Might be time to call it a day at my current job..

[SipMerlin150]

Good morning, this might be a case of the grass is greener, but from my point of view my workplace has really slipped down the pan slowly in the last 7 years but the last 18 months it really has gone to the dogs , the mainstay is the place has traditionally never been known for its skill at simple communications but that was manageable and jobs always got done in the end and within the ideal timescale, however its more of a staffing issue now, inflated egos and childish antics from staff that are shall we say are in their senior ages, and the 'lovely' manager who brought them 3 to the workshop (all mates with eachother and have worked together in previous workshops 'all over the place' as they gloat) has left the company for being a rotten apple, and has left us with these 3 rotten apples.. probably the most toxic, self appointed leaders know it alls you could ever imagine. Caused all kinds of friction towards the directors, other established staff, a new foreman and heck even the HR Lady. Much so now that the directors have put some distance between us (the workforce) and themselves, and now we are running a foreman ran shop only with no manager, these 3 are totally ruining day to day work ethics by just doing what they do best. The most senior foreman has always been a yes man and is a man who doesnt like confrontation is quite sheepish and will not put any form of structure in place to keep ego warriors in check.

They tend to leave me alone as i dont play into their game, my versatility and skill set is wider as i'm the workshop electrician/electrical fitter, but also fabricate and weld too! but i've become an agony aunt for others and i have the kind of personality that has me taking in these things and then they sit up there in my mind all building up until they get wiped at the weekend only to begin again all next week. In fact Mondays are the best day for me, fresh start, no stresses from the previous week and well rested, and by friday i drive home in silence and exhausted mentally, never physically.

Please tell me most workshops that are in the heavy structural fabrication sector not all gone like this? Things have never felt right since the covid era. Right before this that we had a lovely work crew all of which have all retired now, barring the most senior foreman/sheep..

Sorry for the long thread

 

[addjunkie]

3 choices….
Smile keep taking the money
Walk away into greener grass possibly brown and sticky
Say something and rock the boat

Only you can decide but I do hope the rant has helped

 

[dobbslc]

I had a similar experience 6 years ago for a company I worked for for 19 years, it was a good job for many years then a new contracts manager started and it went the hell pretty quickly. He was a bully and control freak that would bare done on people as he was about 6'3" tall.
Again COVID and lockdown was the beginning of a rapid end for me and that place.
I was worked like a dog as most other staff ( We're electricians too) were furloughed, this went on for weeks and the final straw was when he set a teams briefing on a Friday morning, I was sat in the van with the phone and he slagged us off for half an hour straight!
I quit a few weeks later after I was sort of head hunted by a rival firm
I'll tell you something though, it took a few months to realise how **Language**ed up I was after working there!
The new places was much better and I'm still there now.
Find a new job and Foxtrot Oscar out of that place

 

[GRW]

I went through similar. I don't think I realised it till later - but the inept people who didn't know the job "managing" were heaping so much extra load and stress upon myself and others, with being messed about and inconvenienced - that I got increasingly stressed and fed up.

I said things. Pushed back. Tried to get them to do their job and help the staff to do theirs instead of making their lives harder (& expecting them to work extra hours and take on more & more - because of their incompetence).

In hindsight it would have been perhaps better to just look for another job - and leave.... but I felt too worn down and stressed to add trying to juggle that in as well.

In the end.... I drew a line in the sand. They were asking me go take risks and do unprofessional things, work (illegally) 16-hour days to meet their over-commitments & under-staffing, all while being pressured.
Their response was "do as you're told" basically. I dug in.

They then concocted a (totally against Employment Law ) attempt to threaten me with Disciplinary action where I was told any hint of resistance to instructions - would result in summary dismissal (I recorded the whole thing on my phone).
I refused to participate in their "Disciplinary action" - and stated I was more than willing to go to a Tribunal and the my chances. More threats were issued - my response was to state that in order to demonstrate that my employer testimony could not be trusted - I would reveal every shortcut and lack of compliance the company was knowingly doing - and that I could easily prove it.

(They realised how much I could cost the company in lost contracts and more - if they insisted on bullying & playing hardball... but of course the relationship was terminally broken. They agreed to my severance - and I left on the spot).

Bottom line? If a company is a toxic culture - and if the senior management aren't ensuring the Operational Management aren't running things properly..... they will lose the good people. As that happens, the good ones left, get more heaped upon their shoulders as the "easy fix"... and those get disillusioned and demotivated. More will leave, or just go through the motions - the fallout WILL affect you increasingly. If managers are fool enough to not value good staff that actually produce the work that pays the bills - then that contempt is a cancer that cannot be cured from below - $h1t always flows downhill - you cannot push it back up.

Chances are (IMO) your only real choice - is to try to find another gig - and get out.
In hindsight its what I should have bailed YEARS before (you kid yourself it's better the devil you know, and it's a regular income etc etc).

 

[northwest]

As has been mentioned above and really doesn't come out well in any of the posts similar to yours, the mental heath damage this is doing to you really is not worth it. In reality you now need counselling - I am not kidding here - to sort your head out. Somewhere along the rails you came off them yourself, you just haven't realised it yet. My advice is to just get out while you are still in one piece!

 

[DanZac]

I'll echo everything the others have already said. I can't tell you that the grass is greener elsewhere, but if your not happy get out. You spend a lot of hours at work, and if those hours are miserable, that knocks on to your home life and everything else you do, until your whole life becomes miserable.

There is other work out there for skilled people, and whilst it might take a while to find the ideal job, anything is better than leaving work stressed and miserable.

 

[addjunkie]

As has been mentioned above and really doesn't come out well in any of the posts similar to yours, the mental heath damage this is doing to you really is not worth it. In reality you now need counselling - I am not kidding here - to sort your head out. Somewhere along the rails you came off them yourself, you just haven't realised it yet. My advice is to just get out while you are still in one piece!

I can concur with this, you dont realise the toll it takes on you family till its either too later, or you move on and heal.
Also if you are not happy, those closest will feel it too