dear marjorie

masicat

Dear Marjorie
I run a print business in North London. We were doing great a few years ago when times were good. Last couple of years business has been tough. My manager, Dave, has been doing his best with some old and secondhand presses, but I can't expect miracles.
Staff don't like Dave, they always moan he isn't a good enough manager, so I sacked him. I bought in Fred. Fred used to run one of the machines and everyone loved him. I really didn't know if he could manage my factory or not, but to keep the staff happy
I bought him back. He was a milkman, so he was pleased to get the job. Thing about Fred is, he always made us laugh. So, we all laughed a lot for a couple of weeks, and business was great. Now, things have taken a turn for the worse. Business is bad, and Fred is not
so popular. My problem is, he gave up his milkmans job to come back. He was a good litho operator, but he can't manage the factory.
What do I do now? If I sack him I will look a real pratt. He is a great guy, and I really like him. He doesn't laugh anymore, and the staff just chuckle politely when he tells a joke.
Please help me......

nolly

Wrong.

Kap10

Lol, interesting analogy

O-Randy-Hunt

Hmmm

How about Fred and Dave team up. Do they get on well with each other

Dizzle

Everybody knows a Dave

Penfolds Perm

Maybe Fred needs to know that he's in the business to make money not make friends.

shamkat

Sounds like Dave was getting quite a lot from the staff (even though they didn't like him) and now Fred is struggling too so do you think it's the staff that are the problem? Maybe they didn't like Dave's hard ways and now see Fred as a soft touch?

Possibly you should have waited until Fred, nice guy and all, got some managerial experience on his milkround before bringing him back or got a manager in, maybe on a short contract, who had experience and possibly got Fred to work alongside him. If you really wanted him back that is.

Do you have longer term plans that involve Fred and a change of staff? They key is, do you trust Fred to make the right decisions?

pilchard

The workers are all world class, could grace any printworks in the world/surbiton area but the messages from on high are all garbled............erm maybe not, who knows??.....it's the uniform boss it's all scratchy, the canteen is not as good as once it was ....maybe a lifer could help and sort it all out ?????

Mendonca In Asdas

[quote][cite]Posted By: masicat[/cite]Dear Marjorie
I run a print business in North London. We were doing great a few years ago when times were good. Last couple of years business has been tough. My manager, Dave, has been doing his best with some old and secondhand presses, but I can't expect miracles.
Staff don't like Dave, they always moan he isn't a good enough manager, so I sacked him. I bought in Fred. Fred used to run one of the machines and everyone loved him. I really didn't know if he could manage my factory or not, but to keep the staff happy
I bought him back. He was a milkman, so he was pleased to get the job. Thing about Fred is, he always made us laugh. So, we all laughed a lot for a couple of weeks, and business was great. Now, things have taken a turn for the worse. Business is bad, and Fred is not
so popular. My problem is, he gave up his milkmans job to come back. He was a good litho operator, but he can't manage the factory.
What do I do now? If I sack him I will look a real pratt. He is a great guy, and I really like him. He doesn't laugh anymore, and the staff just chuckle politely when he tells a joke.
Please help me......[/quote]


Sack both of them Dave and Fred are rubbish , you need to bring in Steve instead, he's much better than those two.

WSS

Steve will never come back - he took the business as far as he could.

Mendonca In Asdas

No not that Steve , the other one , you know the one who works across town , i always thought he could do a good job for us , problem is a lot of our machinery is getting old and needs replacing? would he want to come , probably not unless we told him we would let him buy new machinery.

Robert

I think that fred should be allowed time to bring in new workers and get them working a style that suits him. I hear that the foreign prinitng industries are on their way up, perhaps fred could bring in a belgian and morrocan?

March51

Sounds like the workers have got into some bad working practices and they're taking advantage of Fred's good nature. I bet that when he first took over their was a flurry of activity around the place until they found that they could carry on in the same old way. For the time being at least I would give Fred my backing if I were you but he's got to stop joking and toughen up with them if you are to be successful in what I hear is a very competative industry. Funnily enough I recently read a book, an autobiography, by a printer which gave quite an insight into the print business and how the workers can be quite adept at making sure things are more favourable to them rather than the management. Can't think of his name,little Irish fella, think he worked for your company for a while.

masicat

Problem is my customers are a fickle lot. They thought they would get a better product once I had got rid of Dave because they felt he was a plodder. To be honest. I am starting to question my decision, and so are some of them. Some of them feel the workforce that Dave employed are the problem, and Fred has no chance of getting it right. Only thing is, we were doing much better under Dave and we were making a profit. Under Fred, we are starting to make a loss. I even let Fred bring his mate in. The other day we were printing a job and everyone knew it was being printed wrong. trouble is, Fred waited until we had nearly printed the job before he made the plate changes. It was too late, and the damage was done. Dave would have spotted the error and changed the plates earlier.
Anyway, cheaper foreign wprkers might well be the answer. Yes, there are some Moroccan and Belgian ones that might do the trick. Trouble is, the way Fred is performing, he would probably have them on the wrong machines within a couple of days.
I feel all is lost, and I have nowhere to turn. My customers that kept trying to get rid of Dave will soon be looking elsewhere. There was a printer in Norfolk that had a similar problem, the MD mad a very quick almost brutal decision. They are now a big company getting bigger and bigger.
What will become of us?

Robbo on the wing

Can Fred gat a licence to print money?

Algarveaddick

You could try better quaility ink and paper, but that could be a gamble of course. If you get it right the increase could lead to a larger customer base and a higher profile,which would then vindicate your gamble. Of course if Fred continues to miss obvious errors in the plates, it could all end in tears...

But then you could blame the proof reader.

Kap10

[cite]Posted By: masicat[/cite]

The good news is that you have a hard core of customers that will buy your product regardless of the shitty quality that the old machines are churning out.

masicat

quote - The good news is that you have a hard core of customers that will buy your product regardless of the shitty quality that the old machines are churning out.

Not really, so many of them are new customers they probably always wished they had used a bigger and better printer from the start. They forget how bad we were in the 70's. I have a bloke now who wants to buy us ( or at least put some money in ). His name is Mark Hulyer, thank god for that , the future is looking rosy.

MuttleyCAFC

You must have seen something in Dave to give him the job - give him a chance and let him grow into it. Too many managers in a short space of time and things could get even worse.