Employees in the office/ shop question.

Sunny 5 acres · Apr 22, 2011

Please some off you office employees chime in. Is it just the area where i work or what, but it seems like office employees dont like to mingle with shop employees. Office emplloyees seem to walk through the shops with their nose in the air and never seem to return waves or quick hellos. Why is that?

Anonymous-0 · Apr 22, 2011

The people in the office have always looked down on shop and field employees. Don't know why but it just seems to be the way it is

Adirondack case guy · Apr 22, 2011

They just don't like to get dirt or greese on their cloths. LOL

Gary from Muleshoe · Apr 22, 2011

It has been my experience that they are afraid you might ask them a technical question and they won't have the answer, therefore damaging their ego.

bobs old iron · Apr 22, 2011

can't believe that people think they are better than others. if wasn't for paper shufflers, shop wouldn't have work.///on the other hand, if wasn't for shop workers, paper shufflers wouldn't have work also.////next time they walk by and no politeness there, shoot grease on their rear end and them they can slide thru faster.lol

RandyB(MI) · Apr 22, 2011

Most are the same people who were on the student council , debate team , National Honor Society , golf team , etc in high school. Nuff said?? At the company where I work they have air/we don't , they have heat / ours gets shut off 1st Apr (mid 40,s this yr) , they get cafeteria / we aren't permitted in there (even though we pay for it) they get 1hr lunch / we get 1/2 hr , BUT!! their crap still stinks as bad as ours and they know it. That's why they won't look you in the eyes. The owner of our company comes through the shop twice a yr. He won,t as much as say hi or wave. Starts at the top. Don't get me started. I must get off here.

fixerupper · Apr 22, 2011

My son said that's the way it was at the local grain elevator he worked at. It's a fairly sizable operation for a grain elevator with about 20 people in the office. These office people were always warm and friendly to my son at the bar or at a ball game, but at work they changed into a different breed of animal.

The elevator manager would sometimes go out to the pits to help unload trucks just to get out of the office,and to help with the outside work load but the office help thought that was deplorable. Maybe they were afraid he'd start asking THEM to do the same thing. During harvest the outside guys work 12 hour days while the office help go home after 8 hours, except for two ladies who are glad to work long days running the scale. The office help doesn't have to load a train from midnight till eight in the morning. Jim

This elevator can store something like 6.5 million bushels and has taken in 450,000 bushels in one day. Soon they will be sroting 9 million. Jim

Gun guru · Apr 22, 2011

We have a new "engineer" at where I work. Nope he doesnt have a BS in Engineering but he can run solid works real good.
This guy didnt talk to me much until......He realized my math skills and my shop skills far exceeded his ability.
After we talked for a while he has a whole new respect for a guy that has more experience then him and way better math skills then him.
Even my boss calls me the math wizard. (I like it)

Rich Iowa · Apr 22, 2011

I drive a truck for a medical distributor and I can notice the office folks don't mingle too much with us drivers or the warehouse workers. Everyone is pretty friendly when we do interact, but for the most part it's the drivers/warehouse vs the office.

ldj · Apr 22, 2011

WOW, all the office folks where I have worked are real nice. Of course they don't know or understand what I am doing, likewise I don't understand how to use all their office machines either.

Pair-a-dice farm · Apr 22, 2011

I've run across that too, I always figured it was because of the pay difference.....everywhere I've worked the shop help makes more than the office help.

Rusty wheel · Apr 22, 2011

They're on the pay roll same as you. Their time is not their own. They're not getting paid to socialize and neither are you.

Heyseed · Apr 22, 2011

not a shop, but I was a pressman for a newspaper. Worked in the pressroom wearing the dark blue mechanic uniforms. After six months I took over the plate maker camera operator position. This was one door away from the pressroom, but I got to wear street clothes, collar shirt, nice jeans. At least ten people stopped and introduced themselves to the new guy. Funny how they passed me for six months and never saw me.

KB · Apr 22, 2011

I can comment from the other side of the fence. I agree it does start at the top and quite often has to do with the management. I have worked for the same company for 18 years in different operations and seen it work both ways. I have even had the opportunity to start up a couple of operations as well and I not only insist that both sides talk but that they work together. In my opinion the fence gets built because there isn't an incentive to work together and neither side understands why the other is doing. I seen everyone struggle with my approach but in the end we all work better together and things generally work better. It is very difficult to get others to view the world from any other vantage point than their own. In fact it is even harder for someone to be able explain what they need to to someone outside their group. I have often times found myself becoming nothing more than a translator to help get all parties on the same page. In my current job I have been able to get great cooperation and communication between the office shop and field service. Now if I could only get that pushed out to the sales force. Well mornings perfect..

JBMac · Apr 22, 2011

I have to lock the door when the guys come in in the afternoon. Our office assistant is 19, long blond hair, and an aerobics instructor on her off time, you do the math!

buickanddeere · Apr 22, 2011

Not at my work place. The managers are awful cranky for about a month after the 100,000+ list is published every April 1st.
The guys on the tools and foremen if they work about 1 to 4 overtime shifts every month. They make as much or more than the engineers, front line managers, section managers and even the maintenance managers.
http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/salarydisclosure/2011/electric11.html

Paul from MI · Apr 22, 2011

I have seen that kind of thing in my work. 45 years ago when I started there was a wall between the office and the shop that you couldn't knock down with a D8 Cat. Management wanted it that way for some reason I could never understand. We were a manufacturing company, so we couldn't sell the paper generated in the office, just the products made in the shop. It took years of effort by a new management team to take down the wall. I was proud to be part of that effort.

Goose · Apr 22, 2011

Management sets the tone in any organization.

'Way back when, I spent 9 years in Customer Service in a large printing plant. For those in the know, we had 8 six and eight unit Heidelberg webs. We had some 600 employees on three shifts.

The company Prez when I started there was unbelievable. He could walk through the plant on any shift and not only greet every employee by name, but ask about their spouse and children by name. All 600. From the office personnel to the guy who baled scrap paper in the back of the plant. He'd been a Marine fighter pilot and knew all about teamwork. He ran the plant as a family, and we were one big cohesive group dedicated to getting the job done. Executive Secretaries and pressmen shared tables in the cafeteria and enjoyed each other's company.

After four or five years, he left and things were never the same. The Financial VP took over as Chief Operating Officer, and all he was interested in was the bottom line. We never did have the same camraderie or cohesion again.

NCWayne · Apr 22, 2011

The only place I can remember working where it was like that was when I was in the Navy. The first ship was a small destroyer with around 400 people. Due to the small crew and close quarters you knew, or at least knew of, nearly everyone onboard from the Captain on down.
When I got to the carrier it was a whole different ball game. Our first Captain was great and had come up through the ranks. He knew we were all important to the ships operation, to his command, and cared about everyone from the top down. The second Captain had never been anything but an officer and a flyer and as far as he was concerned unless you flew an jet you weren't $hit. He never seemed to care that without those of us below the waterline operating the boilers to make the steam, and main turbines to move the ship those beloved jets of his were nothing but big targets setting on the deck of an even bigger immovable target.

I think the problem is people all over are slowly but surely forgetting where they came from and that it's people like us, in the shops, equipment, etc that allow them to live their pampered, heated and airconditioned life in their little cubicles..........

Anonymous-0 · Apr 22, 2011

my wife would shoot me if i hired that to be around me for 8hours every day,,be careful , wet wood will set on a hot fire a short time before it starts to burn .. all the same, you are lucky

oldironman · Apr 23, 2011

I worked for a great company and it was about 50 50 of what you guys say. As the company got bigger it got worse. When companies get bigger they seem to get dumber.

Bartt · Apr 23, 2011

Any business that doesn't have a good working relationship between Management and workers, is missing the boat and is not world class as they say. Remember, what goes around, comes around. The sun doesn't shine on the same old dog's behind every day. Have a goodun.

Spook · Apr 23, 2011

I worked for a large corp for years. There are always individuals who are standoffish for whatever reason. I did see in the last few years that mgt came under a former navy officer, he required company shirts and slacks, not jeans from the salary folks. Then they set up free coffee for the office folks, they didn't want the office folks to "fraternize" with the shop guys. They said they wanted a "professional distance" between hourly and salary. They discouraged any afterwork mingling like bowling, golf also. 3 different times I worked under former navy officers, each time it was a pia. I worked for a couple of former army officers, they were great.

ASEguy · Apr 23, 2011

I married an office employee 25 years ago.

Phil in Pa · Apr 23, 2011

I've noticed some office staff tend to think "they" are actually the company and the field workers exist to serve their needs, instead of the other way around.

There will always be some over-educated pompous idiots no matter where you go.

Mike (WA) · Apr 23, 2011

The office folks generally come from different backgrounds, because the office needs different skills. For the most part, they don't know how to talk to those who work with their hands. And they are aware that the shop folks look down THEIR noses at the office folks- call them "easy money", etc. They're just two different groups- Neither is necessarily better or worse, just different.

Anonymous-0 · Apr 23, 2011

Pretty simple answer for a large company. Management generally discourages it. They can't say much in todays enviroment, but unless you are a big wheel it could easily hurt your performance review.

Anonymous-0 · Apr 23, 2011

Kinda have the same "problem" where I get my steel. They have two women in the office where you pay and get paid for your scrap. One of the women has been there since they started making steel I think. She has got to be 90+ years old, but very nice and knowledgeable. The second is very nice, but still doesn't really know what's going on. Been there a couple years now. But what keeps her there MUST be her clothing attire. Pretty sure she has had (o)(o) implant's. Always wears something where you can see the top third of 'em. If something gets dropped on the floor and she has to bend down to pick it up, the percentage goes up! I do believe she spends a little time at the tanning salon. Think maybe that is why she is kept around. Increases business.

Heyseed · Apr 23, 2011

Hey Goose, that sounds like the last plant I worked for. Judds in Strasburg, got sold to Perry and then to R.R. Donnelley, each time it got worse.

GVSII · Apr 25, 2011

Staff: Sometimes refered to as "OVERHEAD"

Employees in the office/ shop question.

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