Work rings, WTF?

I was at the bus stop yesterday waiting to go see the $guru and the phone rang. To my surprise it said "work" as the caller. Was in 2 minds to answer it but decided to anyway. It was my immediate supervisor on the phone. 

I listened in disbelief. She had jammed the guillotine knife half way down and wanted me to tell her how to fix it, so she could tell the engineers. I just couldn't believe it. They fire me saying I'm redundant/not needed any more, then I get a phone call asking me to help them do something to this machine because they don't know how? What a fuckin clown show.

I was in a good mood however and chatted with her about things, after all we'd worked together for over 13 years. I said that the procedure involved to fix the jammed knife was too complicated to describe over the phone, and that with that particular guillotine it was much harder to do than previous models. I suggested she go and get the person who fired everyone to do it. Or ring Heidelberg to come out at about $200 an hour. I know the engineers there wouldn't have a clue about it as they've not be trained in maintenance or operation of that machine in that dept. And there's no way I was going to tell them anyway.

The procedure involved is simple if you know what to do, but not if you don't. It also can be quite difficult as you have to wind it up by hand and a bit of strength is needed. That machine too is hard as the winding has to stop at a very specific place at the top, otherwise it just won't go. Oh what a shame that the machine's instruction manual seemed to get misplaced just before I left, and all my programmes I'd made on it over the years sort of accidentally got deleted. I'm sure the buffoon bean counters in the office will be so pleased to get charged $200 an hour for a simple procedure to be done that any guillotine operator knows how to do. Apparently my $26.50 an hour was too expensive for them.  

Again, this would have to be one of the stupidest management decisions I've ever seen made in all my working life. They've fired so many people that now they're not even able to do the little bits of work that are still being done there. I wonder how long it's going to take before they start loosing clients? Particularly as it's a very service oriented business. Financial penalties are involved if jobs are late; it's written into the contracts. 

Interestingly, I cam across this in the newspaper today about client satisfaction in Australia. It appears Aussies are pretty pissed off with the levels of service here. And why may that be? It explains:

Ms Vehrenkamp said the tough economy over the past three years meant businesses often felt obliged to cut back on training staff to deliver good customer service, which ultimately further damaged their business.

''Sometimes businesses have to do things like cut customer service staff and cut investment in training and I think that has a bad effect and I don't think businesses are realising that,'' Ms Vehrenkamp said.
Link

No shit Sherlock.