Just can't win

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cowboyjwc

cowboyjwc

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Simi Valley, CA
Got called into the boss's office today. Now just to clarify it, the owner is complaining about everyone.

The complaint against me was, I stood there for 20 minutes or so and talked to him about Little League Baseball, and don't I have other things that I could have been doing?

Now this was after I had signed the final and just before lunch so most of it was on my time and he was telling me all about his exploits too.

A tenant improvement that took 16 days and that's with him not following the plans most of the time and us helping him along and he files a complaint with the City Manager.

I try to be socialble so that people know that we're human too and then it comes back and bites me in the you-know-what. Guess from now on it's business only.

Any other inspectors ever get in trouble for being nice?:-?
 
That sucks. :mad:

Is your boss really upset or just going through the motions?

It sounds like the owner is just a jerk and your boss would see that.
 
cowboyjwc said:
The complaint against me was, I stood there for 20 minutes or so and talked to him about Little League Baseball, and don't I have other things that I could have been doing?
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How long have you been there John. I find it hard to believe that your boss would call you out on this.
 
the first inspector with whom I ever had the pleasure of working taught me early in the game: "no good deed goes unpunished":smile:
 
Sounds like you were collateral damage John. There are a lot of mentally ill people in this world and some times we just happen to be in the way.
 
chris kennedy said:
How long have you been there John. I find it hard to believe that your boss would call you out on this.
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This is the start of my 19th year (March 26) with the city. Only about three serious complaints in all that time. High numbers and numerous compliments on my customer service skills.

Guess that's why I'm a little miffed about it.

iwire said:
That sucks. :mad:

Is your boss really upset or just going through the motions?

It sounds like the owner is just a jerk and your boss would see that.
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A little of both. Of course the guy is being a jerk, but he notified his council member who went to the City Manager so of course I have to get the tounge lashing that my boss got.

We do many knee jerk things around here, do 100 inspections a week with no complaints, but just one comes in and we now have to change the way that we keep our records.
 
I am not sure how your company gets paid, but we do have some issues when times are busy as to how much time is spent on each job.
For you, 100 stops, divided by 40 hours equals a job every 24 minutes. So if you are trying to provide PR, then you are having a time issue...maybe that is what is causing the pressure for your boss.
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
I am not sure how your company gets paid, but we do have some issues when times are busy as to how much time is spent on each job.
For you, 100 stops, divided by 40 hours equals a job every 24 minutes. So if you are trying to provide PR, then you are having a time issue...maybe that is what is causing the pressure for your boss.
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The way we count them here is 100 inspections is not necessarly 100 stops and I really meant that as a dept we do that many. And I get paid the same whether I'm sitting in the office or out in the field, I am employed by the city.

I can actually cross the whole valley in less than 10 minutes so nothing is really that far away.
 
That's really messed up! I know 60% of the Comm/Industrial inspectors here.
We aren't drinking buddies or anything But,we do have a good working relationship. After the inspection we talk about baseball, football,NEC questions I might have,etc. The best Jamacian Jerk Recipe I have came from an electrical inspector here. The good ones know we are all on the same team. The "Just show me the job!" guys I have no respect for.
 
Karl H said:
That's really messed up! I know 60% of the Comm/Industrial inspectors here.
We aren't drinking buddies or anything But,we do have a good working relationship. After the inspection we talk about baseball, football,NEC questions I might have,etc. The best Jamacian Jerk Recipe I have came from an electrical inspector here. The good ones know we are all on the same team. The "Just show me the job!" guys I have no respect for.
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That's the way I always thought it could be, I used to catch more guff from my guys when I first started because they were all the "Just show me the job" guys and I didn't feel it needed to be that way. I don't hang with any of them either as a rule, but some of our kids play ball together and we bump into each other at different places. I've known some of the local electricians longer than I've known my son and a few I knew before I became an inspector and I've known them longer than I have my 23 yr old daughter.

Just surprises me what will jump up and bite you sometimes.:smile:

Thanks for letting me rant guys. Things here are in a transitional phase and it's really getting to be no fun to come to work. Yes I said fun, I've been in the trades for 30 years and have enjoyed every minute of it.

I'm not sure of the exact quote, but it's something along the lines of "find what you enjoy and make a living doing it."
 
cowboyjwc said:
The complaint against me was, I stood there for 20 minutes or so and talked to him about Little League Baseball,
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Doesn't sound like he was taking the complaint seriously ??? If you were there for 20 talking about your future I would think that would be bad.... Sounds like he was going through the motions.....
 
cowboyjwc said:
This is the start of my 19th year (March 26) with the city. Only about three serious complaints in all that time. High numbers and numerous compliments on my customer service skills.

Guess that's why I'm a little miffed about it.
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Don't feel bad. We electricians who almost always pass inspections get a little miffed about the occasional red tag, too. :)
 
I can definitely understand being a little miffed about it, especially with your outstanding career reputation. The whacky nutjobs always seem to get out panties in a bunch when it is completely unwarranted.

As long as there is nothing that is put in writing into your personal file then I would try my best to just brush it off. What you did was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary and great for building relationships with the public. Unfortunately in this case the public was a screwball.

Just be glad you can vent here to others that understand. That crappy feeling you originally had when you were told this will eventually go away and you will smile if you even remember it in the future.
 
Reminds me of my boss. We all gather around a table at 7 AM to get our work orders, he talks sports, car problems, ETC. for 30+ minutes, hands out work orders after he gets finished. Then the next day he barks about us not being out of the parking lot by 7:30.....................
 
ivsenroute said:
As long as there is nothing that is put in writing into your personal file then I would try my best to just brush it off. What you did was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary and great for building relationships with the public. Unfortunately in this case the public was a screwball.

Just be glad you can vent here to others that understand. That crappy feeling you originally had when you were told this will eventually go away and you will smile if you even remember it in the future.
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Thanks and you're right about getting over it.

Still we had to have a hour and a half meeting today just so we can redo the way we track jobs, all because of one guy.

One of the things about this job is that he never said a word while the job was going on and the guy we all thought was the GC was actually the business owner trying to save a buck.

It's funny sometimes, and I'm sure every inspector has a story like this, that the job that goes south is usually one that you never saw coming. Oh there are many that are screwed up, but you usually know that right away or have a feeling that it may go bad. I guess it just makes up for the bad jobs that turn out good once everyone gets on the same page.:)

Again everyone thanks for the kind words.:)
 
Just thought I would update this.

I just got my review the other day and after all of the guff we got about that one job, I got two 5's on my review (1 to 5, 5 being the best), INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS / CUSTOMER SERVICE and JOB KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL LEVEL.

Trust me when I say that 5's are not easy to get in this city, so needless to say I'm over it.:D
 
hockeyoligist2 said:
Reminds me of my boss. We all gather around a table at 7 AM to get our work orders, he talks sports, car problems, ETC. for 30+ minutes, hands out work orders after he gets finished. Then the next day he barks about us not being out of the parking lot by 7:30.....................
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I know that feeling... heaven forbid I tell a story. :roll:
 
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