Am I an idiot?....

[appstro]

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!

[John1234]

We have three presses here - and three people in pre-press. I don't know what others do, but the more eyes on a job means fewer mistakes. Don't matter how many plates a dept. can push out per hour, what good is it if their wrong. You guys need some help.

[zpeters01]

Ugghh I understand ive been going through a similar situation at my company. I got really chewed out the other day because a mistake slipped through under everyones nose. The clients got a proof but claim that they dont have it anymore, and our people here didnt save those proofs for our records. So of course the blame goes all the way back to me. It was really crappy because it unleashed the floodgates and now im getting blamed for stuff the people on the digital printers ussually take care of. I got blamed for not making sure pages were backing up correctly when thats something the pressman is spose to set on his frontend (we have kodak digital nexpresses)boss told me hed start writing me up. I felt pretty crappy and I felt I had little control. But I realize I have to take control and check everything everyone is doing even though I dont think its my job to do so. Its definately hard though when you backed up with alot of work and cant tear yourself away from the computer ugghh. But yeah its a hard one to call where blame lies.

[Earendil]

Wow, that's a crazy situation!!! I can't believe you are typesetting jobs and then are held solely responsible for checking it, that is unheard of! You should be making proofs for the client to approve. They approve it with a mistake, they eat it. I take responsibility for certain things like impo mistakes or technical things but you shouldn't be expected to design, do the prepress and proofread in a fast paced environment. You should develop a reliable proofing solution that fits your workflow, that'll eliminate the proofing responsibility at least!

[Joe]

A hard and fast rule we have where I work. If someone designs something it is proof read by a different person. If you type it you already know what it should say so it's likely you will miss any typos. If you can't accomplish that and have to proof read it yourself I would print it and then go do something different for awhile. Your chances are better to miss something if you try to proof read it as soon as you type it. Also proof read it right side up and the do it again upside down. You'd be amazed how much you see wrong when looking at it upside down.

[rejamesuk]

We always proof a job, save a copy of the proof, save a copy of the approval. If there's a problem after it's printed, the client has no grounds to stand on.

It's happened with me too.....

[Shanavaz]

If it is some other company, the manager get screwed for every mistake. Not the technician.

If someone works hard there will be some mistakes and it is also true that one can not find his own mistakes. Develop a system bywhich you can prevent mistakes. You can get help from some one else unofficially for proof reading, more importantly you need a witness for the correctness of your job. Make sure some one is not tampering with your jobs.

If you are 100% perfect, you do not need a manager above your head.

By perfecting yourself you will not gain anything except qualifying your manager. He might have tarnished your image by now.

Get everything in writing. Approve the finished jobs by getting his signature. Make him 100% responsible

Now you can screw him the way he srewed you.

Stupid guys without any managerial skills always use criminal attitude to suppress their subordinates.

[jimking]

Welcome to dayshift appstro, always more hectic. Do you make plates too? Of course you're short handed. This is the pattern in printing now--Have the least amount of people in prepress at the lowest amount of cost. It's all about the business model, but there's a price to pay. An error on press just throws the whole business scheme right out the window! Burnout is another, turnover and not able to find skilled people. Some plants are now wanting there few prepress people to run the digital presses. If it were me I'd tell them that more people are needed and please tell me your plans to hire in short order, if not you've got my notice. It sounds harsh but from experience being the old grouch that I am, their business model stays.

[Mikie]

sounds like a no win situation to me.

Manager: yeah, he is throwing YOU under the bus for his lack of real management experience. no doubt in my mind he is telling them it is YOUR fault, and not telling them their idea to get rid of everyone with experience was a bad one.

The pace: been there....if it is the same situation. I would be handed 10 jobs at 9 am and would need to have them plated by 5..OK, doesnt leave me anytime to "slow down" and make sure I wasn't making a mistake. I knew there was a problem because the only other person checking anything with jobs was the pressman, and that is too late. I eventually made it clear that I was slowing down and there would be no more mistakes within reason, and to stop telling me WHEN something had to be completed. but that wasnt going to work out....I found a new job a month later.

General company philosophy: hard to really know on my end, but from just what you posted, they won't ever work their issues out, and will always jsut be upset all the time and giving whoever is sitting there the hell for it.

my advice is to find another job, you ain't fixing their problems, and making it your own problem leads to a miserable life. the sweat shop mentallity is common in printing these days, I will work at walmart stockin shelves before I put myself thru that alter reality again.

good luck

[C2C]

I would have to agree with the above poster.
Good Luck if you plan to stay.. it sounds Very Bleak.



and from experience, stocking shelves at a supermarket (with a good crew) is a TON of fun and ZERO stress, sick days without guilt AND more $ per hour than Im making sitting at this desk. (19.90$ per hr full time Stocking vs $16 Prepress ) Lets not forget KoolAid in the fish tanks and diving through chip displays playing cold cut football.............Problem is, getting into that Union Full Time and not Part Time..