ITO said:
It works both ways, while you can monitor your fleet and even track mileage, you also may not want to know some things? One of my men who is a very big producer, but he only works about 6-7 hours a day including lunch and (2) fifteen minute breaks. The GPS clearly shows him at home (he lives an 1.5 hours out of town) at quitting time on most days. This guy gets more done in a (6) hour day that any 2 other men in the company gets done in a (8) day. He also gets area Forman?s wages plus some, and makes a lot more then most other foremen. So what do you do with the information that he is stealing 5-10 hours a week (make sure you read ?hours? as ?dollars?)?
So far the only good thing that came out of it, was I am saving about 20% (about $2,000) on my overall fuel bill. They all think I am watching, after I fired one service man who had a habit of taking 3 hour lunches at a strip bar, but I already knew he was up to something by his billing; the GPS just confirmed it and was good back up for firing him. The story got out and it kind of worked in my favor.
As for my big producer, he could not care less whether or not he is being tracked so I tried putting a time clock on the job, so he has to punch in and out. The funny thing is, now his time cards all show 8 hours, but he is still at home (1.5 hour out of town) at quitting time. I had to do the math and just let it go, even though it bothers me because I am supposed to ?trust him, or get out of the business??right? ?. Because it feels more like bend over and take it, or just get out of the business.
As for the ?you have to trust your guys?, well that is just naive idealism and SPIN. People are still people, and just becuase you sign their paychecks, it does note make them trustworthy.
Your big producer isn't going to be a bigger producer by forcing him to remain on site for the full 8 hours. He's "blitzing & blowing" BECAUSE he knows he's "earning" the early dismissal.
Sometimes this can work, other times it can negatively effect the rest of the crew. Sometimes a blitzer will demand the easier jobs that are simpler and repetitive that show massive production without a lot of thinking and tedious calculating.
Making deals with the foreman has been going on since the begining of time. When the focus changes from blindly following a set of rules and shop policies, instead of getting the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible, you've removed the functionality and power from the position of "foreman" and changed it to "timekeeper, employee monitor" and what you end up with is a bunch of compliant rule followers instead of a foreman and crew that is working productively.
When I run work, my deal as foreman is I become the defacto "owner." Since the entire responsibility of the job, bringing it in safely and properly and with minimal hassle and involvement from the shop, is MY responsibility, It is I who will decide who does what, when, where and why. I will decide who stays and who goes. Responsibility without power is nothing but an illusion. If I don't have the power to make managemt decisions, I cannot be responsible for the job. If I know a man will produce more if he's dismissed early, that's exactly what I'm going to do.
Face it - when a man is working for an hourly wage the only way to improve on that is working for a shorter time. If you expect 50 layins a day, there's no reason to NOT cut a deal where if he gives you 60 layins (done properly) he can't leave when he's done. The company isn't losing a dime.
Rewire said:
Simple answer is you fire him. One bad apple spoils the bunch, do you think the rest of your crew does not know what this clown is doing,this could be the reason for the others slacking. I worked for a shop that had one of these glory boys who could do no wrong in the owners eye because his numbers were always good he did as he pleased and everyone knew and most resented it and it showed in slower performance especially if you were on his job guys had no respect for the owner they had the attitude if Joe can do it I should be able too. It hit the fan during a slowdown of work when the owner went out to this guys job site and found almost nothing done yet over 200 hours charged against it.What he was doing was running three jobs and billing forward as he would get close to max hours on one job he would start to bill to the next it worked until he had no job to bill ahead. My rules are simple 8 hours work for 8 hours pay.
You are right to state this is a simple answer. It's too simple. Your simple rules work for a machine, not a human being. If a machine costs 20 bucks an hour, you get 8 hours work for 160 bucks. With a human, you CAN get 9 hours work in 6 hours for the same cost. You just have to know who with, and how to strike a deal that works for everyone.
Your "billing ahead" problem isn't germane to the discussion, that is a completely different issue. That can happen even is nobody is leaving early.
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