short term, not so much.

My screen guy left because he was almost 60 years old, was selling a house, building a new house, and trying to handle all of that, plus he was a diva so if you don't play that game or don't massage those egos that need massaging on a regular basis it's going to end sooner or later.  A day after I asked him to not leave screens in the dip tank overnight he quit, and one of the things he said was he felt like his knowledge and expertise were being second guessed.  The dip tank request was literally the only thing I asked him to do in about a six month period.  I left him alone to his job, the way he wanted to do it, even though he was very slow.  He made great screens, and despite it taking him 3 times longer to do that than it should have, I left him alone.  I also asked for his opinion and guidance on a weekly basis on all kinds of issues.  But in the end he took offense to something because that's what divas do...divas are gonna do diva things .

The next guy that left most recently is still here, he moved to sales with my blessing and support but he still needed to be replaced.  He needed to get out of production because he couldn't get along with my printer and my printer apprentice, which I don't blame him, they did gang up on him and tried to throw him under the bus on a regular basis.  But I see everything that goes on and know who is responsible for what so their cunning schemes never did what they intended them to do. 

Then my latest "quitter" was a graphic artist that I hired because he really wanted to learn production with the hope of moving into our art department at some point.  The day he walked in and applied for a job we were giving our current artist an ultimatum to step up or he was gone, so I took that as a sign that he walked in on that day of all the days he could have.  I figured our current artist would fall back into his old habits and within a few months he'd be gone and my screen guy would just move into the art department.  It didn't work out that way and now the guy feels like he needs to move on.  I've decided to try and persuade him to stay for a while longer, give him $1.50-2.00 more per hour and see if that makes him feel better about his situation here.  He works hard enough, but you can tell it's not his forte and he's just better suited to a desk job.

And despite what it must come off as when I post on the forum, we do have high standards but I'll let guys work through their weaknesses and screwups without blowing up on them and it takes A LOT to get me to rip someone's butt around here.  I'm usually of the mindset to let people hang themselves, but in the 10 years I've been running this place I've only had to really chew ass maybe 3 times.  I think that's pretty good.  I wonder how many shop supers/managers/owners would not lose their temper after watching your crew bust 25 screens in a 40 day period?  And because we have high standards, even though I'm not that hard on the crew it can still be grading to do as much work as we do and to have to do it at a level where you can't just be AVERAGE.  I think that gets to most of the new hires and why they usually wash out within a few weeks to a few months.  We have lots of slow days where we can slack off and take it easy, but when it gets busy we may go weeks without having a non-stressful day.  I don't know how it is at other shops, it may be 100% intensity 95% of the time but here it's 100% about 70% of the year.  With the new press I think that workload will lower a lot, or we could just grow by an insane amount and be even more busy.  If a 40-year old who needs a knee replacement can do literally 2 times the work as our next best employee then I'm fairly certain I'm not working the guys too hard.  But the mindset with today's workforce, you never know.  What I do know is I won't settle for our quality lowering, or our efficiency falling, or longer turnaround times, no matter if I have to hire 100 people to find 1 good one, that's what will happen.  There are things I will not bend on, no matter the consequences.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Thanks Alan, and you're right I didn't mean the question like I typed it. I read it again and I can see how you would think I was asking "what's wrong with you" but that's not the case at all. I know it's hard to find people that are dedicated like yourself for the long haul.

[GraphicDisorder]

Alan probably has to deal with the fact that I suspect his shop is in a city that has a lot of job openings.

[bimmridder]

I'd love to work for Alan

[3Deep]

LOL I have to many people working for me I can't get alone with Darryl the screen guy, Darryl the printer, Darryl the artist, Darryl the production manager etc and they all suck.  It would be great to only need to do one job and be real good at it  good luck Al you'll get another crew.  Oh nice setup you got there love the pics and your right that RPM looks good and clean taking notes here

[alan802]

Alan probably has to deal with the fact that I suspect his shop is in a city that has a lot of job openings.

There are PLENTY of people looking for work in this area.  You can look at it two different ways.  If you have 100 people applying for a job versus 10, perhaps it would be easier to find a good employee.  Or you can look at it like sifting through 100 candidates versus 10 is a lot of time only to find out that 90% of those you interview are blowing smoke right up your butt. 

[GraphicDisorder]

Alan probably has to deal with the fact that I suspect his shop is in a city that has a lot of job openings.

There are PLENTY of people looking for work in this area.  You can look at it two different ways.  If you have 100 people applying for a job versus 10, perhaps it would be easier to find a good employee.  Or you can look at it like sifting through 100 candidates versus 10 is a lot of time only to find out that 90% of those you interview are blowing smoke right up your butt.

Agree, I think what I was trying to say more so was that if a employee knows there are a lot of other jobs and they dont like something about the one they have then moving on isn't as hard to do. We used to have zero employee issues and we had a string of them last few months so I sympathize. The work force is either getting worse or we were getting luckly before. It's sad to see how some carry themselves.

[alan802]

Well, I rectum...uh, I mean reckon I'll put an update here and then go ahead and start a new thread in the coming days, along with some vidgeos.  The first batch of vids are unedited, not even watched carefully so I hope they aren't too bad but at some point I'm going to start editing and trying to cut the worthless content and any stupid comments I make.

Our flashes arrived Friday, I couldn't wait for the electricians so I wired one of them and then when they arrived they went over my work and then got the 2nd unit ready.  We're in the middle of a 4K piece job on the RPM so I've basically been playing around on the G3 while the crew works their butts off on the old press.  I've done 4 little jobs on it so far and I really like what I've done.  It's different, A LOT different but I can already see once I figure out how to use the press that it will be very fast at setups and it's a hot rod once it's spinning.  I had my doubts about any press being as fast on setups as the RPM, the side clamps, the functions available at the print heads and the way the press is designed, then add the regi system we run and you have very fast setups, even with film. 

The flashes, the icing on the cake I would say, are incredible.  The RPM has great flash functions, but our flashes had issues with blowing bulbs, but the Red Chili DX's are going to make our setups and production runs way easier.  Just today with the easy 4 setups/runs I did, I probably saved 20 minutes over the average day and I'm still like a deer on ice skates when it comes to operating the G3.

I'll get into more detail later, I have to get finished up here and head home to take the little guy to the park, more to come tomorrow I hope.