So, in general, we can say I operate a SMT line for a living (I actually do the work of 3 people, NOTE: NOT the amount of work of 3 people, just 3 very distinct types of work, I enjoy and love all of them) also, I am NOT an engineer, but a tradesman. Also, this is in Europe, some legalities of certain things may or may not be the same as reader's country.
Remember those “describe your job, badly” memes going around? Well, my main job is looking at my phone. The more I can look at it, the better I'm working.
More correctly explained, it means that the machine is working and working well, so I am just there for the odd error that may appear. No, we can't really leave the machine alone, unlike a CNC, for example.
As a trained line operator, I'm imbued with the necessity of operating the machine at top efficiency, that is, spit as many boards per hour as possible, with minimum downtime between changes. That means that if I do certain things by hand (because there is time between boards) I can increase machine efficienty notably (10% or more). NOTE: by hand but NOT being in slavery mode, just lifting off certain aspects of what the machine has to do, so I get less errors, and better optimization on the machine itself).
Also, remember that I mentioned I do 2 other things at work? Well, so, if I operate the machine at best efficiency I can, I should have more time to do the other 2 things, obviously (right?)
Well, apparently not.
I don't have direct confirmation (yet) about this being true, but the manager says the company owners ask why am I not operating the machine in full automatic mode, and that they are annoyed to see me “zipping around” (wich is untrue, we, line operators don't run, we only leisurely pace). I can understand top brass (wich are nice people I feel I could comfortably talk to about anything, even not work related) may find counterintuitive that me going back and forth is more efficient. Their background is not even close to technical (well, one is, but much different), so I don't mind the confusion.
HOWEVER.
My manager, who is an electronic engineer, should better understand what is going on, right? (obviously not, but please, let me give the story a bit of a writing makeup). So, the first time we had this conversation, I was not exactly able to explain why it was faster, since I had never had to explain it before, it's just that gut feeling that years of experience gives.
The second time we had this conversation, I was better prepared to explain some points of why it was better, but not all, as I had been focusing on actually notticing what my machine muscle memory did.
The third time, I was able to actually explain in detail what [this] and [that] do, where the efficiency lied, what the drawbacks were. However, I crashed into a wall, because his argument was “top brass is pressuring me for you to operate the machine in fully automatic, they have paid it, it has to be used”.
Note that every time I have openly said I would talk to them and kindly explain in a meeting all the previous points, and make them understand why do I do things like that (I was hired because I had demonstrable experience operating a line, and I came from another company with good rep (I moved cross country for love)) HOWEVER, he cockblocked all those offers.
——————————– Some more context ———————————–
Apart from everything explained, my manager acts and speaks as if he controls a lot of fields, but he actually either mixes things in certain areas he MUST know (and when softly confronted, he says “they are the same”), but also says total bullshit of areas that are MY specialty, and pretends and acts like he knows what he is saying.
(there's more, but let's not make this story a full novel, shall I?)
I have slowly but steadly lost any and all respect I could even have had for this person, like, at all. And I have ZERO patience with people like that. In manager definition: “You have become increasingly hostile towards me” (more on that later).
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So, after the third talk, we kinda “made peace”, but I was honestly pissed off, so I went to my favourite social media and vented up (I don't have friends where I live now, as this would have been a “let's meet and let me rant). In said social rant, I called him “An idiot sandwich” (gif included). I also said his tittle may be a photocopy. Seriously, sometimes when I either talk back or he explains some shit, I can hear the echoes in his skull, it's like “dude, all this you are saying makes literally, NEGATIVE sense”.
Anyways, that was that, and I went to sleep.
Next day, about two hours in, he literally snaps off at me:
Manager: “DO YOU THINK I'M AN IDIOT!?” (shouting)
Me: “Uh? give me a context for that” (***)
Manager: “I HAVE SAID IF YOU THINK I'M AN IDIOT!?” (still shouting)
Me: “Give me a context for that” (By this second time, I full well knew what he was talking about, but I wanted him to admit he had looked up my social media, wich I have NEVER given him, so he has had to use my personal details to find it)
Anyways, this repeated 3 or 4 times, and then, he dropped the bomb and threw to my desk my social media messages, printed, in full color (the idiot sandwich gif was *cheff's kiss*). He then went into a full garbled speech about me not being a professional as I like to say out loud, that he can't trust me anymore (dude, who is spying who here?) and that I can't ask anything out of work from him, that he would have previously done before.
I mean, if you have a coworker that you define as becoming increasingly hostile…and you look up, you are going to find mud…how can you be even surprised?
Anyhow, next week I have, as per my request, a meeting with the (badly translated) safety inspector (not exactly HR, and the company is not that big) to explain the situation to him. I like the guy, one of those persons that you don't talk much to, but you just feel they're nice. He gladly said he wanted to hear the issue and take measures to fix it (make peace with manager, so we all can get along nicely, for example).
Part of the problem is that I feel like the manager subreptitiously followed me to a bar to hear what I talk about with my friends (my social media doesn't even share my mother language, it's that much disconnected of my work life). It puts me in distress, and I feel I may need counsel to cope with that. Where I live, invoking psichology help at work because one coworker it's a SERIOUS issue. As mentioned there is a bit more meat to this about my emotional situation with the manager, so it's a compound fracture, so to speak. It will look bad however you look at it.
Also, there is the whole legality of the issue, wich I am unsure about (not asking for counsel, don't worry). I do have an NDA about the particulars of the machines I operate, what I assemble, and such, but there is no exact statement that the company may, or may not, search my social media to find out if I broke it. Also, I never expresely gave him that particular media channel knowledge (unlike another coworker, to whom I trust he didn't give it to him), so he must have gone through some loops to find out, then read it, and pick up that exact line of posts (I publish a lot of bullshit, so it's not casually reading my social media, it's actually scanning it).
Also, he may have setup a trap, asking me to “next time, get your facts right, [machine] is [X watts], not [Y watts]”, wich, in my understanding, would actually put me in DIRECT violation of the NDA (I altered the numbers a lot when ranting, precisely for that effect. It is known that I am an SMT line operator years before this job, so it's not like I can't talk about SMT things, just NOT the exact SMT things at work.
I'll see how next week goes, it's gonna be fun.
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(***) I now realize this phrase is actually SUPER agressive and offensive at the same time, because it says exactly my thoughts “Yes, I think you are an idiot in some particular areas/aspects, we only need to clarify wich ones”, this was unintended, but funny after-the-fact.