Roller Frame Abuse

[Gilligan]

...He has been top notch all day today. I pulled him aside and let him know that I noticed. He was grateful and happy that I noticed.

This is super important and some times hard to do for us stubborn guys that sometimes think "well, that is what they are just SUPPOSED to do, why should I 'reward'?"  But it's the best thing.

[Gilligan]

I've looked at most all of our screens today and have determined a few things I had suspected were the cause and have found a lot more damage that is very easy to see where it's coming from.  There is definitely one person that lacks the concept of the team and I have enough evidence now to say with about 95% accuracy that he's the one doing the most damage to the screens.  He's gone out of his way to make the other two look bad and that's almost on a daily basis.  I know most of you are thinking why not just get rid of this problem employee, well, I do agree that it is what needs to be done but just trust me when I say it's more than a little complicated.  I've complained about this guy a ton over the years, but when you really look at what good he's done, how hard he has worked you quickly come to realize that those kind of guys don't come around too often.  I can set up jobs faster, I can print better, I can do everything that he can do but I have to be able and free to do other things and he allows me to do that.  He's a headache to deal with most days, he's like dealing with a 15 year old emotional girl and damn is he sensitive as I've ever seen a man, but at the end of the day, he's loyal, he works hard, and he's apparently hard on equipment to be honest and if I can get him to take better care of the screens then he's going to stay.  If he can't, at least I'll be able to sleep at night knowing I gave him more than a fair chance.

I have a plan for tomorrow and boundaries will be set, expectations will be layed out and those who follow will be rewarded and if there is anyone that isn't on board then they will be let go.  I'm going to give this guy a chance that he probably doesn't deserve but if it were either one of the other two guys working out back, it would be very easy to cut the cord.  For all his bad points he's got some very good ones but I can't let him get away with damaging our equipment.  His good has outweighed the bad up until the screen damage issue so now I'm giving him one last chance because with all we've been through at work and beyond, I feel he does deserve it.  He's done things for this company that nobody else would or could have done and I've done things on his behalf at the shop and away that nobody else would do so I want to make sure I give him the opportunity to make things right.  I hope I'm doing the right thing, but I'm going to do it nicely, politely, and firm.  He's never been one to take criticism AT ALL, but it's time to act like men and get this handled.  Wish me luck.

And I'd love to hear Tony's take on this, fire away Tony.

Alan, my man.. you are sounding like me with my computer techs... I find reasons to keep them when I know I should can them.

I think TEAM is a common theme going on here and there is a reason... it's important.  My t-shirt company is rocking and rolling, why?  Because our guys and (not any less importantly) us, get along well.  Our office assistant/manager and my printer hang out, outside of work.  They have also created a "bowling night" because our local lanes have $7/hour per lane on Tuesdays.  So I made it company sponsored and I pay for the lanes and shoes and we all go and compete/have a bunch of fun.  My office manager doesn't like me paying for it so I let them (her and  her boy friend) buy the pizza.   $50 bucks well spent.  Plus they (the girls) have started a "rivalry" with us in a boys against girls thing.  So now we are getting silly and making uniforms.  Ordering bowling shirts and printing up some cool designs on the backs and putting our logo on the left chest.  I've taken it up a notch and we secretly ordered some golf towels and my guy designed a logo to embroider on them and then last night we had the grand unveiling of them.  Our team name is "Pin Pimps", it was awesome and sparked the rivalry up even more.  This week if time allows we will be putting our screen printing on the back of our shirts which is a bowling ball with an afro slapping the pins down with a 70's theme.  It's awesome!

You know who is left out of this group, my computer tech.  No one really likes him, no one wants to hang out with him.  Who is the guy hanging on by a thread to his job?  My computer tech.  If he had a better attitude/personality he would not be in this situation.  But as much as we try to help him get on bored, it's just not happening.  I even have a hard time getting past his personality to see if he's a decent employee.  He's not bad with customers and he has POTENTIAL but part of his problem is he's a "people pleaser" so everytime anyone tells him anything he basically cuts them off with "yeah yeah yeah, ok!" like he's all into what you are saying.  Then you are fooled into thinking he "gets it" but then later it's like "WTF?  Why didn't he do X" and you realize he never was listening, he was just trying to make you think he's a great guy or something.  Ugh.

Sorry for the derail!

[JBLUE]

I've looked at most all of our screens today and have determined a few things I had suspected were the cause and have found a lot more damage that is very easy to see where it's coming from.  There is definitely one person that lacks the concept of the team and I have enough evidence now to say with about 95% accuracy that he's the one doing the most damage to the screens.  He's gone out of his way to make the other two look bad and that's almost on a daily basis.  I know most of you are thinking why not just get rid of this problem employee, well, I do agree that it is what needs to be done but just trust me when I say it's more than a little complicated.  I've complained about this guy a ton over the years, but when you really look at what good he's done, how hard he has worked you quickly come to realize that those kind of guys don't come around too often.  I can set up jobs faster, I can print better, I can do everything that he can do but I have to be able and free to do other things and he allows me to do that.  He's a headache to deal with most days, he's like dealing with a 15 year old emotional girl and damn is he sensitive as I've ever seen a man, but at the end of the day, he's loyal, he works hard, and he's apparently hard on equipment to be honest and if I can get him to take better care of the screens then he's going to stay.  If he can't, at least I'll be able to sleep at night knowing I gave him more than a fair chance.

I have a plan for tomorrow and boundaries will be set, expectations will be layed out and those who follow will be rewarded and if there is anyone that isn't on board then they will be let go.  I'm going to give this guy a chance that he probably doesn't deserve but if it were either one of the other two guys working out back, it would be very easy to cut the cord.  For all his bad points he's got some very good ones but I can't let him get away with damaging our equipment.  His good has outweighed the bad up until the screen damage issue so now I'm giving him one last chance because with all we've been through at work and beyond, I feel he does deserve it.  He's done things for this company that nobody else would or could have done and I've done things on his behalf at the shop and away that nobody else would do so I want to make sure I give him the opportunity to make things right.  I hope I'm doing the right thing, but I'm going to do it nicely, politely, and firm.  He's never been one to take criticism AT ALL, but it's time to act like men and get this handled.  Wish me luck.

And I'd love to hear Tony's take on this, fire away Tony.

Just what you have described above in my opinion there is no way his good out ways the bad. That guy would have been out the door pretty damn fast. There is no way he is that good. To deal with that, his worst day of printing better win every award at ISS to have to put up with that BS. This is the type of individual that can bring down the whole place to his level and ruin a good place to work. Before I got into printing I managed 60+ people. Sometimes you have to remove the cancer before it spreads to an irreparable level.

[tonypep]

6:00 AM and have to finish staging so not much time but heres my take. First, in all my years I have rarely seen employees deliberately damage equipment although it surely can occur and if or when that
might occur swift action should be taken and termination is certainly an option. Moreoften than not, however, many instances described above are due to neglect, oversight, and sometimes an overeagerness to get the job done better and faster.
In the latter case, its hard to find fault in an employees desire to get it done right and fast. This is where the employee(s) fail to understand the big picture. After all, it's difficult to observe the consequences of your actions from 30,000 feet when said feet are planted firmly on the ground. This is where management comes in.
Lets look at the screen issues. Assuming fabrication is under control most will find that damage is largely due to mis-handling. When I see frames stacked against a wall I see damage waiting to happen. When I see teardown procedures take place in a haphazardous manner I can usually expect the same.
Rather than focusing on a particular employee I would first look at procedures and infrastructure. As an example are there enough rolling screen racks to safely deliver the screens to there appointed destinations? Are the right tools positoned at the proper stations to perform designated functions?
And probably most important, are there sufficient training instructions provided for each function such that each employee performs every function in essentially the same way?
Perhaps we know these answers but perhaps not so much. This is where meetings come in. I believe them to be most effective when we take a jovial yet serious approach. Improperly held meetings can cause more harm and friction than not having them at all. When conducted properly, employees can walk away feeling like they have a more vested interest in the company and that their jobs will be less stressfull. The ever present barrier can be broken down.
Of course, problem employees could and should be counseled individually, however I have found a certain degree of success when calling them out, ever so subtly, in public. And of course these strategies differ largely due to the amount of employees so your results may vary but my humble advise is to truely step back and look at all aspects to problems and take time to consider solutions.
Often there are more than one.
My last bit of advice I'll pass along from an old mentor of mine with regards to managing employees:
"Mind the three Fs.......be friendly when ever possible, be firm when necessary, and always try to remain fair at all times".

[alan802]

I spent some time last night trying to duplicate the damage that I'm seeing on most of the screens and it's happening when sliding the screens into the screen holders on the auto.  Since they are side clamps, if you bring the screen in at an angle where the back of the screen enters the head first is higher than the front of the screen then the clamps can dig into the polyken tape and possibly tear it if you do it hard enough.  That doesn't explain the other damage that I showed pictures of but at least I can see how this is happening even though it shouldn't be happening.  It's easy to put a screen into the press without doing this, it's just simple neglect and if you get in a hurry it can happen or if your just not careful it will happen.

Here is one of the worst screens.


How is this happening?  Looks like they have been slammed down on top of rocks or something.


WOW, check out this one.  Nice cut which sliced right through the mesh.  This one happened yesterday afternoon between getting off the exposure unit and the press.  Yet nobody has a clue how it happened.  The guy I trust the most (which isn't saying much) tells me he developed this screen, it was in good shape, it got taped up and never was used on the press because my printer actually felt like doing a color change on press instead of using another screen and when it came back to the reclaim station this is what it looked like.  This one is the one that gets to me the most.  Have any of you guys that have been in a print shop for any amount of time seen this?  Amazing to me.


Another screen that looks like tape dispenser teeth and the mesh has let go on this one so it's worthless.


Well, I'm about to order pizza, then we're having a lunch meeting and I hope I can stay calm and cool but if I get any push back or any eye rolling I might lose it.  I'm going to tell them that I am going to retape the bad screens and note the damage on every single screen in the shop and if this continues then I will be interviewing for replacements.  I get people stopping by the shop every week that are looking for a job so it won't be a problem getting guys in here but I'll be back on the press if my printer doesn't get it straight and I'm not looking forward to that.  I'm getting soft since spending a few hours a day in the AC.

[JBLUE]

MAKE AN EXAMPLE OUT OF YOUR PRINTER!!!!!!!. He is the root of your problem. 3 days on the beach with no pay should wake him up. Write his ass up for the attitude. Get out of the AC and show these guys how to do it...............

[GraphicDisorder]

MAKE AN EXAMPLE OUT OF YOUR PRINTER!!!!!!!. He is the root of your problem. 3 days on the beach with no pay should wake him up. Write his ass up for the attitude. Get out of the AC and show these guys how to do it...............

I'm all for this, remind them that you can still do it, and they are replaceable.  Some people have to see that at times.  You know "the boss never works" attitude.

[Gilligan]

MAKE AN EXAMPLE OUT OF YOUR PRINTER!!!!!!!. He is the root of your problem. 3 days on the beach with no pay should wake him up. Write his ass up for the attitude. Get out of the AC and show these guys how to do it...............

I'm all for this, remind them that you can still do it, and they are replaceable.  Some people have to see that at times.  You know "the boss never works" attitude.

Is that what Shelly does to you every now and then.

[ScreenPrinter123]

Here we go again... Round 6,894...  :-)

[Gilligan]

He admits she is the rock of that place... I'm only barely f'ing with him.

[GraphicDisorder]

He admits she is the rock of that place... I'm only barely f'ing with him.

Shelly is the rock of this place, never would suggest otherwise. 

I occasionally Screen Print and Embroider.  But not often.  After all I am 100% of the sales/customer service at this point.  I stay pretty busy.  I dont take offense to that at all.  My job is to make money and put orders in front of the people ive hired to do the work. 

[sweetts]

Nan that one screen looks like a razor knife that clean and straight of a cut through the tape yikes


RT Screen Designs
www.rtscreendesigns.com

[ZooCity]

Alan, I think you found yer problem generally with the roller damage (excepting the razor slice!).  I've seen this happen from going in/out of racks, same concept.  I just keep everyone reminded to keep the screens horizontal when racking/unracking and it keeps it from getting out of hand.  Double layer of the newman yellow tape don't hurt none either. 

Tony, well said on the meeting tenor.  That's how I like to do it to.  We have a daily schedule we work hard to stick to and it starts and ends with a brief meeting.  After the first couple, they go quick and efficient.

[ebscreen]

We use bakers racks that fit our 25" wide frames, but I think the majority of screen racks out
there are the similar, if not the same thing re-branded.

The shelves have rounded corners, but can still ding up frames, even if you are careful.

We bent down the corners and covered each shelf in Polyken. No more dings and the
screens slide like butter.

[ZooCity]

A trick for racking on racks that have rough shelves is to flip the frames and rack upside down. 

One of our racks is actually an older "official" newman one and it's has these corrugated shelf wings that are very gentle on the frames.  The new ones they make are super crazy with some kind of flexible, soft plastic.  It's might all seem like overkill but it's not- everywhere the screen rests must be "mesh safe" or you just chase yer tail.  I've stuck to that rule and we use nothing but delicate, thin thread mesh on rollers and don't need mesh protector sleeves (just newman yellow tape) or have premature breakage issues.  Handling is another story though...hope it all works out Al.