Admitting Defeat

Your email was awesome... It was cathartic reading about some of the bullE36 M3 that one goes through during a brewday only to realize that everyone has the same 'WTF!' moments elsewhere.

Jumping in late to this conversation, but Grand Rapids, Mi is "Beer City USA" for the last two years. Lots of breweries across west and lower Michigan.

Founders being the biggest, but there are 20+ breweries within an hour of downtown. checkout mibeer.com for potential offers.

I spent almost 20 years working a job that sounded very much like yours, producing a newspaper instead of beer. Late night shift for most of it, lots of buck-passing and the most poisonously unhappy co-workers imaginable. I drove myself crazy trying to do more work and "fix" it, and grew extremely unhappy and unhealthy.

Life is too short for that nonsense. I worry about bills now, but am pretty much free of that nasty work culture. Sometimes I can spend the entire day drawing cars (and get paid for it!).

BTW - check to see if you're covered for orthotics. Holy hell, do they make a difference. I stopped wearing mine for a couple of years, ended up having to get MRIs on my knees. Fortunately there wasn't enough damage to warrant surgery, but using the orthotics again has completely alleviated the knee pain. Bad feet will throw your whole body out of alignment.

Grtechguy wrote: Jumping in late to this conversation, but Grand Rapids, Mi is "Beer City USA" for the last two years. Lots of breweries across west and lower Michigan. Founders being the biggest, but there are 20+ breweries within an hour of downtown. checkout mibeer.com for potential offers.

I wonder how many "Beer City USA's" there are ... Asheville has had that designation for several yrs

Sounds like the Columbus connection is the way to go. Work for both of you, with advancement opportunities, and lots of GRM folks in the area. (See the Ohio meet thread)

Ohio is awesome.

And, as someone equally dissatisfied with their current situation, I feel your pain. The company I work for is all smoke and mirrors. Waft away the fog, and youre left with little more than a king bee, and a small army of workers, all on about equal footing, all jockeying for a pat on the head from the king. Its annoying...theres no room for promotion, no grooming for it, no clear line of sight at any goal...its basically "do whatever you have to in order to get our customers to write us checks. Now, get out of my office and close the door behind you."

Im smart, creative, capable, and (IMHO) a very valuable asset. I am under utilized. My job isnt particularly hard, in and of itself, but Im not paid particularly well either. I took this job because I thought it was me getting my foot in the door in a small company that was growing. I found out that all of us here have our foot in the door, and then theres nowhere else to go from there...the only growing thats going on here is the size of the private owners bank account.

If the missus and I werent actively planning to build a home (like saving, having plans drawn, making payments on the bare lot, selling our house and moving into a rental etc etc) in a year, Id be out pounding the pavement looking for something else. I will be toughing it out here for another year and a half though to keep things nice and stable for the bank when they look us over for financing.

Keep your head up BB, it can be tough. My point is that youre only defeated when you stop trying. Sounds to me like youre not nearly defeated, just working the bugs out. Im rooting for you man, sounds like c'bus has a lot of opportunity for you. Best of luck!

I've read through your thread, and I understand your situation. It's not easy.

A few years back, I was in a bad work situation myself (in the finance industry, not brewing). I was in a group where I had been promoted quick because I had a good knack for the job and what needed to be done. It was also a later shift (11am to 8:30pm or later). I had a good understanding of what I was doing, but we had a deadbeat employee that would somehow not show up for 6 MONTHS and somehow keep their job and I would have to do their job instead of mine. Other colleagues got promoted around me, and when they finally fired that deadbeat, useless shiny happy person, I got demoted back into my old role as a reward for my hard work, dedication, and focus on teamwork. It really messed with me, and led me down a path of depression for a while. I didn't understand why it happened, and it hurt.

I slugged it out for another 6-8 months before I finally transferred out to another group. The transition was not easy (the new and current group is a much more serious position which took some time to adjust to, and it's regular hours), but I am finally able to put that behind me. It sounds like that guy leaving and you having to do double work may have been part of the issue on your end too. That sucks, and should be your final signal to get out of there.

Does the fiancee have any offices in MA? there are tons of breweries around here, and there seem to be new ones sprouting up all the time. If not, keep slugging away at getting into those Columbus breweries. You seem like a stand-up dude, one of them will hopefully bite soon! Good luck man, and stay positive.

It sounds like your current place is not well managed. Like you said, work orders aren't written down. Supervisors don't communicate.

I was at a company like that for several years up until this past May. In July, I started at a company that is fairly well organized. More importantly, they see value in being organized. From what I understand, a decade or so ago, they were not organized or communicative. We've got a number of old timers around who remember those days, and have no desire to go back.

I can tell you that my work stress level is maybe 10% of what it was at my old job.

If you can fix any of that disorganization on your own, do it. Your work will improve, and I bet someone watching the bottom line might notice a change. If you can't, moving on is the right idea.

I am actually kind of looking forward to my demotion. Slightly insulted, but more relieved. The guy who will be taking over for me is a good guy. I am really looking forward to having someone else in the hierarchy above me who gets to deal with the poor-communicating boss.

Oh, and we had another person submit their notice earlier this week. There are others looking to do the same.

p.s. Dear lord does my body not want to work graveyard. I spent the past week staying up until 5am or later. I was up until 7:30am this morning and slept 7 hours. 11:30 rolled around and I was ready to sleep.

Been there. I'm also like wb, I'm good at what I do but not cut out for a supervisory position. I made the jump to service manager and discovered quickly that it was NOT for me. I had a new baby in the house so I could not just get up and walk away. My boss was a 'do as I say, not as I do' type who undermined my authority more than once, along with that it was nearly impossible for me to control my expenses which is the biggest part of that job. It got frustrating as hell and I was steadily hunting a new job, anything to get away.

He finally walked into my office, closed the door and told me he had to make a change but he had arranged for me to interview as a service advisor at another store in the same group. I knew the other service manager pretty well, I called him right then and there and told him if he needed me I'd be there by the end of the day. The look on my boss's face was priceless, I guess he figured I would beg and cry and plead to keep the manager position. I was never so happy as I was that day, never figured I'd want or like a demotion.

I had one job that was so stressful I ground my teeth at night so severely, I know have to wear a night guard.

But I know look back at the experience and am thankful that I have the experience.

wbjones wrote:

Grtechguy wrote: Jumping in late to this conversation, but Grand Rapids, Mi is "Beer City USA" for the last two years. Lots of breweries across west and lower Michigan. Founders being the biggest, but there are 20+ breweries within an hour of downtown. checkout mibeer.com for potential offers.

I wonder how many "Beer City USA's" there are ... Asheville has had that designation for several yrs

They don't this year and tied GR the year before.

I know they didn't get that designation this yr ... but my understanding is that this was the first time in several yrs they didn't ....

doesn't really matter to me ...I drink Miller Lite

Ewww. Even I won't drink that stuff, and I generally drink Michelob Ultra.

but I can't stand any AB product I've ever tried (if it's free and COLD, I usually can down one .... probably won't finish the second )