For context I am a M25 and I try to manage my guys the best I can. I give whatever time off they ask for without needing an explanation, I don't micromanage, I help them when they ask, I am aware they know the job better than I do so I just roll with them when I'm working with them. I have fought for them to receive the highest pay I can get them, I even fight to get them converted from Temp to Full-Time early is they're working out so they can get benefits faster.
The job is busy but not difficult, they are on a forklift most of the day moving plastic scraps to a trailer. They have to move drums of flammable waste one or twice a day, which they can do by hand with a drum dolly or a cart a spent about $1k on that is like a pallet jack for drums, its very pleasant to use and what I prefer. They also have to get some basic trash from the cafeteria once a shift. It is a very laid back job that you can do at your own pace and still not have a full 8-hours of work. It pays about $1/hr more than comparable jobs in the area, and also have has much OT as they want. I don't require OT but if they ask for it then they can have it, up to 12 hrs 6 Days a week. Once again, I have never once made any of my guys work more then 8 hours or more than 5 days a week.
To get to the meet of it, every time we get an opening it is a nightmare to fill it with reliable people. Since I have been in this position starting in Jan 2021, we have had two guys get Covid and never come back, one guy was asked to help in production, which everyone even office people were doing, and walked out after 20 minutes, the next guys has worked out and been with me for over a year now, they next guys took advantage of me and after I helped him change departments to a job he liked he left then I let him come back and he did the exact same thing, the next got back on drugs and made false Sexual Harassment complaints, then my veteran 2nd shift guys get himself fired by threating a person that made an HR complaint about him. After like two months we finally get a 2nd shift replacement and he looks promising, set a start date, awesome. They next day someone approaches me asking if they guy we just interviewed what a certain person and I said it was. Turns out this guys spend about 10 years in prison form 99-09 for the SA of a 14-month old girl. Is currently a register SO lied about his address on this resume and excluded years in his work history to hide this trust from us. I followed up by finding his court case information and found him on Family Watchdog to confirm all of this.
It just sucks because now I'm back to square one, and I am growing concerned that my solid guy I have left is going to get tired of carrying that part of the department and leave. Hopefully things turn around I just needed to rant a little bit, because being lower middle management is rough and I try to be better than my boss is to me and it just never works out for the wildest reasons.
Once last thing I should include. I am meant to be an office based worker for Environmental, Health, and Safety and only really supposed to be on the floor to work on my projects. But I go as far as getting in trouble from my boss for helping our guys too much. But I can't just leave him hanging when I have the ability to help.
edit: I know the pay could be better, it always can be. I have no control over that. Everything I have control over like needed time off or basic help to catch up I do as much as I can possibly do.