I need advice. I have been working in prepress for 9 years. During that time I have been at 3 shops and have left them only for higher pay. Last year I got a great opportunity to go to a mail house that was making the transition over to CTP and needed someone to help the manager get his department going. I liked the fact that the the employer was one shift (1st), and 7 blocks from home compared to the 25 minute drive to my graveyard position that I held at the time.
As soon as my first day, I realized I may have made a mistake. Jobs were being pushed through without any planning. They were constantly pulling things off press due to color, size, layout and a host of other gotcha's. I also realized that there was no other prepress tech's besides my boss that sat across from me. So now I am riping, proofing, planning the layout, and plating the same job almost always in the same day. The work pace is hectic and I feel like a rag doll being distracted from one task to the next. I also found out that my "manager" was never a manager before. He has 20 years of graphic design. I guess he worked for the company as a contractor outputting film for them for many years. When they made the transition to CTP, they got rid of the head stripper/manager and everyone that stood over a light table. They gave the job to the contractor and made him a full time employee.
I have been fighting with my manager for several months now. Over anything. He is very defensive and suffers from new manager woes. Along with all this I have been making MANY mistakes. things that are just plain stupid. I feel overwhelmed and have made that plainly clear to him and the director of operations. I feel like I cant do the job anymore because I keep screwing up. Last week I was type setting a letterhead with a new address. The city name was "Greenwood" but I misspelled it Geenwood. I didnt see it. Since we have no proofer, or QC, or plater other than my boss or me, nobody caught it. They printed 55M of these and I lost the company $4000. Now, they have had it with my mistakes and gave me a verbal warning. I told them I was VERY sorry and that I am trying very hard to catch any mistakes. I also told them that I feel like we need more people and that fresh eyes in proofing or QC may have caught it. I was told that there is no tolerance for my "scary mistake" and that the next warning would be my final written.
They also told me that my boss has been keeping a record of my "scary mistakes" over the last 5 months and that I need to slow down and do it right the first time. Find a balance between speed and accuracy.
I am very frustrated. I DO make alot of mistakes and I feel like I am rushed too much in my position to get it right every time, the first time. There is nobody checking my work but me.
I also wanted to say that we have 6 presses. Two 29's and two ABD and a jet and a small web.
Two guys push the entire shop. Is that normal????
I also wanted to say that I have helped him set the entire prepress department up. He asked me for help getting things going and said that we were a democracy not a monarchy and that my opinions were welcome. I should have known better than that because we argue about everything.
I guess my question is.....Am I a being a crybaby? Is this just how it is in the real world? I spent 7 years on the night shift and it was NEVER this insane. No planners, no QC, no proofers, no platers...
Does your shop do this much work with this little man power? We are using prinergy evo, epson 7800's and a magnus 400 with a cassette loader and conveyor belt processor. We can kick out alot with the two of us, but I think we still need 1 or two key people...
Do you guys have the same problems with speed versus accuracy? Everyone tells me to just slow down and look over everything carefully. I try, but I still miss things on a fairly regular basis. Usually before press I catch them, but thats still a mistake that my boss is writing down. I have had about three reprints in the last 11 months. The runs were small except for this last one. Ouch...
Whats your opinion, be real.... I can take it!
