What motivates in the workplace?

[geo]

>> edit >> I am sorry this totally doesn't relate to the topic. More of a vent that deviates things.

I took a temp job in a factory while my real job temporarily released me, due to the owner's son taking over.

At the factory its more of a pride thing for me. Like I have the pride of being a hard worker and making up for the slack of idiots that are actually employed by the factory. I've turned a few 2 man jobs into a 1 man job... because fuckers 'can't get their gloves on.' Yeah dude it really takes 7 minutes to put on rubber gloves and the supervisors totally don't catch you flirting with the women next to you. One guy told me they put him on a certain project to get him fired. So he's paranoid about getting fired so I do 90% of what the 2 of us should be doing. Because he knows I don't fuck up so he just sits back and puts on finished product stickers. Then there's another guy telling me I need to be lazy and do less, because I'm making everyone else look bad.

I also catch a lot of slip ups. Sometimes I catch things their quality control people miss too. Sometimes an entire crew of 5 guys from 1st shift will miss giant errors such as making a pallet inside out that no one catches, but I come in and say what the fuck is that? A 4' x 4' giant glaring mistake that no one sees but me? Like making a giant burger with the buns reversed. The quality control people tell me I'll make a great control assurance guy.

They pair me with sloppy workers that miss even simple things like blowing off products or only using 1 cardboard honeycomb instead of 2 and it warps the product ruining hours of work. Fuck ups. I take a 25 minute lunch break when some employees can't even make it back in 40 minutes from lunch and its only 30 minutes.

Goooo temps.

Its been 5 weeks and I've outlasted a heap of temps on my shitty shift that can get to be 110 degrees. I envision myself taking the jobs of 3 actual employees.

[Hellbent]

Nice story geo. How does it relate to the video and the general, overall topic of this thread? ninja edit: sounds like you are motivated by the pride of doing a job well done. Do your supervisors recognize how good you are at your job and compensate you accordingly?

[geo]

My 2 supervisors recognize my job yet they only tell me 'good job' when I'm pushing a broom around. As for doing a job well done.... the past 3 days my crew of 4 - 5 has been making products that CANNOT BE CONTAMINATED. I'm the only temp on the project out of 1st, 2nd and 3rd shift.

Quality Control guys come by and tell me exactly what needs to be done and what makes a failed product. Yet the clown they have me paired with tells me pass it through. The quality people tell me there's a specific dimension I need to be measuring for and if 2 out of 57 products don't fit in their molds they send the entire 9' tall pallet of 57 back. The clown I'm with yells at me for shaving the product down to meet specifications when the quality people tell me yes shave them down. My crew leader even tells me do whatever the quality guys tell you to do.

I sound like an idiot to the quality control people when I double ask them in front of the clown... so you mean you want me to shave this down? Yes. I just told you that. I'll have to ask the quality people when can we not touch these with our special gloves that you told us ALWAYS to wear when dealing with this product? And then he says never touch them without the gloves.

Sorry for these vents. Its just bottled up in me. I don't say shit at the factory because I'm a temp. But I just quit today and they told me to work today and that's it. So now I can just get it all out at the factory :-)

I know the money isn't a dangling carrot, because the temp agency has really fucked me over for money. I was told I start at $8.50 and get a quarter bonus every full week I work until $9.50. Nope what they really meant is I get started at $8 and they give me a quarter raise whenever the fuck they feel like it. After 5 full weeks I should be at $9 (1 $8, 2 $8.25, 3 $8.5, 4 $8.75, 5 $9) yet I'm still at $8.50. Well guess money wouldn't be a motivation.

How does this relate to the video and why would I work there? The pride. Knowing I'm better than the fuckups that have been there a year or 2. Getting compliments from supervisors and quality control. Outlasting all but 1 other temps on my shift (started same week as me, but he may have been let go last Friday).

But working on these 'cannot be contaminated' products for the past 3 days, they've really taken away any pride I had. So eh I just quit. No pride, no motivation, no reason to keep working. Lazy clown won't let me check the products and fail them properly even though when if it gets passed through its not me that will get yelled at. There were 2 products that were ridiculously bad and easily seen.... pass them! Well it was him that had to go through an 9' tall stack of 57 and pull out the 2 fuck ups.

<< vents

Also, its been proven that people who talk about doing something mostly don't finish it. People that just do it without talking about it... finish it. Because when you talk about it you feel as if its already finished.

[Maes]

Well, geo, sounds like you should buy some stock, move higher up and then take some heads ;-)

[Platinum Shell]

Male pheromones, since research has shown that when it's around other guys it causes this strive to work harder and better. Something about out-competing, primal shit.

[Maes]

Platinum Shell said:

Something about out-competing, primal shit.

Maybe someone can get so primal from outcompeting others, that they start screaming, flinging shit and beating their chest? That's, like, totally competitive, dude.

[Platinum Shell]

Maes said:

Maybe someone can get so primal from outcompeting others, that they start screaming, flinging shit and beating their chest? That's, like, totally competitive, dude.

Well we did come from apes.

[40oz]

I was thinking about this a little bit, and kinda summarized it in my brain that the message is "people perform better when they are doing what they want, than when doing what they don't want in exchange for money"

Which sounds kinda silly and obvious to me.

How do we fix this? Make people have to do mandatory work for the community for no compensation, then pay them according to how much they do outside of that work?

[geo]

Platinum Shell said:

Male pheromones, since research has shown that when it's around other guys it causes this strive to work harder and better. Something about out-competing, primal shit.

Working in a factory I get energy as the night goes on. Even if its 110 degrees. I feel great, like I can keep going when its quitting time. Its all a competition yes. My shift is the best shift in terms of production and while I'm not competitive, my shift outproducing the 2 other shifts means a lot to me.

Maybe that was always my dangling carrot.

I feel bad that I had to quit. Like they're all working a rigorous job and I went back to my cushy programming job.

Here's my last vent...

When I walked into my last day at the factory the 1st shift crew was telling me they got 5 products behind, but that was it. So it was good for them.

Well my crew had me working in a less rigorous role and put a lazy employee and an un-driven temp together and they ended up getting 40 parts behind. While I'm thankful that I wasn't paired with the lazy employee, the temp didn't assert himself to do more work than the lazy employee. He has no motivation to. He won't get more money. He'll probably get hired on, because he's one of the longest running temps.

Since the supervisors yelled at the lazy employee sometime last week he's been doing a lot more work.... but slow and sloppy. Luckily the crew leader wanted me working a less rigorous position, because he's trying to get the lazy employee fired for being so lazy.

We got so far behind we had to shut down production for an hour for the back of the line to catch up. Not just let them catch up, but the 3 guys working the front of the line just took over in back of the line to get them all caught up.

The lazy employee's motivation is to not get fired. Going in with my last day, there's no motivation. Luckily I have pride to motivate me. To keep up with production. To hear that 'hey man good job today' from someone that never told me that before.