Am I an idiot?....

[appstro]

Thanks everyone for your input. I actually did call in sick today. I feel like crap and I need to think about whats happening. I think you are right about everything you have all said. I feel like giving notice but I cannot. I have to pay the bills. I am looking for better opportunities. Anyone hiring in San Diego??? LOL

Its a shame really. This job appeared to be a dream come true. I think it would be with a decent manager and a 3-4 man crew. Thats never going to happen. Upper management has made that clear.

If anyone has anything else to add, I am all ears. Thanks!

[beermonster]

hiya buddy - i feel your pain mate - i do. sadly, its a good reflection of quite a few places these days. they probably hired the designer chap so they had prepress and design in one man. who cares.

how about "selling" this to him (it sounds a little suck ass but you know the truth so play the game)

you are aware of the mistakes, and you believe in teamwork. you've had 3 wonderful ideas - firstly all proof reading is done against signed off approved copies - be that a print out of a pdf or a copy of whatever gets approved.

if that doesnt happen, ask how to proof read correctly - like "he" does - so you can "learn" from him......yeah right...and then sneak in the "what have we got to check against" question and see what happens. when he gets all antzy say you are uncomfortable proof reading against nothing, and say you are happy to work as a team if he will proof read your work - after all he is the manager.

and get a check list, with a bunch of tick boxes and do it on every job - you'll be surprised how many mistakes you find. make sure there's a "proof read against signed off copy" to tick....because if there isnt there needs to be..and as a manager its down to him. when it gets implemented, he'll take the credit - let him - you know the truth.

basically, what i'm saying is what has been said - try to get him more involved and therefore take more responsibility - and with a little luck he may hang himself with the rope you just gave him!

best of luck - and you might not need a new job - aim at his!!!!

[rejamesuk]

"best of luck - and you might not need a new job - aim at his!!!!"

Fantastic!

[ROHfan]

apstro,

Boy, does your place sound familiar. We just had one of the two production girls walk out two days ago. Check out an earlier thread and read my replies (I'm a few replies down on the first page).

Go here: Old fashion friday vent.

I would be interested to see which of us has the worse job by comparison, just for kicks. I would feel much better if I could find someone that works at a place that sucked more than mine. If you read the above thread you'll notice I mentioned specific jobs. Can you relate any specific details of why your place is insane? I have feelers out now and I will RELISH the day when I give my notice.


But, hang in there, dude.


ROHfan

[appstro]

LOL, ....You may have it worse than I!

[oxburger]

I would never base a new job solely on pay. Did you ask questions or visit the company to watch their production before you were hired? or ask how many people you'd be working with? I don't think I'll ever leave the company I'm at. We have great conditions here (though management throws a tizzy every now and again or we get recruited for hand bindery to get hot jobs out) great pay, health, dental, 401k, profit sharing and we leave all decisions to either the client (by way of a sign off sheet) or the appropriate sales rep (if the client does not request a proof). CYA baby!

Here's our typical situation:
1. client submits job
2. we prep job and make proof (laser, sherpa, igen, etc.)
3. client makes revisions or o.k.'s proof
4. if corrections are made, a subsequent proof is made.
5. client gives final o.k.
6. job is checked by imposition guy for corrections marked on proof and imposes job and checks trapping
7. imposed digital dylux is output
8. stripper checks for corrections, imposition, bleed, etc.
9. plates get made
10. pressman get job up and running and press foreman o.k.'s press sheet
11. job goes to cutter, folder or bindery
12. bindery supervisor checks folding, cutting, packaging specs against ticket and/or mockup or previous sample
13. bindery supervisor o.k.'s job to package per specs.
14. job ships
15. client calls and says job is wrong, a typo got missed.
16. prepress foreman finds all proofs to see if client asked for correction
17. client was found not to have asked for correction (big surprise there)
18. job reprints at clients expense
19. we make even more money because quite frankly, people are idiots.

[SlaveToTheMan]

Originally Posted by beermonster

best of luck - and you might not need a new job - aim at his!!!!

I don't know - if the rest of the shop is that bass ackwards & crazy, that's just trading one set of problems for another. Good luck to ya though, it can make you crazy if you let it, that's for sure. Cover your ass & look around for another position if that's possible.

[tapdn]

"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 worked for the past 18 years in a constant transition from film, light tables, vacum frames to a completely digital PDF workflow at the same company. We kept the strippers and taught them to use computers because that was much easier than teaching a computer operator about offset printing. Everything we print has a signed off on proof and we rarely if ever have to eat a job.
good luck mate.

[born2print]

Originally Posted by tapdn

I have worked for the past 18 years in a constant transition from film, light tables, vacum frames to a completely digital PDF workflow at the same company. We kept the strippers and taught them to use computers because that was much easier than teaching a computer operator about offset printing. Everything we print has a signed off on proof and we rarely if ever have to eat a job.
good luck mate.

Cool,
we let the strippers thin out through attrition, didn't replace retirees, etc..
because we thought we could teach mac users printing easier than teaching printers "a dozen kinds of software, etc..." but in retrospect, the trend headed toward less application intensive work with workflow introduction and I think your way was probably better.
Funny thing is, at the end of the day, we ended up staffed and proceedured the same way!

[Abstraction]

You need a new attitude! Go back into work remembering that they actually need you more than you need them. It may not seem like it when they yell at you, but they are so understaffed that replacing you would set them back quite a bit.

My advice is to develop a plan for production, how you see it working better. Look at it from a managers perspective. Remember that employees are way more expensive than equipment and software, so don't try to convince them to hire a bunch more people. But maybe you can get more done, and correctly, if you had a platemonkey doing the simple, repetitive tasks?

I always recommend taking charge. Sure, it lost me a bunch of jobs, but now I have the job where I call the shots and the boss appreciates me. The best job security and wage guarantee is to be indispensable.